Basic Interior Design Principles

If you are an interior designer or you are looking into getting into this space, you may want to be the crème de la crème. There is nothing as motivating as being a sought-after designer, right? But there are set principles that act as guildies that you may have to abide by in order to get there.

Interior design has developed significantly over the years and as things get more refined, there are some concepts which can guide interior designers.

It’s essential that you understand what makes up a good interior design with acceptable standards, so in order for you to take the big step of being an interior designer, read on as we embark on these basic interior design principles that any great interior designer should follow.

7 Principles of Design

The constituents of interior design include form, line, colour, pattern and texture. These elements work in harmony to form a general framework of interior design.

These frameworks can be exemplified in seven basic concepts which are unity, harmony, emphasis, rhythm, balance, scale, and function. These concepts are the mechanisms that interior designers utilize to make their scheme of designs a great success.

Below are a few principles of this framework, although they are all important when combined together, we believe these are the ones you truly have to consider if you want to make it big in this industry; they are as follows:

Unity and Harmony in Design

This element incorporates the combination of lines, colours, forms, patterns, and textures. As you already know, unity is defined as the state of being complete in a natural and in a pleasant way, whereas harmony is the assurance in the conception of a variety of elements and devices in the whole room to generate an entire fusion.

Therefore, for you to achieve unity in a room, ensure that if the room is feminine and traditional, and has a blend of colour palette that synchronizes softly, integrate modern furniture with a heavy linear.

Alternatively, incorporate a glossy paint coat in one colour. This will bring unity in furniture or frames which haven’t been well matched.

You can achieve harmony by introducing a combination of furnishings which have some resemblance to neutral colours to create a harmonious effect.

Unity and Harmony in Design

Rhythm in Design

You should be able to make rhythm the centre of attention by using the same pattern or colour and create contrast. This will enable the eyes to move around the room with more ease from one item to another without being aggravated by one particular item.

But the only exception is if you decide to place a piece of statement furniture at a particular place to achieve that enchanting look in your room.

Functional Interior Design

If you want to make the space to appeal more aesthetically, it is vital to note that no colour amount you put will bring a transformation in a space that is unworkable and does not function properly.

So therefore if you are to embark on any project ensure that you examine your lifestyle, daily routines and habits before you decide to do any designing or decorations. Once you make a review of all these, come up with a list of things you would wish to do if your workspace is not ideal for you.

For instance, if you are a family person with children or pets, you wouldn’t think of having that crispy white upholstered furniture in your space. Or if you love spending your Sunday afternoons lazing around and taking naps on your sofa, you will definitely reconsider getting yourself an armless seat.

Emphasis Interior Design

As the name suggests, this principle of interior design says that a central piece of art, for example, should play the role of a focal point or an attention grabber of any particular living area. Just like colours and patterns and even textures, they should be used to emphasize a particular focal point, like the focal point we used for the previous example.

To further expand on what focal points are used for, they serve as an anchor point to a certain part of the room, particularly art, however sometimes this is not possible, in this case, you would need to select a piece of furniture that you want to act as a focal point.

Although, we would recommend using art if possible because when we enter a room, we immediately scan the interior space for elements that attract our attention, and because art is always on our eye level, we usually spot these kinds of focal points first, making them more effective that if we were to use a furniture piece.

We spoke about using art as your big emphasizing piece, however, there is another type of decor you can use…and that is clocks!

If you have a large enough clock, like this Rix Brass 14″ Wall Clock found on Crate and Barrel, which fits your style, you will be able to get the same effect as if it were a wall art piece.

Balance Interior Design

The reason balance is so prominent in interior design is that it is so apparent in our everyday lives, like the balance between work and leisure, which can be a constant struggle for a percentage of us, but when we finally find that balance, or if you already have, you know its just absolutely bliss.

Interior design is no different.

There are many different ways you can balance your interior, depending on what type of person you are, you should follow the one that resonates with you the most.

Symmetrical Balance in Interior Design

Symmetrical Balance in interior Design is achieved by arranging your furniture and decor in a way that makes it so either side of your living area is completely weighted in an equal manner, it is thought as a 50/50 balance or a mirror image.

This particular style of balance only resonates with a few people, less than it does with people who enjoy an asymmetrical interior and this is because the space ends up looking too much like a showroom, which is not a look most want for a family home, which is suppose to look homely rather than a commercial space.

Asymmetrical Balance in Interior Design

The most popular balance type out of the 3 listed, Asymmetrical balance in Interior Design is achieved by creating a space that features to unidentical sides, however do not be fooled by this rule, this does not allow you to go crazy with your design and place decor and furniture anywhere you want, there are rules of this principle you need to follow to achieve the proper look.

Asymmetrical Balance still requires a set formation, this is used to help give your room a more natural look and help keep it away from a showroom design, you can achieve this by having unidentical sides that feature elements that make sense to be together with each other.

Having similar colours and textures on each side of the room will help you to properly achieve this.

Typically, art is placed in the middle of the room, which is completely fine. However, most art pieces can be considered symmetrical because its one piece, which is not what this balanced type is about. However, this Owl Peekaboo art from Desenio would work wonderfully in an asymmetrical room due to the unique pose of the owl.

Radial Balance in Interior Design

Now, this balance type is one you probably won’t ever feature in your home, as it is specifically fixed to a certain type of taste, which is pretty unique within itself but we thought it was worth mentioning regardless.

Radial Balance in Interior Design is achieved by having a round/circular furniture pieces within the centre of a room, such as a coffee table or a dining table and then this sets up the room to achieve a round look, whether you compliment this with chairs that fit around the edge or you have something on the borders of your room to help emphasise the radial design.

Scale in Interior Design

Scale in Interior Design is used to relate the size of an object another, furniture and any practical worktops should be featured with a similar size, this is usually in comparison with an average person, as this is how many will see the room when they first enter, if things are too big or too small then the room will feel off.

The scale also sets the tone of a particular room, having tall items and large furniture pieces can be seen as a bold and a loud area of your home, commonly a place that would be lively, like a living room or dining room which is full of tall lighting and bookcases.

On the opposite side of that, if you look at your bedroom, you will find that you feature small furniture, furniture that you yourself will appear to tower over in comparison with the furniture in your home, and this is to keep the room in a calm place, so that is not distracting and overwhelming when you are there to relax and get your beauty sleep.

Scaling, for us, always starts off with the object in the middle of the room, let’s take the lounge for example. You’d most probably feature a coffee table, so you want something that is going to be perfect height when you sit down, so its practical. Well, this Reclaimed Wood Coffee Table from Iamfy is absolutely beautiful, and it would work in almost all styles of home and is the perfect height to be matched with smaller and larger objects.



These 7 interior designs principles we have laid out in this article are equally important as each other, all should be considered when creating or renovating an interior space for your home or for clients.

Some of these principles will fall into place naturally, such as scale because we naturally consider the size of objects when we decorate a space without truly thinking about it. But with things like balance, this is something that seriously has to be thought about, because if you get this part wrong you should throw the whole tone of the room off.

But we promise, if you keep to the guidelines of these principles, there is no doubt any space you go on to create after this point forward will be a beautiful one.