What are the 7 elements of interior design [2022 For Beginners]

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Learning the 7 elements of interior design is the important lesson you want if you want to achieve the space of your dreams.

Also Read: Interior Design Ideas For Pole Barn Home [With Very Affordable Floor Plans]

Interior design is not only about picking a decor and do decorating, painting a wall a different color and done.

There is more to it, continue on to learn how you can apply it to your own life.

Summary

The 7 elements are guides and as well as the key elements that has to be present in all sorts of interior design project you may have.

Space
Light
Pattern
Form
Texture
Line
Color

These 7 elements of interior design will be your pattern, your checklist, guide and will always work wonders in every space or room you will design or decorate into.

1. Space Element for Interior Design

Taking in the value of the room’s, office or a home’s size like length, width and height.

What is Space in Interior Design

Safe to say we are the talking about rectangle, square spaces for the most commonly seen blank canvas as Interior Designer’s take into of account.

Importance of having space when designing

Work with what you have and not expanding, or costing more unnecessarily things that will not touch your field of expertise.

2 types of interior design space

Negative Space-I learned about negative space when I was younger, negative space is where people can pass through, walk around. Basically, an interior design space.
Positive Space- is where your furniture placements you will have in the design incorporated

Why is it important to know?

Knowing the 7 elements of interior design will save you tons of time, money, and effort as designing or renovating your home or property before, after and during the design process.

Having an aesthetically pleasing art, decor statement pieces, furniture placements are one thing.

But combining them with practicality and functionality it will be all over the place if it will not be organized and planned out well.

what are the 7 elements of interior design

Professional Home Tip, we want those interior design project that be versatile and we can still use evergreen high quality home and living furnitures for our daily lives.

What will happen if you do not have balance positive space and negative space

Pros

It can be freeing when it comes to self-expression at home when having lots of positive space
If you are a minimalist having more negative space can be suitable for you in terms of sustainability.

Cons

You cannot have the same balance energy from just having a pure positive space and / or pure negative space because of having the items being too cluttered or more.
Avoid clutter
Having too much space to move around in a negative space will make your home less functionality and you can lose the potential of having a space to be helpful in your day to day activities.

Parts of the House that needs a balance space

Knowing a balance space is vital at home, you can judge items that you really need or stuff that you need to get rid of in order to maintain a healthy uncluttered livable space.

Living Room
Bedroom
Kitchen
Home Office
Bathroom
Garage
Dining Room
Backyard

Interior Design Styles can either make or break your space because you can decide correctly or incorrectly and to be honest it will cost you money to get repairs or reconstruction along the way.

Be mindful of using space and giving a space allowance at home, that is why interior designing your home or real estate property is very important

Never let it be neglected upon initial designing your future home or space.

Interior Design Styles for Negative Space

Minimalist Home Living
Utilitarian Style Design
Modern Sleek Minimalist
Scandinavian Homes

Interior Design Styles for Positive Space

Bohemian Home Style
Maximalist Home
Opulent Style
Luxury Art Houses Design Style

2. Light Element

Do not think that light is not very important to Interior Design when it comes down to it, light will give life and add more depth with other elements too.

Two Types of Light Element for Interior Design

Artificial Man Made Light
Natural Light

Lights can supplement and assist on designs of a space like showcasing an artwork by having two mini spotlights pointing directly at the frame display.

Which to begin with the artwork is one of the major design pieces in the room.

Why light is important element in interior designing

All will be wasted if there was no light, how can you appreciate your unique dark plum colors on your walls for example, your antique gramophone from a family heirloom as a main statement piece focus, light is very important.

via GIPHY

3 Major Types of Interior Design Lighting Techniques

Task Lighting, having that spotlight adherent to items or design pieces, shining the light to spaces that has functionality for example a reading corner space.
When reading a book a task lighting such as a lamp or a focus light will help you see the words and sentences of the book in the dark
Accent Light, I always say Accent lights are my favorite when designing a space because it instantly adds more glitz and glamour to a certain space. Having a family pictures at home use an accent light above the piece to be able to enhance visibility and make people look directly which will make them stop and stare. Emphasizing a focal point like you see on museums, did you notice that they practically have small lights on each artwork mostly because they are showcasing more of the art than relying on only one light source such as the main ceiling light.
Ambient Lights, room will be lit differently using the ambient light fixtures that can directly affect our moods.

