Category: General

In Art, a focal point is the feature of an artwork, that is strongly highlighted to make people concentrate on or pay a lot of attention to it. And, interior design is a work of art, so it will absolutely appear in interior design. This article will mention the focal point in interior design and some tips to emphasize it by using lighting, color and stuff arrangement….

Focal point definition in interior design

A focal point in interiors is a feature which attracts visitor’s eyes immediately when they go into that room or space. It can be a picture, mirror, television or artwork…. it is also one of the most fundamental elements of interior design. It is not necessary to be located in the center room or space, the interior designer will do the arrangement of stuff such as furniture, decorative elements and lighting… to highlight the focal point.

Why focal point in interior design is important?

For homeowners, the focal point will create interest for the visitors when they walk into a room and are attracted by the thing which the homeowner wants to show off. The focal point usually is the hobby of the homeowner, for instance, if the homeowner is a picture lover, there will be at least one with the picture in the house. It can be considered a signal that the homeowner wants to send to find out the people have the same hobby.

For interior designers, If the homeowner has a focal point request in detail, it will help the interior designers very much in their job. They will know what they have to do to meet the requirements of the homeowner. They will easily arrange furniture and set decoration elements to highlight the thing which the homeowner wants to show off. In contrast case, the homeowner will give interior designers nothing, but his demand has to be satisfied. Sometimes, the brain of interior designers wants to explode in this hard case.

Some focal point ideas in interior design

Picture

If the homeowner does not plan to use wallpaper or draw Murals, let’s try setting up the focal point with pictures. To catch the eyes easier, the main color of that picture should be outstanding with the wall paint color. If there is a blue wall, the dominant color of the picture should be a warm color such as red, orange, yellow…

Television

Flower vase

The flower is the best idea for the flower lover and it really suits rooms with natural light. The flower will bring the room closer to the natural mother and provide a fragrance to the house. However, it will be inconvenient, for natural flowers, as they will be replaced often before they wilted, and for artificial flowers, it will get hard for cleaning work when they are stuck by dust.

Mirror

Fireplace

Furniture

Furniture also can be a focal point such as the bed for the bedroom, bathtub for the bathroom, working table for the home office… It is not necessary that it must be the bed for the bedroom. However, when stepping into a bedroom, the bed is usually the first thing people think about, so it is an advantage for making the bed a focal point. This also applies to with the bathroom, home office, kitchen…

Tips to emphasize the focal point (using lighting, color, texture and stuff arrangement….)

Lighting for the focal point

Lighting is a considerable element that highlights the focal point, it will be more effective at the night.  Scientists believe that lighting will attract the attention of people. Therefore, the focal point should have a spotlight on them to attract visitor’s attention except for the television. Lighting will have a bad effect on the experience with the television. 

Negative space

The focal point is absolutely a positive space which can be outstanding by being surrounded by negative spaces. However, if there are too many negative spaces, that “positive space” will be isolated and become a mistake. 

Read more: Positive And Negative Space In Interior Design

Many focal points in a house but should be one in a room

Homeowners can totally build many focal points in the house following the path that visitors have to go through to make their home visit a journey. However, there should be one in a specific room or space. If the room is big, there can be more than one , but it should be one main focal point and others is auxiliary

Contrast color

Contrast color will help the focal point be more eye-catching. For instance, if the wall is white, a picture with a dark color theme will be outstanding on that wall. For other elements nearby, it will be better if their color is not too outstanding to avoid causing distraction. 

Outstanding texture

Adding some beautiful texture is a method that interior designers usually use to create a stunning focal point. For example, a fireplace surround will be more attractive if it has some special textures on it. 

Frame the area

“Framing” is the way interior designers emphasize the focal point area by stuff arrangement. For instance, the picture below is the simplest way to frame the television

The interior designer put the TV stand below it although the TV was hung on the wall. He put a lamp and a basket of wool on the left side to balance the tree and bracket on the right side. The lamp and basket have a similar height to the tree and bracket respectively. The tree and lamp were placed on the outermost of either side, and the next things were the bracket and basket. The stuff on the TV stand is also small and has a balanced arrangement, so they do not cause distraction from the TV.

