Nowadays, home decorating ideas are everywhere. You can turn on the TV to a home makeover show and find out how to improve your property’s curb appeal. Sign up for Pinterest and learn how you can make your own decorations. But the great thing about inspiration is that you can get it from anywhere, even your favorite shows. Whether you already have a place or you’re in talks with a custom home builder, sitcoms are great not just for laughs but for design tips.
Here are four home decorating lessons you can get from iconic TV comedy shows from the 1990s:
Don’t Rely on Just a Single Light Source
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air revolves around a family who lives in an opulent neighborhood. Naturally, their mansion reflects their upper class standing. It boasts spacious rooms, fancy pieces of art, and grand centerpieces. But home decor isn’t limited to big budgets. One of the most important interior design rules that the show followed is the use of multiple light sources. From its iconic living room to the kitchen and dining room, you’ll notice the use of natural and artificial light fixtures. The great thing about this rule is that you don’t have to be rich to have good lighting in your home. You can replace your curtains with something thinner so that it can come in more sunlight. It can even lower your energy bill because it reduces your reliance on artificial lights.
You can also use mirrors to get more natural light. If you don’t get a lot of sunlight in your home, you can compensate by layering your lights. For your living room, you can complement your overhead lights with candles or recessed lights. The house in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in particular, uses several lamps and wall sconces for its rooms. Using various multiple lights has other benefits besides just aesthetics. It can help reduce eye strain whether you’re watching TV or reading a book. If you have different lights, you have more control and bring down your electricity bill.
Brand Loyalty Has Its Own Consequences
It may not be your cup of tea, but the fact of the matter is that Friends is one of the most successful sitcoms of all time. During its run, it regularly attracted millions and millions of viewers. Two and a half decades after its debut, it still reigns supreme even in streaming services. But despite its success, the sitcom also received its fair share of criticism while it aired. Critics panned “The One with the Apothecary Table” due to the overt product placement. The episode revolved around one of the character’s obsession with Pottery Barn. She bought so much furniture from the store that another character joked that her home looked like a page from the product catalog.
Interior designer Sara Ray warns against this exact situation. She recommends mixing things up so that your house won’t look like a showroom. While your room may look great because the colors and patterns match, it can also look too formal. You want your home to look cozy and comfortable. You can personalize any room by hanging up your photos, incorporating different accents, and laying out rugs. If you have a loyalty card from a furniture shop, you can still use it by buying from different collections.
Green is In
Like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Nanny also features a rich family. Like Friends, it’s also set in New York City. The sitcom’s set shows how you can incorporate natural decorations in metropolitan settings. You can find a plant in nearly every room in The Nanny’s house, from the home office to the dining area. For the living room, they use colorful flowers to add a pop of color to the monochrome theme. The dining room uses flowers as the centerpiece while the office uses non-flowering plants.
Although the family in the show uses fresh and expensive flowers, you can still decorate with plants without spending a lot of money. Instead, you can use low maintenance plants that you can put in awkward corners to fill space. You can also get small succulents, which don’t require a lot of sunlight, on your coffee table and desks. Plants not only brighten up a room but it also has mental health benefits. According to studies, plants have been proven to help you focus and improve your mood.
If home improvement shows aren’t your thing, you can turn to your favorite classic sitcoms for inspiration. They may have premiered two decades ago, but some decorating rules are timeless.
