How to Create Calm Yet Characterful Spaces
In a few corners of the internet, there’s a sense that a calm home interior can only be achieved if you have no children, no job and a fondness for beige on beige. Please accept this is not an attack on neutral shades - there is absolutely a place for clay, stone, mushroom and taupe - and in fact these colours are extremely helpful in their versatility - but calm does not have to be monotone.
Personally-speaking, I prefer interiors to feel lived-in, layered and rich - and, to me, that means an expert mix of colour, pattern and texture to varying but cohesive degrees as suits the desired feel for the space. For me, I would not find it very inspirational to live in as home that settled for shades of grey and empty shelves.
But, at the other extreme, this does not have to mean shouty, clashing interiors that demand your attention. So, how do you inject personality into your home whilst still creating visual and emotional calm?
Keep Personality in the Edit
At the beginning of the design journey with new clients, I often ask them to consider their belongings and have a really good clear out so we can understand their baseline storage requirements.
But there is a moment when ‘decluttered’ becomes ‘soulless’. The line between calm and bland can be fine - and that’s where personality steps in.
Keep the art, the hard copy books, the textiles that tell a story - but edit what competes for attention. Characterful interiors are really about curtain, not accumulation.
Design tip - choose 2-3 emotional resonant pieces per room (maybe a painting, a ceramic, or a vintage rug) and allow them to breathe by not overfilling the space.
Think of Calm as a Feeling, not a Look
The best interiors don’t perform calm, they infuse it. A home can hum with colour, pattern and life - and still feel deeply soothing.
What matters most is rhythm, proportion and intention. Calm is the feeling of being held by your environment and the sense of relief you have knowing everything has its place.
Design tip: design your space around the moments you love, not furniture - such as reading, drinking tea, looking out onto your garden - so your interior naturally invites you into small moments of pause.
Use Textures as a Soothing Counterbalance
When designing for calm, texture is the real hero. Textures creates visual depth to an interior and allows the eye to rest on something. In that same way, visual rhythm matters. In a space filled with screens and hard, angular surfaces, softness introduces a luxuriousness without visual noise.
Design tip: try pairing sleek kitchen cabinetry with rustic timber stools and jute rugs or an armchair upholstered with an open weave linen next to a metal coffee table.
Concealed Storage is Emotional Self-Care!
Calm begins with know where things go and by having storage that quietly absorbs the noise of family life.
In period homes, though, whether Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian or post-war, our interior spaces can be unevenly and quirkily set out - thereby not lending themselves well to retail-bought solutions.
As an interior designer, I am big on bespoke, built-in cabinetry and always worth the investment. It allows you to use the whole space as efficiently as as possible, to hide the toys, cables, spare batteries and reusable shopping bags. Visual clutter means mental clutter and the most successful interiors are designed to disguise the everyday whilst still making it accessible.
Design tip: include adjustable shelves so the storage configuration can adapt as your lifestyle demands.
At Honey and Toast Interiors, we love to design deeply rich spaces for the clients we work for. Please contact us for more information.