When you think of “good interior design,” your mind probably conjures up an image of sparsely furnished rooms with clean white walls and lots of empty, airy space. For a long time, good taste and minimalism have been virtually synonymous, but minimalism isn’t for everyone and not all minimalism is good design.

Coordination

A good design is coordinated. Even an eclectic style that combines brass bar lamp Hayward CA and neo-colonial furniture from the East Coast can be coordinated together, if you pay attention to the colors, materials and overall style of the pieces. Coordinating is a lot easier when you only have a few pieces to work with, and that’s why minimalism works so often and so well.

Focus

Another feature of good design is the focal point. When you look at a really good piece of art, it should draw your eye in certain directions. That is done deliberately through the careful use of focal points and lines. The same can be done with interior design. What draws the eye? In a minimalist design, the focal points are obvious. If you’re breaking out from that mold, you need to think about what is drawing the eye, and what is simply distraction.

Balance

Balance is important in design. Objects have visual weight as well as physical weight, and it’s important to account for that. People like things to be balanced, it creates a sense of harmony. If there are only a few items on a shelf, it’s easy to arrange them to be balanced. If you’re embracing maximalism, you need to be a little more deliberate.

While many of these things are easier if you’ve gone with a minimalist style, minimalism does not have a monopoly on good design. You can create a space that is full of life but still coordinated, focused, and balanced.