African Theme Decorating

African Theme Decorating - Stay Focussed

  • Focus provides you with a clear, distinct, sharply defined goal plus keeps your attention well concentrated on the target. With focus you have a continual point of reference. As with any project you need some sort of plan, a place to start when it comes to your African theme decorating.
  • Write down the dates - on a large wall calendar for tracking -of when your project will start as well as finish.
  • Create a flow chart of - “A what comes after what list”- it’s a sequence of the projects events.
  • Keep in mind that events of plumbing, heating, electrical are generally performed in two stages…rough-in and finish.
  • Diarise all the people you have to contact - plumber, electrician, carpenter, rentals, etc.- for your project along with the contacts phone/cell numbers.
  • List all the materials required for your African theme decorating project, where they are coming from with their date of availability.
  • Identify those items -a special faucet, wall sconce etc. - that will have long lead times - note them on your calendar.
  • Set up a list of all the tools along with the items you will need to rent for your project.
  • List all dates - along with the times the tradesmen will need materials to be picked up or delivered.
  • Estimate how long each task will take to accomplish - ask the supplier - tradesman. Does it work with their schedule?
  • Identify all those tasks that you will be doing.
  • Make preparations for moving then storing the room’s contents during decorating.
  • Prepare an outline of how your project will emerge step by step with general headings.
  • Avoid too much detail on your list… or you will be planning until the cows come home. Keep it short and to the point.
  • Start your project here…..do this…Stay focussed…. to your theme decorating.

Filed Under Creative Combinations | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating

Vast decorating resources availability represents a mere fraction. Africa is a huge continent made up of numerous countries to creatively draw from when it comes to African theme decorating. Many think only of South African designs including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, etc. The continents other diverse regional countries are just as rich in providing many decorating themes on their own.

Creative combinations are limited only to your imagination. The Sahara Desert, for example a region to the North is an oasis of sand, - sand is also a color that is somewhat visually calming in home décor. Start with Mediterranean wall finishes, Roman columns. Add a few Egyptian accent pieces, Moroccan arches on limestone floors, all set within a desert oasis of palm trees. Anyone with a flare for interior designing, decorating, - professional, aspiring professional for that matter - could spend a lifetime creatively combining the rich elements within the architecture found on this continent for African theme decorating.

Decorating starts with a strong theme - in this case an African theme. It keeps you focussed on the task at hand. A theme forces you to coordinate your efforts on the proper selection of design elements - color, lines, shapes, sizes, including texture. These elements are what provide your project with spatial aesthetics of emotional involvement.

Earth tones still come up looking pretty good. This element is the most common found through out the African countries. They are so easy to create around, it is just another reason proving why they are so popular in theme decorating.

Look closely…all these products are natural. African theme decorating is really adding color accents with texture to earth tones. The popularity of granite, limestone, travertine, Venetian plaster, marble, Spanish ceilings etc, are all natural….. used for centuries on the continent of Africa.

Filed Under Creative Combinations | Comments Off

10 Steps to African Theme Decorating

  • Start with an African theme.…to arrive at your African theme decorating.
  • Your theme can involve decorating elements from more than one country in Africa, such as Egypt, Morocco, Mediterranean, Zanzibar, South Africa, etc
  • Use earth tones with complimenting colors through out your African design. Earth tones are used quite extensively through out African décor. They are relaxing, pleasing to the eye…..after all it is a large part of what makes an African theme …well….. Africa.
  • Dress up ceilings with decorative broad blade fans - reminiscent of Morocco or South Africa - recessed rope lighting, color washing; glazing…..coffered ceilings are great in the living room also den.
  • Provide contrast in using complimenting cream tones on baseboards, casings wall trims doors, accent pieces through out your project with other colors. Faux finishes do well here. You are looking for depth and overall flow.
  • Establish a presence and strength with the use of overly large art pieces, baseboards, casings, doors, pictures, furnishings. The use of large shapes allows ease of balance in your African design. It can reduce that cluttered feeling by spatial reference.
  • Make good use of Limestone, Granite, Travertine, Plants, Leather, Reeds, Canes …all these elements can be applied to walls as well …think outside the box.
  • Make use of full finishing techniques on walls, ceilings like Venetian Plaster, Spanish Stucco, Leathers, Ragging, aged crackle, colour washing etc.
  • Create a feature wall or focal point for each room to draw the eye to with generate interest. A simple fountain of running water, a Zulu shield or an extremely large mask. Feature walls are great conversation pieces on their own.
  • Make sure your project flows with balance of shapes, sizes also colour. Involve all the five senses… Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, with Taste. African theme decorating is not just one country it can involve a continent.

