But you don't have to be born with an artistic flair to make your apartment look stylish and prevent it from looking like an indoor yard sale or a collection of hand-me-down furniture. A few basic guidelines will help anchor the furnishings in your apartment.

"If you always start with a solid piece of furniture as your main piece of furniture, such as your sofa, no matter what you add on to it pattern-wise, whether it's a chair or an area rug, it will coordinate," says Pamela Bayer of Pamela Bayer Interiors in Hudson. "It won't look like a mish-mash."

Ms. Bayer suggests an apartment dweller "look at the idea as streamlining - making sure the furniture is usually a neutral tone and a solid - whether it be a textural solid or what is known as a microfiber, which is terrific because no matter what you do to it, you can't kill it. And make sure the arms are not those overstuffed arms. It makes it look crowded."

The piece can be virtually any shade. "It can be light, medium or dark," Ms. Bayer says, "It can be leather, it can be microfiber, but leather tends to look a little heavy. Leather can be a little colder fabric. The microfibers are absolutely the biggest sellers right now. They're textural, and they last a lifetime."

Both young people renting their first apartment and older people scaling down and moving out of a house face different challenges. Younger people are liable to face budget limitations, but they can still find quality furnishings at stores like Crate&Barrel and Pottery Barn, Ms. Bayer says. "When you're starting out, you don't want it to look like a dorm room. The cost factors are always so important when you're starting out." But a store like IKEA, she says, provides "great furniture at low cost. They have fun pieces."

Some people might have an attachment to furniture that has served them well. There's room to accommodate their wishes. "A common mistake is trying desperately to hold on to a piece of furniture because it's convenient," Ms. Bayer says. "You can keep your bedroom set, even if it's oversized. That's your private area." But she encourages people to see "if you can make yourself comfortable buying two smart pieces, one, the sofa, and two, whatever piece you're going to use for your television because this is a place people are going to see. I would say those are the two most important pieces you can have to start up a small apartment."

No one should feel inhibited or restricted by rules. There's room for self-expression and leeway to take a bolder approach. Contrast can be effective. "You can take a contemporary sofa and add a traditional coffee table, and it'll look right,"Ms. Bayer says. "You're not trying to match everything. Coordinate is really the word I like to use. Coordinate, don't match."

"Think of the pieces you like. Let's say you don't like a glass coffee table, you like a wood table. But you want a more contemporary sofa. You can absolutely use that. Maybe instead of having a glass coffee table, use glass as your side table, so you're not looking at wood, wood, wood, or glass, glass, glass everywhere."

People can consult with interior designers like Ms. Bayer. Professionals don't impose their ideas, she says, "they take what you like and they just make it better." Also, if you provide some stores with a blueprint of your living space, a sketch of the layout with dimensions, sales people can help with suggestions to furnish the apartment.