Pièce De Résistance: The Significance of Focal Points in Interior Design

Now let’s practice. Where do your eyes go when you see this picture? The Cachet mirror is difficult to miss, isn’t it?

When talking about focal points in terms of photographic composition, you are looking at the site right where the parallel light rays converge. This same concept can be said when talking about interior design. Every focal point has a tremendous effect on the appreciation and reading of a given scenario.

Pièce De Résistance and Aesthetics

As you walk into a room, what is the first thing that catches your attention? That is definitely the room’s focal point. This is an attractive feature, it can be a view of the garden outdoors that’s carefully framed by the large window or it can also be the fireplace in the living room.

This focal point will have a huge influence on the eventual furniture arrangement. Your role now is to decorate the room based on the focal point. Energize your space by taking the attention right to the chosen focal point.

In the bedroom, more often than not, this is the bed. Inside the sunroom, the eyes have to go to that interesting reading nook that’s furnished with a comfy chair and a small side table.

Identify the Focal Points

Generally, every room has a designated focal point. You don’t have to think that you have to default to these features, though. So, this means that the living room can have the sectional as the star of the show rather than the fireplace. Yup, you can downplay the fireplace and have the center of attention shifted to the seating unit.

As to the usual focal points, a group of windows or even just a single window does not just let in an awesome amount of light in but could also serve as a pièce de résistance. A skyline or an outdoor element, even an amazing landscape could also do the trick.

Look for the strongest architectural detail inside the room and that should be the focal point.

Hooker Furniture Home Office Danforth Tall Bookcase: Bookcases are a natural focal point because they often hold the most interesting books and memorabilia.

Set Up the Focal Points

If you don’t have an existing focal point in the room, then you can create one. The creation of a focal point isn’t difficult to do. Find the largest wall in the room. Create a feature wall by having this decorated and set apart from the rest of the walls.

You can also cover unsightly windows with floral or other bold-patterned curtains. These can also act as the best feature in your room.

A furniture piece that is brightly-colored can easily become the focal point. Imagine a sectional covered with fabric that has the most interesting geometric patterns. Now picture that in a sea of white – it becomes even more amazing, right?

Do you have collections of books or knickknacks? These can also be organized in a lovely shelf and would instantly serve as the focal point in the living room, bedroom or the dining room.

Even large mirrors can be used as focal points, as are groups of artwork, or woven baskets filled with collectibles.

Be Bold

Defining the focal point means you should be ready to be bold. Imagine having the ceiling painted in bright red and then frame it with dark-colored molding. This combination should add an interesting focal point to what could have been a bland-looking room.

The ever reliable accent wall can also be created in this manner. This feature wall adds a strong feature to any room. Be sure to group the furniture around the focal wall. If you’re not ready to create an ensemble, then just balance the horizontal elements throughout.

Dual Focal Points

Can a photograph have two focal points?

Why not?

Going back to photography, would you waste the wonderful redness of the apple all because you chose to highlight the succulent lemon? Why not have both?

When you do this, be careful that you’re not emphasizing the lesser element with the better one. For instance, more people would like to see the outdoors more than the fireplace.

Choose two wonderful architectural features, a combination of one architectural feature and furniture piece, or two interesting furniture pieces – your options are limitless.

Tags: focal point, focal points, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings, piece de resistance

This entry was posted on Monday, August 7th, 2017 at 8:00 am and is filed under Interior Design 101, Interior Design Elements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.