Filed Under Rules & Steps | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating -Ten Rules of Thumb

  • Artistically creative groupings of three, five even seven are a common practice for small artwork, ceremonial masks, etc. Wall groupings enlist those small pieces you treasure. The spacing of 3″ to 5″ is a good rule of thumb between pictures.
  • The perfect blend of exhibit space with liveability is the goal when you hang pictures at eye level. If in doubt consider 60″ off the floor to the middle of the picture. Low placement adds a cozy quality to your room. Place landscapes, renderings, art pieces 6 to 12″ above the back of all home furnishings….if it feels good chances are it works for you.
  • To soften corners, plants work well here as do softly proportioned art pieces, a large vase, etc. This can also create a focal point of interest. Keep in mind the proximity of artfully tucked drapery to adjacent wall features will also accomplish the task.
  • The proportion of your art collection to pictures hung is usually seen in the area of two thirds the size of your sofa - approximately two thirds of wall space width over your sofa should be taken up by your collection of art for your African theme decorating.
  • Establish dramatic moods with the use of halogen lighting to feature cabinets, art pieces, textured back grounds, etc Halogen lighting can be the perfect compliment to your homes main attraction …an African theme.
  • Show off your floor plants, trees - real or silk - in stylish large pots. A 20” diameter at 15” high works well.
  • Add 36″ to each side of any size table top to establish an approximate room dimension for easy accessibility. Design savvy professionals pay close attention to this one.
  • The placement of furniture pieces at least 3″ to 6″ from a wall combines to accommodate unity with its surroundings. Never touching is a good rule of thumb in any African theme decorating.
  • Use of dimmer switches on your overhead lighting - they provide you with more control when creating those quiet environments.
  • Proper floor lighting reinforces the drama of your African décor. It provides a traditional ambiance through out the room. 28″ to 32″ is a good rule of thumb here for end table lamps. Decorative floor lamps at 72″ with small accent lamps of 25″ are common in African theme decorating.

Filed Under Rules & Steps | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating - Principles

We have visited the elements of design used in African theme decorating: Color, Line, Size, Texture, including Shapes. Now you need a system of arranging these elements into your African decor that brings us to the Principles of design: Balance, Proportion, Rhythm, Emphasis, plus Unity.

These principles provide a systematized impression of how these elements - parts or components - will come together, communicating your design to others.

    Balance is one of the principals the eye subtly looks for in interior décor. Symmetry plays a key part. For example on either side of a fireplace art collections, paintings, columns etc. should work in a balanced fashion. The same approach is true for color. Dark colors appear more prominent than lighter colors. They can create an irregularity with look plus feel. Textures - rough, smooth - also work here for walls, fabrics, flooring etc.
    Proportion comes into play when two objects are seen as one - a lamp on an end table for example. The end table lamps should compliment each other in size as well as fit proportionately within the setting. A small end table supporting an oversized lamp doesn’t work. Proportion also refers to works of art, paintings, portraits - the larger the picture the further back you should stand to view it. Proportion with scale is extremely important. Keep in mind your African design is subtly viewed as one piece not several.
    Rhythm or visual rhythm - as some may refer to it - can be accomplished with the placement of accessories, pillows, etc. in one direction. Vertical stripes displayed on wall coverings represent another example of rhythm. The direction of images captured in art, portraits, landscapes etc. should face each other if hung side by side. Placed next to an adjacent wall, these works should face away from the wall. Rhythm provides visual movement within your design - a means for the eye to subtly follow.
    Emphasis comes into play for example with feature walls or illuminated art pieces. Emphasis can be accomplished with lighting, texture, patterns, color, proportion etc. By using this principal the designer can direct ones attention to the areas of “created interest”.
    Unity in your design is realized when the harmonizing of all the design elements with principles display as one. The accent colors are warm, inviting all the shapes, sizes to provide a good spatial blend of mass with proportion - the selected textures through out provide a subtle softness, hi-lighting the feature walls, art pieces etc that have been cleverly placed. Unity is the perfect blend of elements with principals combined to accommodate an artistically creative endeavour - your design - such as fashioned in your African theme decorating.

