Interior Design Cheat Sheet

Want to know a little secret? There is actually a science to making a room look good. It is all about understanding, and acting, basic design principles, overreaching ideas like balance scale. You also need to consider color, texture, light, and other specific elements. First, here are the basic principles that will impact your space.

Harmony

Make sure the mood of the room is cohesive or unified. The arrangement of furniture should fit they style of your furnishings. For example, if you are going for a minimalist. Modern look, do not have a cluttered corner of traditional accents. Harmony does not expel the chance for contrast. Using opposing elements like modern and traditional furniture can be successful when done in equal parts, like a checkerboard.

Rhythm

It is the repetition of elements in space and time. There is always a beginning and an end to the pattern: think of columns, or an organized grouping of photos, Symmetry arranging elements around a center line like a fireplace, is one way to repeat shape or color.

Scale

Scale compares the size or dimensions of one thing to another in order to properly keep a room to scale you need to take the sizes of objects into consideration. The heights and weights of your furniture should be relative to the size of your room. A giant sofa in a tiny living room will not work right; neither will tiny nightstands next to a king- size bed. This also relates to the proportion of objects. The shade of a lamp has to be in proportion to the base.

Emphasis

Every room needs a focal point, the area that draws your eye. Whether it is and existing focal point or a chosen one, you need to emphasis the area around it so that everything else leads the eye to the focal point by placing hot colors or small and visually interesting items away from the area.

Balance

Similar to establishing harmony balance is all about arranging furniture in a way that is pleasing to the eye. Centering certainly does the trick, but it is more about evenly distributing the visual weight of furniture so that no one piece overwhelms another. You need to arrange the elements of the room to provide equilibrium. You would not put an entertainment unit next to an ornate fireplace. If you have a large piece of furniture at the end of the room you need to balance it with another viually weighted piece at the other end.