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Article Eight: Principles of Design 101B - Balance Part 1
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How did the Principles of Design come about and why do they work? One idea is that nature's influence is harmonious and in its abundance around us, has conditioned us to respond positively to it.
From previous articles, remember that cake you were baking, where you needed a recipe? Regard the Essentials of Design as a recipe. A recipe has two parts, the ingredients and the instructions. Think of the Elements of Design as the ingredients, which we just finished covering in previous articles, and the Principles of Design as the instructions, which we are now starting to cover with our first principle, balance.
Consider the Principles of Design as tools you can use together with the Elements of Design to evaluate and correct problems in the home, as well as to create aesthetically pleasing rooms. Although they may go by slightly different names, the components of the Essentials of Design remain basically the same throughout the design and art industries.
The five Principles of Design are BALANCE, PROPORTION, SCALE, UNITY and EMPHASIS.

Nature's landscapes are made up of a balance of curved and straight lines. A leaf, for example, is symmetrical. We identify animals, insects and plants by their patterns. We want stability in a room and need it to feel like it's distributed evenly. All of these principles correspond to nature and her influence.
  • Balance expresses our impression of how visual weight is distributed throughout an area. Stagers and decorators attain balance by determining the visual weight of objects, such as furniture, rugs and accessories, and then they distribute that weight evenly around the room. The challenge is to keep the room interesting. We instinctively seek stability and equilibrium, which balance gives us. There are three types of balance, which we will cover in the next article, symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial. No, these do not refer to positions one assumes while being scanned at the airport.

This quick reference, along with my other articles, will give you a new way of looking at your dining room table. Start seeing aspects of balance in your home by comparing it to nature around you and the way it expresses balance, today. We'll go deeper with balance next time.

See you in part 2. Happy Home Staging and Styling.
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