4 Tips to Designing Around a Focal Point

Focal points are an essential element in every space... and designing around them is all about creating a place for the eye to land. Whether we’re designing an entire home, remodelling one room, or home styling to sell, we’re always considering how to build on our focal points. Here are a few of our favourite tips for designing around a focal point:

No. 1: Identify your focal point

First things first, identify your focal point. While focal points can certainly be created, be sure to look around your space and consider any existing focal points.

A focal point can be architectural or decorative. Fireplaces, windows, large artwork pieces, mirrors, and views are common focal points.

While the general rules of thumb focus on one focal point, there may be more than one architectural focal point you want to bring attention to in some cases. For example, if you have a room with a great view and a fireplace, you’ll want to keep that in consideration when choosing your furniture orientation, colour palette, etc.

No. 2: Arrange your pieces around your focal point

When choosing furniture placement and the overall layout of pieces in a space, adjust accordingly to your focal point to make sure you are adding to it, not distracting from it. More often than not, we tend to orient furniture pieces facing the room’s focal point or focal points.

No. 3: Use decor to bring the eye into your focal point

Incorporating surrounding decor is a great way to design around a focal point and bring the eye in. We love incorporating built-ins around a fireplace to create a place for styling decor that centres the focal point or pulls out colours from a piece of artwork.

No. 4: Bring attention to your focal point with lighting

Lighting is a great way to design around a focal point and highlight its details. We love using picture lights over artwork, chandeliers to draw the eye up to the windows, and even using lighting pieces as a focal point.