Basic Interior Design Rules with Stefania Skrabak
AHG INTERIORS principal designer.
Stefania has been featured in top-shelf publications, including country home industry magazine, and oh and HGTV. She holds four degrees in interior design, fine art, fashion, and art history from Marist College, Franklin University, Fashion Institute of Technology, and School of Visual Arts.
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How to differentiate rooms with different designs and still make your home a nice cohesive space?
Look at something that inspires you.
Use the same repeating elements: the same carpets, the same wall color, and the same curtains, and then change everything else around.
Keep the elements cohesive and choose repeating elements throughout your home.
Mix different tones. That's a great way of getting interesting without clutter.
Mix wood tones to create a lovely textured foundation, but keep it interesting.
Creating different types of spaces in the same room
Make sure it all ties in together. The wood tone or the same design elements will be your go-to.
Make sure your tones are in the same tonal family.
Don't get matchy. Don’t use the same white when you do all whites because it looks hospital or too contrived. Use the same color family but different variations of it.
Make sure you have enough space. Things look bad many times in design when they're not proportional to their space.
Look at your proportions. Try different things. You can't always know what the right answer is.
Make sure you have three feet of comfortable walking space, so the room doesn't feel too cluttered.
Tips on how to use the light, so the room looks spacious
Make sure everything's not the same tone. The best lighting is a mixture of blue light bulbs and orange glow incandescent lighting, or a warm light and LEDs.
Overhead lighting will be blue, but your desk lighting and nightstands should be warm-colored.
Change the wall color by changing the color of a light bulb. Figure it out, switch them, change them to find the ideal lighting.
Lightning is significant. If you look awful in it, don't get it. Blue light is tricky. Nobody looks good in that, so you don't want that in your home.
Use light to make the room look bigger. Use lamps as part of your decor.
Try floor lamps. Because when you turn off all the lights, there is no space, and floor lamps can change that.
Bluish light expands the space because it looks like daylight. Candle lights are warm. So it feels cozy and small. The more blue light - the bigger the room will seem.
Tips on mixing textures
Change a proportion, and don’t forget to unify. Design often looks terrible because people forget to unify together and don't think about cohesion. So don't get that bright orange pillow if your whole room is neutral, or you choose that as your one accent. High-end design is about making choices.
How to use mirrors in design?
The most important trick with the mirror is that space always looks bigger. If you need your space to look bigger, put a mirror on the far end.
If you have a gorgeous window, put a mirror on the opposite wall, and get two windows in one room.
Put a mirror because we all like to look at ourselves, and that makes people happy.
Create a sense of infinity by putting one mirror facing another one. They bounce each other back.
Creating different types of spaces in the same room
Try wooden home decor. Living room signs are an easy and quick way to elevate your room. Check out our full wooden home decor collection.
Layer mirrors. It gives house a whole new meaning. Though it's simple and easy to do, it makes a big style statement.
Try micro sizes. A gallery wall doesn't need to take up the entire room. In fact, sometimes a tiny one can make a bigger style statement.
Hang plates on the wall. Use vintage pieces to create historied character in your house. Try farmhouse style: display decorative plates and wooden table together.
Display something suprising: a great sculpture or wooden signs for home. Add soft curves, fluffy pampas grass to make it inviting, elegant, and edgy all at once.
Tips on the window dressing
Make the curtain bar as high as possible and as wide as possible.
Work with layers. It helps to create a cozy warm feeling.
You don't need a lot on your windows but think of the texture. If you use a boring fabric, your window is going to look boring. A little bit of texture will make it seem a lot more exciting.
Rules of using rugs in design
The room looks more expensive with the rug; consider this when thinking of the interior design.
Think about your carpet as a frame within a frame. So your room is the frame, and then you're placing the rug into the frame.
If you have a giant room, you can use carpet to differentiate spaces.
To split a room into two functions, do two different carpets to those areas.
Top tips on interior design
Don't be afraid to break the rules.
Put texture on texture.
Limit your colors but change the variations of them, so don't go tonal.
Choose the smallest things to invest in. If you drink a cup of coffee every day, that cup of coffee should be the best cup of coffee you have.
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