Home décor is all about balance. When something is off balance, your eye can tell even if you can’t put it into words.
When you arrange your furniture, accessories, and rooms in a symmetrical pattern, it is often well balanced. Symmetry gives the impression of neatness, order, and tranquility. With a custom home with asymmetrical rooms and décor, it can be a little more challenging to create design balance. When you are able to find balance, asymmetry gives a feeling of excitement and orderly chaos. That can mean a very interesting and beautiful décor.
Balance
You can visually fold a room in half. If the two sides are identical, the room is symmetric. If they are not, it has an asymmetric shape. Asymmetric designs often still achieve balance. Interior designers have to consider the visual “weight” of furniture and accessories.
For example, a tall ficus tree and a tall lamp may have the same visual weight. A couch may have the same visual weight as a chair and end table. Objects with the same visual weight are positioned at opposite sides of the room. Although the room is not identical on both sides, it still looks balanced. Some designers use a lack of balance to achieve an emotional tension that expresses certain feelings. However, the simplest and most pleasing to the eye designs have some sort of balance.
Walls
Some custom homes will have assymetrical shapes. If you have a room with walls of different shapes or sizes, it can be difficult to know what furniture to use and where to put it. Do not try to hide the asymmetrical shape. You can actually accentuate the difference in the size of the walls by making your furniture and accessories match the pattern of the room.
Put big and tall accessories on the side that looks bigger, and smaller and lower accessories on the smaller side. Maintain balance by placing similar furniture and accessories on opposite side of the room. Here, the visual weight of the accessories and furniture does not have to do with the size of the objects. The rooms are balanced because one side of the room is a smaller scale version of the other.
Furniture
Asymmetric furniture will be noticeable in any room. Most pieces of furniture are perfectly symmetrical, and one that is not will appear to jump out at you. For this reason, when you have a single asymmetric piece of furniture, it should usually be the focal point of a room. Focal points make it easy to get your guest to focus on one thing. Their eyes appreciate that you don’t try to overwhelm them with many focal points. Simpler is usually better. Arrange other furniture and accessories so that your asymmetric furniture stands out. An exception would be if you have two identical piece of asymmetrical furniture that you could arrange in a symmetrical way.
Asymmetry can make a room more exciting and expressive. It allows the homeowner to decorate outside the symmetrical box. Whether you achieve balance or create emotional tension, the result is a room that sparks the interest of everyone who walks in.
Ken Uhrich likes houses. In fact he lives in one! You can drop him a line at the Custom Home Group website.
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