Gestalt Principles in Interior Design: Similarity Examples

Gestalt principles describe how your eye and brain group what you see into patterns. In a room, that means things that look alike, sit close together or line up tend to read as one group. Use that on purpose and a room feels calm. Ignore it and even a room full of things you love can feel messy.

This post focuses on similarity, the principle that's easiest to use at home, and then shows where proximity, closure and figure-ground fit in. It's very common to like every object in a room and still feel the whole thing is noisy, so don't feel bad if that's your living room.

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What are the Gestalt principles of design?

Gestalt psychology studies how we perceive wholes rather than separate parts. The principles usually listed for design are similarity, proximity, continuity, closure, figure-ground and symmetry. Researchers at Bilkent University note that Dilara Beder writes: "Gestalt principles are essential in design education, their relationship with architectural features remains understudied." So treat them as useful lenses, not laws.

Why bother at home? People spend at least half of their time in residential areas, and a paper on residential healthy environment design says that environment has a great impact on emotions, behaviors and living habits. How a room is organized matters more than most of us assume.

How does the principle of similarity work in a room?

Objects that share a color, shape, texture or material are seen as a set. That's the Gestalt principle of similarity. A shelf with a dozen unrelated objects looks like clutter. The same shelf with three items in the same warm tone looks like a deliberate group.

One caution from research: in an eye-tracking study of building façades, similarity-based designs received lower aesthetic ratings and demanded more time to look at than proximity-based ones. Similarity works best as a thread through a room, not as a rule applied to everything. Too much sameness becomes a pattern the eye has to work through.

Repeat a color, but aim for cousins, not twins

You don't need a monochrome room. Pick one color family and repeat it in vases, books and pillows. Matching exactly rarely works: a blue sofa with curtains in the identical blue looks forced. Match the undertone instead. A dusty slate sofa pairs well with a lighter sky blue or a deeper navy if they share a gray undertone.

Echo a dominant shape

If you have a round coffee table, repeat the curve in a mirror or a globe pendant. Echoing a shape a few times gives the eye a rhythm to follow. Keep about 30-36 inches for main walkways so curved pieces don't feel cramped.

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Group textures and materials

A boucle chair, a wool throw and a sheepskin rug read as one soft corner even though they're different objects. For hard finishes, match undertones: keep warm walnut with other warm woods, and pale oak with neutral or pale woods. Choose one dominant metal for hardware and lamp bases, with maybe one accent metal.

If a dog or cat shares the sofa, I recommend extending similarity to durability: performance fabrics that look like linen or velvet keep the texture consistent after claws and paws have had their say.

Seven cozy touches that use similarity without adding clutter

1. Match pillows by pairs. Two larger squares in the corners, two slightly smaller ones in front, and one lumbar in the center give graduated sizes and calm symmetry.
2. Style groups of three that share a link, such as a brass candle holder, a brass bowl and a book with gold lettering.
3. In a small room, let curtains match the wall color. It hides the visual break at the window.
4. Use one hardware finish for cabinet pulls, curtain rods and light fixtures.
5. Hang a gallery wall in identical frames with even spacing of about 2-3 inches. The art can differ.
6. Buy plant pots in one material (all terracotta or all white ceramic) in different sizes.
7. Keep bulbs at a similar color temperature. For living rooms and bedrooms, 2700K warm white is a safe choice.

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Where proximity, closure and figure-ground fit in

Similarity is only one tool. The others solve different problems, and in that façade study proximity-based designs received higher aesthetic ratings and took less effort to read.

• Proximity: things placed close together read as a group. Pull a sofa and two chairs into one conversation cluster. See the guide to the principle of proximity.
• Closure: the eye completes incomplete shapes, so a partly framed vignette or a rug that implies a zone still reads as whole. More in the Gestalt principle of closure.
• Continuity: the eye follows lines, like a row of frames or a run of shelving. See continuity in interior design.
• Figure-ground: we sort a scene into the object in front and the background behind it. As the University of Minnesota's perception text puts it, the first Gestalt principle is figure-ground, where we piece the world visually into figure then ground. A dark sofa against a pale wall is a clear figure. Read more on figure-ground at home.

How do you keep similarity from getting boring?

Add one thing that breaks the pattern, like a vintage chair in a modern room, and then do a quick scan. Stand in the doorway, look at the room for three seconds and notice where your eye gets stuck. If a bright red throw stops you, give it a partner elsewhere, such as red berries in a vase, or remove it.

Also check texture balance: soft (wool, cotton), hard (wood, stone), shiny (glass, metal) and rough (jute, rattan). Having at least three of these keeps a room from feeling flat.

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Renting, patterns and avoiding the catalog look

If you can't paint, work with what covers surfaces: a large rug over disparate flooring, matching lamp shades, and textiles in one palette. To mix patterns, keep the palette tight and vary scale: one large pattern, one medium, one small.

To avoid the showroom look, match attributes, not whole sets. Leg style, wood tone or period influence can repeat across pieces from different makers. For a deeper look at related ideas, see 15 ways to apply similarity and evidence-based design for interiors.

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A good place to start is one category. Align your wood tones or sort your pillows, then see how the room settles.

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