Important Tip, have a note taken down on lights you need and the placement of the lights that needs to be installed and attached upon designing.

For example a bedrooms, I would not recommend a light directly in front of your face for obstructing your sleep obviously, more importantly some people are sensitive to bright lights.

Office lights needs to be super bright to increase productivity and make people active and not sleepy. From personal experience dim light offices makes me snooze off easily, trust me you do not want that. Which clearly makes my point evident.

Light placement techniques tips

Have light placements on doors
Under a dining table
Mirrors can get the light to bounce back into the room and make it more brighter
A statement light fixtures like chandeliers can add value to your room
Have a schedule of dusting lights as they can get dirty easily, use a big foldable metal ladder for assistance.

Lights examples for every home needs

Always keep in mind what activity will you be having in that particular space is it for a work craft space that you need brighter lights then have a task light.

Reading books before going to bed have a task light for that as well.

Your kid had a memorable trophy for a contest and you want to showcase in your console divider try adding an accent light.

Having a romantic night with the husband get an ambient light such as a warm yellow for that perfect candle lit dinner at home.

Look at every aspect with moods and best tons of light needed or dim light to have a serene and chill mood.

The key element is that having your design pieces come to light and bring more life to the space to shine and bring out the best features of your interiors.

3. Pattern Element

What is Pattern?

Pattern in interior design means the print of a design is repeated many times on a whole background piece

Where to see patterns in design

See either on walls, furnitures, fabrics, wallpaper, tiles, carpets and colors mainly.

Adding appeal to the space can be determined for pieces you want to tie together.

A client or a person who likes flowers will like a floral pattern design when they see it.

They will be expecting a floral pattern design here and there when they have design in mind.

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10 Most famous pattern styles

Pattern prints are the most noticeable and more beautiful when you put in a very large and broad room, having a ceiling to floor design can up level your space.

Boho Print
Animal Print
Checkered Print
Geometric Shapes
Floral Print
Ceramics
Organics
Motifs
Natural Prints
Chevron Pattern

Important Tip for Patterns

Always measure and align patterns to make it look seamless and not informal.

This even applies to abstract patterns or mosaic, in most cases it would be prefer for you to stick to a certain number of prints and style when applying to the wall and color scheme family.

Pros of using Patterns

Add more design appeal
Makes a finishing touch
Add character and symbolism

Cons when using Pattern Designs

Can look too much
Stressful Design
Messy Design
Incomplete look
Overwhelming design happens more often

4. Form Design Element

Form is not flat but three-dimensional form either be a 2D shape, 3D shape, geometric shapes formed or natural form which can look very valuable.

When designing a space using the form element measure the space well and plan how you can apply other elements into the space.

Look at the bigger picture by stepping back a little.

How to use form as an advantage to design

Shapes are your best friend and easy to incorporate like circles, squares, rectangles, and many more.

Be careful of too much form and not following into the theme as it will look unfinished or out of coverage area “out of tune”.

Create harmony as your advantage and marry the designs like they were already born into that space in the first place.

Dominant Shapes

Forms should have a dominant form you can duplicate or have it as a design basis rather than getting all forms into the space as it will look uneven and unappealing.

Very exciting part of Interior Design which in my opinion is what makes every part personal design preference and design identity.

5. Texture Element

Texture is an element people can have a struggle which lead them to just ignoring it.

2 Forms of Texture

Actual Design Texture
Visual Design Texture

What is Visual Texture

Visual texture sets the bar to get aesthetically pleasing and what we can see hence the word visual.

Viewing patterns, wallpaper designs, art shapes and lines adds more design concern for visual texture.

What is Actual Texture

Actual texture is what you can feel and see at the same time.

Having a subway tile on your kitchen’s backsplash while you can see the design with the help of either a white or black tile grout you can also touch each tile which contributed to another design texture.

Another example of Actual Texture is wood elements a frame, many frames have different lines and concave side designs which compliments the artwork more.

The paneling of rooms is also a great example of Actual Texture which makes your space or house look more fancy and expensive.

Three Dimensional Texture Designs Tips

Decorating with rugs, to make it more fancy and visually appealing is overlapping different textures of rugs like a fluffy rug and a more woven rattan rug underneath.
Pillows for a sofa chair or beds having different size of pillows and designs compliments texture and will start to feel more expensive and luxurious feel and look.
Different frame designs for display. Will make the focus look more complex like wood carvings edge elements.

