The ONE Design Principle You Need for a Stunning HOME

Rebecca Robson here and I'm so glad you're back today today we are going to take apart dissect and get into the design principle called symmetry [Music] what is symmetry in home design it's where you have a focal point on a wall and then you have two cabinets next to it or you have window treatments or your windows are in the same place sometimes homes are so perfectly laid out WooHoo for great Architects and then shame on you bad Builders when you don't take into consideration symmetry you can create it but if your home already has this kind of main point that's already there and then it just sort of like goes out from there that's where you can really capitalize on it there are so many places in my home that actually already came with a symmetrical foundation for example I'm sitting in my master bedroom right now [Music] a bedroom is actually the easiest room to create symmetry why is that because there's always a bed that's your single focal point and then from there matching nightstands if you can do matching some people like to do odds and ends I don't because I lose the sense and the peace that I get from symmetry so a pair of matching nightstands and then a pair of matching lamps already you've created a symmetrical focal point in your bedroom [Music] let me answer the question you may be having do you just need one symmetrical focal point in a room if you can get it yes but that doesn't mean it can be the only one you may have several places where you can create and you can achieve symmetry but it also doesn't mean that every wall has to be symmetrical in fact if it was it might be kind of boring [Music] this wall is really Kitty Wampus which is interesting right because on the other side it's very symmetrical but I do love the view from my bed which gives me total symmetry here's the point and the most important thing to remember as long as you can have one wall preferably your first impression wall as your focal point wall you can create Symmetry and you are golden it's like peace all the way [Music] this room is the retreat to my master bedroom and it is it's a perfect example of what I'm talking about when I say you may have a house that already has symmetrical aspects to it that's what this room is part of the reason I bought this house was this bedroom and retreat was like oh Nirvana for me [Applause] for me peace comes when yeah I've got all these shelves that need stuff on that but I don't want to be like exhausted when I'm in my retreat or in my bedroom just by looking at all this stuff I want to have a peaceful feeling that's why it's called a peaceful retreat by the way so I have really accessorized this year I changed them up again I change them every year and I change it for Christmas we should probably show you some footage of what it looked like this Christmas day anyway the books on the top are done identically what I've done is very simple but I've tried to mirror it on the other side but it's not mirrored exactly so you'll see for example I have a a bronze dog here do you think I have two bronze dogs no but I do have a bronze man so he is over here so do you get the idea these two things are made out of the same material the Finish is the same and even the dog has got his nose out here and his tail out there and this guy has his arms like this so it's kind of a do you get it [Music] I think this project is a perfect illustration of how symmetry can work so well in a bedroom the way it looked before I mean it was already set up perfectly to be a symmetrical style the window with the little Valance made out of placemats from Target thank you very much created our Center focal point it's a centerpiece and a pair that's how you begin the design principle of symmetry in any room a Surefire way to get a wow out of your guests if they're staying in your home is to create a bedroom that has a first impression focal point wall that has symmetry thank you are the absolute easiest place perfect place to create symmetry now in my house this is my guest bedroom and I can guarantee you that when people open the door and they look in at the room they're about to stay in I always get a wow [Music] now how is this for a complete and total Miss by that of an architect or a builder why would you have a skinny bookcase on the left and a wider one on the right it completely screwed up the ability to have symmetry here you'll see that I actually removed that entire wall of the off-shaped bookcases that were recessed into that wall and now we have a great sense of symmetry [Music] in this case again bedrooms are your perfect opportunity to create something symmetrical this wall was not symmetrical before it had one window on the left hand side what did I do I bought a mirror the exact same size as this window it honestly looks so much like a window but it's the bed in the center the night stands on either side the pair of lamps on top of that and the windows with the window treatments that my friend has created a wall that has symmetry [Music] it's not the same in a living room it's not the same in a family room because you don't have one single piece of furniture that is your main thing so what can you do [Music] when I bought this house this living room actually had two of the four walls that were already symmetrical architecturally they were perfect so all I had to do was use the right Furniture in the right locations to play that symmetry off but the wall behind me was not symmetrical and that bothered me because it's your first impression when you walk into my home when you walk into the living room you see this wall behind me you know what in a case like that a lot of times I'll teach you things that you can do to sort of mask the fact that you don't have architectural symmetry in this case I wanted it bad enough that I made architectural symmetry what did I do I added another door and now you have a fireplace in the Middle with a great painting above it you have the same amount of drywall on each side the same size doors so for the most part I was able to make this particular wall Very symmetrical even the furniture placement in this room is very symmetrical with the four chairs that face each other and a coffee table in the center [Music] the one wall I was not able to do anything about the Symmetry and guess what you don't have to have I mean it would be really unusual to have all four walls symmetrical so this wall that is behind you doesn't matter as much to me but I did do my art placement in a way that it sort of played up a little bit of symmetry for example at the arched opening here I put two sconces on either side same distance out that kind of gives a nice balance and then where all the drywall is because there's a lot more drywall this way than there is that way I did three pieces of art which created a horizontal shape you know if you've got horizontal room then put in horizontal art right and by putting