Filed Under Principles & Elements | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating - Ideas

Works pretty good! For your living room silk trees, plants etc. place leather around the base of the trees. Introduce interest with a few strands of ground cover.

It’s decorative as well as functional… Do this for that fountain that requires constant filling. Place a 5 gal plastic water bottle into a large decorative basket - perhaps Egyptian. Fix a hand pump in the bottle - bottled water companies carry them for sale. Place any extra upholstery-from your sofa-, drapery material, etc around the bottle. Sit the basket on the floor beside your water fountain. Now it’s an accent piece.

That… would look good in a frame! Hang your wall ornament where you want it to go, place a frame around it. Choose a frame in a complimenting color for both. The wall now acts as a background color. This is great for your African theme decorating.

The final look is dynamite to any feature area, when using the elephant skin technique. Use it on the inside of wall niches.

Install a frame backwards for square recesses. In most cases you can get frames put together in this fashion so they slip into the inside dimensions providing a cap for your recess outside corners.

Get one if your niche needs a light. Installing ten degree halogen spots are the only way to go, for showing off art pieces.

Now that is different ….Place a large piece of leather around a wall mask you are using for your African theme. A longer piece of leather provides you with more creative choices to draw from.

This is cool. Take a large piece of leather, pin it to the wall. Create decorative swirls folds. Add some dried reeds to your creation for texture and colour.

All of these ideas will bring your project closer to the African theme decorating you have set out to achieve.

Filed Under Ideas | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating - More Ideas

  • Get your hands on one of those onyx chess boards, place under a large decorative vase.  The style goes very well in your Africa theme decorating design.
  • It is guaranteed to be a conversation piece…..pretty funky too. When shopping for your next patio outfit buy one of those bar sets, preferably dark brown.  Replace the glass top - that came with the set - with a “cracked glass top” - 30″ x 40″ works great.  Now get this ….use it in your kitchen
  • Use this easy idea for the deck or patio. Instead of placing your silk tree in that decorative planter pot, why not place your propane tank in it instead for the BBQ. A size of 16″x16″ x16″ works very well. While you are at it, go to your corner plant store, pickup a set of pot wheels to put under it. Now it is functional as well as fits in with your theme decorating.
  • Add some decorative dried reeds to that large floor vase- found in places such as Michaels craft stores - artfully tuck the leather around the mouth of the vase to hold them in place.
  • Make your own water fountain stand. The shape resembles a tapered rectangle with a straight back. The dimensions at the base are 24″ wide x 16″ deep while the front tapers up to a height of 32″off the floor. The top dimensions are 16 ½” wide x 9 ½” deep. Finish in a decorative crackle to go with your theme.  The base accommodates a slate water fountain of the same dimensions - 16 ½”wide x 9 ½” deep. The front only tapers, the back is straight.
  • Making a base for that favourite lamp of yours? Consider adding a granite top and sit it all on a granite base. “Baltic Brown” works great here as do all earth tones in granite when it comes to African theme decorating.

Filed Under Ideas | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating - Subtle Impressions


Combining this conceptual method with a minimalist interior design, you will achieve some very new visual results in African theme decorating. Yes…there are those artists out there that create impressions of subject matter without going into much detail. Their vision of the final outcome is somewhat simple, perhaps even profound.

Proper placement combinations with furnishings of color, textures, fabrics, etc will provide a delicate representation of your African vision. The amount of detail to achieve an important overall elegant presence - when entering a room - can be remarkably low.

Subtlety is the key approach to use here in achieving those designing attributes. Your ability to control the emotional involvement is important. Aesthetic appeal, spatial balance, all would still require the elements to a certain degree combined with those design principles commonly used in African décor. Finding a method of creating a different ambience is an approach in which, your imagination dictates. Your theme can be an eclectic collection from all over the African Continent, simply about one country with its culture.

