Before starting your interior design project, take time to discover your personal decorating style. To help find your style, visit our design idea center where you can find sources of inspiration and learn about numerous design styles including Tuscan, Asian and Contemporary. Be sure to consider your taste in collectables and accessories.

If you do not wish to use an existing style, make your own by selecting a theme and/or a simple color scheme to create a look that reflects your personality and interests. Begin with a signature piece such as a favorite piece of artwork, rug, draperies, lamp or upholstered item to focus your decorating decisions. Pull your color pallet that item and use it to set the mood for the room. Read Design in Color for more information on selecting a color scheme.

Once you have decided on a style, define it in writing. Use specifics such as Tuscan design with wrought iron accents and the colors black, olive, and violet. Then, commit to making the room either formal or casual. This will help put you on a definite decorating path.

When you begin decorating, use contrasts in color, patterns, texture, and sizes to create interest in a room and repetition of colors, patterns, textures, and motifs to create rhythm. To create a feeling of unity between rooms, repeat colors, patterns and motifs in varying combinations throughout your home.

Defining your space is crucial for creating a harmonious environment. It is also important to know your space limitations before you begin moving and placing furniture. The foundation of a comprehensive interior design plan includes accurate dimensions of your living space.

Before deciding on furnishings and planning the layout, consider the uses and function of a room and identify the room's primary focal point. Focal points can be a fireplace, a view, a piece of art, an architectural element, or an interesting piece of furniture. Once these have been determined, use a floorplan to construct the layout of the room.

Proper layout creates a feeling of balance in a room. Layouts for formal rooms consist primarily of symmetrically balanced arrangements while casual rooms use asymmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is created by arranging objects as though they were a mirror image, such as placing matching end-tables and lamps on each end of a couch. Asymmetrical balance is created by balancing unlike objects of equal visual weight and scale such as using mismatched end-tables and topping one with a lamp and the other with a floral arrangement.

When decorating a room, pay attention to scale - how an items size relates to the room overall, and proportion - how items in a room related to each other. An example of improper scale would be to use an overstuffed couch in a small sitting room. An example of improper proportion would be to place a delicate side table next to the overstuffed couch.

When devising a rooms' layout, keep the rooms' natural pathways open. To maintain overall balance, place large heavy pieces of furniture around the room, not grouped together on one side. For open floor plans, define smaller spaces with furniture groupings anchored by area rugs.

If you feel helpless when it comes to picking and blending colors, your answer could be as far away as your nearest pillow. Here is a quick way to create a color scheme for your home with PICK - SEE -LMD.

You can use patterns and textures to add spark and character to an otherwise plain color scheme. Begin by collecting samples of patterns and textures that appeal to you and work well with your overall plan. Though the number of styles and combinations available may seem limitless and overwhelming, following these simple tips can help you make knowledgeable selections to create dramatic arrangements and enhance any room.