When you sit in a room, it is extremely unlikely that it is the only room you will see. All rooms have at least one doorway, and many have more than that. As we talked about last week, that is why color choices really matter. We all know that, right?

But more than that, as you look across a space, you will notice that different things are framed in the doorway—a window, a painting, a chair, even a bathtub. You can think of the color on the wall of one room as the frame for the objects in the next. This doesn’t need to be matchy-matchy, but it makes sense to be consistent.

This is one of the ways we create flow. As we talked about last time, this can be helped by the consistency of color choices. But you also want to see a pleasing vista as you sit in one room and contemplate the next.

For that reason, I like to sit in different spots in a house and think about the sight lines. What are the keyhole views you will get from each spot? It might be better to put a painting in the middle of the wall, or centered over a piece of furniture, but how serendipitous when it’s framed by a beautiful doorway as well!

You can even reverse-engineer it. You can move a chair in the one room so that the angle is perfect to see the painting centered over the piece of furniture in the next. I have been known to get up mid-sentence and switch paintings, or move a chair, or a lamp.

How do you know when it’s right? There’s nothing like a fresh perspective. Don’t sit in the same chair every time. Move things and let them be for a week. You might even go back to the previous arrangement.

The point is, you want to keep the eye moving, interested, and at the same time, remove any off notes that put a snag in your calm. Is everything in your room earthy and neutral, but the spine of that coffee table book neon yellow? Maybe that’s what you want to do, but maybe it bothers you.