Spice up your life by re-decorating a room using a Mexican or Southwest (New Mexico) style of décor. Everything from curtains, pillows, sculptures, wall hangings, and even dinner table accessories will help add that needed spice you crave. When re-decorating a room, you need to consider three things: visual composition, size, and comfort.

We all know the universal “less is more" philosophy and sometimes all you need is a few minor adjustments here and there. A bigger room allows for more flexibility but it can also lead to overdressing. The new and improved version of your living room, bedroom, or even dining room should enhance the room’s architectural qualities such as high ceilings or scenic windows. The décor should accent the room’s qualities through the use of furniture, lighting, textiles, flooring, chosen color palette, and an eclectic collection of accessories.

Your line of sight should direct attention to the room’s qualities or an object that accents those qualities. For example, if you want to accent a room’s high ceilings, a large size Mexican style art print with a hefty frame is perfect on a bold hue background wall. The intensity of your palette should be directly correlated with the size of the room. Use lighter hues for smaller rooms and bolder hues for ample rooms. For a Mexican or even a Southwest style décor you can use colors such as Orange, Blue, Yellow, Lime Green, Brown, and Deep Red or Burgundy.

Window drapes and window treatment hardware should be considered based on color and texture. Remember the heavier the drapes, the bigger the size of the hardware that will be required. Wood curtain roods and wrought Iron Curtain rods fit in perfectly for a Latino or Southwest theme. While wood curtain rods may look better, they are not as strong as you might think. When in doubt, buy a thicker curtain rod to ensure that it will not break or bow with the weight of the drapes.

The color of the furniture should also accent the overall Mexican Décor theme. Furniture that comes in bold colors works best with this theme but if buying new furniture is not economically feasible, you can use a brightly colored afghan to dress up any table or couch. If you get a big enough sofa cover, you get a quick fix with less money. Unique accessories should accent the furniture and these things help the overall visual composition of the room.

For example, a well decorated room may make use of a lot of the wrought iron look and then as a centerpiece in a dark colored coffee table, you can have lime Green and White luxurious onyx sculpture of a frog. Or perhaps the focal point of your spacious dining room may be your mahogany table. In this case, you can add that Mexican or Southwest feel with a couple of bright red chili pepper shaped salt and pepper shakers. Accessories can be hard to find, especially for Latin or Southwest décor.

We can all find the common Chili pepper shaped objects, Mexican hats and earthenware, but how do you find a wide selection of unique accessories? Scour the flea markets, Garage sales, and the web. A good source of Mexican accessories is www.LatinoSpiceDecor.com. They offer good price points and very unique items. Their items make us of the color palette that is used in any Latino or Santa Fe style theme.

No matter what furniture or accessories you choose, all of them will have to pass the test of comfort. If you are considering wooden seating furniture, make sure it is padded. Who wants to sit in a hard surface? A softer more comfortable place to sit allows for a more pleasant mood and ambiance. A guest who is uncomfortable will sit in a rigid position, exuding anti-social body language, which yields shorter conversations. To defeat this, make use of bold colored pillows, drapes, and thick and soft throws that fit the look. Using textiles and rugs will “pad" the room enough to help with noise and comfort.

Following all of these simple but important guidelines will help create an agreeable atmosphere. You will have to fight the urge to stay home all day in such a wonderful atmosphere, your own private beautiful sanctuary.