Mark Roemer Oakland image of a house with a very posh armoire set up.

Back To the Basics for Home Decor

I, Mark Roemer Oakland, believe it is important to fully understand the basics of home decor in order to create aesthetically pleasing and functional interior spaces. With the knowledge of the basic principles of interior design, you can make almost any space look fabulous and cohesive. And, you can do a great job of decorating your home without hiring the services of an interior decorator.

Let’s look at the basic principles of home decor:

1. Balance – Balance is an important principle in home decor since it gives the impression of equilibrium. The goal is to distribute the different decorative objects, items, accessories, items, and furniture in a space to ensure everything is given the same visual weight. Additionally, you have to pay attention to where all the elements are situated in your home.

You can ensure proper balance in your rooms by analyzing the shape, color, line, and texture of the different objects. Let’s look at the three types of balance in more detail:

  • Symmetrical or formal – Symmetrical or formal balance is the art of mirroring and matching different design features and elements to duplicate the same look on both sides. For insurance, the placement of two chairs on either side of a coffee table can be considered symmetrically balance

    Thus, this technique is also known as the mirror effect and is often employed in formal or traditional settings and home decor styles. However, formal balance can become repetitive and boring if you are not careful.
  • Asymmetrical or informal – Asymmetrical or informal balance is considered more exciting and complex since the weight of the colors, textures, lines, and forms are balanced without exact duplication.
  • Radial balance – There is a lot of repetition of texture, form, and color in radial balance since it depends on a central focal point surrounded by other elements that radiate from and around it.

2. Harmony and unity – Unity in home decor is achieved when all the design elements such as decoration items, style, and furnishing work together to create a cohesive whole that ensures nothing clashes and looks out of place. You have to remember the hues, textures, and patterns of the different elements to ensure the smooth flow of the project.

Harmony in home decor is achieved when the different elements in the space are balanced well to create a sense of integrated design. For instance, the grouping of similar colors, textures, furniture, and so on around a theme or style to create a cohesive and inviting space.

3. Scale and proportion – Understanding how proportion and scale affect the different elements in your home is crucial to create sensible home decor styles. Essentially, you can experiment with proportion and scale to add visual interest to the space and ensure no element in a room feels out of place.

Proportion is the relationship between two items and scale is the relationship between the size of objects and the size of space. For instance, a small coffee table will seem out of place in front of an enormous sectional while an overstuffed sofa will seem out of place in a tiny room.

4. Details – The best way to make a room feel unique and personal is to ensure you pay attention to the details. For instance, you can use your favorite artworks, nostalgic pictures, cushion covers, toys, and other such items to flavor the space with a unique character and personality.

Ensure you only include items, accessories, and objects that interest you or reveal a part of your story and personality and reject anything that should not be included in the room.

5. Rhythm – A rhythmic pattern makes music sound more interesting and the same concept can be used in interior design. You can achieve this through the visual repetition of form and arranging the elements in a manner that gives way to progression, contrast, transition, and repetition. This will allow you to direct the attention of the viewer across the room and enhance the overall impression of the room.

6. Contrast – Contrast can be used to make a space feel more dynamic and exciting and to add visual interest. Typically, color is the obvious choice for creating contrast in a room. For instance, you can pair warm and cool colors or pair light and dark colors to create a striking effect. However, you can also make use of different scales, textures, and patterns to create additional contrast.

It is important to note that less is more when creating contrast since too much contrast can make the space feel chaotic and overwhelming.

7. Emphasis – Every room should include a focal point such as a pattern, texture, component, or color that attracts the attention of the viewer to make the space feel more lively and interesting. It can be an existing feature in the space such as a piece of furniture, a fireplace, or an art piece. The goal should be to put emphasis on that focal point.

You can use different types of colors to create emphasis around an element in the room. For instance, you can highlight an area or section of the room by using bold colors. Alternatively, you can make use of bold patterns to create a strong style statement or use subtle tones to add interest without overwhelming the viewer.

Radial balance is a great way to draw emphasis around a certain section of the room. Additionally, you can make use of different textures to create strong focal points. For instance, rough textures tend to stand out more compared to smoother textures. Thus, you can use a textured finish such as brick or stucco to focus the attention of the viewer around an object in the room.

I, Mark Roemer Oakland, suggest you follow the guidelines above when decorating your house and property. You can decorate your home in almost any type of style, from minimalistic to extravagant, by simply following the basics of home decor. Additionally, you should also learn about the core elements of interior design to understand how different elements can affect the look and feel of your home. The core elements of interior design include light, color, pattern, texture, line, space, and form.