Interior design is complicated. Whether you’re deciding where to put your new desk, choosing a colour scheme for a room, or setting up your personal library for the first time, there are countless small but meaningful choices that go into making up a good indoor space. Interior design professionals work holistically, taking all of these things into account and creating cohesive indoor solutions that will satisfy both functional and aesthetic goals for years to come.
The Basic Principles Of Interior Design
If you want to understand the basic principles of interior design then you have to start with three simple concepts:
- Aesthetics: the visual style of a room, taking into account things like sight lines, access to natural lighting, and colour schemes.
- Functionality: how easy/practical the space is to use for its intended purpose.
- Ergonomics: a productivity and comfort-oriented approach to design that takes function into account whilst also attempting to design the most pleasant overall experience.
In many ways, ergonomics is the combination of aesthetics and functionality and is at the core of a good interior designer‘s priorities most of the time. That’s why a good understanding of this principle is vital to good design.
Applying These Principles
Of course, it’s all well and good to talk about interior design principles, but how do you apply them successfully to a space?
While there are many techniques for achieving excellent interior design, the most successful ones always start by considering the client. More specifically, good interior design means asking two important questions: what does the client want? And what does the client need?
For example, when designing an office space, a client might want lots of open space to work in. This is a reasonable aim as a lack of clutter will often lead to less distraction and more productivity. The problem is that this priority can often conflict with a client’s needs. If a client doesn’t have much office space then they may need to have certain tools and equipment at hand. Once again, this all depends on the client. Some clients may just need space for their computer, while others may require lots of stationary or reference books.
All this to say that understanding a client’s wants and needs should be the number one priority before the design process begins. It’s all well and good to create something that looks nice, but practicality is important and, sooner or later, an impractical design will need replacing.
Here at IDC Putney, we make a point of always communicating with the client to find the best solution possible. We understand that design is a process and that while we might have the expertise when it comes to interior design, there’s only one expert on you.