Experimenting with interior decoration, Summer 2011

I am nearly done with the interior decoration, and have figured out, where to put what sort of furniture, paintings and plants, working desks and computing hardware and peripherie.
It was difficult, to create ambiance and harmony, and not make the rooms look smaller than they are, as there are a lot of walls, corners, small spaces, doors and windows. I was able to fill the rooms with items, without making the rooms look cramped. A few big items, like sofa and some paintings, but mostly small furniture and mid size paintings. Each piece of furniture, and each painting or mirror, has only one place in the flat, where it looks good, and with which I can achieve an improvement of the looks of the flat.
I had to move most items around, up till 10 times, to find the perfect place. Which was of course tiring, exhausting and time consuming. Only the result counted, and I have done a nice job. To find the perfect spot, sometimes nearly drove me insane, and only then allowed me to rest and lay back in a chair.
The project is still not finished, but I have all the layouts already final, in my mind.
I must admit, that I had thorougly "studied" interiors from a lot of about thirty older "Architectual Digest / AD" magazine copies. Countless hours of reading the articles, written in Italian, and looking at the pictures / photographs of the mostly overloaded interiors. And I got a hint, from time to time. The most important things I learnt from a book, though: "The World of May Ellen Best", which has loads of water color drawings of interiors from the middle of the 19th century (German Biedermeier interiors, etc.).
The main lesson I have learnt, is to experiment, to be courageous, and try unconventional things. And don't stick to any rules, but just to copy this and that idea, and "blend" them together, to one composition.
There is no such ting, as "that will never look good, or never match", because it will often do, nevertheless, and which can only be seen, by doing things, that firstly create a internal disaccord within the feelings and taste. Like placing a big plant ontop of a small desk, and infront of a round mirror on the wall. The effect of a composition, can only be seen, by creating the compositon (in the grand and real size) scale, and not just in the head.
Nothing can be done wrong, because there is somewhere already a existing example, that may look stunning withing that interior and invironement.

The main problem, or risk, with interior design, is to buy items that will hopefully fit in somewhere, because it is possible, that the items may fit nowhere, and have to be brought back for exchange for something else, or have to be resold.

It is always try and error. And difficult to know in advance, what furniture or painting will do the trick.

It is like improving the looks of a person with nice clothes, fabrics, and which are tailored from a good taylor.