Create harmony in your home
Why is it sometimes you walk into a room and you feel instantly at ease? The sensation is akin to feeling a warm embrace, it’s almost as if the room is telling you that you belong there. Yet in other spaces, sometimes you feel uncomfortable and unrest. Is there such a thing as designing to provoke certain emotions or affect the moods of the occupants? The answer is an uncertain maybe. I am not sure there is a scientific test to determine the success, failure or intention of the design room. Every designer and homeowner strives for their home or project to be the best it can be.
Yes, of course polite company will always “oooh” and “aaah” when visiting a friend or acquaintance’s home, and yet there are times when you feel that special something when you enter a welldesigned room that leaves you speechless. Certain factors affect a room’s livability and aura. Color, light, flow, furniture layout and the actual physical items such as the furniture, lighting fixtures, accessories and art are all determining factors.
Creating harmony in a home sounds easy enough, but in reality it is quite a challenge, even when in the hands of professional designers. A balance of concepts and elements is needed in each room and in the house as a whole to make a successful project.
All the rooms of your home shouldn’t necessarily be designed or decorated in the same manner or style, but they should complement each other and create an engaging link between each room to reinforce the concept of harmony or wholeness.
Visual harmony, as in musical harmony, is the combination of elements — some that are the same and others which are different — that create a pleasing effect, in their own right, but also by their interweaving.
Your ideas and concepts must be clear, in order to marry all the rooms of your home into a harmonious whole.
It is important to determine which space or room in the home is the heart. This important room often is a public room such as living room or family room, and is the center of life and activity.
Some homeowners often choose the living room as the one that defines the character, tone and style of your home, and design from this room outwards to engage others. This design approach is dependent on the hierarchy given by the homeowner to each room. Of course, the importance given to each room may vary from one designer or homeowner to the next.
Another tried-and-true method or approach to achieving a harmonious design is to consider the rooms in sequential order and organization of the floor plan from foyer or entry through to the bedrooms. Transitioning a design from room to room in this manner makes sense for those which prefer structure and order.
Color is a very important element in creating harmony in a home. There should be one or two colors to serve as links between rooms. Although the most obvious place for colors are walls, there are subtler ways to weave colors that create harmony in accessories, area rugs, decorative pillows and art.