If you've ever watched gymnastics, you might be blown away by the athlete's ability to remain balanced and level-headed while on the balance beam. They flip and twist without slipping, and it's truly amazing. This type of vigor can also be displayed in your home's design, as well.

But rather than attempting to get a gold medal by putting on a flawless performance, you're hoping to strike the right balance between your home's elements for a picture-perfect finish. It's called harmony, and it's a valuable trick to utilize in interior design.

Ready to learn about all things cohesion and compatibility? You've come to the right place. This guide will answer the question "What does harmony mean in interior design?" and provide information on how to get the look in your own home and where to get help if needed.

What Is Harmony in Interior Design?

In general, harmony is defined as a peaceful coexistence between different design elements, like when multiple notes come together to harmonize in music. You achieve harmonious interior design when all the details in a room work together to create a space that feels orderly, cohesive and beautiful. It's a principle that creates a feeling of visual cohesion that makes your home look unified and balanced.

This concept is valuable to your home design because it ensures that each room represents your personal style without feeling cluttered, chaotic or out of place. It's ultimately the foundation of good design, and it's what sets great styles apart from okay ones. You know the feeling you get when you walk into a room and it just feels right? That's harmony in action.

How Unity Works Alongside Harmony

Unity and harmony are like two sides of the same coin — they work together to make a space look seamless. It starts by selecting a handful of cohesive elements, like color, texture, pattern and shape, and using those different components throughout each room. Unity ensures all the pieces match and harmony makes them pair nicely with each other.

These two practices lay the groundwork for all other decor, furniture and lighting in your home, enabling you to add and take away pieces as the seasons change without losing the sense of cohesion.

The Ying and Yang of Home Decorating

Harmonious interiors don't just appear out of thin air; it takes strategy, intention and thoughtful design to achieve a unified look. However, any home can find the perfect pitch with these considerations:

Color Harmony and Palettes

A harmonious color scheme combines complementary colors, tones and shades to create a cohesive look. Color harmony creates visual balance within a space, resulting in a natural equilibrium that ensures your home feels inviting. How do you achieve this type of color palette? It's simple when you follow design principles.

• The 60/30/10 rule: Use 60% of a dominant color, 30% of a complementary secondary color and 10% as an accent to create natural balance.
• The three-color rule: Limit each room to three main hues for cohesion. Layer in lighter or darker shades to add depth and variation.

Unless you're specifically going for a monochromatic look, it's best to avoid overusing one singular shade that can make the space feel washed-out and overwhelming.

Balancing Different Textures and Materials

While your first instinct might be to use only one type of material consistently in every space, it's actually the opposite. Don't go overboard and select dozens of varying textiles and substances, but do grab a handful of diverse options that you can display throughout your home. Mixing smooth and rough textures, glossy and matte finishes or natural and man-made materials adds depth and visual interest.

You can implement these finishes in furniture, flooring, ceilings, window treatments, decor and light fixtures, creating dimension in every corner without anything feeling out of place. For instance, bronze fixtures and hardware, white oak hardwood flooring, velvet and linen upholstery and cotton draperies all combine to create a showstopping space that feels curated and intriguing.

Proportions, Scale and Spatial Balance

Every design element in a room should feel proportionate to the space. The sofa shouldn't feel overly large next to a tiny coffee table, and the artwork on the walls should go along with the size of the wall it's hung on. Think of your home as a puzzle, and each element you add is a separate piece of that puzzle. If the pieces don't fit together properly, the whole picture looks off. Let's break down what scale, proportion and spatial balance are and how they influence the space:

• Scale: The size of an object compared to the space it occupies. It's important to pick pieces that work within your specific home, rather than simply choosing decorative elements that you like. You wouldn't wear clothing that doesn't fit your body, and your home deserves the same type of care.
• Proportions: The relationship between the sizes of different pieces in a singular space. For example, your dining room table and the chairs you put around it.
• Spatial balance: When scale and proportion work in tandem, you achieve spatial balance — a critical element for harmony in interior design. It ensures that only your specific focal points stick out intentionally and nothing else snags your attention away from the main event.

