Have you ever walked into two rooms that have basically the same furniture but one feels peaceful and the other feels weird and you can’t figure out why? It’s probably balance. Visual balance is about the distribution of the visual weight of shapes, colors and objects in a room. If one side of a room has all the visual weight and the other has none, your eye moves uncomfortably back and forth between the two. It’s one of the most important things to learn as a beginner because it affects every other decision you make.
You can practice seeing balance by standing in the middle of your living room and slowly looking from left to right. Notice where your eye goes first and where it goes second. Maybe there’s a huge cabinet on one side of the room and a tiny chair on the other. Now grab a pencil and paper and quickly sketch the wall and whatever’s in front of it. Then shade in the parts that feel heavy. This little drawing will show you where the balance problem is and help you think of ways to gently correct it.
One thing beginners often do when trying to balance a room is to add more stuff to the side that feels empty. Unfortunately this usually just makes things worse. Instead of adding new things, try moving things you already have around. Moving a lamp from one side of a table to the other, or putting a plant in a corner that feels bare are ways to balance a room without adding more clutter. Editing is usually more important than adding when it comes to balance.
Practicing scale relationships can also help. Big pieces of furniture feel heavier than small ones, and if you put a tiny object next to a huge one it will disappear. So take 15 minutes and play around with scale. Try putting a small side table right next to a big sofa instead of having it all alone on the other side of the room. Put a tall lamp next to a short chair. This will help you get a feel for how pieces work together to create balance.
As you practice balance you will start to feel it rather than think about it. You’ll begin to sense when a room is out of balance and where the problem is. You’ll feel it when you walk into a corner that feels too bare, or a wall that feels too heavy, or a seating group that feels disconnected. The more you practice going back to the same space over and over again, the more you’ll develop this sense. And the more you do these little practices the easier it will be to make a room feel balanced and calm and comfortable.