People often strive for simplicity in all fields of work but making something look simple generally takes a lot of work. However, simplicity is often key to a great result and in home décor, less is generally more. Too often people jump on board the latest fad, spending a lot of money to change everything about their interior design only to wind up seeing it go out of fashion within a few years.
Here are some suggestions to keep your home décor simple, stylish and liveable.
Reasonable ratios
Achieving the perfect design for your home relies on your use of ratios and pairing different things together. Artwork that is too small or too large will make a space look awkward or cramped, and the same goes for furniture. You need to design the room based on the space you have available, not cram everything you owned before you moved in and try to make it work.
As far as artwork goes, the themes, images, colours and tones are going to greatly affect your space. Water and ocean based photographs or prints are ideal for bathrooms, while paintings always illuminate a lounge or bedroom and personal photographs have long been used to decorate hallways.
Timely trimmings
Every home has windows so curtains or blinds are an essential part of any interior design. Generally, less is more when it comes to covering your windows. You want something practical that will open and close thousands of times without breaking or tearing, and you want something minimal that isn’t going to suffocate the room or try to steal the focal point from a beautiful work of art or a star piece of furniture. Simple eyelet curtains are easy to use, will fit easily into your budget and can easily be swapped in and out if you decide to change your colour scheme in the future. Whatever you do don’t go for elaborate curtains or blinds that will crowd the rest of your design, such as heavy velvet curtains. These might look fantastic in a palace but in an apartment or normal residential home they are going to look out of place.
Nimble numbers
Pairing or grouping similar objects like vases, bottles, bowls, ornaments and photographs in similar frames or plants in similar pots creates a much stronger design statement than each piece would if it were left on its own. Using groups of three is a good rule of thumb, allowing the eye to follow a row of similar objects in what becomes a pleasing design element to your room.
Using similar objects of various heights or sizes is the best way to accomplish this, such as grouping three vases of various sizes on your dining room table. You can even extend the concept to having similar objects placed around the room, using the repetition of the object to create a flow and interesting design choice.
Having less of something creates a stronger statement that can enhance the experience of a home, as opposed to overwhelming the senses with too many bold elements crammed into one space. Aim for clean lines, complementary or contrasting colours and neutral tones that allow room for one bold centrepiece to draw focus.
