Unity: A United Homefront

Unity, our last and final design principle, “is the feeling of harmony between all parts, creating a sense of completeness.”  Unity wraps up every principle of design we’ve covered so far and essentially says to put them all to work in your space for a harmonious end product that is the place you call home. 

 To me, completeness in a home is about layers.  When you look at a style magazine spread of a beautiful home setting, and then peer over the page at your own room in jealousy, the difference can often involve those extra “layers” in a professionally designed space.  Minus their high dollar price tags, you can put on your professional designer hat and think of ways to up the ante on your home’s style factor.  

Recall all of the design principles – balance, emphasis, movement, pattern, repetition, proportion, rhythm, variety, and now today unity.  Pick out something in each room that expresses the meaning behind each principle to create the most unity in the space you live in.  Find balance in the way you arrange your living room seating, maybe opting for a new configuration that highlights the pieces as a whole even better.  Choose a key color to emphasize that carries through different parts of a particular room.  Use your patterned fabric choices and wall hanging layouts to chart the course of how your eyes roam through an area.  Bring life into your décor through savvy selections and rearrangements that play off of each other well.  Plan out your space from the top of your crown molding down to the center of your flooring so that interesting and important things show themselves off on every layer. 

Ultimately, you are the best judge of how unified your home feels to you.  What invites you to gather your family around the dinner table and stay and visit awhile when the meal is over?  What calls you to curl up and rest in your living room with a movie or a book and gives you that space to just breathe and be at home?  Stark, stale, and uninviting is not what you want your home to project.  I believe we would all prefer to open the door to a home that instead expresses a feeling of welcome, calm, and warmth.  How you create that for yourself is entirely up to you on your united homefront.           

DesignInMind column; appeared in the Valley Morning Star June 10th.