Professional interior designers know tricks to make rooms feel polished and perfect. The rooms in shelter magazines and on design blogs are perfectly styled without a cushion out of place or a mess of mail scattered on the counter. In reality, very few of us really live in a magazine ready home. However, there are some tricks of the designer and stylist we can all adopt to give our rooms a professionally polished feel.

Adding an unexpected element is one popular trick. This beautiful traditional living room, designed by Palmer Weiss, is furnished with traditional style furniture, including wingback chairs and an antique metal side table. The unexpected element is the Lucite coffee table. It takes up less visual space in this tight seating arrangement than a wood coffee table or upholstered ottoman.

Mixing metallics might seem like breaking the rules, but when done right can make both silver and gold stand out more. The modern, shiny silver lamp on the gilt-metal side table adds sparkle and the cool tone metal breaks up all of the warm golds and creams of the room.

Another modern pop in the room is found on the sofa: a modern patterned throw pillow. The gray and yellow patterned pillow works wonderfully with the more traditional fabrics and curtains of the room.

Mixing formal and informal fabrics creates a nice contrast between high and low. Velvets mixed with cottons, linens mixed with silks give a room layers of texture.

These are just a few tricks of the trade used by stylists and designers. Remember, there are few hard rules anymore in design, so have fun and let your personality shine!