8 Decorating Rules You Should Never Break | Interior Design Basics

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name's Kristen, and today I'm going to be sharing with you some interior design rules you should never break. These are specific design measurements, sizes and placement ideas that will make for a picture perfect space every single time. These apply to any style of home. So if you're looking to improve the look of your home, this video is just for you. If you enjoy watching and find this video helpful, make sure you give it a big thumbs up and hit that like button. Let's go ahead and jump right into it. Now, I'm sure we've all heard the term focal point. Focal points in interior design are very important. They create intentionality. They draw your eye in. They can anchor your space. This could be a fireplace in your living room or a range hood in your kitchen. But I do think mistakes can be made when all of the attention is drawn to one area and the rest of your space kind of lacks intentionality. So I think you should always have one main focal point and two secondary additional focal points. These can just be small vignettes and moments around your space that help balance out that main focal point. So if you have a large fireplace, it's really commanding a lot of attention across the room, maybe put a large full length mirror or a large tall cabinet that really kind of mimics and balances out that space. That is a secondary focal point, and it creates a separate area in your space that can draw attention to it. So I really think that you should be able to look around your space and your eyes can dance around from one focal point to the next. There's definitely going to be a main one, but I think it's very important to also have additional focal points. This will create a ton of balance in your home, and it can be done very easily. Creating secondary focal points can be simple vignettes. They can be small gallery walls. They can be an accent chair and a lamp. But these small moments around your home and in one specific space are definitely important to creating an overall look. Now, whether you're renovating or just decorating your home, it's very important to think about longevity. You want your space to last. You want your design to be timeless. But you also want to have a little fun with trends. So I think a great calculation to make sure you have a balanced look that will last is 80% timeless, 20% trendy. So I think it's fun to add in trends in small ways with color trends, pattern trends, small decor choices, maybe lighting trends. But your overall look should be majority timeless. I think this also applies to maybe the shape of your sofa. The shape of your sofa should be timeless, but maybe you could have a little fun with the pattern. Maybe it's a slip cover sofa that could be switched out here and there. So you can really create a timeless look, but also play a lot with trends. It can be quite risky going all in with trends. So it's very important to keep that 80% of your home and your space timeless. Think about those big ticket items that you don't want to have to buy again. Like cabinets, flooring. Your sofa, your bed, your dining table. These large, more expensive pieces should really only be bought once. And you can kind of work around them with timeless or trending pieces. Like bedding, paint colors, throw blankets, rugs, mirrors. All of these accenting pieces can definitely be trendy. And that's, what's really going to play up the look of your home and make it look really unique. So it's fun to have that balance in your home so that you could really create a lot of longevity. Now let's talk pattern pairing because there's a ton of pattern in interior design right now. You're going to notice pattern furniture everywhere. So you have to be careful with mixing your patterns and there's definitely a key to mixing patterns. So the perfect pattern pairing recipe is a solid fabric, a geometric pattern, and then adding in a floral or an abstract pattern. This is very easy to do when you're styling pillows, because these are small items that you can easily throw together and create a really nice pairing. But on a larger scale, you can have a floral sofa with a striped accent chair and maybe a solid rug or solid throw pillows. This pairing can really work well together. If you want to layer in pattern in a bold way, you can also do this with your wall treatment. If you want to have stripes all over your walls, whether you've painted it or wallpapered it, you can then put in an abstract or floral furniture piece or rug. And that will really create that beautiful contrast and really perfect pairing. And then again, tie it all together with a solid. So this can apply to all areas of design, large or small, always have that perfect pairing recipe of a solid, a geometric, and a floral. Now a measurement to always keep in mind when styling your living room or family room is the space between your coffee table and your sofa. This should always be 18 inches. That is the perfect measurement so that you can easily reach your coffee table. You can place a drink down. You can walk by it. It creates enough space to create flow around your home, but it also is close enough for access. So if it's any larger than that, it probably means that your sofa is pushed up against the wall and maybe it shouldn't be, maybe your coffee table is too small and you actually