decorating with design principles (part one)

When it comes to decorating your home, what comes to mind? Your furniture? Paint color? The pictures or paintings you hang on the wall?

Decorating is more than just picking out furniture. You need to consider light, color, and design principles that create a cohesive look throughout your space. Best of all, with the right principles in mind, you can do it for less!

In this two-part series, we'll explore the essential principles for designing spaces - and how you can apply them in your own home.

What is Design, and Why Should You Care?

Design is the art and process of selecting and arranging elements to achieve a visually appealing result. In other words, it's about making choices to create the look you're going for.

Though we may not think of it this way, design is everywhere. The food you make, the outfits you wear, and even the way you display your personal items. All of these things could be considered design.

Design principles help you create a cohesive look throughout your home by making sure all of your design choices fall into place!

What are Design Principles?

Design principles are the elements that make up a good design. They are the rules or guidelines you will follow when creating your space. Applying these basic principles is what sets a well-designed room apart from one without any thought put into it!

Design helps everything in a room work together to create visual appeal and harmony. By applying design principles to your space, you will have a greater impact on the overall look.

How to Apply Design Principles

There are hundreds of different principles that can be used in a home's interior design. Some, like unity and balance, are very easy to understand and use by anyone. Others, though important, are more difficult to apply consistently. Here, we will focus on the most commonly used principles.

When you apply these principles to your design, keep in mind that they are guidelines. You don't need to follow them exactly.

You can change many things about a room's design in order to achieve what you want it to look like. However, when working with different elements of design, it is important to stick with principles that work well together.

1. Unity and Variety

Unity is having everything in a space work together as one. The way you achieve this is by using design elements that work well together.

For example, unity has not been created if you use a mixture of styles and materials in one space (an ornate table with modern chairs). However, unity has been achieved when all the furniture items match and are balanced out by other decorative touches throughout the room (like throw pillows on the chairs and a vase of fresh flowers on the table).

Unity can be used effectively throughout your home to create a cohesiveness that is visually appealing.

On the other hand, variety is about having different elements in your space that still work together. For example, a space can have unity by coloring all of its design elements in the same shade-but variety would come into play if you add pattern and texture to your furnishings. Variety can be used to create a more interesting space or decorated in a theme.

2. Balance and Symmetry

Balance is achieved when everything in a room has an equal weight value. In terms of design principles, this means using equal amounts of the same elements throughout a space.

You can achieve balance by making sure your furnishings are evenly spaced around the room, your decorative items are placed evenly throughout, or by making sure that one side of a room matches another.

However you decide to achieve balance in your home, it will help create an appealing space.

Symmetry is very closely related to balance because it also involves creating a sense of evenness and unity in your design elements. The main difference between the two is that symmetry is when everything in a space matches.

Symmetry can be created by using the same furnishings and decorative items on both sides of a room or creating an item specifically to match your home's design.

3. Contrast & Harmony

Contrast refers to how different colors affect one another when they are used together. In design, this is what you want to achieve-different elements that stand out but still complement one another.

An example of contrast would be using a dark sofa with light throw pillows or painting the walls black while using neutral furniture and colorful accent pieces.

Harmony, on the other hand, is when two or more elements work well together. It is a good idea to have some contrast in your room (so it doesn't seem too dull and boring) but you also want the room's colors to appear natural, not forced.

Read On To Unlock More Design Principle Tips and Insights

Building a strong, cohesive design for your home requires that you take the time to choose the right design principles and bring them to life in your home. In part two of our series on design principles, we will take a look at two more elements that can help you bring your home to life in fresh, new ways.

To learn more about home design and staging, reach out to the team at Shamrock Hill Design and find out how partnering with a home staging expert can give you the inspiration you need.