The 7 Principles of Decorating
Because think first, decorate later, must become your mantra
Before you so much as lift a paint brush, my number one piece of advice is to let go of any perceived decorative conventions, should-dos or usually-dos. The only limit to possibility is what you’re prepared to try and what you can afford to do. However, it’s really important to really think it through if your goal is to be able to stand in the middle of any room, no matter how large or small, and look at each wall in turn and feel there is an overall sense of balance, alignment and consideration for the composition of the room as a whole, from the placement of pictures and furniture to the height of trims or the depth of curtains.
In my book, Happy Inside, I explain my theory of the four home zones, why it’s important to ‘white-out’ each room before you start, and I discuss in detail how to build your palette, so I’m not going to repeat that here, instead I want to dive into the next step, which is how to decorate, plane by plane.
What do I mean by this? A plane is each expanse of wall from one corner to the next whether it has windows or doors in it, or not. A ceiling can be another plane, as can the floor. And the idea behind working in planes is to break a room down into manageable chunks, so that you can respond directly to what’s in front of you without being overwhelmed by the whole.
It’s important to work like this because too often rooms are painted in the same colour throughout with white skirtings and door frames, and that’s it. What a waste! Your walls are your biggest surfaces to play with. They can easily be so much more. Besides, looking at a plain wall is akin to staring blankly into space. We have a fundamental need for visual nourishment and stimulation in our homes, for our eyes to dance lightly over surfaces and not find them wanting.
As such, I want you to think of each plane of a room as a composition in waiting and a canvas on which to create! In addition, working on one wall at a time encourages a more conscious appreciation of the intrinsic bone structure of a room. It allows you to question whether existing features work.
Ultimately, this is how we create a holistic sense of calm, because our brains will always pick up on anything discordant. The body will always respond to the sense that something is a bit off, even if only subliminally (ie your rational mind cannot instantly identify what’s wrong), by not being able to fully relax.
The challenge is to achieve a balance between these two seemingly opposing forces – enough to look at but with nothing out of place.