5 Basic Decorating Rules According To Interior Designers
Great design reaches beyond making a room feel or look good. A well designed room is also a well functioning room.
So, keep in mind that decorating rules don’t exist to dictate the choices that we make, but rather to guide us into making choices that will help our home look its best.
#1: THE RULE OF 3
In it’s technical form, it applies to a room’s layout, the size and shape of objects and a kitchen’s work triangle. It even applies to the number of colors, patterns and fabrics.
# 2: BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION
I’m talking about space planning. Careful and well thought out space planning may not sound like a fun thing to do, but it’s very necessary.
Measure your room and draw it out on a piece of graph paper. Measure each piece of furniture, that will be in the room, then cut out pieces of cardboard or paper to represent each one. Keep the proportions of the furniture pieces the same as the proportions on the graph paper.
Let’s say the squares on your graph paper are ¼” and that each square represents 12″ (or 1′) of space. When cutting out your pieces of furniture, if you have a chair that measures 36″ wide, your little piece of cardboard (or paper) should be ¾” wide. Make sense?
Once you have your room drawn out and have your pieces of furniture, you can move them around on your graph paper until you come up with a furniture arrangement that you like.
#3: FIND YOUR ROOM’S FOCAL POINT
This goes hand-in-hand with Rule #2. You can’t do a good job of space planning until you’ve determined the focal point of your room.
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A focal point can be something as obvious as a fireplace or tv, but it can also be a window, a large piece of furniture, a furniture grouping, an architectural detail – anything that catches your eye as soon as you enter a room.
#4: CHOOSE YOUR FABRIC AND RUGS FIRST
This rule is especially true if you are painting any part of your room a color. Paint comes in thousands upon thousands of colors. You can even have paint custom mixed to match a single color in your fabric.
The reason that I take this step, before choosing my paint color(s), is that finding paint to go with a particular fabric or rug is a whole lot easier than finding fabric or rugs to go with a particular paint color.
#5: JUST BECAUSE THERE’S AN EMPTY SPOT, YOU DON’T HAVE TO FILL IT
This falls into the category of less is more – but then again, it all depends upon your point of view. Many people prefer a very minimal look, so for them a lot less is more and that’s perfectly fine.
However, with that being said, let me also say that although I’ll break a rule if I don’t like it, I do try to follow certain design principles. No matter what the latest trend may be, these principles have been around for a long, long time and they just plain work.
In conclusion – you may not like to think of yourself as a rule follower, but when it comes to decorating your home, you’ll be glad that you at least followed these basics.
Thanks to our friends over at Worthing Court for the tips and tricks!
