Beautifully decorated interior design not only functions well but it creates a mood or a feeling and shows off the personality of the family that lives there. It’s attention to these three important ingredients — function, mood and personality — that ensures decorating success. Before painting and rearranging, spend some time thinking about your family and how you live. Look through magazines for inspiration and pull out ideas or rooms that appeal to you.

Gather things from around the house that make you feel good and study them carefully for color cues and perhaps a clue to the mood you’re looking for in your home. This is the beginning of a well-planned and decorated living area.As for the rest, let’s start with this 3 principles!

Function

Decorating is more than just eye appeal — it’s making a room really work for you. Here’s how to do it, element by element:

1. The focal point: Sometimes rooms have natural focal points (places the eyes travel to immediately upon entering a room)

2. The furniture: Determine whether the furniture satisfies the functions you’ve planned for the room.

3. The lighting: Lighting should be selected for the functions of the room as well as for visual appeal.

4. The furniture arrangement: Draw your room on graph paper. Measure and mark electrical outlets and switches, vents, windows and doors. Measure your furniture and place it in your floor plan.

Mood

The mood or feeling of a room is created by your choice of colors, the style of furnishings, the amount of texture and pattern you choose and your accessories. Since there’s so much to think about when creating a mood, establishing a theme through the selection of an inspiration piece can make this portion of a decorating project much more fun and interesting. Here are the factors you need to address when setting a mood, such as : the inspiration piece, theme, colour cues, patterns, texture and furniture.

Personality

Here’s your chance to put your personal stamp on a well-planned room. Here are some strategies:

1. Accessorizing: Pictures, vases, pillows and area rugs are all integral parts of a great decorating plan. Generally, they should support your theme, but allow more flexibility here.

2. Whimsy: This is optional in your decorating scheme, but it can counteract any sterile quality that may have been created by strictly following all the guidelines.

3. The unexpected: Interest doesn’t have to be whimsical; it can simply be something unexpected in a room, like a brightly-painted ceiling.

So, will you give a try to your own home project?