Furniture and Design Principles

When we think of home décor, we think of an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of furniture, good organization of space, and perfect placement of decorations. The final look of a room will be determined greatly by the style of the designer and their personality.

Here I list some of the most important design principles and their relevance to home furniture.

Unity

Unity is about bringing separate elements together. For example, if we have two rooms next to each other and they feel like they belong to separate worlds, we might want to somehow group them or link them, so in our perception they are more cohesive. This could be accomplished by a repeating factor like using the same texture on the furniture fabrics, having matching rugs, or a continuous floor pattern.

Repetition

Unity brings us to repetition, one of the strategies that can be used to make different pieces feel they belong to a whole. This approach is all about using same elements over and over; elements of design such as lines, colors, shapes and values. A recurrent color palette is a classic example of good use of the repetition principle in home design.

Balance

This principle helps us achieve a pleasant look in a room.

If a space feels too empty, or too wide, or too cramped, it might be a matter of poor balance. We need to keep in mind that our eyes are always looking for organization and order even in situations of chaos. Try distributing decoration elements and furniture evenly throughout a room. If a ceiling feels too high, get a tall furniture element to lend a hand in bring it down.

Emphasis

Balance is important, but we also want to make our home an interesting one and sometimes break out of the ordinary. Emphasis is a design principle that can assists us with this.

Create a focal point in the room. Are you decorating your living room? How about letting the fireplace be a center of attention for your otherwise busy looking family room? We cannot focus on everything at the same time, our minds need to find something in the room that attracts our eyes and break monotonous rhythms.