Interior Designers Reveal Their Strategies to Prevent Dullness in Room Design: Top 5 Insights Shared
Interior design is all about creating captivating spaces that reflect one's personality and set a space apart from the ordinary. To achieve this, top designers suggest incorporating elements that spark interest and character without relying solely on trends or predictability.
Camilla Masi, an interior designer at Otto Tiles & Design, emphasizes the importance of contrast in interior design. Whether through color or texture, contrast adds visual interest and prevents a space from feeling flat or expected.
Raili Clasen, founder and creative director at Raili CA Design, suggests being playful with partitions. She recommends painting an arched doorway or adding contrasting wallpaper on either side of room dividers to create impact and turn a mundane pass-through into a design statement.
Monica Santayana, co-founder of MONIOMI Design, suggests disrupting harmony in design to make it intriguing. She recommends mixing patterns unexpectedly, placing something bold in a quiet room, or exaggerating proportion.
Genevieve Bennett, head of design at Liberty Interiors, encourages experimentation with unexpected color or pattern pairings. For instance, juxtaposing a graphic stripe against a traditional, ditsy floral, or adding a vibrant pop of color into a minimal living space can create a space that exudes interest and balance.
Outdated interior design rules should be avoided when starting a new project. Instead, designers suggest focusing on thoughtful details, mixing materials like reclaimed wood or textured wall finishes, and creating defined areas in open layouts for visual interest.
Manuela Hamilford, creative director and founder of Hamilford Design, believes that art can quickly inject soul and individuality into a space, set the tone for an entire space, and invite emotion and conversation. Bold art pieces can be considered for adding visual interest to a space.
Ronald Alvarez, co-founder of MONIOMI Design, agrees with the importance of playing with contrast. He notes that when everything matches perfectly, the space can feel lifeless. He prefers a curated collision of ideas.
Moniomi Design treats every room like its own chapter in a story, creating movement, surprise, and moments of discovery as you walk through. Genevieve Bennett, the Head of Design - Interiors at Liberty, has led the relaunch of the category since joining in 2020. She has previously collaborated with leading interior brands such as Wedgwood, Mulberry, Knoll, and Heals.
Manuela Hamilford leads Hamilford Design, a London-based interior design studio with global reach, known for harmonizing classic elegance with modern sensibility. Ronald Alvarez also mentions that even with a restrained or tonal palette, depth can be pushed through texture, scale, and sculptural shapes.
In summary, to keep interiors interesting: - Use bold but curated color and pattern combinations. - Mix textures and materials for contrast and depth. - Break predictability with subtle disruptions in harmony. - Create well-defined zones in open layouts for visual interest. - Prioritize personal style and meaningful details over blind trend-following.
These approaches combine inspiration from top designers and 2025 design trends to keep interiors lively and engaging.
- Camilla Masi, an interior designer, stresses the significance of contrast in interior design, adding visual interest through color or texture to prevent a space from looking ordinary or flat.
- Raili Clasen suggests playing with partitions in interior design, recommending painting an arched doorway or adding contrasting wallpaper on either side of room dividers to create impact and transform a mundane pass-through into a design statement.
- Monica Santayana recommends disrupting harmony in design to make it intriguing, suggesting mixing patterns unexpectedly, placing something bold in a quiet room, or exaggerating proportion.
- Genevieve Bennett encourages experimenting with unexpected color or pattern pairings, examples being a graphic stripe against a traditional, ditsy floral, or adding a vibrant pop of color into a minimal living space to create a balanced and interesting space.
- Outdated interior design rules should be ignored during new projects, with designers preferring focus on thoughtful details, mixing materials, and creating defined areas for visual interest in open layouts.
- Art, according to Manuela Hamilford, can quickly inject soul and individuality into a space, setting the tone, inviting emotion, and providing conversations starters through bold art pieces.
- Ronald Alvarez supports the idea of playing with contrast, stating that a perfectly matching space can feel lifeless, and a curated collision of ideas is preferable.
- Hamilford Design, led by Manuela Hamilford, blends classic elegance with modern sensibility, while incorporating texture, scale, and sculptural shapes to create depth with a restrained or tonal palette.
