Balance is Everything

‘Living on the edge’ is a great expression if your profession is a stunt man or woman, but not so good if you’re renovating your home. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve seen good design ideas taken to some really bad levels. Going to extremes runs the gambut from boring oatmeal-type plain with a muted sense of color to wild and screaming emotionally unstable in a non-judicious use of design and scale. Let’s take an example:

Our first example has muted tastes, we’ll call her “Plain Jane”. She is afraid of color, hates all borders, and worries her tile will look cluttered with even one design element. She decides to even forego shelves and much needed accessories for what she feels is a ‘clean’ look. Her neighbor comes in at her urging to see her new shower and tub surround. The neighbor forces a smile and says politely, “So you’re not done yet, right?”. Plain Jane is furious, but her problem isn’t the tile or even her ideals. Her problem is the execution. Solution: You don’t have to have decorative borders or even too many design elements. It’s also okay to keep the accessories to a minimum, but you can’t forego everything. You won’t be showing off your esthetic or making much use out of your shower or any home decor project unless you’ve thought about how you need to use the space. Keep the design flowing with just a few touches and it will actually show off your ’simplistic’ concept much better by showing a balanced scale of light and color. A little color or design goes a long way in making your project look polished and clean!

Our second subject, we’ll call her “Crazy Carla” (obviously, these names are fake and not to represent an actual person), loves color and design. She loves it so much she plasters everything with her wild colors, bold decos, and unusual elements. Most people don’t know exactly how to take her design and usually feel very uncomfortable with the busy features and a little stressed from looking at the eye numbing colors and wild prints. Everything is so wild that it’s hard to determine exactly what Crazy Carla is actually trying to do. Solution: Far be it from me to tell anyone not to be themselves. If all of us were the same, what a boring world that would be! Unfortunately, though, like most things in life, if we try too hard to put too many things on display, we loose the impact that we were actually going for. Instead of becoming an interesting and exciting design, it becomes overkill and tasteless. The best way to show off your design is picking one or two major design elements you want to stand out and working your design around them. Keep in mind that you don’t want to be too cluttered, so your eye should flow gently over the room or area, focusing on the few points you want to stand out. That gets exciting for your viewer, because then instead of scaring them, you get them excited to see what else you have to offer. Be bold, be daring, and tasteful and you’ll get the ‘wow’s you were looking for.

Remember, balance in everything is a good rule of thumb. If you’re not sure about something, ask someone who’s opinion you value so that you get to see it from another person’s perspective. On the roller coaster ride of home decor, a little balance is good.

Tags: bathroom, color, design, elements, home decor, shelves, shower, tub