Creating visual harmony is important when you are decorating a home or office. It makes people who enter the room to feel more comfortable and eliminates visual distraction and conflict within the space. It is important for selling homes, creating work spaces, or creating a relaxing environment in your home.
These interior decorating ideas will help you to create visual harmony in any room. While some of these concepts are easy, others may be more difficult for less experienced designers. The key is to trust your instincts when it comes to which interior decorating ideas work best for you.
7 Interior Decorating Ideas for Perfect Harmony and Balance
#1. Create Symmetrical Balance
If you were to take a photograph of a room, fold it in half and hold a mirror the image, this is what perfect symmetrical balance would look like. Perfect symmetry involves placing two items of equal visual weight on opposite sides of the room to create visual balance. Creating symmetrical balance will instantly balance a space visually
This principle of interior design is very simple.
If you want to hang a mirror in a room, purchase two and hang them adjacent to one another on opposing walls or spaced evenly on the same wall. If you like a throw pillow, buy two of them and stack them on opposite ends of the sofa. Move large items, such as a bed or sofa to the center of a room and use identical accents and furnishings on opposite sides. This will keep your eyes moving between the items, creating balance.
#2. Maintain Color Continuity
When you walk into a balanced and harmonious home, you should feel as if everything in the home belongs there. If you walk from a soft, cool gray living room into a shocking orange kitchen, it will throw your senses off balance. A way to create continuity is by using similar, complementing colors throughout a space.
These interior decorating ideas create unity through color. Contrasting colors are better left for accents as long as they are a continuous theme throughout the space, but wall colors should not compete. If you wouldn’t wear those colors together on your clothing, don’t paint adjoining rooms in those shades. It’s as simple as that.
#3. Don’t Forget About Repetition
You see repetition most often in businesses and restaurants. You may notice that the tables identical in size and shape or that the bar has the same bar stools and lighting spaced evenly throughout the space. In an office, you will usually notice the same desks, chairs, and plants are in each individual space also. Repetition is one of the simplest interior decorating ideas you can implement to create harmony and unity.
In a home, you can exercise repetition by installing the same shelves equally spaced throughout a room. You may have two of the same type of chair in the same space. Identical pendant lighting should be evenly spaced throughout the kitchen. All of these repeated items have equal visual weight and maintain balance in a room.
#4. Create Unity
Choose a design concept and run with it. Don’t change concepts from room to room. It doesn’t matter if you choose industrial modern, shabby chic, or contemporary design interior decorating ideas. What does matter is that your chosen design should continue throughout the space and not conflict in design from room to room.
If you decide to go with industrial modern, stick with wood, plumbing pipe, exposed beams, and industrial themed accents throughout the space. Don’t choose a contemporary design for your bedroom and industrial modern for your bathroom. Choose one design concept to create unity and make every part of the design feel like it belongs.
#5. Focus on Asymmetrical Balance
Whereas symmetrical balance creates balance by making a mirror image from one side of a room to the other, asymmetrical balance is a more visual concept. It is more difficult to achieve than symmetrical balance but works for rooms that don’t give you an option for symmetry.
To accomplish asymmetrical balance, you need to create equal visual weight from one side of the room to the next. If you have a chair on one side of the room, you may place a lamp on the opposite size that is similar in height and a potted plant that has the same visual weight as the chair. It requires a keen eye for creating visual balance within a space, so it is not for everyone.
#6. Use Similar Décor Accents
You shouldn’t have décor of a different theme within the same visual space. This can be distracting and creates conflict in the overall design. For example, you shouldn’t have impressionist paintings in the same room as your shabby chic furnishings. This contrast prevents balance and harmony regardless of visual weight.
Throw pillows on a sofa should be similar to those on a chaise lounge or chair. If you have an accent that is distinctly Asian, such as a painting or water feature, make sure to continue that theme throughout the room. This creates a visual continuity that gives the room harmony.
#7. Use Mirrors
A simple and effective way to create easy visual balance without investing in the purchase of multiple items is to use mirrors. Mirrors reflect and create symmetry visually, simply by duplicating an image. They add depth, dimension and visual space to small spaces.
In order to get the most out of mirrors, try to use two large vertical mirrors on the same wall, an equal distance from the center of the room. These mirrors will reflect the room’s décor and create repetition. This visual repetition creates balance and harmony in any room.
Once a space has achieved harmony and balance, people will feel more comfortable in the space. You will notice an improved flow from one space to the next and won’t be surprised by conflicting interior decorating ideas when your design is in perfect balance. What do you think? Have you achieved visual harmony and balance in a unique way? Share your experience and let others know what worked for you.
