How to Create a Well-Curated Space (Instagram at the Ready!)

Styling your space like a pro isn’t just about making your home photo-friendly: well-curated corners appeal to the eye and relax the mind, making each room a calming, enjoyable space to be in. And of course, if you get a pretty picture out of it? That’s just the icing on the cake…?

1. Three is the magic number

Grouping items in threes or fives is a great way to achieve a more relaxed feel. By keeping things uneven, your eye can focus on each individual item and not the symmetric whole.

2. Limit your scope

Think of the arrangement as a display rather than storage. Limit yourself to a small number of items and add boxes or baskets to conceal unsightly necessities.

3. Use complementary colours?

To make things easy for yourself, pick a cohesive colour palette and then simply weave it throughout the room. Stick to complementary tones to achieve a soothing feel, or go for colours that dramatically contrast each other for a striking effect.

4. Mind the gap

The Japanese term ‘ma? roughly translates as a gap or pause. It’s a concept that captured the imagination of Western artists such as C?zanne and van Gogh, as it encourages you to treat the empty (negative) space with just as much care as the areas that are filled.

5. Flaunt your favourites

Make sure you provide a stage only for the headliners?of your collection – the things that you are most fond of. You look at them day in and day out, so only display things that truly make you happy.

6. Add life

Botanicals are key for breathing life, texture and energy into a space. Try flowers in bud vases, hardy succulents, or simply some twigs or branches.

7. Think big and small

This works great for framed pictures. By alternating heights and sizes, you are thinking about the display as a whole. If you’re unsure, use the border of a shelf as an anchor for your creation.

8. Change it up

Restricting the number of items you display allows you to swap and change things easily, often creating a new look each time.

9. Be aware of balance

Asymmetry is?a very easy and effective way of creating a visually interesting curated collection, so don’t be afraid to move your accessories away from the centre. As for ‘Gramming, try to make sure the vertical and horizontal lines are at clean 90-degree angles to each other. Most phone cameras come with an inbuilt grid view that you can use to help keep things even.

10. Ditch the duds

Keep useful but unattractive items hidden in covered’storage units or tucked away in decorative boxes or baskets.

11. Step back

?Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and?take one thing off” – the oft-quoted words of Coco Chanel can also be applied to creating a display in your home: when you think you have finished, step back and pare back.

12. Shoot in natural light?

If you’re Instagramming in your own home, study the way the light travels and take your photographs where the light is bright and, most crucially, even. Turn off any other lights – they will only give your images an ugly orange cast.

Don’t forget to send us your curated creations @image_interiors!