Interior Design FYI

Arranging furniture is not something that we tend to really think about, it tends to just happen by itself, as the things that we acquire somehow find their own space. Some furniture has its predefined space of course, the television goes on the TV unit and we usually have a favoured space for the big comfy couch regardless of room size (right in front of the TV). And no matter how many magazines we read or programmes we watch, we will always shove our furniture right against the wall. So how do we go about arranging all the things that we have in a way that is both pleasing to the eye and does not involve feng shui?

The very first thing that you have to do, even before you go out and buy furniture, is take measurements. It is important that you know the amount of space that you have to work with. The size of the room is not the only thing that you have to measure, you have to size up the door too because buying a fantastic piece of furniture that you can’t actually get into your house is heart breaking. Once you have the essential measurements it is time to buy your furniture and accessories. You don’t really have to go with a theme; your furniture can have varying characteristics and varying volumes. If you’re looking for a serene and harmonious atmosphere then similarly scaled pieces and bilateral symmetry will achieve that for you. If however, you would like something more lively and visually stimulating then asymmetry and pieces that are not to scale is the way to go.

It is important that rooms have a focus point, something to draw the eye on entering them. In a lounge it might be an interesting statuette of a god that you bought on a trip to Egypt, in a dinning room it could be the beautiful table, for some people their televisions are their pride and joy so they make them the focal point of the rooms that they are in. Some TVs are so big that they can’t help but be the focal point, or the dominant feature at the very least.

Modern TVs are at least nice to look at, not the great big boxes of yore, so it’s acceptable to have them as focal points. Most modern appliances are attractive, so are accessories. Manufacturers have caught on to the necessity of aesthetics and are putting much more time and energy into the appearance of products so that consumers can now proudly display DVDs and cd racks along side bookcases and display cabinets. There are specially made entertainment units for stereos and hi-fi units that range from the utterly gorgeous to the serviceable. They also come in a range of finishes so that you can match them to your colour scheme or the theme running through your house, should you have one.

You can have your DVD and cd racks mixed in with your furniture because it is important to use different heights in order to draw the eye up and down as someone looks around the room. Here is where the furniture away from the walls comes in, apparently it adds interest to the room. It also makes the room smaller, if you stick a table behind a couch, you suddenly have a whack of room missing. Angling furniture across a corner takes the edge off a room and makes it appear warmer and presents a more casual, lived-in lifestyle. So does leaving your jerseys and jackets draped over chairs, but nowhere can I find a site than recommends that.

In the end you’re the one who has to live in your house so you have to decorate it in a manner that pleases you and no one else. You don’t have to follow any rules, except for number one, which could prove to be the most important rule of interior design ever, measure the door.