Interior design is a delicate and multifaceted concept that goes far beyond merely decorating walls and rearranging furniture. From embracing concepts like feng shui and hygge, to pulling unique pieces and trendy decor together into a cohesive whole that speaks to your heart, there’s an art to styling your space so it feels like home (even at the office)! There’s several key concepts that help draw your decor together and create a beautiful, holistic space that are often overlooked in the frenzy to renew and revitalize. Here’s a few subtle, yet critical areas to focus on to really make your new interior design pop.
See Things in a New Light
Have you ever bought a piece that looked beautiful in the catalog or online, and found it looked duller and dreary in your own decor? Lighting can transform a space and create different moods, and it’s so subtle we often fail to realize the impact it can have. A great room design should take into account the purpose of the space and the natural light available, and then create a layered lighting plan that includes ambient, task, and accent lighting. You will be surprised at the difference it makes to even the most mundane decor!
Touchy-Feely
Texture, which refers to the surface quality of materials such as roughness or smoothness, can add depth and interest to a space, and can be achieved through a variety of materials such as textiles, wood, stone, and metal. It’s a subtle decor effect, and one often integrated with other interior design choices. Perhaps you opt to have a rough accent wall, or a textured couch. Or you’re eyeing a fantastic wood-look tile front from Ortal Fireplaces. Whilst it is subtle, texture is also a powerful and often underrated design feature that can make or break a space. And it can even change the mood a space creates!
The Right Vibes
Sound can greatly impact our experience of a space. Consideration of acoustic properties, such as reducing echo and controlling noise levels, is important for creating a comfortable and functional space, yet we often forget to include it. That goes double if you like minimalist decor, which can often create weird reverberations or a perceptible ‘empty’ feeling in rooms you’d rather have cozy and welcoming.
Pick a Temperature
And no, we don’t mean the thermostat! If you’ve carefully planned your color choices throughout your space, but something just feels ‘off’, it may be time to look at the color temperature of your space. Every color has warm and cool variants, and they can greatly impact the mood of a space. Warm colors, such as yellows and reds, can create a cozy and inviting atmosphere, while cool colors, such as blues and greens, can create a calming and relaxing space. But it’s also worth carefully evaluating the undertones of the colors you’ve chosen for a potential clash. A cool, soft primrose yellow would look great in a bedroom, but may be creating too cold a vibe for the kitchen despite its base color- especially paired with a fiery hot red with warmer undertones.
Live Life Large (or Small)
There’s a subtle relationship between objects and the space they occupy. Both the scale and proportion of the pieces in a room- especially anchor pieces like furniture- can do a lot to change how you perceive and enjoy a space. To create a balanced and harmonious space, they need to be well balanced (and match the overall size of the room, too). Getting your proportions and balance correct can help to avoid visual clutter and confusion, and create a more holistically synergized space.
By paying careful attention to these often-overlooked elements of interior design, designers can create more well-rounded and functional spaces that meet the needs of the people who use them- and look great, too! While a new couch or better art may create a more direct impact on the space you love, balancing these often overlooked design elements is what will bring the room together and create a happy space you love to be in.
