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[Oznell]

Lots of people who want a focal point or focal wall in their rooms, and struggle with bringing that off to their satisfaction.

Enter fabulous, hands-on interior designer Julie Khuu.   Her video on focal walls has to be one of the best I've ever seen.  She's one of the best teachers on design you can imagine, imparting complex concepts with ease, and making them fun.

She distinguishes between focal points and focal walls, how to choose your focal wall, gallery walls versus one big statement, and on and on.

Bonus:   She's not just a talking head--  her videos are LOADED with pictures of rooms, wild rooms, classic rooms, unusual rooms, and those more sedate, but lovely, like this example of a focal point. ( I had to grab a cropped screen shot, and it came out cuttin off part of the image):

 

I always go back to her, but have hesitated to post her videos since they tend to be longish.  This one is around 18 minutes.  But you get more great instruction and boundless ideas from one square inch of her output than hours from others!   And you can break it down, watching a little at a time. That's what I do.

Finally, here's the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0WL8g6CJWg

Just to give a few more images of her wide variety of focal walls in all kinds of settings.

Love her videos on dealing with awkward spaces, like long narrow rooms, etc.   Practical, to the point, but imaginative ideas.

[nyc1]

@Oznell   Thanks for posting.  Most of those are WAY TOO HEAVY HANDED for my taste.  

[PamfromCT]

Thank you for these posts.  It is a very different way of decorating than what I am used to, but I must say that last picture is very appealing.  It looks so peaceful and calming.

[manny2]

The scale is spot on, and it allows your eye to flow around the room. In the first photo I am not a fan of mirrors, so while it looks beautiful, and balanced I would opt out. The rest of the photo's are very well done.

[Nonametoday]

@Oznell 

I enjoy her channel as well.  She made me feel better about my great room (imbalance/asymmetry)  My room, (due to shelving/built-in-bookcases) looks very off-balance. It needed balance and a focal point without having more than one focal point, which I did, but felt ill-at-ease until she confirmed my solution was the right one.  See picture #2 (blue/coral decor). The wall unit is where my bookshelving is and the other side blank.  I ended up putting a beautiful amoire there (but it was green) and I visited an Annie Sloan store, and made it a color similar to my shelving unit.

The location of my fireplace is a lot like that of Garrett LeChic.  Before I "met" him, I had been to Julie's channel.  But Garrett made me feel better about the choice of rugs.  I have good rugs (that I must use) from my mother (Dad spent years in the Middle East, brought rugs home).  I could not possibly get all my seating furnishings on one rug due to the arrangement of my fireplace without putting the rug in the fireplace (LOL).  When I saw Garrett's, that made me feel like I had done the right thing.  

I love YouTube for more reasons but those are two of my main reasons, plus the man who tells me how to fix my dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and coffeemaker without paying a repair bill.  ;-)

[Oznell]

I should clarify, that the photos are not of "ideal" rooms necessarily, or of rooms Julie Khuu has done herself.

They're to illustrate all her points in the video about creating focal walls, the different principles that you can use to make an impactful focal wall, etc.

I should have made that more clear in my OP.   The pictures can't really be seen in isolation from the points in the video.   I just love to see all kinds of rooms-- even ones that aren't my style-- with solutions and ideas, so couldn't resist posting a few here!

Your room sounds beautiful, @Nonametoday .   Agreed, Garret LeChic is such an asset to the online interior design community!   I look forward to his videos.  

[wilma]

Even though the furnishings in the rooms may not be my style, I can definitely pick out the focal walls and focal points in each room. 

[Foxxee]

I've been referring to focal points here at times, so thanks for locating someone who can address what I think adds balance to the room and sense to furniture placement.  

I think she is great at explaining what it is and how to use it, however, in my opinion, she is using examples of some rooms that are a bit heavy handed, often over accessorizing and detracting from focal points particularly around fireplaces.  

The room below for example.  I don't remember if she was using the fireplace as the focal point or was including it with a focal wall, but I think the fireplace IS the focal point. 

The first pieces I see are the large mirrors, not the fireplace.  In view of the large mirrors; although, I don't think anything used over the fireplace should be larger than it is, the smaller paintings used here are diminishing, not enhancing the fireplace.  

Another example below of detracting from the fireplace.  The first pieces I notice are the large cabinet and painting on the sides and all the accessories around them, not the fireplace.  Not that they look bad, they are too large and noticeable to be used here. The mirror looks nice.

No doubt, in the photo below, the painting above the fireplace is the first accessory noticed overwhelming the room and the fireplace.  In fact, the fireplace, other than it is darker than the rest of the room, is barely noticeable at first glance. 

Although, the photo below is not my style, I think this is a good example of creating a wall focal point.  The painting stands on its own and is not fighting a lot of other pieces on the wall.   

However, it looks like there is a fireplace to the left that, in my opinion, should have been the only focal point.  

Considering furniture placement, positioned appropriately in relation to the fireplace, this designer created two focal points.  I think this arrangement can work, though, since the subtle painting doesn't necessarily detract or fight with the fireplace, but I'd give the fireplace more presence. 

Since it's the same color as the wall, I'd do that by adding a unique screen and fireplace accessories or painting it a different color. So what color would be appropriate in this neutral room?  Blue, green, red?  Don't think so.  Brown would be good, but a brown fireplace?...not for me. 

Using a darker color window treatment would help focus on the fireplace, particularly if there was a window on the other side.  I might do both, darker curtains and use an interesting screen and accessories.  

[Oznell]

Hey, thanks for that detailed analysis, @Foxxee ,  very interesting!   I agree with your comments about that first image.

I think in the case of many of the images, she's going with a more wholistic "focal wall" idea, rather than just focal point.  I could be wrong, but I think in the case of the room with terra cotta walls, she's using it as an example of a room where the whole wall is the focus. 

I thought it was neat that she showed how you can make a focal wall with symmetry, but also with a kind of assymetry, like that terra cotta room, where you have that cabinet on one side of the fireplace, and the deer painting on the other.  They're different, but somewhat similar in mass and impact, athwart that central fireplace...  to me, the whole is cohesive and rivets my attention.

Thank you for adding your thought-provoking points to the thread!

[Nonametoday]

@Oznell  @Foxxee 

The fireplace, the cabinet and the painting create hills and valleys.  The fireplace with the mirror is the hill and there are valleys and then the painting and cabinet form smaller hills.  That is what makes the symmetry but the fireplace maintains its position as focal point.  JMHO.

In that silly little ConEd class I took on decorating, we were told that creating hills and valleys (low, high, low) creates symmetry and flow.