When selecting what will go in your home, first think about how you live and move around your space. Then, consider your home as a whole picture and ensure each selection will add to the overall appeal rather than distract.

Harmony Through Furniture Placement

You can't have harmony in interior design if you can't move freely around your home without bumping into furniture or moving pieces that don't fit with how you use the space. Strategic placement promotes both function and harmony, like ensuring seating encourages conversation or keeping pathways clear to maintain openness.

How Do You Use the Room?

First, define each room's function. Know what will work as your home's living room, dining room, home office and more. While the kitchen is a more obvious choice, other spaces can be left to interpretation, so knowing how each area will be used helps your layout support functionality.

How Do People Move Throughout the Space?

Then, consider traffic flow. How will you, your family and guests move around a room? How will each room enable you to host large groups of people? What do you want people to focus on when they first enter? Once you have answers to each of these questions, you can move in your furniture pieces.

What Do You Want People To Focus on?

Identify your focal points — and your rooms should have them — and arrange your furniture around those different elements. Place large furniture that takes up the most space first. This will act as your anchor, around which all other smaller pieces will work. As you place items, ensure there's ample walking space and clear pathways for unobstructed movement. Lastly, avoid cluttering the room. Leaving some empty space is just as critical as the furniture placement for visual harmony.

Another key tip to try is placing furniture, home decor and any accessories — like throw pillows or blankets — parallel to one another. This symmetrical balance still places emphasis on the focal point while striking the right balance between seating, decor and functionality.

With a thoughtful layout and ample empty space, your house will appear thoughtfully designed and feel like a breath of fresh air. Plus, it will function exactly as you need it to, enabling you to use every square inch to your advantage.

Mixing Patterns Without Clashing

Patterns can energize a living space when used thoughtfully, but take away from the room's design if thrown together haphazardly. There's no perfect way to mix designs, but having a single color that's used in each can link them without fighting for attention. This common thread between all the varying shapes can ensure there's still unity.

On top of that, try to stick to three or four different patterns and no more. Once you use an excess of designs, it can begin to look a bit chaotic and cluttered. These patterns can be implemented on home decor like vases and artwork, furniture upholstery, table cloths, window treatments and more.

Creating Mood With Lighting

Setting the mood is key to finding your home's rhythm. One way to do this is through the perfect lighting fixtures that allow you the level of lighting that you need for any given moment. Layering ambient, task and accent lighting allows flexibility and harmony throughout the day — and night. Ambient lighting is your general overall illumination, like a larger overhead light or grand chandelier. Task lighting is for specific activities, like a table lamp or sconce. Lastly, accent lighting is meant to serve as artwork or an architectural detail, like a rattan floor lamp or modern, concrete fixture.

To layer your lighting properly, think through how you generally use lighting in your daily life. Do you like to read before your kids get up or work late into the night in your home office? Small table or floor lamps can do the trick. Do you have movie buffs in your family? Wall sconces or recessed lighting in your family room can do wonders for your experience. By choosing a wide selection of fixtures, you can ensure optimal lighting, no matter what your needs are.

Touches That Fall Flat: What To Avoid When Wanting Balance

You know what it takes to achieve total harmony in your home. But what design flops can cause your home to lose its proverbial balance? Here are a few common problems to avoid:

• Filling your living space up too much: Placing too much furniture and home decor in a room can make it feel crowded, messing with its feng shui.
• Using only a ceiling light: Putting all your hopes in one overhead light can make the room feel dull and flat.
• Lining furniture against the walls: Pushing all the furniture against the walls often makes your rooms feel empty and a bit boring.
• Forgetting storage: A messy room with no smart storage options quickly falls into disorganized chaos.

Stick the Landing: Work With a Professional

Like a professional gymnast needs a coach to be their best, it's helpful to hire a professional decorator to achieve your dream home. Rather than twist yourself into a pretzel trying to achieve the perfect home look that's both functional and chic, this interior designer can do the hard work for you. While you'll bring your design wishes and ideas, your personal decorator will find ways to make it all work together, tying furniture, lighting and color together in a way that's both artistic and masterfully functional.

Ready to get started with your home renovation? Enter your zip code to find a personal decorator nearest you.