Are you a design rebel?

What's your first instinct if someone tells says you shouldn't do something?

Do you automatically want to do it?  I do! 

 Most people would agree that there are rules/guidelines in interior design. They impact decisions about all sorts of things,  e.g.,  hanging lights, choosing the right scale furniture, selecting colour schemes, etc.   I guess following them is a little like following a recipe - you get a predictable result. Someone else has done all the thinking for you which makes it easy but, you also get a very generic looking space where everything looks controlled.

 I always think about those generic spaces  as the "Pinterest look" . You know  the rooms, all  beautifully organized, cutely accessorized with whatever is trendy at the time, and perfectly matched.   Does that make them wrong?  Definitely not.  I firmly believe we should all live in spaces that make us happy and comfortable.   What I am saying is that there are options in design that produce interesting, one of a kind spaces that are  usually achieved by playing around with design elements and principles. They are not for everyone.

 Take the room below.....

 

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  Have a close look at this space  and decide what you like or don't like about it.  Check out my thoughts  at the end of this post. There are no right or wrong answers.

 How closely you adhere to rules is dependent on what results you want to achieve, how well you understand the elements/ principles  of design,  and how creative you are at applying them.  You can do anything in decorating, you just need to act bravely, and figure out how to pull it off.  But, before you can break the rules you have to know them.

Can you spot which  rules/guidelines were  thrown to the four winds in these rooms? 

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Here are the results: 

 

1. Stick to one style 

 These spaces show that when you mix traditional and modern the juxtaposition draws attention to both.  If only one style was used the various elements would be lost in their sameness. I particularly like the richness of wood and lots of curves with modern furnishings.  Of course art of any style works in any space.  

2. Use consistent finishes (don't mix metals)

This is definitely a good place to start your little rebellion.  You certainly can mix metals. Just make sure you have some of each one in the space.  Think about a piece of jewellery that uses white gold, pink gold and yellow gold. It works. Check out this post on the topic.

 

3. Pay attention to scale when selecting furniture/objects
I have to admit this is the one I have the most difficult time ignoring because  I am so attuned to scale considerations in drawing and painting.  I think I also have a  thing about objects too large bearing down on me. They make me uncomfortable. Large scale objects make riveting focal points. You can also have objects that are too small in scale, and end up looking insignificant and/or cluttered. Scale is usually the issue when a client tells me there is something wrong with a space, but he/she can't name it.

 

 
4. Every room needs an accent colour
Definitely not! Monochromatic rooms are so relaxing and depend on value changes and texture to wow.  If you want a quiet room, forget the pops of colour.

  

5. Keep wood tones consistent
When you slavishly adhere to this dictate you end up with a very boring space.  Check out this post for ways to mix wood tones effectively.



6. Choose light colours for small spaces
That would be your first instinct, but the two rooms in #6 shows that breaking this rule produces distinctive and very different spaces.  Sorry, but I couldn't live in either of them.  I am a neutral colour gal in my own home. This post provides various options for painting small spaces.

How did you do?

And now back to the reflection pic....

 

There's no doubt this space breaks a lot of rules, but it sure is memorable, and no one could call it boring. 

•  styles are mixed freely, moving from traditional to modern;
•  the colour scheme is monochromatic, no accent colours here;
• scale is manipulated big time in the high back chairs, plant, circular light fixture as well as in the smaller lamp shades in adjoining room;
• wood tones are liberally mixed.

And here's another take on some of the points above and few new ones. Modani modern furniture specializes in modern furniture and accessories.  Check them out online or at their newly opened modern furniture store in Toronto. Remember you can combine modern elements with any decor.

 

How do you feel about breaking design rules? 

It's all about scale

  Designers/decorators are like acrobats, always juggling the elements and principles of design to create  inviting and interesting spaces. These tools of the trade come easily when you spend your time immersed in design, but for the average person it takes a little more effort to pull together a truly well designed space. 

 One of the the most noticeable problems I see in many spaces  is a  lack of understanding/ application/ use of  proportion and scale. It's a biggie in my book. Playing with scale can be used to great effect, but  when done wrong it can creates visually uncomfortable spaces.

 Proportion and scale go hand in hand since both relate to size and shape. Proportion is about the ratio between the size of one part to another, and scale is how the size of one objects relates to another, to the space as a whole and  to the people who will inhabit the space . My best example of  disregarding scale is choosing a large overstuffed love seat, chair and sofa for a small space. Then imagine a petite couple living there! 

Yea or Nah, let's see what we think about these.... I've had my say....  (all images from my Pinterest board Pondering Scale)

When I feel that the scale of something is off I say the object in question looks "uncomfortable".  In the room above the clock looks very uncomfortable.  It has no room to breathe because it is totally hemmed in by the  the headboard and the night table.  Is it a great clock?  Yes...  Would it look better in another setting ?  I think so.  How about you? 

The urn next to the dresser  looks out of place in this space. While it is quite stunning and it fits in with the style of the other objects and furniture, it  needs a much larger space to shine.  It works with the scale of the dark dresser with TV on top, but it it just too large for the space between the two pieces of furniture.