need to scale up to fill your space and create that perfect measurement. Or you just need to kind of scoot everything in so that it creates that perfect placement. You really want to style your sofa and your coffee table together as a pairing. So make sure that that space is correct. Measure 18 inches all around your coffee table for the perfect fit. Now you'll notice when you're home decor shopping, there's a ton of sets out there. Furniture sets, decor sets, wall art sets, bedding sets. I think if it comes as a set, you should break it up intentionally. I think this will create for a more unique design while you're decorating. So if you ever do buy a bedding set, or maybe you have a furniture set, break up those pieces around your home in different ways. Wall art sets and frame sets can easily be broken up all around your home and used in different ways so that you'll never know that it actually came as a set. This is going to create a lot more intentionality in your design so that everything doesn't match perfectly, but everything pairs nicely together. Bedding sets are actually really fun to separate because you can take the quilt from one set, put it in one room, use the duvet in a different room, separate the pillow shams, and you've got your own unique look. So I don't think there's a problem with buying sets. I just think you should intentionally break them up once you get home. So you don't have the exact same style as someone else buying that set. Create your own look with it and it will look fabulous in your home. Now, if you're ever hanging a gallery wall or styling multiple wall art pieces together, think about that measurement between each frame. I think the perfect measurement is always two to three inches. If you go any larger than that, the wall art pieces start to feel very disconnected and you really want to intentionally style your art together. So keep those gaps no larger than two to three inches and no smaller as well. If they get too close, it creates a very cluttered look that doesn't have room to breathe. You want to be able to notice each art piece, but then also have it look like one whole piece altogether. So that gap is very important. Now to do this very quickly, you can just measure once on a piece of painter's tape and just move that piece of painter's tape around your art frames as you're adding to your gallery wall. That's going to make it go a lot quicker and you don't have to keep measuring over and over again. So there's definitely shortcuts around it. Painter's tape is definitely the way to go. Now, I always think it's very important to implement juxtapositions everywhere around your home. I love the mix of opposites. It really allows every element of your home to shine. So think about mixing shiny with matte, round with angular, old with new. This is what really helps each piece stand out and balances your home. If you have all antique pieces in your home, your space can start to feel very old. But balancing antique pieces with brand new items really gives you this beautiful balance. Same thing with high gloss finishes. You don't want every surface of your home to be shiny. You really want to implement those more rugged woods, those textured stones, those honed materials to give you that balance. Same thing with furniture and decor pieces. You don't want everything to be round and curved in your home because everything will start to blur together. You want to mix those angular pieces, those square and rectangular items with more soft edges, and it will create the perfect look. A great example is a dining room, a long rectangular table paired with round or curved back dining chairs. This creates a beautiful balance. It really allows each piece to shine and it creates a lot of interest in a space so that everything isn't just square and angular. Balance juxtapositions all around your home and it will create the perfect look. And lastly, always implement three textures in every space, especially if you're going for a more monochromatic look. Implement glossy, textured and matte for a very cohesive, interesting look. Example of this would be linen, a metal finish and wood or stone. The wood or stone adds in a ton of texture and that's going to create this depth in your space. The linen creates a softness and the metal creates that hard, interesting, shiny finish. So this could be chrome, could be unlacquered brass. You can create a ton of interest by implementing all of these textures in every single space. So if your space is looking a little flat, maybe a little boring, maybe look around and see if you have enough textures in your space. Could be looked at in decor, furniture choices or even the hard materials around your home. All right. So that's it for some interior design rules you should keep in mind while decorating your home. There's definitely more. So if you're looking for even more ideas, I'll leave a few of the videos I made on this topic down below in the description box. You guys can check those out as well. But if you enjoyed watching and found this video helpful, make sure you give it a big thumbs up and hit that like button and make sure you guys are subscribed to my channel so you don't miss the upcoming videos. Click that red subscribe button down below and make sure you guys have your notifications turned all the way on. So you're first to see the next video. Love you guys so much. And I'll see you in my next one. Bye.