Do you want to know about positive and negative space in interior design? This article will give you a general view of two types of these spaces in interior design.

Positive and negative space in interior design

In interior design, positive space is an area or space that is occupied by objects (furniture, decor element, tools, equipment….). Sometimes, paint color or light is also the component creating the positive space. Negative space is an area or space that is blank or empty around and among the objects. Negative space will combine with positive space to create space in interior design. If positive space dominates your room space, it will make you feel your room is cluttered (this is the feeling, the reality that your room was not). If negative space takes the majority of the room space, it will make the room look empty and boring. So, designers usually figure out the balance between positive and negative space in interior design.

Tips for using positive space in interior design.

Use different colors to create positive space

Color is an important thing in interior design. With successful color coordination, you can create many amazing things including building a positive space in interior design. For instance, you can use a contrastive paint color to create some positive area in a wall or you can also use that method to highlight columns or ceilings in your house so that they become more “positive space”. Furniture with different colors is a good selection for making the positive space created by them outstanding. However, 3-4 main colors are recommended, do not make your house become a cluttered color box.

Build positive space with picture

Picture is also a smart choice to create positive space in interior design, you can hang a picture on some empty areas on the wall. But the way you choose the picture is also important, you have to choose a suitable picture with the area on which the picture is hung. For example, you can hang a picture on the area above a long couch to create positive space, but do not pick a picture which is too small or too big. For me, a 2×3 picture with a length equal to 2/3 the length of the couch is enough and the main color of that picture has to be outstanding with the wall paint color.

Set up the light for positive space in interior design

Positive space in interior design, created by lighting, are the areas having different brightness or color of the light compared with the room light. Using light to make positive space is very effective when the sun goes down. You can use different brightness or color light to highlight the ceiling or some areas in a wall. You can set up the LED strip light to run along with the edges to create depth for the ceiling. You can also light up the wall area behind the desktop screen to make your working space more brilliant. Setting the LED strip light along with the edge between the stair and the wall is also a smart choice. It’s not only making your stair more beautiful but also creating safety when you move on that stairs.

Note the arrangement among objects

Building positive space in interior design does not mean that you put many things (furniture, decorations, artwork…) into a room. You have to control the quantity of stuff and have a wise arrangement. You have to find a suitable quantity of objects in your room based on the space of that room and the object size. The object arrangement is also important, you are not only creating positive space but also creating negative space. In other words, negative space in the interior is also the space among objects in your room, so you have to consider a suitable space among them. Furthermore, let’s ensure that the function of the object is not affected by your object arrangement. For instance, you should not put a flower vase too close to the television, because it may cover a part of the television screen.

Tips for using negative space in interior design

Hide items to create negative space

Sometimes, you try to eliminate stuff to balance negative and positive space in your room, but you face difficulty because there are a lot of things you cannot remove. The kitchen, for example, has many things supporting your cooking such as dishes, bowls, pots, pans, and spices…, so you should store them in the kitchen cabinet or a cupboard with non-transferred doors. Let’s stay away from the glass kitchen cabinet door if it is not necessary, because it will show all of the things inside that cupboard or kitchen cabinet, and your hiding-item purpose will fail. 

The wire is also a problem you have to handle perfectly. There are many tools which can help to have good cable management such as cable organizers, clips, sleeves, ties, raceway, and on-wall cord covers…. You can try using those things to hide wires behind the TV/PC screen, TV stand or under desk, so that your room will be neater and you will eliminate the unnecessary positive space.

Ensure the walking path is negative space

In your furniture arrangement, you have to make sure that the walking path is always negative space. It’s really silly when you put some furniture in front of the door or on the walking path. They will become obstacles which make your movement in your house more difficult or uncomfortable, especially when you are in a rush. Therefore, you should note down the negative space for walking space in Floor Plan, so that you can avoid those negative spaces.

