Guidelines for creating nice interiors

Have you ever wondered why you could easily differentiate pleasant and welcoming interiors from other interiors? There must be a good reason why such beautiful ambiances occurred. 

The truth is that pleasantness, beauty and poise in every interior did not occur accidentally, they were deliberately planned and implemented. Behind every successful interior is a commitment to adhere to practical principles of design.

These principles interestingly are not hard and fast rules to be followed rigorously in every design or décor job. These principles rather serve as guidelines that will help you create pleasing rooms. 

You can use those guidelines at any time to analyse a troublesome problem and come up with a solution. For instance, if you enter a friend’s room and you start having the feeling that the room is oddly heavier to one side. What do you think can be done to eliminate that sensation? 

While trying to find out why that feeling is there, you may notice that probably an item in the room is looking bigger, or heavier visually or has a stronger and brighter colour. Or perhaps too many items have been placed to one side of the room. 

There are four major principles that we can use effectively to solve such problems of décor when they show up. Every professional designer or decorator is so used to these principles that he or she applies them almost unconsciously. 

Homeowners, home users and anyone with some interest in décor sometimes even apply these principles unaware of what they are.

The principles are:

Balance is responsible for the feeling of poise or equilibrium in a given space.

Scale helps us to determine the appropriateness of sizes of items of décor against other items as well as the size of a given space.

Emphasis is about what we do to highlight the pleasantness of our décor arrangements or particularly to give a pleasant settlement to eyes of those in the space.

Unity is responsible for the reason why things of décor, though different in shape, size, colour, texture and appearance, still look acceptable and fit into the general appeal created.

Once we get to know these principles well, we will be able to use them to interrogate the décor we see, analyse the problems related to the décor and find solutions for those problems. 

So with these principles in mind we can attempt to solve our friend’s problem mentioned earlier. We may apply the principle of balance and notice that maybe it is the visual weight of one item against one wall that seems to throw the room out of balance. 

So to balance that heavy weight, we might paint the wall opposite a dark colour or use a rather bright print on the sofa or on that opposite wall. And suddenly the entire space begins to have the feeling of poise and the sense of being part of a whole.

E-mail: intnlng@netscape.net

Website: www.integratedinteriorsgh.com 

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