Check here a beautiful sage green color when you want a pop or hint of extra color for whites and gray colors. Watch here on my youtube channel for home interior design inspirations

So much respect to people who can add texture elements to their home as this will make it more unique and get a tasteful outcome when it comes to design.

If you are wanting to sell your house or space definitely get a more texture strategy going to add value to the price point.

Last thing, usually when we design spaces we tick off all the checklist that we have for our space like major elements like colors and lights we forget texture.

Texture needs some love too.

My favorite texture would be accessories, that little design decor pieces can make the space more complete like a chandelier pendant, glass sculptures, or metal tables, woodworks and textured fabrics like linen and fake fur.

Disadvantages of picking out Texture for design

One major reason is over picking of texture elements that will make your space cluttered.

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Adding texture “design” can be overdone without you realizing it.

When you are a shopper and can just pick things out on a whim is not helpful.

Try to stick on a budget as much as you can and never sacrifice time on your strategy planning by adding pieces that makes sense for you for a long time.

Why? Because there will always be a new stuff out from brands that will caught our eyes, as your taste evolves, you will redesign and redecorate your space surprisingly often for sure.

6. Line Elements Designs

Lines are be detrimental versus patterns, because line has been expected to be more strict and more uniform when applying to interior design, whereas patterns can be sometimes forgivable.

Having a distinct style pattern and shapes in your design aspects, line will draw a rule or a guide which helps to aesthetics.

3 Types of Lines in Interior Design

Dynamic Lines Design. Moving lines, it is not either straight nor relaxed line. Good example are chevron lines, zigzag, curvy, wavy lines and diagonal. If you are going for a Minimalist design which is very popular by the way, I suggest use dynamic lines little application for your space. Have a good balance of dynamic lines as the same with patterns it can get over design or give you a headache basically.
Vertical Lines. Simply the best designs movement from bottom to top. This are usually windows, walls, doorways, making it the foundation of Line element designs.
Makes the space appear bigger than it is already are, for example glass windows of a big house or mansion, it automatically makes the room so much taller.
Horizontal Lines Design. Appearing tiny spaces into big spaces with horizontal lines. You can see lines from left to right direction like tables, sofa chairs, it gives a certain balance from other elements like I would always prefer them back to a saying of “This is where you draw the line”, it gives that sense of formal alignment of designs altogether.

7. Color Element

Colors which already you can tell how much it is important when it comes to interior design or designing your home because colors greatly affects how we feel and think of a certain mood.

For example of libraries at school using a bright colors for interior design styles can uplift the student’s mood and increase creativity using psychological stimulation of the mind.

Compare to darks and blacks wall colors that would suggest sadness and not so much inviting of any creativity boost.

Colors are very important and is a big deal when it comes to the interior design world.

How colors affect interior design

Colors can make a room smaller.
Colors can make a space much more larger than in actuality.
Mood boards are being dominated firstly by colors, some furniture can be formed from colors using as a first case basis when design interiors.
How the color hues can affect our mind and can even recall life events or life aspirations, like for example: When I see the color blue, I instantly remember the bright sky on a beautiful day which relaxes me and lets me reminded of memories from that specific day and time. A Happy feeling indeed for me.
Color white is always calming and looks a very clean minimalist feel which is very popular with homes whenever you buy white will always be the default color anywhere.
More dramatic and bold colors when designing spaces like reds, purples, and oranges can stimulate more expression. For example reds can trigger romance or a Chinese culture tradition. Staying in a room longer can easily be adjusted and adapt to the interior’s colors more.
When designing your home be wary of the color element because your overall mood and thinking will greatly influence and always weigh your needs and compensate colors for the space usage.

Design Colors and Lighting

Are you wanting to have colors act complimentary to your mood lighting?

Whites are always one of the common favorite, and having a bright morning light hits the wall that is painted into a white color will always look so much brighter and make you feel active and feel serene too.

Colors that are painted in a dark room will have a hit or miss, The color that is painted darker on a a dim light will not be able to be seen clearly.

Colors and lighting should work out.

Like with buying houses you need to check them as well at night time or a bad rainy weather to be sure before purchasing a home.

How to know a room lighting of a space

First, Potentially look at the brief’s space or room structure. Second, How many windows does the space have. Third, How many light fixtures did they installed in the room. Lastly, Look outside if they have a building next to your space or a huge tree out the window which blocks the initial light going inside of the space.