A lot of interior designers nowadays do not really have a secret rule book that they faithfully follow in order to come up with awesome house design ideas. It may be hard to believe but there are really no hard laws that dictate what people should and should not do when designing or renovating their home. Most of us are creative by nature and we have always loved to imagine, dream, explore, and follow our intuition.
Although there are no strict and solid rules in home designing, there are however a few rough principles that can definitely guide us in order to avoid making the common mistakes interior designers often commit as well as to ensure that the interior scheme and furnishings of our home will work together. Here are some house design ideas doโs and donโts that will help you make any room in your home look better.
- Avoid pushing the furniture against the wall and overcrowding the room.
Allow a breathing space around your pieces of furniture by not pushing them against the wall. Just allow them to float in the room because by doing this, you will have a much more interesting and well-defined space. Also, try to resist overcrowding the room by filling up space with a lot of furniture. This is great news if you are on a tight budget. Think about quality over quantity and spend more of your budget on buying fewer but higher-quality pieces.
- Make sure to hang paintings at the right height.
Hanging paintings and displaying sculptures are very common yet classic house design ideas. Museums and galleries usually hang paintings 57 to 60 inches from the floor so that the midline or center of each painting is parallel to the average human eye level of 57 inches. But remember that in rooms with higher ceilings, there may be a tendency to hang the painting a bit higher.
- Donโt be too theme-y.
You will see a lot of house design ideas in magazines and on the internet that rely too much on a particular theme, but try to resist the urge to become to theme-y in designing your home. Popular hallmarks such as sailboat paintings, bead boards, blue and white nautical palettes among others have been done so many times already. Those are nice house design ideas but doing that, too, will remove the uniqueness and individuality that you would want to show after designing your home. Avoid obvious clichรฉs and design your room in a way that will show your personality and own creativity.
- Try to create a focal point.
Classic house design ideas include adding a focal point in every room. Create a focal point that will anchor the room by choosing a โstarโ furniture that will stand out from the rest. The focal point might be a simple mantel, a headboard in the bedroom, a whimsical art piece in the living room, or a dramatic hood in the kitchen. But whatever it is, just try to choose something that will totally draw attention in order to bring your guestsโ eyes right into the center of the piece and anchor it there. Just avoid making every piece of furniture in the room a focal point because you donโt want to make any visual noise.
- Vary proportion and scale.
Just because it looks good in the store doesnโt mean that it will also look good in your room once you bring it home. Always remember to vary proportion and scale when choosing home dรฉcor and furniture. The size of the pieces youโre putting in your room will be very significant because you would want your furnishings to fill up the room space in a way that is pleasing to the eyes.
- Avoid sacrificing lighting to trim down your budget.
This is a common mistake that most people do. Putting light fixtures that are either too small or too inappropriate for the style the room is a big no-no. You should realize that the lighting in the room asserts style and affects the overall mood of the area. Remember to only use relevant and appropriately scaled lighting. Professional interior designers even build layers of lighting just to create variety, interest and intrigue. If youโre looking for house design ideas that will instantly change the ambiance of your room or home, you might want to put extra thoughts on adding and choosing the most appropriate lighting.
- Choose the most appropriate paint color for the room.
We all know that the paint color of a room makes or breaks its overall look. Make sure to match your paint color perfectly with the furniture, carpet, beddings, and huge decors in the room. You might want to consult a professional on this one because unfortunately, it takes a trained eye as well as experience to properly read undertones.
- Arrange the seating furniture on the rug properly.
Basically, there are three ways in which you can arrange your furniture on the rug. First, if the rug is large enough and you can easily fit all the furniture legs on top of it, it will create a more elegant and luxurious feel to your room. The bigger the rug, the better.
Second, you can keep all the legs of your furniture off the rug if you have a small room. This is one of the many house design ideas that will help you save money, but you also wouldnโt want to pick a rug too small it looks insignificant. Make the small rug appear as if it can touch the front legs of the furniture placed near it. It is best to use this approach is you are planning to layer a pattern over a textured or a larger solid rug.
Lastly, you can also opt to put just the front feet of your furniture on the rug in order to create an effect of tying the arrangement together visually. This will create a well-defined space that will give the impression and feeling of openness.