Whether you’re remodeling your home or aspiring to be a professional interior designer, here are some pointers and interior design fundamentals to get you started.
If you try to dive into the realm of interior design all at once, anything from color schemes to area rugs can get overwhelming. Fortunately, there are a few interior design principles that are a wonderful place to start—whether you’re working with a client’s home design or want to give your own home a facelift.
5 Interior Design Basics For Beginners
What Is Interior Design?
Interior design is a field that focuses on architecture and space planning in order to create cohesive and visually acceptable designs for homes and businesses. Professional interior designers must have specialized education and formal training.
3 Design Principles
Style– Choosing an interior design style at the outset will assist you in keeping your space unified and focused. There are numerous decorating styles to pick from, such as shabby chic, Tuscan, mid-century modern, industrial, Scandinavian, or farmhouse, and many of them have their own distinct design components, color schemes or color palettes, window treatments, floor plans, and even wall-art styles. Acquaint yourself with a variety of styles, including current design trends, to obtain a sense of what styles and decorating concepts you prefer.
The focal point– Each space should have a focal point: an unusual or beautiful element that catches viewers’ attention, such as a piece of art, a fireplace, or a lovely couch. Take care not to go crazy here: too many focal points in a living room might feel overwhelming and unfocused.
Balance– You’ll need to disperse the visual weight of your furniture and decorations in each area to establish equilibrium. Take into account scale (big and tiny items), texture (hard and soft items), and position (high, eye-level, and low placement, and left and right placement). You may create rooms that feel whole and balanced by paying attention to small contrasts in a single space.
5 Interior Design Tips
Are you ready to explore the world of living rooms and coffee tables? Here’s a basic primer to get you started on your next interior design project:
Spend with caution– When you’re first starting out in interior design, it’s best to take things slowly and pick which products will be your big-ticket purchases. Couches and mattresses are the finest pieces of furniture to splurge on since they are visually substantial items that will catch attention, so you want them to appear nice. Once you’ve identified them, you may fill in the spaces with accent pieces and do-it-yourself home decorating.
Remember to consider lighting– A well-designed room can be ruined by poor lighting, so include lighting in your budget. Windows (for natural light), floor lamps, overhead lights, accent lighting, and white or light-colored walls and furnishings are all excellent methods to bring light into a dark or compact area.
Use accent pieces wisely– Some interior designers concentrate on the “large” components in a space, such as couches, rugs, dressers, and tables, and overlook the minor details. Accent pieces are a terrific way to make a room feel more personalized and aesthetically intriguing, so look for bowls, books, and other decorations to dress up bookcases and coffee tables.
Allow your furnishings to breathe– When you purchase new furniture, it’s natural to want to press it up against the wall—but this may make a space appear stiff and flat. Instead, keep your furniture at least a few inches away from the walls to create a more open sensation in your area.
Your home is not a showroom– If you’re currently working on your own home’s décor and interior, don’t try to make it look like the professional photos you see online or in interior design classes—those are meant to show off design principles and furniture rather than be lived in. Instead, throw in more eclectic or sentimental pieces so that your house has the perfect balance of gorgeous design and livability.
Interior design doesn’t come easy to everyone, so there is absolutely no harm in seeking out tips! With this guidance, you should be able to make significant positive changes to your home already. You have to start somewhere!
