When you move into a new home, you have a good opportunity to upgrade your style. You know you want to ditch the hand-me-down furniture and mismatched artwork, but if you just don’t have that eye for design, it’s hard to know what will look good. Fortunately, the rules of interior design are fairly straightforward and easy to learn. Think about the following factors as you plan your new home’s interior and you should be on the path to a home that looks fantastic.
Use the Rules of Nature
According to designer Mark McCauley, you can look to nature as a way to plan the design of your home. In nature, you find dark colours – brown mud and dark green moss – close to the ground while lighter colours like the clouds and sky are up in the air. When you choose colours for decorating a room, you want to use the same ideas. For instance, a deep red or navy blue might look nice in the carpet or the sofa, but if it was painted on the ceiling, the room would feel heavy. When you choose lighter colours at eye-level and above, it makes a room feel bigger.
Create a Focal Point
The focal point is the place in a room that immediately draws your attention. Rooms can have a natural focal point – a picture window or a fireplace – or you might have to create one – your bed or a TV set. Whether you have a natural or man-made focal point, you want to decorate the home in ways that encourage people to look at that focal point. This might involve creating symmetry around the point or just by ensuring the spot is always free from clutter.
Vary Your Lighting
A single overhead light is boring. Well-designed homes feature a variety of lighting options throughout the home. In the kitchen, you might have subtle lights mounted under the cabinets, track lighting to brighten up every corner of the kitchen, and some pendant lights over the island. The bedroom should have lamps on the nightstands and a brighter light for getting ready in the morning. Your bathroom might have a bright light for applying makeup, a moderate light for everyday use, and a dim light for those middle-of-the-night trips. No matter which room you’re in, look for different ways to light up the space.
Use Odd Numbers in Groupings
Most people realize it’s good to have symmetry in a room. You want the room to feel balanced. However, when it comes to accessorizing the room, you want to use odd numbers. This creates more visual interest in the space. The concept applies to things like groups of artwork on the walls, candles on the mantlepiece, or books on the coffee table.
Proportion Your Color Scheme
Rooms look best when they use a few colours that work together. Specifically, most designers suggest that you go with a 10-30-60 rule. This means you’d select three colours and use the primary one in about 60 percent of the room’s décor, the secondary one in about 30 percent of the décor, and the final one in about 10 percent. While you can always choose the colours that appeal to you most, it’s generally wise to choose a somewhat neutral colour as the dominant colour, then use the other colours in furniture and accent pieces.
Fit the Furniture to the Room
Furniture can be too big or too small for a room, and it throws the balance off. You need to select properly-sized pieces. If you’re still designing the home and want to incorporate some of the furniture you already have, take that into consideration when looking at floor plans. For instance, you might want to be sure you pick a plan that has a master suite that'll fit your king-size bed.
Choose the Right Area Rug
Many of today’s open-concept floor plans have laminate or hardwood floors throughout the main living area. You might want to warm up the living room with an area rug. Surprisingly, there are rules about how big the rug should be to fit it with the furniture. Wayfair has a guide to selecting an area rug that fits with all types of furniture arrangements.
You don’t have to hire a professional interior designer to get your home to look its best. Learning just a bit about the rules of interior design will put you on the right track.
These general rules stand the test of time, but you may also want to check in with the trends of interior design; here's what's in and what's out for 2018!
