If you’ve watched more than your fair share of HGTV, and have spent countless hours swiping through stylish rooms on Instagram, you might feel like you’ve got a fair sense of what good interior design looks like. But if all of your design projects end up looking a little… “off,” it might be a sign that you could use a crash course in interior design.
More than just a unique source for quality furniture, J Turner & Co. is the premier interior designer in Jacksonville. We’re more than happy to craft a custom design plan for every room in your home, but if you’re looking to refresh your space fast, here are some basic design concepts to keep in mind.
Select a Style
Our interior designers can’t tell you how many times they’ve walked into homes that have no discernable unifying style in them. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, after all, many homeowners are decorating their homes with generations of furniture collected from friends, family, and stores. This just makes it more important to find a unifying theme for your interior designs.
When selecting a style, start general. Do you want your home to feel formal or casual? Traditional or trendy? Once you’ve picked a larger category, you can start to refine your style. For instance, do you love the clean-cut lines of mid-century modern? Or are you all about the more regal lines of modern victorian?
Don’t Forget Function in Pursuit of Fashion
It can be exciting to change up the designs of your home but don’t get ahead of yourself. One of the most common mistakes we see from amateur interior designers is rooms being overfilled with furniture. Otherwise large spaces suddenly feel restricted and cramped, and it’s challenging to move through the room in a natural way.
You should start by planning out your space. Think about how guests and family members will move through the room and then figure out where to put your furniture and decorations within those movement patterns. You should be deliberate in what you put into each space. It can be easy to just put furniture in a room just because it “fits” there, but unless it fits physically and stylistically, it probably doesn’t belong in that room.
Consider Contrast and Focuses
In each room, you’ll want to have a piece, be it furniture or a decoration, that is the natural focal point of the room. Visitors should be able to walk in and immediately view this piece. In offices, it could be the desk. In living rooms, it could be a portrait or fireplace.
That doesn’t mean that the focal point has to be the center of the room, just the center of attention. In fact, having a little bit of contrast is a great way to draw the eye. Think about the layers of materials you use on a piece of furniture. Your couch might make use of a neutral tone, but the pillows on it might use a bold pattern.
Don’t Be Afraid to Edit
Even the most experienced interior designers can tell you, not every room is going to come together on the first try. In fact, we’d be more than a little surprised if you settled on a layout after playing with it just once. Instead, be willing to edit your spaces as you go. An end table that seems to really work next to that couch when you first set it there might not work after a week or two of living with it. Feel free to move things around and in and out of a space. Your space will evolve naturally until it feels like home.
A great way to edit your interior designs is to simply take a photo of the space with everything in it. The photo will capture light differently and allow you to see the room through the eyes of a visitor. You might find that some decorations need to be raised, lowered, or moved entirely. Take a variety of photos from different angles and positions. This process helps to refine the space and help it coalesce.
Be True to Yourself
We’ve all stepped into a space that felt “forced.” Maybe the homeowner has a distinct style that is at odds with the room around them, or it’s a space filled with knick-knacks that aren’t in keeping with whoever actually lives there.
The best-designed interiors are ones that honestly reflect the person putting it together. Don’t be afraid to put family heirlooms and antiques on display in your living and hosting spaces. Each space should feel like somewhere you would enjoy spending time, rather than just a place to show off your new sofa.
Visit Us in Jacksonville Today
Looking to update your home? Working with a professional interior designer is a great way to do it! We offer interior design planning services in Jacksonville. Each consultation with our team of experts includes lighting design, space planning, paint colors, art and photography selections, rug selections, and delivery options on furniture selections. Schedule your consultations with J Turner & Co. today!
