You should always utilise the aspects and principles of design as a guide when picking everything, whether you are working with existing furnishings and materials or starting from fresh with an empty room. Similar to how colours are the fundamentals for a painter, the elements are your tools or raw ingredients. Space, line, form, colour, and texture are among the components of design. How you employ these elements is related to design concepts. Balance, emphasis, rhythm, proportion and scale, as well as harmony and unity, are design elements.

First Interior Design Rule: Balance

Balance describes a space's visual harmony. It conveys a sense of relief and accomplishment. The placement of items in a room is carefully considered in relation to their visual weight. Line, form, colour, and texture all contribute to how much space an object appears to occupy, which is known as visual weight. The placement of the elements (line, shape, colour, and texture) inside a space is another aspect of balance. Try to evenly arrange the elements throughout the space to keep it in balance. Formal balancing produces a mirror image effect and is frequently referred to as symmetrical balance. Informal balance uses many items with the same perceived weight to balance a space. It conveys a cosier, more laid-back atmosphere and is more subdued and spontaneous.

Second principle: Emphasis

The centre of the room is emphasis. The region to which your eye is drawn should be the focal point, which should be clear as soon as you enter the space. Any focal point, whether it be a fireplace, a piece of art, or a window treatment framing a stunning view, must be properly highlighted so that everything else draws the eye to the focal point. By using line, form, colour, and texture skillfully, you can highlight a room's existing focal point or create a new one.

Third principle: rhythm

The discipline that keeps the eye under control as it moves around a room is provided by rhythm. Rhythm facilitates the eye's transition from one object to the next and provides a harmony that signals to the eye that everything in the space is a part of a single, cohesive whole. Repetition of a line, form, colour, or texture produces rhythm. Progress can also be used to build it. A progressive rhythm is an alteration in size, direction, or colour over time.

Fourth principle: scale and proportion

Scale and proportion determine the relationships between sizes in a space. The term "proportion" describes how an object's constituent parts relate to the object as a whole. The size of an object in relation to the size of the area in which it is located is referred to as scale.

Fifth principle: harmony and unity

A well-designed room incorporates all the other design aspects and tenets into one cohesive whole. A sense of order is ensured through unity. Sizes and shapes are consistent, and the patterns and colours work well together. The ultimate aim of decorating is to bring harmony, unity, and rhythm into the space. This is achieved by repeating the pieces, balancing them across the space, and then adding a little variance to give the space a unique identity. Too much consistency can become monotonous, and too much variety might make you feel restless. A fundamental to effective design is balancing the elements and principles to achieve the ideal blend.