Home Decorating Inspiration to Create Infographic Guides for Stylish Interiors
Home decorating is a topic many people enjoy viewing, yet very few can describe. There are countless sources of inspiration for decorating, including; Pinterest, glossy magazines, and your friend’s gorgeous living room. However, taking the inspiration from these sources and providing a direct, usable guide to achieving the same results as the source of inspiration is what usually causes people to become lost. This is precisely what an infographic provides. An infographic allows a decorator, blogger, or small business owner to organize the numerous ideas they have gathered from other sources into a format that can be easily followed by readers, step-by-step, without reading numerous pages of general advice. This article describes which decorating themes are most effective when transformed into visual guides and how to format each of the themes so that readers will leave informed rather than overwhelmed.
Start With Colour Palettes, the Most Visual Topic of All
Color will be the first element a person sees when entering a room. It is the most simple way to educate people about color visually. A palette infographic will display 3-5 different swatches, identify every color swatch by name, and state the emotion associated with that specific color warm terracotta for cozy nights, cool sage for relaxation, and dramatic deep navy. Each swatch will have a small “where to use this color” label directly below it (i.e., walls, upholstery, accents, trim). Creating an infographic in this manner allows for comparison among colors. Instead of readers having to visualize the colors, they can compare them side-by-side. This allows readers to make decisions regarding color selection much faster and with less apprehension.
Map the Floor Plan Before You Style It
People get more confused about arranging furniture than they do about choosing colors. That’s because arranging furniture requires thinking about space, traffic, and proportions simultaneously. The best way to create a solution to this problem is with a simple grid. Create a sketch of the walls of a room. Mark the primary pathways through the room. Create two or three alternative arrangements of furniture in the same scale. Indicate the required space for a person to move around a dining table or in front of a sofa. An infographic is much more effective than a written article when it comes to creating these types of guides, since readers can replicate the exact dimensions from the infographic directly onto their own rooms.
Explain Materials and Textures in Layers
Materials are physical, so an image which is on a single plane needs to exert greater effort. Create either a stacked or a circular diagram to categorize your finishes based upon their physical feel. For every finish category, include details on the finish’s durability, price, and the type of room it will be used in. After including these details, explain how using a combination of finishes from all three categories provides added dimension to a space. Creating an infographic that includes texture can be difficult. It is important to practice moderation in terms of including too many types of finishes in one single card. If you include more than three finish categories in one single card, your message will become diluted and ultimately lost.
Turn Budget Advice Into a Pie You Can Read
There isn’t anything that will get a reader more excited about how much money they’re spending than seeing how the budget is split up. Divide a standard room remodel into categories of spending: furniture, lighting, textiles, paint, accessories, and a contingent amount. Next to each category create a column of “splurge versus save” so people can see what parts of the project are worth investing in. The best part of making an infographic of this data is that it doesn’t take very long for people to understand the percentages and remember them after they’ve finished reading the article.
Light the Room on Paper
Lighting is often the most overlooked component of home design; however, it is also one of the most satisfying components to help others learn. To illustrate how every space requires all three types of lighting ambient, task and accent create a 3-tiered diagram with an icon representing each level of lighting along with a description of where it would typically be placed (e.g., overhead ceiling fixture; floor lamp near a chair; picture light above art). Also include a Kelvin scale ranging from warm-to-cool so that your audience understands the difference between 2700K (which creates an inviting atmosphere) and 4000K (which provides a more clinical environment). By creating an infographic based upon the concepts described above, you will have taken a highly technical abstract concept and turned it into actionable advice for beginners.
Show Before-and-After as a Split Panel
Decorating content is best presented as a “before-and-after” format. You can create a vertical split screen, with your “before” photo on the left side of the screen and your “after” photo on the right. Then use numbered callouts to identify the changes made (e.g., changed out the light fixture; painted the walls a lighter shade; purchased a larger area rug; removed some decorative accessories). Creating an infographic forces you to list only the most significant changes made during the renovation process, rather than providing a detailed account of everything that occurred.
Style by Season in a Simple Wheel
Seasonal updates to a house are great because they give a house personality without having to completely redo everything. A four part “wheel” (spring, summer, fall, winter) is an easy way to demonstrate to people how they can use 1-2 changes to their decor each season (lighter throw pillows in the spring, darker color schemes in the fall, layered textures in the winter). Include a small price tag with every change made during the seasonal update to let your audience know that making a few simple updates to your home does not have to cost a fortune. This type of format is particularly useful when posting on social media because it is easily read on a mobile device.
Give Readers a Checklist They Can Keep
An actionable item should always be the last part of every guide. A one-page checklist that includes: measuring the space, choosing a color scheme, setting your budget, layering the lighting and editing your accessory list will turn your ideas into a plan. Your checklist can be no more than 7 or 8 items long, with a checkbox next to each one. This is the natural final panel of developing an infographic and it’s the item that people will take a screenshot of and look at repeatedly.
Final Thoughts
The best interiors aren’t created by having “good” taste. They are created by making clear decisions, in the correct order. Your inspiration provides the overall feel (mood), while your structure provides the space (room). It doesn’t matter if you’re a designer creating a handout for a customer; a blogger building their following; or a business owner explaining what makes their product unique clarity is always king. If you take the themes listed above, and turn them into simple geometric shapes you’ll see that developing an infographic isn’t just an add-on to your marketing efforts it’s the easiest way to explain how to develop your own personal style.
