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CITY | INTERIORS LEFT: This small dual-purpose dressing room/ guestroom designed by Catriona Archer used a mural wallpaper as its focal point, framed by a plush velvet sofa-bed and simple wardrobes add extra design elements around your chosen point to draw attention. It can also be effective to accentuate focal points with an individual light source. “We often use the room’s best asset as its focal point,” says Catriona Archer, “but we don’t have to be blessed with a fabulous architectural feature or breath-taking view from a window to create something wonderful. A room can be given personality and a clear purpose by using a favourite piece of furniture, a contrast in colour and through lighting. Less is often more, and even the smallest of rooms can make a big impression!” “It is often helpful (though not always crucial) to position a ‘hero piece’ on the opposite wall of the room’s main entrance,”continues Catriona. “We unconsciously look for symmetry and harmony within a space in order to feel more relaxed, so you may wish to consider arranging the layout of other furniture and accessories accordingly, to help balance this focal-point within the space.” Different rooms
A stand-out feature such as this Achetes Pendant from Dar Lighting combined with a dark, resonant paint colour creates a show-stopping focal point
74 TheBATHMagazine
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noveMber 2020
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issue 215
The majority of rooms have automatically positioned focal points with structural architectural features such as fireplaces and windows. Some rooms, especially small ones, give little flexibility in terms of furniture arrangement. In a main bedroom, for example, there is generally only one viable position for a double bed, usually opposite the window, and as a substantial and defining element of the room it’s the perfect contender for a focal point treatment – a statement headboard, a handmade quilt, and cushions and throws to dress. If the building is an older one, there may be an original fireplace along one of the walls, an automatic focal point providing another point of interest. In a bathroom your architectural structure may be less interesting but the creative use of colour with tiles and bathroom furniture can create a real wow dynamic. Living rooms can be trickier. By their nature, they are more complex, designed to encompass different sorts of activity: relaxation, watching television, listening to music, children’s play area, study area. So focal points may be harder to interpret. They can be established through contrast as much as through visual stimulation. Using a soft chair in a room full of hard edges, having a statement table in the middle of a room with an eye-catching sculpture, creating a feature wall with pattern or colour or an eye-catching gallery wall creating automatic visual conversations. John Law says, “We are always keen to reflect a client’s personality and lifestyle within any space, and every so often look to introduce a gallery wall as a focal point, perhaps set against a dark wall as a dramatic backdrop. Here we would look to mix the old and the new, using the client’s own artwork
