Design and décor aren’t interchangeable but the latter supports and expresses the former. Here are some décor principles that support five key design elements to include in every room.

What Are the Five Basic Design Elements?

Every room should be designed with five fundamental elements working together. These include:

• Space: A room has a finite amount of space. This design element is about how you use it.
• Line: Most rooms have a dominant line, either vertical, horizontal, or in rarer cases, diagonal or curved. Your furniture and décor selections should support the primary line of the room.
• Color and light: Color defines the mood of your room. Color can make a room feel cool, light and airy, or dark and cozy. Use natural light in rooms that are blessed with it, and choose lamps and pendant lights to add pools of light where needed in a darker room.
• Texture: Using a mix of textures in a room creates a sense of comfortable elegance and breaks up the monotony of overly-matched furnishings.
• Form: Form is the shape that the lines in your room make when they intersect or combine. Rooms can have a mix of rectangular, triangular, circular, or oval forms.

What Décor Elements Support a Room’s Overall Design?

Once a room’s basic design is set in terms of space, line, color, texture, and form, you can choose décor to support the design. Everything from what you put on your coffee table to the wall art you select will have an impact in pulling together the overall design and mood of the room.

Five Décor Considerations That Support Every Room’s Design

No matter if your rooms are large, small, square, oval, or rectangular, décor can make the difference between harmony and discord in the space. The right décor elements will accentuate the design without overwhelming it. Décor adds comfort, a bit of personality, and a homey touch that makes any room more welcoming. Devotees of Feng Shui, the Chinese practice of balancing earth, fire, metal, wood, and water elements in a home, will recognize that some of these can stand for those elements:

• Plants: Greenery enlivens any room, adds a natural earth element, and cleanses the air.
• Metal: Wall hangings and vases made of metal, metal framed mirrors, or metal door hardware and coat hooks bring a whisper of industrial design and sturdiness into an otherwise frilly room.
• Wood: Antique wood furniture finished in shades of brown has gone out of style, but vintage and repurposed pieces are surging. Use wood shelving, tables, or stand-alone cabinets to add this element to your rooms.
• Textiles: A complementary selection of textiles provide the palette of textures that a pulled-together room requires. Use pillows, throws, and a mix of nubby and smooth upholstery fabrics within your chosen color palette to add subtle variety to your rooms.
• Pattern: A uniformly neutral room needs some variance in pattern to sustain interest. Rooms with a livelier color palette also need patterns to break up long expanses of solid color. Think wall art, rugs, pillows, or accent chairs in a pattern that picks up colors from the room but uses them in a floral, geometric, or striped pattern.

At Decocrated, we’re devoted to great design expressed in décor items you can easily add to your rooms for a finishing touch that makes the room feel complete. Our subscription boxes give you everything you need for a seasonal spruce-up of your interiors. Join today!