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Interior Design Basics:
- Homepage
- Interior Design Basics
- The Basics of Color
- Wall Treatments
- Fabrics
- Furniture
- Window Treatments
- Flooring Treatments
- Securing Your Home
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The 3 Interior Design Basic Guidelines
There are 3 basic guidelines for successful interior design.
- A successful room is functional.
- A successful room expresses a mood.
- A successful room exhibits a sense of harmony.
Function – Ask yourself, what are the intended functions of this room? A room must serve its intended function. No matter how beautifully you design a room, if your scheme can't fulfill all the functions you require the room to perform, then the room has failed.
If a dining room is not convenient to eat in, then it fails. If a bedroom is not convenient to sleep in, then it fails. Does your living room have appropriate lighting for reading, if that is one of the functions of the room? Are there tables in easy reach of the seating to put your drink on? Are your wet areas like kitchens, bathrooms and laundrys water proof? You get the idea.
Mood – What is the mood you want this room to express? Are you after a sleek, modern, sophisticated look, or a rustic, casual, warm mood etc? Every aspect of the room you create must maintain the same mood.
Mood refers to the general look or feeling you want the room to express. The color schemes, furniture, window treatments, floor treatments and lighting styles etc. for your interior design must all be consistent with this look and feeling.
Harmony – All the separate elements in a room must work together in harmony. All elements should feel appropriate and nothing should feel out of place with your interior design. Every element should be harmonious in mood, scale, quality and color.
We have already discussed mood. The scale must also be harmonious; this means all elements should be the same scale as each other and the same scale of the room itself. No huge chairs in small rooms or small chairs in huge rooms. No huge chairs with small chairs etc.
The quality also needs to be harmonious. If you are using expensive high quality furniture then don't use them with cheap looking curtains etc. And lastly the color schemes must be harmonious. The color schemes in your furniture must not clash with the color schemes in your rug etc.
In every room you design for yourself you must follow these 3 guidelines.
The 4 Interior Design Basic Steps
Now let's discuss the 4 steps for designing a room.
- Sketching a room.
- Drawing a floor plan.
- Furniture layout.
- Lighting plan.
Sketching a room – At this stage of your interior design you just need to do a rough sketch of your room and write down accurate measurements for length of the room, breadth of the room and ceiling height.
Height of moldings (the boards along the floor and between the walls and ceiling and the boards around doors and windows etc.), and the dimensions of your doors and windows need to be measured and noted. Measure how far windows and doors are from the corners of the room and from the ceilings and floor.
Are there any features in the room (air conditioner units, fireplaces etc.)? Measure these and write it down. Note where the electrical outlets and switches are and note where any lighting fixtures are. Include the location of these on your sketch.
Conduct an audit on the rooms condition. Write down what everything is made out of and what condition it is in. Everything except the furniture I mean. Does anything need to be repaired?
Note down what the window types are. Are they aluminum sliding windows, wooden casement windows etc? Now take photographs of every angle of the room for reference.
Drawing a floor plan – Buy some graph paper from a stationery supply shop and re draw your rough sketch to scale on the graph paper. A good scale to use for most rooms is 1/4 inch = 1 foot.
You need an accurate floor plan so you can do a furniture plan later. Show on your floor plan where the doors and windows are, also to scale. Don't show your measurements on the floor plan it will clutter it too much; keep all your measurements on your rough sketch.
Indicate on your floor plan which way is North. This is important as it tells you where the sun will rise and set in relation to your rooms’ windows. How will the sun light your room? Will the setting sun need to be blocked by heavy drapes? Will you use the morning sun to your advantage to warm the room after a cool night?
Interior Design Basic Furniture Layout
Furniture layout – There are 4 questions you need to ask yourself when deciding where to put your furniture in your design.
- What are the balance lines of the room?
- Where are the traffic patterns in the room?
- What is the focus in the room?
- How can I establish the axis of the room?
The balance lines are easy to determine. Draw 2 faint lines across your floor plan dividing the room in half length wise and breadth wise. This will divide your room into 4 quadrants. This is important because you need to have an equal "weight" of furniture in each quadrant in order for the room to be balanced.
Traffic patterns are also easy. Leave 36 inches clear in front of each door opening to allow space for the swing of the door. Also keep 12 inches clear in front of the windows for access. Are there areas in the room that need to be traversed often? Traffic patterns tell you where not to put furniture, mark these on your floor plan.
Now, what about the focus of the room? Is it a fireplace? Bay window? Blank wall where the home theatre screen or an artwork will go? Plan your interior design furniture layout to take advantage of this focus.
Establish an axis for the room. Draw a scale drawing of the wall that contains your rooms focus and also draw the wall opposite your focus. Now draw an imaginary line up the middle of the wall from floor to ceiling through your focus. Continue this line across the ceiling and down the opposite wall to the floor.
The idea is this; you want the focus balanced from floor to ceiling. If your focus is a fireplace this would mean putting a picture or something above it to fill the space. You also need to balance both sides of the room. So you would have to put something on the opposite wall of equal visual weight along the axis line.
Also ensure that you have equal visual weight on either side of your axis lines on both walls.
Everything is about balance in interior design.
You are now ready to start planning where your furniture will go in the room. You need to place the furniture in the room so it takes advantage of the focus and so it serves the function of the room.
Arrange your furniture so that all 4 quadrants have equal visual weight. This does not mean you need to have a mirror image of furniture in the quadrants, but it simply means you don't want every piece of furniture in one quadrant or one half. Visually on your floor plan the room should look balanced.
Draw representatives of your furniture on your floor plan to scale. Try various ideas. Decide which one you find most appealing.
Interior Design Basic Lighting Plan
Lighting plan – Do not try to light the room. Light objects in the room.
Firstly, your lighting must permit people to perform the specific tasks of the room, for example using lamps for reading, playing cards etc. This is called task lighting. You also need sufficient lighting so people don't bump into things. This is called ambient lighting.
You can use lighting to influence the mood, for example bright lights for an upbeat mood, low lighting for a more intimate and romantic mood. As with everything else the different elements of your interior design lighting plan must be harmonious with each other.
Lighting decorative objects with spot lighting is also a nice touch. Don't forget to take into account where the electrical outlets are. You want to keep unsightly electrical cords as short as possible and hidden if you can.
Now, before we go into specific details on your options for wall treatments, window and floor treatments, fabrics and furniture, let's firstly explore the subject of color and color schemes.
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