Frida Ramstedt runs one of the leading interior design blogs (trendenser.se) and Instagram accounts in Scandinavia and has been writing about design on Trendenser.se for 15 years. She started her blog as a way to get a job at Ikea but little did she know what started as an upscale CV would become so much more.
I like to compare the process of interior design and styling to music. Not everyone has a perfect pitch, but most people can learn how to play the notes. The same thing is true of colour, form and decor in general. Not everyone is born with the kind of intuitive feel for the design process that makes the result seem planned, but almost everyone can become much better at it if they learn the fundamentals and then put these into practice. Today’s interior magazines and books are filled with pictures of ready made food – with no recipes. You only get to know where you can buy the same ingredients but no one is telling you how to cook. Therefore my ambition was not to make yet another coffee table book with glossy images, I wanted to explain and simplify the fundamental principles and skills of interior, with the rules of thumb and tricks of the trade that would be useful to everyone, irrespective of their taste in furniture or personal style.
The Interior Design Handbook
How to choose harmonious colours?
60-30-10 + b/w formula
When looking to introduce more colour into your home, it often appears at first that the various colour details you’ve added stand out rather than blend in. If you scatter a few colourful cushions on a white sofa, for instance, they tend to behave like difficult guests and take over the whole show rather than blend in with the rest of the furnishings. In the end, you can’t stand them any longer and feel you must get rid of them. Which is precisely the wrong thing to do: instead of removing them, you should add to them! Colourful cushions need colourful companions, and a predominantly white room would need more gradations of colour to act as a bridge between the white and the contrasting details. By augmenting and spreading things around rather than subtracting and replacing them, you can achieve a very different effect, which – at the risk of sounding too technical – we could call a ‘colour-scheme formula’.
One approach, known as the 60:30:10 + B/W model, takes the proportions of the golden ratio as its starting point. If you feel you’ve hit a wall when trying to work out the colour scheme for a room, this model can be useful, since it separates the colours into harmonious blocks and creates balance between the various colours and shades in the scheme. It prevents, for instance, the whole room becoming focused on a couple of cushions, as in the example mentioned above.
We can use the same approach in a room by distributing the colours as follows:
· 60 per cent will be the base colour in the room.
· 30 per cent will be the additional color (preferable a subtle and harmonious colour) with the purpose to lift the main one.
· 10 per cent will work as accent colour to spiced things up, preferrable one or two contrasting colours.
· − + B/W stands for one small black or white detail, which is necessary to highlight the chosen colours, helping to bring them out – the finishing touch, you could say.
Colour schemes
You can use the colour circle as a guide when working out a colour palette for your home, and here are a few shortcuts to a few of the most common colour-scheme principles. Remember that the place of color in the color wheel will vary depending on which system you decide to use.
Analogous colour palettes
Choose a colour on the colour circle and work with its neighbouring counterpart. An analogous colour palette is usually relatively easy to decide on, so it is a good approach if you are unsure of yourself.
Complementary colour palettes
Choose a colour on the colour circle and then find its complementary counterpart on the opposite side of the circle.
Rectangular colour palettes
Choose a colour and its complementary counterpart. Select a second colour two steps away from your first one and then add its complementary counterpart.
Monochrome palette
If you are not used to working with colour or wallpaper, it’s a good idea to start with a monochromatic colour scheme working with different nuances.
Sightlines
Architects planning houses and interiors often have the concept of ‘enfilade’ or ‘sight- lines’ – being able to see through several rooms simultaneously – at the back of their minds, because it gives a sense of spaciousness. This concept is an important element in interior design. If the interior design of adjoining rooms is linked harmoniously, the observer’s experience of the whole will be more satisfying.
In Greek mythology, Theseus found his way out of the Labyrinth after vanquishing the Minotaur by following the red thread Ariadne gave to him. Interior designers and stylists use a ‘thread’ of their own, often navigating their way through a home with the help of a given theme that connects the different rooms and other parts of the house or flat.
Examples of elements that can tie an interior design together
· A colour or a connected colour palette
· Using the same materials repeatedly
· Using the same type of wood in adjoining rooms
· Using style elements of a particular period, or the year your home was built as eye catchers in adjoining rooms.
· Referencing a particular designer or design language in the visible sight lines.
3 point thinking
If you want your favourite colour or your intended theme to stand out clearly, it is rarely enough to have only one example of it per room or within a particular line of sight. Discovering or experiencing something new can make a powerful impression, and a good ploy I’ve learnt is to try to trigger those feelings of ‘Wow!’ and ‘Aha!’ in interior design. But how do you go about it? Start by identifying some of the transition zones, where you and your guests pause as you come in (the entrance to your home, the doorway to the living room, the passageway in a hall). Then apply the three-point thinking and make your red thread reoccur in at least three places along the line of sight. If you are working along the line between two end points, the first point at which the red thread will be seen is where it lies closest to the observer: make that point create a ‘Wow!’ impression. Where a glimpse of it sparks recognition away at the far end of the line of sight, that is the place to provoke an ‘Aha!’ response. Between those two points you will place a subtlethematic link, and so you will have lour!’ When your gaze then moves on through a doorway, your eye is caught by a painting in a beautiful shade of green hanging on a wall right in your line of sight: that’s the ‘Aha!’ moment. Now, looking at the painting, you recognize where the owners found their unique colour palette – the fruit and the glass bottle in the painting. But this beautiful green palette does not only recur on the walls and ceiling, it is also picked up by ‘bridges’ – the lights with green shades, the fabrics and cushions, the padding on the chairs and the pattern on the sofa. Everything plays on both ‘Wow!’ and ‘Aha!’. Do you see the ‘green’ thread?
RELATED: How your starsign could influence your interior design
Not only does your star sign reveal your monthly fortune (or misfortune), it’s a useful tool to understand your personality and traits too. So, whether you’re an artsy Taurus, chic Virgo, cosy Cancer, a minimalist Gemini, your horoscope can tell you a lot about your ideal living style. Sofa and carpet specialists, ScS, has teamed up with New York astrologist, Lisa Stardust, to determine the best interior styles to try according to your star sign, perfect if you’re searching for decorating inspiration this year... to read more click HERE
