This interior design guide will give you a better understanding of interior design and will help you start decorating your home like a professional. From the best ways to start planning your design, and how to use textures and materials, to guidelines to decorate like a pro, I also mention the importance of balance, colour and how to make the most of natural and indoor lighting.
I’ve compiled some of the most important topics about interior design and decoration in this post. You can also download the complete interior design guide on the right side of this post, to get all the information along with my favourite tips and tricks that I personally use while I am working on any project.
Planning Your Design
1. Start your design with the largest piece of furniture
Starting planning your design can be a difficult part. Think first about the largest and most important piece of furniture in the room instead of getting bogged with accessories. Think about which is the best place for it in your room, considering windows, light, and views. That will help you to plan your layout around this key feature.
2. Empty space is valuable
Cramming too much furniture in the same area is one of the most common design mistakes. You need to think about leaving enough room for people to walk comfortably around and also create empty space for the eyes to be able to appreciate the whole design. Leave at least 90cm wide between furniture and elements in transit zones and at least 40cm for the rest.
3. Measure your space
Scale is very important in interior design. Measure your room to have a clear understanding of your space and pay close attention to the size of furniture pieces in relation to the room.
4. Open plan rooms
Start thinking about which areas you need in your open plan. Where is the best point for the kitchen, what area of this space have more privacy and which one receives more light. You need to have into account all those factors to successfully distribute the areas of your open plan.
Then choose a comprehensive scheme that works in the whole space and create a visual division between areas like changing the high of the ceiling for the kitchen, place a signature rug in the living room or pendant lights above the dining table. Find balance and cohesion while making clarity for each of the different spaces.
5. Never forget function
We know form is important. We all appreciate the beauty and we want to add it to our homes. However, function is as important as form when working in interior design. It is even more important with small spaces that require clever thinking and items that offer form and function in the same way. Use every square inch of space in creative ways.
6. Perfect planning prevents poor performance
The 5 P’s is the most important rule to achieve your perfect design. Redesigning a whole room is an overwhelming task and with the time and money invested its important to get it right.
Start getting as much inspiration as you can. Create a mood board with all your ideas about colour schemes, materials, and pictures of the furniture you love. Then collect samples of fabrics, paint colours, materials and bring all of them together to check how well they work.
If you feel overwhelmed about this task, you can always hire an interior designer to help put your ideas together and plan your design.
Materials and Texture
1. The importance of texture
Texture is as important as colour or light. The surface of an object or material can be rough or smooth, hard or soft, bumpy or flat, dull or shiny and it is the key element to create contrast between the elements of your room. Using different textures we balance and add interest to any design, unifying a room and creating some stand out points to draw the eye.
2. Mix textures and find balance
If you are working with a neutral colour scheme, texture is key to create interest and successful design. Incorporate different kinds of textures and materials in your space. Use soft blankets, silky cushions, rough concrete or brick walls, reflecting surfaces or glossy mirrors.
Colour
1. Establish a colour scheme
For a successful makeover, the first step is creating a colour palette.
I personally recommend you to create your colour palette not only in colours. It is good to always include materials and textures to have a better understanding and approach of the whole interior design.
Choose a colour scheme that works great for your whole house and then take those colours and textures from room to room, and decide if you want to integrate some more or not.
If you want to know more about colour and if you like neutral colour schemes you can check this post about the best neutral paint colours in the market right now.
2. Use colour to change your rooms
You can make rooms look larger with soft and light colours and you can make rooms more intimate and dramatic using dark and bold colours. Colours can completely change the look of your rooms.
A small room has the tendency to seem cramped, but you can make the most of your windows and natural light with bright colored walls, reflecting surfaces, like metals, and the use of mirrors.
The mirrors and reflecting surfaces not only reflect the natural light pouring in from the windows but the use of them also gives the optical illusion of space, making the room seem larger than it actually is. However, using dark colours not necessarily means that your room will look smaller. Dark colours are great if you want to create an intimate mood. They can transform a room into a private retreat. It all depends on what you want to achieve with your design.
Lighting
1. Make the most of natural light
There is nothing better than natural light. Create opportunities to introduce as much natural light to your rooms as you can. If you can make your windows bigger, do it! If not, you will need to get creative and use a few tricks with reflecting materials and mirrors as I mentioned before. Make your rooms shine with natural light!
2. Indoor lighting
Lighting is one of the things you need to think about and integrate into your design in the first steps. Once you have your layout defined, you need to carefully plan every single light, switch and socket, including different kinds of lighting like overhead, task, mood and accent lighting.
