Your brain is constantly reacting to the environment around you.
Whether or not you notice it, your brain responds with calm or stress depending on where you are. One of the biggest goals when creating a home is to make it feel peaceful.
Balance plays an important role in this.
Having proper balance in your home will add a sense of calm and unity.
It’s part of what creates that feeling of comfort, or “home”, for you and everyone who enters your home.
It makes your home a place you want to stay.
What is balance?
Balance is how visual weight is distributed in a space. It ensures that no single element overpowers another. In other words, nothing is stealing the show that shouldn’t be!
There are three types of balance:
- Symmetrical
- Asymmetrical
- Radial
Symmetrical Balance
If you were to draw a line down the middle of your focal point (like your fireplace, bed, or dining table, for example) the two sides of the line would mirror each other.
Each side has the same elements and arrangements.
This repetition creates a clean sense of order.
This is especially great for:
- Bedrooms
- Living Rooms
Asymmetrical Balance
This less-formal type of balance can create an interesting and unexpected visual movement.
Instead of two sides of the room mirroring each other, this type of balance is focused on equal visual weight and scale between all the elements in the room.
This allows you to create more organic designs that flow together.
Especially great for
- Living Rooms
- Office Spaces
- Bathrooms
Radial Balance
The center of the room is the focal point, and everything else radiates outward from it or inward towards it. You don’t typically find this in an everyday home. But you can use this principle to help style a round table in a dining space, or a unique, rounded extra area in your home.
Especially great for:
- Dining Rooms & Breakfast Nooks
- Circular rooms in old homes
- Rounded rooms in hotels/office areas
Tips For Balancing Your Home Design
If you’re unsure which type of balance your home naturally has, try this trick.
- Use your phone camera to take a picture of the focal point of the room.
- Open the photo and click “edit”.
- Draw a line down the center of the photo.
Evaluate both sides of the line and ask these questions.
- What do I need to add or change to create more balance?
- What, if anything, is drawing too much attention?
- What type of balance does the architecture of my home already have?… match this!
- What type of balance am I naturally drawn to: order and repetition, or naturally flowing and unexpected?
Following this basic design principle will create a foundation for your home to thrive.
You’ll never want to leave. But like, in the best way.
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