5 Tips for Designing the Perfect Room

A home is a sanctuary for relaxation and self-expression that reflects your identity and personality. In this space, your furnishings, books, photos, and artwork are the energy and expression of who you are.

1. Know the Purpose of Your Space

Who will use the room, and what activities will take place there? For instance, will it be a cozy space furnished with washable rugs where kids and pets generate heavy traffic? Or will it be a quiet office space with lush plants and a window view at your desk?

Knowing the purpose and function makes it easier to determine the types of furnishings, the style, and the mood for your design project.

2. Collect Ideas and Inspiration

Mid Century Modern, Scandinavian, Californian, Minimalist, Rustic Luxury, Coastal, Bohemian, or Eclectic are some celebrated styles. Current top trends in home design highlight an open floor plan and multi-purpose spaces with clean lines and ample natural lighting. If you're unsure of a design that would work for your room, explore Pinterest, Instagram, or other online sites for inspiration.

Create Style/Mood Boards with the collages of images you envision for your room. If you prefer a physical, tactile approach, use a whiteboard or a corkboard. You can also clip and paste images directly on your walls. An easier way is to pin the inspirations on Pinterest or clip them to apps such as Evernote, Trello, or PowerPoint.

Creating multiple boards by categories can help you organize and track your favorite brands, color schemes, furnishings, and accessories. One mood board might feature various types of coffee tables and side tables. Another mood board might highlight a collection of baskets, textiles, and other accessories.

A bonus tip is to also remember your functional needs. How do you want to organize your storage space and customize the shelves? What type of outdoor heating might suit your taste for al fresco dining with family and friends on chilly nights?

3. Create a Floor Plan and Measure the Furniture

Before buying foundation items such as a sofa, bed, desk, or bookshelf, measure the space you have available for each piece.

A floor plan provides a bird's eye view of the space and shows how the furniture will fit and flow. It requires you to measure the length and width of your room. Paying attention to the location of the electrical outlets and structural elements, such as doors, windows, walls, and stairs, is also crucial.

The next step is to lay out and arrange your furniture to scale in a floor plan that you can roughly sketch by hand or design with an app. A lot of floor planning software is free or monetized in a way that only requires you to pay if you need access to premium features.

4. Budget Your Project

You don't need to spend a fortune on expensive brands and trends to design a perfect room. With some research, you can find affordable furnishings that are versatile, tasteful, and unique.

In deciding what to buy, list the necessities and the nice-to-have or should-have items.

Shop around and compare prices to stay within budget. Using a spreadsheet to keep track of items and their prices will let you quickly break down the costs and adjust them accordingly.

5. Incorporate Principles of Design

Focal Point. Create a focal point in your room to attract the eye and add visual interest. A feature distinctive for its scale, tone, or texture is what makes a good focal point. Examples might include a marble fireplace, an accented wall, or a statement piece such as a bold painting, an oversized mirror, or lush potted plants.

Balance. A space with symmetry has visual harmony. A sofa arranged with identical side tables, or a fireplace flanked by matching bookcases is an example of symmetrical balance. This classical approach distributes the visual weight equally around the focal point in the room.

Asymmetrical balance is more dynamic. The shapes, tones, and textures have equal eye appeal in the room, but they don't mimic or mirror each other in an exact duplicate. For instance, a sofa anchors the space with a small table on one side and a large potted plant or floor lamp on the other side.

Rule of Three. Grouping the objects in three creates an asymmetrical balance. An effective way to do this is by displaying a contrast in scale, tone, pattern, or texture. You can style anything in three, such as pillows, artwork, plants, and other decorative accessories throughout the room.

Let’s use vases as an example. Large, medium and small vases varying in height appear triangular and diagonal, suggesting movement. These items don't need to be the same color but can vary in tones of the primary color and patterns of dots and wavy lines.

You can also style dissimilar objects in three. Picture a stack of books with a crystal on top; a vase of flowers and a decorative bowl encircle the books.

Unity. Don't design with a full spectrum of colors and multiple patterns that appear too busy. But a moderate repetition of colors, patterns, and textures creates rhythm and visual continuity for a cohesive look in the home. For instance, the blue stripes on your bedroom linen repeat on your curtains in the den and on the artwork in the living room.

Designing a perfect room need not be daunting. Proper planning and applying the basic principles of design will smoothen the process of creating a beautiful home.