Overhead lighting illuminates most of your room with an assortment of lights. Task lights are all about directional and adjustable light resources. Mood and accent lighting can be used to create a specific mood of a room or to emphasize a room’s features, including artwork and decorative items.
3. The right use of light
Bathroom Lighting: Instead of putting a light above your mirror, install lights on either side of it. The light will show your face evenly and frame you in your most flattering light.
Kitchen Lighting: The best way to illuminate your kitchen is with task lighting. Place wall lamps above your worktop and indirect illumination under your cabinets to achieve a soft mood at the same time that enough light for tasking areas.
4. Pendant lights
Pendant lamps are always a great accent element in any room. You can change the look of your dining table just with the right pendant lamp above the table. They can also highlight areas and decorate spaces in a powerful way.
Decoration
1. Mix it up
The most important part of decorating is to reflect your personality and your style. Don’t be afraid of mixing old and new items, different kind of styles or textures.
That antique armchair from your mum can be beautifully integrated into your contemporary living room. It tells a story – your story – and adds value to your interior design. That beautiful rustic vase that you bought in one of your trips can be an accent piece giving warmth in your minimal space.
2. Use what you already have
Decorate your home with items you already have. Take a closer look to your trays, crystal vases, wooden items, metallic decorations, art… Think about how to place them in your space to create interest, texture and dimension.
For example that metallic tray that you already have, place it above your coffee table with some candles and a few pebbles. You can also pile a few books with your beautiful wooden box on top. Be creative and think about the best way to display those treasures that you already have.
3. The rule of three
Three is the magic number when it comes to design. Grouping items in threes, creates perspective and depth to the scene. Placing three items together forces the eye to move around the display and makes everything much more interesting.
Try to put three items together in a beautiful way. For instance a large vase in the left hand, a medium put on the right side and a small candle in the middle forward. The composition should look great!
We use this rule a lot while working on our styling projects. Check how we decorate shelves as an example.
4. Add plants
Add plants to your living space, they will make a great difference. Dried plants or living ones. Add them to every room of your home. Plants are one of the best ways to decorate adding colour and texture to your rooms.
Place a beautiful Snake Plant in your dining room to put some colour at the same time that purifies the air. Or go for a nice and big dried Pampas Grass in that vase you love for your living room.
If you want to know which plants are the perfect ones for you and your home, take a look at our Ultimate Plant Guide with the best indoor plants. Discover the easiest and healthiest plants to have at home and where to buy them.
5. Go large with art
To decorate your walls go with oversized art. It is amazing how a piece of art can change a room.
It grabs your attention the moment you step in. Think about that place in your room that needs more contemplation and select and artwork that works with your colour scheme. A trick to make your art look bigger is using a floating frame or passepartout
7. Gallery wall
A gallery wall can enhance a room with colour, texture and shape. It is a good exercise in creativity and balance and to get it right the first time can be tricky.
The best way to create a stunning gallery wall is to map out your design beforehand. You can hang and arrange cardboard templates the same size of each frame you want to integrate in your composition. Play around until you find a combination that looks great. When choosing the pictures and artworks for your frames, remember to keep it cohesive and aligned with the colour scheme of that room.
8. Add light and depth using mirrors
As mentioned before, mirrors are not only decorative objects to fill empty wall space. They can also be used to make a small space feel larger adding dimension and light. If your room has a limited amount of natural light, you can place some mirrors across the windows to create reflections and benefit instant light.
9. Rugs and curtains’ size matters
Rugs are and excellent contribution when it comes to draw an interior design scheme together, giving warmth and adding more texture to your living space. However, it is important that the size of the rug is the right one if you want it to look good. Ideally, a rug should be big enough to cover all your furniture’s main area. For example, in the living room your rug must be as big as the area where your furntinure’s feet ( sofa, armchair, coffee table…) sit.
Curtains can improve or break a room. Select a good fabric that gives warmth and texture to your room and follow your colour scheme. But the most important: select them large and hang them high. Create a grand impression with your curtains and make the room feel taller.
The most important: Keep it meaningful
Everything mentioned before in this interior design guide is focused on helping you through the process of creating your dream home. However, the most important part is that you choose items that you really love and have in your home only those things that you find useful and beautiful.
The purpose of interior design and the items that are inside your house should be to make you happy. Create a beautiful home that covers all your needs, based on yourself, your lifestyle and your taste.
