The Designer Double Take
Balanced Decorating
Makes Home Feel
More Comfortable
What separates a designer
look from a non-designer look?
It always seems that a designer
room looks twice as good as
home-grown decorating. That’s
because designers often rely on
doubles. In designer-speak this is
use of pairs to create balance and
drama. Home decorators can use
this same design trick to pump up
their decorating volume.
Both designers and homeowners know the value of flanking. This is most often seen and used at the front door. The door is usually flanked by two light fixtures and a pair of plants. This effect draws your eye to the door and makes it
command attention. But inside the house, homeowners and the DIY-decorators often forget the power of two.
Get it together
Whenever possible, work to bring a room into balance.
This means moving matching lamps on either side of a sofa, two chairs together in the living room, or two nightstands on either side of the bed. If you don’t feel like your room looks together or balanced, pairing up objects, such as lamps, is the fastest way to help your room come together.
We need balance
Balance in a room is important to make a room feel good in that can’t-put-your-finger-on-it kind of way. After all, humans are nothing more than an assembly of pairs: pairs of arms, legs, eyes, and ears. We even pair up when we get married. Having a room that has no pairs makes us feel uncomfortable, unfocused, and like it’s missing something. It is; pairs. It’s also why the new trend of using different kinds of tables on either side of a bed is bothersome. The bed feels out of balance in the room. If there’s anyplace that needs the comfort of balance and symmetry, it’s the bedroom.
Where to add symmetry
Symmetry, or balance and pairing, is best to use wherever there is a display space or an element you want to be noticed. For instance, if you have a console with a beautiful painting in the middle, this is wonderful place to place a pair of lamps. The lamps will make the painting appear much more important and draw attention to it. You can do this at an entry hall, a dining room buffet table, on a piano top, and even on a triple dresser in a bedroom. In the living room, try pairing sofas facing one another for the balanced effect. Having them at 45 degrees to one another makes the sofas feel less balanced. Adding two plants on either side of a dining room, matching art prints on either side of a window, or chairs on either side of a dining hutch can all work balancing wonders. Regardless of your decorating style, adding symmetry will add an air of formality and designer panache.
Walk into your rooms and notice whether the room feels balanced or if it seems out of kilter. If it feels uncomfortable, work some balancing magic by adding some pairs to the room. You might find that your living space suddenly feels like a balanced space.
© 2007 Kathryn Weber, all rights reserved
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Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Everydayclean.com Cleaning Calender, that calender that puts you in control of your home by ending the power struggle. For more information log on to http://tinyurl.com/d9rh5.
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©2001-2007 Kathryn Weber
All rights reserved.