the horse in the center and the two panels on either side out of that I am staying with the same design principles that I've been using on all the other walls in this room in fact throughout my house [Music] here's an example of a living room this actually used to be my living room in San Diego before we bought our house I took some pictures when I was touring it and you can see here this the homeowner had no concept of symmetry nor did she want to but there are things she could have done to this wall to give it some sort of sense of a plan so just take a look at the difference when you have a wall in any room and you apply the principle of symmetry to it you can see here there's a painting in the center that's our focal point the wall was painted behind the sofa to give it an accent and then just that pair of lamps just does wonders here in my family room I have yet another symmetrical wall architecturally I have two of those in this room actually in this case I have my TV here that's the center thing okay but underneath of it I have a credenza I see people's before pictures all the time that they submit to me for the design sessions live q and A's and other things that we do one of the things I see that happens a lot is people will have a chest underneath of their you know even at entertainment center underneath their TV often the piece of furniture that's under the TV is either the same exact size and sometimes it's even smaller because our TVs have gotten so big I feel like the balance and what looks good in a room is if you have a TV this size this piece of furniture underneath should expand beyond the size of the TV that's when it feels like it's weighted properly another thing that's great for creating symmetry is window treatments if you have Windows on your wall having panels on both windows and both windows again it just helps play off that feeling of symmetry and then love love love floor lamps a pair of floor lamps will create a beautiful symmetrical look and in this case I actually have matching pots and matching plants so I have a completely symmetrical look in this room at least on this wall [Music] [Applause] just like on the other wall this wall boasts panels pairs of window treatments and then if you have a pair of pieces of art this could actually be one tall skinny piece of art because this is a vertical location imagine if I had only one I don't think I can get that off here I'll stand in front of it imagine if there was only one piece of art here of course it would be lower but it would just feel ill balanced [Applause] having something that's tall and in this case two pieces that essentially make up one piece of art gives us our you know our focal point our bam in the center then it goes window treatment one treatment window window window treatment drywall drywall do you get it it's symmetry [Music] let's be honest can every room have symmetry I try to use symmetry in one form or another in every room in my house however some rooms are more already architecturally set up that way perfectly so yes you get Symmetry and some rooms are just you've got a door over here and a plain wall there I mean there are so many different things out there so besides actually pointing out Symmetry and what a difference it makes in home design I'm going to show you how you can actually create symmetry even when it's not there so this is the house that I bought in San Diego and as you can see there's a fireplace in the center and it looks like there's about the same amount of wall space left to right but there's a window on the right and no window on the left and then there's this funky hearth that would be the you know normally the base of a fireplace it actually goes all the way across I actually had chests the legs on the back cut off I left the legs on on the front and then cut the back legs off in order to slide those chests straight back now what this is here is a mirror so by putting a mirror here it sort of gave that sense that feel that there was another window and then as you can see I put window treatments on either side of one the window and on either side of the mirror and that is what made it feel and look like it's symmetrical [Music] I remember seeing this condo for the first time how the fact that the jewel this was the entryway the hallway and at the end of the hallway there was a piece of drywall that separated these windows and I just wished that the builders had placed that window in the center so that my view as I was walking down that hallway was right but look how off that is with that and even if the drywall had been dead center it would have been better but because it's off by probably six inches it drove it drove me nuts I camouflaged that first impression of that drywall piece by adding a wood panel over that to camouflage where that was hanging a painting over that that was actually wider and larger than the wood panel piece behind that allowed it the painting to just extend beyond that and now what you have when you first enter this place is you have a definite sense of symmetry [Music] this is actually my kitchen in San Diego but you can see this used to be a door and look the cabinets don't even connect it was just weird this was when we were going through water water problems and renovation but what I did was I very seriously practiced the principle so in my kitchen you can see the principle of symmetry was put to really good use in the end our digital resource library on videos all about the design principles you need to join the design sessions I'll put a link in the description box below I promise you it will change your life not just your life but your home oh and Dorian can we finish off the whole thing with this shot oh my gosh [Music] now that is symmetry we got stairs coming down this way if that was up it'd be even more perfect but even the plants look we got these two plants we got the gas pots The Umbrellas the chandelier the table I mean that is such a great shot I think we should end it with that [Music] gentlemen is it I could go through photos from my past projects for the last 25 years probably and I could pull out so many rooms that have symmetry I bet that without you knowing and some of you probably did know but without you knowing one of the reasons why you love my work so much is because it looks so clean and laid out and perfectly balanced secret is [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Kinwoven - Robeson Design

Views: 149,876

Keywords: interior design, interior decorating, decorating, home decor, interior design tips, interior design ideas, rebecca robeson, kinwoven, decorating tips, cohesive home, decorating ideas, design style, house tour, home makeover, decorating tricks, home hacks, beautiful home, home inspiration, home how to, interior design online course, Symmetry, Home design hacks, Home design tips, design course, Design how to

Id: xPCYI3N1TDk

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023