I’m in the process of moving and trying to figure out some sort of furniture layout or feng shui. I have a loose idea, but I’m unsure if the place will yield itself to any inspiration. Any help or suggestions?
I would say yes, but that personality is what YOU give it by decorating and furnishing the room. It isn’t necessarily inherent to the space. Windows and the scene outside them, however, could alter what decor and furnishings would make the room feel a certain way as it would, in a way, be part of the overall feel of the space.
I’m sorry if this is a bit vague; without seeing the space in question, I can’t really think of anything more specific that might help inspire an idea.
Nice! I appreciate it. I don’t have many recent pictures, but for example:
Ooooo… I like the depressions in the wall and ceiling. Immediately thought of lighting strips along the interiors of the ceiling and shelving could go on the wall so it lines up with the edges. Scale is hard to see but if a bed could fit along the window so the drop on the ceiling is not directly over it (and this is a bedroom), some curtains could be setup around it.
I’m a minimalist. So every room in my house has a specific function. I don’t have more stuff than I need. I have a kitchen table and chairs. I have a couch and a tv. I have a bed. I never found the need to paint or buy art. My bed doesn’t even have a headboard.
I do have holiday decor. I have display cases for collection items. These things bring me joy and brighten the area.
It’s your space. You can do whatever you want with it. If you hate the vibe, you can change it. The only thing holding you back is your own budget and time.
You can rearrange, you can repaint, you can buy area rugs or carpets. You can buy new furniture. You can hire an interior decorator.
I’ve amassed so much stuff that I realize via moving it I’d like to get rid of. It’s a huge process that will take time, but minimalist spaces are easier to clean and visually appealing. Thanks!
It’s crazy how fast it builds up!
Just remember it’s your space. You can do whatever you want with it. It doesn’t all have to match or have a specific vibe unless that’s what you’re going for.
consider the directions your windows face and how it affects the way light comes in
Start by figuring out the primary purpose of each space. What functions does it need to enable? Start prioritizing the layout and design options that support those functions… make sure things that are used together are near each other, make sure that if it’s oriented around a task tv watching or music listening or reading that the glare / angles / room treatments are are appropriate, then work on aesthetics from there. And experiment a lot. Don’t solidify until youre really happy.
Architects and interior designers constantly prototype and try different layouts and configurations before settling on a design. And prototyping means easy low fidelity options that can be changed and discarded. Literally build shelves and stuff out of cardboard boxes and milk crates until you figure out what you want where and how to organize it, then invest in building slightly more permanent ones, then even more permanent ones.
Making sure things used together are near each other is a huge goal for the kitchen. We don’t have kitchen cabinets put in yet, but that will be a priority once they’re there. Cool ideas, especially about angles and prototyping!
You can also do stuff like use cheap folding chairs and tables until you decide on real ones, mark out the dimensions of furniture on the floor using masking tape, drape fabric samples on things to help you visualize the final furniture etc.
Some other design principles to keep in mind is:
- visual weight & balance - by default a visually balanced room will feel more comfortable, and this is determined by a somewhat nebulous feeling of visual weight. i.e. if I put a large black tv in the south west corner of the room, I might want to try and balance that out with a large piece of art, or a bookshelf or something in the north east corner.
- contrast - part of weight is not just absolute colour, but also contrast. A heavily contrasting design element (a black tv on a white wall) feels much heavier then a black tv on a dark green wall. Contrast tends to draw your attention so it can also be used to pull your gaze and draw attention to things. A painting with a large blank wall around it stands out and draws your gaze more than one on a wall filled with a bunch of other elements.
- proximity / hierarchy / alignment - proximity, hierarchy, and alignment all create feelings of things being connected together, and can be used to imply relationships. If the top drawer has your most used cutlery & utensils, the drawer below it will often have the second most used ones. This is practical from a “grabbing closer stuff more often” standpoint, but that layout’s proximity and hierarchy also make it self explanatory and intuitive.
- cognitive overload - people get overwhelmed with too many options, when organizing it’s helpful to compartmentalize things so that people don’t just have to choose from all options. A grid wall with every option always visually available is overwhelming. Having sections with doors and labels mean you just have to know which section you need, and can then select from a smaller number of options after you open just that door.
And most importantly to interior design is lighting. I cannot stress enough how important good lighting is for making a room look good. A well lit room can make any room look kind of decent, and bad lighting can make any room feel uncomfortable.
People, at a base level, don’t like not being able to see areas of a space, like areas that are in shadow. It is a deeply engrained survival instinct because that’s where predators hide. So if you light a room from a single point source like a single ceiling fixture, you will have a bright spot in the center, dark spots at the edges, and shadows cast anywhere between objects and the wall. This is the worst way to light a room.
What you want is lots of sources of diffuse light. Lots of shaded lamps from lots of angles will create a much more comfortable space. It’s also why people like those ceilings covered in a grid of pot lights. That grid of tons of pot lights creates a ton of different light sources. It’s not perfect on its own though, it still creates downwards shadows, and will still benefit from diffuse side lighting like lamps. And I keep stressing shades and diffusers because glare is just as bad as shadows. If a point source is too bright, your pupils have to contract to see things near it, and this suddenly makes everything else in the room too dark. You want soft, even, indirect lighting.
When it comes to the importance of lighting, remember that everything you see in a room is light. You don’t see the objects themselves, you see the light that has bounced off them. Lighting effects everything.
Since I teach from home, lighting is a huge issue! My direct lightbulb is warm but overhead so I looks exhausted. I will eventually try a floor lamp and try to find temporary solutions. Thanks for all the tips!
I’m a big proponent of actually trying out a new configuration each week for the first month or so, for a living room. You’d be surprised how different it actually feels with furniture in different spots, but most people tend to just place it when they move in and leave it. Living rooms also tend to be fewer furniture pieces than a bedroom or office, so more feasible to re-arrange.
This will also really help identify where your tv should be placed, to minimize glare or reflections.
Wow that sounds like a lot of work, but worth it in the end. Maybe just for the living room like you said.
