Interior design - our editor picks his favorite 16 rules the world's best designers always use

Good interior design can make you feel amazing. It can uplift you, it can soothe you, and it can - truly - make you feel better about your life. The right color choice, the little bit of extra flair, the shape or curve or finer detail that brings a room together can uplift a room from ordinary to extraordinary.

'Interior design should be fun,' says Joa Studholme, head of color at Farrow and Ball. 'A little playful, a bit sophisticated, and used to create spaces that make you smile.'  

In my 20 years as an interiors journalist, I've interviewed countless interior designers,  watched trends come and go, and been inspired by numerous ideas. Here are the 16 I think apply best to design right now, the ones that have helped form Livingetc's view on what style looks like today. And they're the ones I'm currently referring back to again and again as I redecorate my own home. They are easy guidelines to allow you to create the perfect modern space, full of personality, charm, and rooms that enrich your soul.

PUT A PERSON ON YOUR MOODBOARD

When creating a moodboard, it can be hard to know where to begin. Which colors to pick, which fabrics to go for, how you want the room to make you feel. The chocies are overwhelming. 

That's why international interior designer Tara Bernerd always begins the process with a picture of a person, rather than a piece of furniture. 

'Always throw an image of a person into the mix from the start,' Tara says, using the example of a living room she created which had a picture of Robert Redford. 'It could be a hand holding a handbag over a shoulder, a woman in a linen suit, the clunk of a tortoiseshell bracelet that speaks to me about how I want to feel when I'm in the room. This helps you to center the DNA of the the space, to work out what the story is and who or what you're trying to create the decor for - specifically, how you want to feel when you're in the room. By distilling that attitude into every design choice you then go on to make, you can easily create a cohesive look that has an emotion at its core.'

GET THE FEELING OF A ROOM RIGHT

Using an evocative person to help you build the mood of a room is key to a successful end result. Because no matter how you want a room to make you feel - calmed, uplifted, energized - that emotion is what stays with someone far longer than how it looked. 

'People don't remember every piece of furniture in a room,' says the interior designer Brigette Romanek. 'But they will remember how they felt when they were in it.' 

So focus less on having the right stuff, and instead, more on having the right energy. 'More than ever, I think good decor is about energy,' Brigette says. 'If you can create a space people want to sit in for hours, and have drinks or chats or good times, then you'll be making yourself and others happy.'

The short way to do this is to ask yourself how you want to feel in room. If it's comforted, then go for darker colors and layered textures. If it's uplifted, then go for lighter colors and rounder shapes.