By Imane Ahammar.
In case you missed the lesson on how to be your own lifestyle designer and how to understand the effect spaces around us can have on our mental state – rewind. Today, I am going to spill the tea and take you on your own journey of understanding the first steps on how to start decorating in order to find the right interior style that fits YOU! Obviously I will not leave you at that and give you some more sister advice, so that in the end it’s all up to you and you can start from scratch.
Like did you know that for example that just by placing a mirror in your room, your decor can immediately be enhanced? And than suddenly your small room instantly looks so much bigger?
It all differentiates between placement, colors, materials, patterns, look, structure etc. I know choosing the right interior might feel like searching for a needle in a haystack and you can feel overwhelmed by everything that you’re seeing on the internet, but let me tell you that you can actually make it yourself as easy as possible. You don’t have to make a quick start, I would advise you to make a slow one and find your way through it. So, here is your guide on how to start so you can design your dream home!
First, you have to actually understand what each space means to you. Start looking around your house and make a note down how much space you actually have. Ask yourself what you can do with these spaces and if you’re using them the way you wanted to in the first place. Is there anything you like or dislike in the room and why do you like or dislike it? What do you feel when looking at certain items in your room and what’s the reason behind this certain thought? Asking yourself all of these analytical questions will make you look from a different point of view at all of the items in your home and helps you identify what types of items you definitely want or don’t want in your home and put all the pieces together in the end.
So try to start with the following question and mark it down a piece of paper:
How do I want my home to feel like?
When you write down your answer, you can give yourself a direction to go into. Don’t think about the space you’re in now but answer this question as if you are starting to decorate your home from scratch. And if you are want to re-design your whole home than ask yourself this question for each one of the rooms and answer them separately as well. So, when you start looking for items in your home look at the answers you gave and see if they give you exactly this feeling. That’s when you know you will create the exact space you wanted.
When it comes to the step to actually start finding things for your home and start decorating there are in theory a few basic interior principles. The interior design principles have been evolving over the last couple of centuries and formed a basic guideline for many interior designers over time, formed throughout the industrial revolution and guided through art movements like Bauhaus and Modernism. Each principle was created throughout a cultural point of view over the years and have since then been incorporated and further influenced by many designers. This means that design principles can still be formed until this day. However the basic principles of design are used everywhere within the art and design world! A definite must-read is The Fundamentals of Interior Design by Simon Dodsworth & Stephen Anderson, which is a book that takes you through the fundamentals and principles within interior design.
Today I am going to take you through the following basic principles in interior design: proportion, balance, emphasis, rhythm and harmony. These principles have been designed to find the interior inspiration you need and want for your space to be decorated.
So, when you answered the question on how do you want your home to feel like for each space, start thinking about the items you will select and see how they fit in the room. Are they in the right proportion and is there enough space to place certain items in the room? I advise you to do this with each item in the room to see if they are combined well enough to be in proportion with each other to get the best out of the space. Let’s say that you have a tiny white wall in your space, try to hang up some smaller items instead of using the whole white wall for decoration purposes only. Don’t forget the feeling you want to create when styling your space!
The next important principle is about balance. Balance is all about how you place items next to each other in your room. This principle is divided into symmetrical and asymmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is when the space is decorated in a way where everything is divided symmetrically, basically items mirroring each other and asymmetrical balance is when you use types of different objects in your room that complement each other within their own size, shape or dimension rather than mirroring each other. So by reading this, can you already figure out what balance type fits your style?
When it comes to the principle harmony I am talking about how all items in the room cohere with each other. In the end the furniture in the room tends to create an overall specific personality and vibe. This will either complement the aesthetic you were going for or do the exact opposite. What you want is to create that beautiful harmony in your space so that it matches the feeling and style by for example following a certain type of color scheme, texture or when using items that all have something similar. So, does the chair you have in your room complement the desk or do they clash? And yes of course you can use different colors, sizes, shapes and types of furniture as long as they can be harmonized well enough for you, so don’t be afraid to mix up different items in the room!
And this is exactly where the principle emphasis comes in.As I said, don’t be afraid to mix and match. That is exactly what this principle is about; accentuate exactly those items that you want to be the eye-catcher of the room. By doing so, you can create a focal point in the room and draw attention to a specific point. And that doesn’t necessarily have to be furniture, it can also be your wall, a special painting, a lamp and so much more. In short, it’s the thing you want to show off to everyone and by placing this somewhere that you can visually see it can also enhance the focal point effect.
The last basic principle that I am going to take you through is called rhythm. Using for example different colors or textures in the room with the same accents to make sure they create the full visual and slowly guide your eyes through the space. Rhythm creates unity and forms the movements of our viewings; repetition of colors, lines, size and shapes or placing items in size order in your space. You can showcase for the color of the wall you painted by bringing back this exact color in a painting or an art piece.
Now I know I took you through the basic principles of interior design and how they can be the first step on choosing the right items for your space, but you might just need a little push if you feel like you still don’t really know what your exact style is. For this we are going to use the internet! There are many online surveys you can take in order to find out what your style exactly is and I am telling you it’s so worth doing them! Back in the day, when I was trying to find my way through all of the different interior styles, I have also filled out some surveys and I finally figured out what my style was. However, I combined this by using for example Pinterest and created a mood board by saving all the interior designs I liked in one folder. Once I felt like I completed this folder I looked back at all the images and found so many similarities in for example color schemes, art pieces and furniture, and when I started to follow the principles all of it made sense and created a space which I am happy to be in!
So find out which feeling you want each room to vibrate, fill out online interior surveys, combine all of your answers, and create an online mood board with interior design ideas you love and inspire you, because interior isn’t just based off of one material or one color. And girl, I could go on and talk you through so much more, but for the next steps I promise you that you will hear a lot more about it, because I am not just leaving it at this!
Speak soon!