So …..Imagine in your minds eye……a glass coffee table placed on top of a faintly patterned zebra area rug. The walls of the room have been finished in creams with whites. Window dressings - in complimenting earth tones - adorn oversized windows shading the room from the hot sun. The partial line drawing of a very large print subtly featuring graceful African Gazelle in elegant motion overlooks the living rooms modern setting. Your eye is drawn to colorful patterned accent pillows - showcasing a leather sofa below. Next to the sofa, atop an onyx pedestal sits a whimsical abstract, fashioned out of ironwood from Madagascar….. It would seem by cleverly placing those strong areas of your African theme through out the room will work in achieving this rather subtle out come in African theme decorating.

Filed Under Subtle Impressions | Comments Off

African Theme Decorating - Lighting

Proper lighting is not only needed it is essential in any decorating theme including African décor. There is natural light, accent lighting, ambient lighting, task lighting also decorative lighting. Light of any sort adds to the overall soothing affect of your creation. These elements are all vital to theme decorating.

Natural light is of course daylight shinning through your windows. Large windows play a big part here as do skylights. The strategic positioning of your home also works well to catch the light movement through out the day. Natural light provides a warm overall softness to your rooms including furniture. As Webster’s dictionary implies it is all around you.

Ambient lighting is that light in your home that is some what nondescript. It is artificial such as diffused light from fluorescent fixtures or ceiling pots in the living room - a wall sconce by the stairs. It is discreet in its source, blends well with the natural daylight providing overall interior lighting.

Accent light is that light showing off your latest art purchase, portrait etc. Halogen spots are a good example of accent light found in art niches, feature walls, highlighting individual creative pieces etc. Accent light should be positioned to draw attention in showcasing the selected object in a particular area – perhaps a portrait of a Zulu chief in the study. A good choice for your African theme decorating.

Task lighting is functional light found in the kitchen, master bath or work shop. A good example of task lighting would be a reading lamp next to your sofa or your bedside. Task lighting could be combined with accent lighting to do two jobs – illumination over a billiard table. Task lighting should be sufficiently bright enough to accomplish the task at hand.

Decorative lighting brings attention to itself, such as an Egyptian wall sconce, table top candelabra, perhaps a fireplace used primarily for ambience other than a heat source. A monkey lamp - from Tangiers - would work well here in your African theme decorating scheme.

Filed Under Subtle Impressions | Comments Off

The Elements of African Theme Decorating

All interior designs of African theme decorating are based on creative elements. The elements used in this process are….. color, line, shape, size and texture. These elements collectively will provide your project with spatial aesthetics providing emotional involvement.

Color is very powerful when it comes to emotional involvement. Consider for a moment your African theme is Egyptian. You could use a monochromatic color approach by applying only a light sand color to your walls,  (depicting the Sahara Desert)  with Travertine flooring, (in a complimenting tone) then accenting these base colours with purples, reds, greens, etc. You have become involved by way of color, which is providing a relaxing setting emotionally.

Lines provide depth of perspective - a point of interest for the eye - when entering a room. A feature wall can be a point of interest as well as a large window. Very large paintings are popular and usually accented with halogen spot lighting to get your attention. A wall featuring a cascading water fall is extremely powerful because you are now involving another one of the five senses important to total emotional involvement…..Sound. The five senses are Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, and Feel. The more senses the better.

Size can depict strength, weakness, clutter, scarcity. Imagine a room with eighteen foot walls with massive Roman columns supporting arches over the windows and doors. The doors are eight feet high, with all the casings; baseboards as well as wall trims measure four, seven, three inches respectively. This setting in your minds eye conveys strength, mass as well as presence. In some cases theses items tactfully placed along with paintings, lighting, furnishings etc can provide a very elegant design.

Texture supplies a quality of ruggedness in a natural way to your decorating project with the sense of touch. A wall finishing technique called Elephant Skin reflects this with Venetian Plaster being another example. Floorings in Limestone, Travertine, Granite even Marble also work. Tactile, Visual textures form warm pleasing patterns to the eye. Window treatments, furniture coverings all play a vital part in African décor. Subtle textures will always provide interest with visual richness to your home décor.

Shapes such as squares, circles, cubes, spheres, cones found in architecture provide mass to your decorating themes. Good examples of this are the Roman arches, Egyptian Pyramids, Limestone square blocks used to build the Pyramids, Domed huts of South African plainsmen. These shapes also provide a sense of balance to the space you are designing or decorating. Balance is one of the principals of design found in African theme decorating.

Filed Under Principles & Elements | Comments Off