Opposition/Contrast in Interior Design (Principles of Design)

Having a constant trend towards contrast creates an oppositional rhythm able to drag people’s attention to any interior. Contrast in interior design is mainly used to alter the uniformity in the space, which is also a way to incorporate distinct focal points and emphasis in any area. Manipulating your color scheme to obtain oppositions and contrasts is an area of experimentation, and personally, I can say this is by far one of my favorite aspects of design: being able to control all your different hues in an interior to make them responsible of the reactions of its users. It is truly fantastic how throwing a navy blue pillow into a lighter beige couch can have such impactful reactions on people’s opinions and eye movement; however, as interior designers, it is our job to determine when and where to throw that pillow in, and if it is actually appropriate or not.

I would like to begin by stating that the main key in creating contrast in a room is being able to balance this last one. If our oppositions/contrasts in an interior become too continuous, we would be then talking about pattern and uniformity instead of the radical change we should be striving for. To achieve contrast in any space, it is important to keep into consideration our:

1) Color scheme: Our palette is of extreme importance because of the fact that our contrast choices will completely depend on the interior’s color scheme itself; even though one of the main purposes of contrast is to create a dramatic statement between two or more objects in a room, we still need to make sure that the oppositions in color are all inside of the same color scheme.

2) Style: Secondly, re-arranging furniture to achieve this principle of design is also a very common path to explore, but as unity has taught us, both, our palette and theme should be able to represent our initial concept statement along with the respective incorporations of contrast. (You have one style and should not be trying to contrast between themes).

3) Square footage: When counting with limited space, it is also important to remember that darker colors, unlike brighter and softer hues, tend to make any room look smaller. When achieving contrast, it is very tempting to try to go for these dimmer additions to an area, without considering that oppositional effects can also be admired with lighter accompaniments. Paying attention to detail is a great method to fully take advantage of this principle of design.