 This is an elegantly designed space, but I am fussy about the scale of pillows to chairs/sofas.  To my mind they have to look good and be functional.  How would you ever sit on this chair?  Pillow to floor immediately!  A 12 in square or a lumbar pillow works well in a side chair.  If you want to add lots of pattern consider a throw folded over the back of a chair.

Cynthia Lynn Photography

 We don't usually see pendants this large but in this space I think they work very well.  It helps that they are transparent.  The choice of  oversized pendants seems to be on the rise lately. 

  You will often see a small decorative mirror over a bed, but it rarely works to best effect.  I would choose a round mirror for this beautiful room and I quite like the gold finish.  I think it needs to be a tad larger.  Rule of thumb is 2/3 the width of the headboard.  Where  this space is  banked by two windows
 you could go a tad smaller that that but not as little as half which is what we have in the room above. 

 When you have a  very tall headboard or posts you need to scale up your lamp accordingly. I want this lamp to have a larger base and only slightly more height. It needs more presence.  Everything else about this space is just lovely.  

  I love the burlap with stripe and the glass base of this lamp,  but it gives  that uncomfortable feeling again.  How do you know which shade size (height and width) to choose for a lamp?   There are all kinds of formulas for this, but consider a shade that is  roughly  2/3 the height of the  lamp base up to where the socket begins and twice the width of the base. The shade above is not too bad height wise, but it needs to have a much larger shade diameter.  

I seem to have a lot of lamp issues in this post.   Great lamp but not on this cabinet and what about placing the little plant  next to it? This lamp needs SPACE!

 Another lovely space with pristine white everywhere.  If this table doubles as a place to eat, I guess function will outweigh form.  Otherwise a coffee table should be roughly 2/3 the length of the sofa.
























 In my world you should not have to reach up to a coffee table or any table for that matter.  It is actually dangerous if you have a hot drink and knock it enroute.  A coffee table is usually the height of the sofa cushion, a tad lower or higher. Modern coffee tables are often much lower than the top of the sofa cushion.

The floral arrangement is also very high for the middle of a space.  Safety again. There's living in a space and then there are photo shoots.  Not the same thing at all.

This may only be a pet peeve of mine because I see tall tables next to seating  in home decor magazines and online.This smallish love seat with delicate arms is overpowered by this  much taller table. It might not be quite so bad if the lamp weren't towering over everything. 

I can't imagine why one would want an art work touching the ceiling and a sofa.  I guess the designer could be making some statement about insignificance! 

Lessons learned

Vivid greens are subtly moving into golds and oranges and there's a bite in the air even on sunny days.  My mind is  moving on to what I want to do to herald the  fall season.   I never go all out in these things because my design aesthetic is very understated. The only vibrant things in my home are paintings which for some reason seem to have a lot of orange!  I guess I'm honouring fall year round.

I was at the dollar store the other day and saw some great deals on fall foliage.  Usually that means pulling bouquets  apart and rearranging them so they don't look like they came from the dollar store.  Follow the arrangement as I move it around my kitchen and dining room to see where it looks best.

 Would you like to see something taller and a little larger here? I feel there is just too much space between the light fixture and the arrangement.  The black chairs are very dark and they demand something larger in scale . Better start looking for more deals and find tall, dark elements and another vase.

This arrangement I keep in my dining room illustrates  what a difference height makes even without the bold colours of fall.

When you crop the picture  the arrangement looks bold and eye catching.

With or without the straw placemats ? Your choice. With the placemats it  is homey, without is more styled and contemporary.

  When you pair the arrangement with our giant red mug it seems smaller and less eye catching.

 The bouquet just can't fight the scale and vibrancy of this painting; therefore, it looks totally insignificant. You need something  taller.  

Enter our trusty arrangement for the sake of comparison. This arrangement works so much better because of its lack of colour and height. There's no way you can compete with the colours in the artwork so don't go there. 

 Nestled on my window ledge the bouquet  looks comfortable, but I've created another problem.  The little art work next to the bottle looks lost, and all the colour is on one side.   The vignette needs balancing with an object more colourful and larger than the painting. Hummmm, what can I find?

Do you consider scale and colour  when you add accessories to your home?

Opinions

How do you feel about this colourful  vignette ?
Are there things you like?
Are there things you would change if you had an opportunity to do so?We all have our own take on a space, our likes and dislikes. That's what makes decorating an imperfect science.

 Amber Interiors

When I glance at this room I am immediately attracted to the bold magenta dresser.  It commands the eye because of its  colour and its size in comparison to everything placed near it.  The chair paired with it is just as commanding for different reasons (pattern and texture). I like the rounded back, but not the pattern or the colour.  Perhaps something in a deeper aqua  with a rounded back would be a better foil for the dresser.   "Breathing space" is important and this chair doesn't have any.   If you needed a chair there  and that was the only amount of space available, a darker aqua chair   would fit better visually and connect with the other elements.  

When I'm adding accessories to a striking piece like this dresser , I always want larger scale pieces  that provide colour contrast and variety in shapes. I like the white box, but I would choose a larger plant and a more rounded third object  and then overlap the arrangement to move your  eye around.


 The artwork would work better with a different chair.

And that's my take! What's your opinion?  Come on, you know you have one.