I want to live in this room. I have had this photo in my blog arsenal for several months now. It beckons to me. It speaks to me. Every time I rearrange the furniture in my own home I think of this photo...so many elements are the same - why does my great room not render this feeling?
Does this ever happen to you? Do you find a photo that is so similar to your own home, and yet you don't get the same feeling in your home? When I can't figure out the whole, I analyze the parts.
When we look at the room as a whole, we see a few common ideas:
1. Rule of threes: I am not a stylist or interior designer so I have no idea whether this is an actual rule, or a Billie rule. But, nonetheless, I still call it the rule of threes. It says, If you're going to have a color in your room, you need to repeat it three times. So let's look at the room again and see where this designer used the rule of threes:
....Green: walls, on pillows, in rug
....Black: chair backs, tables, fireplace
....Cream: sofa, curtains, mantle
....wood tones: oak cabinetry and flooring, picture above mantle, and fire in the fire place.
2. Keeping it balanced: This rule is pretty easy to understand. Just imagine your room as a weight scale. One side of the room cannot be "heavier" than the other or it seems out of balance. You can achieve this by altering visual weight, or by duplicating colors.
....weight: In this room, the black chairs in the dining area balance the weight of the black furniture in the living area. The lightness of the sofa balances the lightness of the curtains at the windows.
....height: the height of the artwork above the mantle balances the height of the cabinetry across the room in the dining area.
....movement: there is movement in this room. When you view the room, the windows along the back wall move your eye from the living room to the kitchen, and vise versa.
Everything is in balance. Everything is pulled together.
Another thing I love about this room is that it fits several schools of thought. The black furniture speaks to the modern style. The sofa and arm chair speak to a traditional style. The bar stools and dining chairs speak to a transitional style. All together these items work together. And together, they are brilliant!
What rooms are you working to bring balance to? How are you pulling everything together?
Only By His Grace,
Billie