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Your home is your palace, whichever way you look at it. It is an evocation of your personality, not only in your choice of wall colour or furnishings but also in the things you collect and display. Nonetheless, there is an element of interior design that can escape even the most aesthetic-minded of households – the ‘wow’ factor. How can one create a wow factor in their home?
Statement Pieces
The wow factor is often brought not by core décor choices, but instead by ‘statements’ – singular expressions in a given space that draw the eye, and inspire a reaction. This can be achieved decoratively, through the judicious use of feature walls to display striking wallpaper or paint patterns, but can often be better achieved with the staging of statement furnishings.
A rug is a great place to start for a statement piece in a living space. Larger rooms will have a sparse middle, bounded by sofas and an entertainment centre. Filling this space with a rug can draw the eye to the centre without cluttering the room. For dining spaces, the artwork is the far better option. Choosing striking works to stipple a wall can create a sense of intrigue and cosiness, especially when paired with a bold, warm wall colour.
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall
Mirrors are an interior designer’s best friend when designing for ‘wow’. We all know that mirrors reflect light, but the ambient impact of these reflections on a living space can be nothing short of profound. Firstly, more natural light is brought into the space, illuminating darker corners and providing a more organic lift to the sense of space.
Secondly, and perhaps most interestingly, the addition of a mirror extends the line of sight in a space considerably. The subconscious effect is a ‘lengthening’ one; rooms appear larger, and more spacious, giving us room to relax in them.
Handleless Kitchen
The kitchen is easily the most impactful space in the home for the wow factor. The right combination of appliances, units and furnishings can complete a home’s decorative ambitions, whether raw woods and stone floors for a rustic cottagecore feel or the rough stone surfaces of a brutalist aesthetic.
The simplest route to achieving this is through the fitted kitchen – a suite of cabinets and units, custom-fitted to complement one another and your home. A handleless fitted kitchen hides drawers and shelves with sleek push-latch doors, while a more maximalist design might fill the vertical space above the kitchen island with hooks and handles.
The Greenhouse Effect
A relatively contemporary emergence in interior design is that of biophilic design or the movement of designing around natural materials and elements. Houseplants are naturally central to this aesthetic, and particularly appealing to younger demographics.
A biophilic approach to room design might see larger monstera plants hanging over seating spaces by windows, or hanging ivy used to accentuate door frames and fitted furnishings. Houseplants are also relatively inexpensive, making it easy to populate your home for that biophilic wow factor.