The Diva's Designing PrinciplesI have practicing commercial interior design for 15 year now and helped many friends and family on residential design projects as well as designing my own home 1 year ago. I have learned a lot of about residential design after building my house and found I used a lot of the same design principles I use in commercial office design.
I would like to share with you some of my designing principles that work for commercial and residential design. Please remember that these are ideas I use in design and there are may ways to design interior space. Feel free to use all or a few tips depending on your own style and project.
The Diva's Designing Principles:
- Do your research and really understand what you like and your goals of each project.
- I recommend using Houzz and Pinterest for getting inspired for your design project. In commercial design, this is the process you do to understand what your clients likes or doesn't like and defining the scope of the project.
- Don't slip this step and try to do this first since it will create the scope and budget and help you take your time to create a space you (the client) really wants.
- Understand your own design style and understand what makes that style the way it is and use those ideas in your design
- I love modern design which I use in my house and at work (I am lucky)
- I use a lot of simple clean lines, less is more for details, and I look to 1950's design for inspiration
- Use natural colors for the more expense materials in your spaces. They shouldn't be too trendy.
- Examples are flooring, tile, cabinets, furniture
- Mix different natural materials in your design to create interest. Adding lots of texture create lots of visual interest and make the space feel richer and warmer. This is where your own personality can come forward
- Examples are using barn wood floors or beams, tile, textured quarts or garnet counter tops wood walls or wood ceilings, fabric walls panels, metal ceilings, textured walls, stone or brick on a fireplace, etc.
- Use color with paint and accessories since they are easy and cheaper to update when the color you used goes out of style.
- Less is more here. Try to edit yourself while adding color since it will go a long way
- End accent painted walls in an inside corner not an outside corner. It is a cleaner ending point and looks like you thought through where the paint ended instead of forcing the end point.
- Use the same base color and style (if possible) throughout your house to tie it all together
- Use the same color of hardware throughout your space to create unity
- Example of this are cabinet handles, faucets, door handles,
- Try not to create matchy matchy spaces and look for a fabric or picture for inspiration and use colors or other patterns from it to create your space
- Don't try to match or use themes throughout the space
- Think about site lines while layout out space and where you want to or don't want to add a window.
- Think about where you locate light fixtures and what type of light fixture to use for each space
- Think about how you will use the spaces and that will help you decide on where to locate it and what finishes to use.
Most important advice I can give is to really take the time to understand what you like, what you don't like, what your project scope, and budget is before planning. Make sure you have clear communication with all trades working on the project with you so your ideas can be executed like you imagined they would.
