Design School Fridays

I thought I would start teaching an element or principle of Interior design every Friday. I am hoping that someone might learn from it. These principles and elements are used by interior designer's everyday to achieve great design. Today were talking Emphasis.
Emphasis is the domination in the room, or let's say the focal point. It's the first thing that catches your eye.
When designing a room look around and see areas that naturally stand out, an amazing fireplace, beautiful architectural windows, a great piece of artwork, a bright sofa, a stunning bed, a gorgeous wall treatment. You want to create centers of interest or focal points. Chose your area of emphasis and downplay the other areas around it, you don't want everything in the room to stick out.
Here's some great examples of emphasis being used well in a room.

In this room the wallpaper draws your first attention, it's the show stopper in the room, the bed comes second then the lamps. Notice how everything else is pretty neutral to allow your eye to focus on this stunning wall.

This back wall creates a dramatic focal point, the brass swing armed sconces mixed with the modern wallpaper and oval mirror makes for a dramatic bathroom.

The focal point in this room is the peacock blue fireplace. Your attention goes straight to the wall of bookcases. Adding a mirror or great piece of artwork is a nice way to draw the focus into the space.

In this kitchen you eye is drawn straight back to the bright white subway tiled wall with open shelving. the hood above the stove is the main emphasis in the space. The lighting dripping down the tile is also a good way to draw your eye to the space.

Pattern on pattern can be tricky, to much and you can lose a focal point. But here your eye goes straight to the bold mirror and allows your eye to drift to the wallpaper and bench quite easily, without going into overload.

Images via {here,here,here,here}

Design School Fridays

I thought I would start teaching an element or principle of Interior design every Friday. I am hoping that someone might learn from it. These principles and elements are used by interior designer's everyday to achieve great design.
Today, were going to talk about Balance, Symmetry and Asymmetry.
First off lets talk about Symmetry. Being symmetrical means if you cut a room in half it would be a mirror image of each other.
For example:

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See how on both sides are perfectly balanced? Having symmetry is usually always pleasing to the eye. It's a great way to start if you have no idea what to do with the other side of the room. You can use symmetry to complete the room. Though, sometimes this tends to get boring but usually always leads to a great classic result!

Here's a great example of asymmetrical rooms:

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Source: marcusdesigninc.blogspot.com via Debbie on Pinterest

Even though these rooms aren't symmetrical, each side of the room balances the other side out.
Assymetry always makes for a more interesting room. When your decorating, make sure your room is balanced whether your using asymmetry or symmetry.

Design School Fridays

I thought I would start teaching an element or principle of Interior design every Friday. I am not a professional teacher nor claim to be. But I am hoping that someone might learn from it. These principles and elements are used by interior designer's everyday to achieve great design.
Today, were going to talk about Scale and Proportion.

Proportion is how the size of an object relates to the rest of the object. Scale is how an object relates to other objects or the space around it.

It matters in interiors because you want everything to be the right scale for a room, object or pattern. Scale can make or break a room. If you have a large sofa with teeny, tiny pillows something will look off. If you have a big sofa with a small coffee table it can be out of scale. You want your eye to flow through the room and if something is off scale you will notice. Here are some great examples of the right scale.

The pictures and mirror are scaled perfectly for over the beds.

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Everything in this living room is scaled well. The large sofas compliment the large coffee table and the chairs are perfectly scaled. The fireplace is also the right size for the grouping of furniture.

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Scale is an important factor to consider when designing a room. Always look at the overall size of a room, as well as the scale of the furniture, artwork and accessories you want to place in it.

Of course once you know the rules, sometimes it might work to break them. A common misconception is to use a small sofa in a small space, however, using a large sofa can trick your eye and make the space appear bigger.