What You Don’t Know About Pro Interior Design
A professional interior designer is an odd bird. They have oodles of education and experience, yet their art doesn’t seem, on the surface, that hard to execute. Call it hubris, y’all, but I have my own sources of inspiration that work just as well. Over the years, though, I began to pick up some interior design trade tricks that humbled me. I saw the method to their madness. To help you as well, I’d like to pass them on to you. For your edification, here’s what you don’t know about pro interior design.
It’s All About Balance
First, every decision a designer makes has to do with balance. Placing a loveseat there or a small décor piece here is only possible when it adds architectural balance to your home. For many setups, this gives residents a pleasant feeling about their space.
All that said, even when designers don’t even everything out, the game’s still about balance. I’ll explain. To supply a modern look, many designers prefer an asymmetrical balance. You wouldn’t know it from the looks of things, but this type of balance incorporates dissimilar items to offset one another. For instance, a towering bookcase can even out a poofy new couch in the other corner.
Base Your Setup Around One Foundational Piece
Another thing you don’t know about pro interior design is the best creativity comes from taking details from one piece and finding unique ways to incorporate those certain qualities elsewhere. To practice being an interior designer, take a coffee table or piece of art you’re in love with. Observe the details that draw you—the colors, patterns, or shape—and go shopping with them in mind. You may find the same soft orange shade from a painting in a lamp. And you can snap up that sectional couch with the same soft curves of the table. The examples can continue, but you get the picture: root yourself in one piece.
Create an Optical Illusion in Small Spaces
The last factor that comes to mind when I think of interior design is a pro’s uncanny knack for creating the appearance of space in cramped quarters. There are two ways I see them do this: building up to the ceiling and placing an oversized focal point in a room. Using tall bookcases in common areas and high cabinets in the kitchen each draw the eye up and away from the ground, magically making the room seem larger.
Meanwhile, placing a huge painting along one wall also does a little magic. There’s something about it that pulls the eyes outward and lends the rest of the room some much-needed scale. Experiment with décor you already have to see if you can produce the same effect.
