Home Decorating Tips - Always have a Focal Point

Make Your Room Stand Out

My daughter and son-in-law are in the process of building a recreation room to add more space for their growing family. Once it’s finished, they’ll have to concentrate on furnishing it. This is where the fun part begins, in my opinion.

This is not a lesson on concentration. A focal point is the place where the eye naturally gravitates within a room. Whether you’re adding on for the family, or building a home office, take into consideration when decorating that it’s important to choose a focal point for your room before you start thinking about anything else.

Popular Focal Points

The first thought for a focal point is an architectural structure. It could be a fireplace or a built-in bookcase. In the case of the family room, you might consider an audio and video furniture or a wood stove, fireplace/television alcove combination.

When determining the focal point of any room, you’ll want to start big. When entering a room, people’s eyes begin high and steadily move downward. The largest thing in your room may be the fireplace. In that case, use it as the focus of your room.

Focal points can also be created. In homes with rooms that have no distinguishing architectural features, you can choose what you want as the focal point. Add a bookshelf, a large piece of artwork or a big screen television.

When all of the walls look alike, use paint to distinguish your focal point. Paint one wall in a similar, but lighter shade than the other three. That single wall becomes the focal point for your room.

Always use something big. Small items in the room can be engulfed by other features and not be seen as a focus for anything, if they even catch the eye of your visitor at all.

Enhancing Your Focal Point

Why is it important? Having one outstanding feature in each room, makes that room interesting. It gives the room character so to speak. It also gives you a place to begin when deciding how to adorn the rest of the room. For instance, the furniture can be gathered around the focal point.

For some, it is not the center of the room but it is a main feature. Leave room in front of the fireplace or the bookshelf for admiring by visitors and friends. The furniture can then be centered in front of the television on a shorter wall.

Use accents to spruce up your focal point. Family pictures can be hung on the wall around the fireplace (using this as an example). Flowers, antiques and other items that are precious to you add to the eye-catching nature of this element in your room. Resist the urge to junk it up. Less is always more especially when it comes to accessorizing around the rooms of your home.

Having a focal point in a room makes the room easier to decorate and even more lovable. You can work everything else in the room around that one feature. Make your visitors’ attention immediately go to the focal point in the center or simply dress your focal point up to make it stand out. If you don’t have a natural focal point, use furniture such as bookshelves, entertainment centers, television stands, etc. to create a focus for the room.

photo credit: Hugo90