Let the natural light come into your room with negative space

Along with the walking path, the areas in front of the windows should be also dominated by negative spaces. You should not put many things in those areas, because they may block the natural light going into your room. For another function, you can move easily near the window for closing, opening, or cleaning that window.

Highlight your stuff by negative space

It’s really easy to understand that the positive space will be outstanding, if that positive space is surrounded by negative space. You can apply this rule to show off the stuff which you are interested in or proud of. For instance, if you want to show off your beautiful armchair, let’s try to erase the positive space around it and that armchair will catch the eye of visitors

The interiors may impact your mood in many ways. However, in my opinion, there are 4 main factors in the interiors that make your mood better on an exhausting day.

1. Paint Colors can impact your mood

The paint color is one of the factors in interiors that impact your mood directly and instantly when you open the door. Let’s see the two pictures below and analyze them together. 

This is a picture which is about a room with dark paint color, 

And now you turn to this picture with a light paint color room, 

As you can see, when you look at the light paint color room, it will make you more comfortable rather than the dark one. Dark colors can evoke feelings of sadness and loneliness, light colors can refresh your mind and boost your energy. Dark and light colors can impact your mood in that way. This is also the reason people usually use light color paint for their house. 

Moreover, colors can influence your state of mind by their meaning, for instance, warm colors such as red, yellow and orange will awaken higher arousal emotions like love, happiness, passion and anger. By contrast, cool colors like blue, green and purple will make you feel calm, sad and indifferent. You can learn more about color impacts on the behavior to choose the right color suiting with your house. 

To avoid monotonous in your house, you can mix two or three colors but I think you should not try to mix too many colors.

2. Furniture and furniture arrangement affect your state of mind

For furniture, you need to take care of material, color and size. First, you need to choose the material which suits the purpose of that furniture. The color should be in harmony with room color and other furniture colors and sometimes the color will cover the weakness of that furniture. And the size of the furniture has to suit the room space or the space for that furniture and convenience during usage.

For instance, If you want to choose a sofa for a white room, you can choose a fabric sofa for your comfort. However, nothing is perfect, you have to clean it regularly if you don’t want mold, dust or dust mites that are easily accumulated on the fabric sofa to affect your mood when you lie on that sofa. For color, I think the cool gray should be chosen for this sofa, the cool gray does not contrast with the white painting and it also apart covers the dust color. Finally, you should choose a suitable size with room space. If there is a lot of furniture in your room, you have to share the space logically, so the space for the sofa may be decreased for other furniture, and finally, you have to choose a smaller sofa to fit that space. the aspect of convenience for the user is also considered, you will prefer to pick a sofa that is easy to sit on and comfortable to lie on.

The way you choose furniture which I discuss above not only gives you a good experience when you use it but also gives you balance and harmony in color and space. Balance and harmony will impact positively to your mood 

3. light also impacts your emotional state

Light is one of the important elements which help you show how beautiful your room is. The light should be evenly distributed around the room. you need to avoid arranging furniture to cover the light from the window or the light. you should arrange the lights and make sure your room has just enough. If there is too much light, your eyes maybe not like it. If there is a lack of light, you will awaken sadness and boredom inside you. 

Always use a mix of overhead light, decoration lamp and table lamp and a mix of warm and cool light. Warm light will bring coziness to your room. In some cases, warm light with low intensity will be very effective when you have a snap or watch movies with your girlfriend for instance. So, I recommend you set up your warm light with an intensity controller. 

4. Space influences your feeling

You can not change the actual size of the room, but you can use paint as well as furniture arrangement to change the feeling of that room’s space. And you should consider “positive” space and “negative” space in building space feeling

These two spaces play an important role in interior design. If your room is completely filled with furniture, artwork, decor elements…, it will lead to the feeling of being stuffy and cluttered. By contrast, if there is too much negative space, it will make your room soulless and sparse. Therefore, you should balance them to create a good feeling for you. 

In conclusion, according to the information I provide you above, I hope you will understand the way interiors impact your mood. Moreover, you can apply them to your house and they maybe help your mood become better and release your stress when you come back home after an exhausting working day.