ELEMENTS & PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN: Value & Focal Point

Bring a Splash of Colour – and then Repeat It in Lighter Tints or Darker Shades

One of the best ideas for redesigng any space, big or small, formal or private. Take a piece of furniture or a decorative item for your interior. Choose one that is in the colour your would like to become the main focal point in your room – it is pink in the below example. A useful hint: beiges and light greys may not work well as focal points here, they are too neutral. Take the piece full of your beloved colour and place it in a position that will become the focal point of any person looking at your space. Then add more decorative elements in them same colour, but different tint – whiter, lighter, or different shade – stronger, darker variation of your focal point. It is a very interesting, and yet a relatively easy and safe technique of decoraing any interior.

ELEMENT

Value refers to the darkness or a lightness of a colour. Adding white to a colour creates its tint, while adding dark to the colour creates a shade. In the above interior we notice the value of the pink colour of the large flowers, as well as pink bowls on the side table at the front, pink bowls on a side table at rear, and a pink shape (possibly a chair) far back.

PRINCIPLE

The focal point is the element of a space that unanimously draws the viewer’s eye to itself at the first glance at that space. It is the focus of the room, the main visual element of the room.

OUTCOME

Large pink flowers in two floor vases create a strong focal point for this room. Different values of the other pink elements create the secondary and tertiary focal points for the space. The eye naturally goes to the main focal point, and then viewing flows to the second focus, and the third one. The values of pink enliven the space and the well coordinated focal points make it a pleasant and relaxing visual journey through the interior.

Next page: How applying different values of the same colour can create an interior of symmetrical balance