Calm, cool...and very collected.

One of the biggest decorating faux pas people can make, is scattering their collectibles all over the bloody place. The trick to making rooms look pulled together is displaying your collections just as that - as collections. Place like-items in your collections together in groupings, perhaps by era, style, or color. Your things don't need to be matchy-matchy - they, in fact, should not be. They should however, be uniquely you and what you have a passion to collect. But keeping them in groupings will create a less cluttered atmosphere. Me, I like vintage pottery in shades of green, turquoise, hues of blue. So I try to cluster them together in various groupings around my home. I also love funky paintings and portraits, the more amateur looking the better. So this is an example of both: some of my pottery, and some of my paintings. See the continuity? It makes me smile.