Hello, lovelies!
So, giving a good description of anything in your story tends to give any author a mini heart attack. However, describing a room seems to be particularly difficult.
Writing tips often range from "be as detailed as possible" to "don't be detailed at all, it will bore your audience". Well, what are we supposed to do then?
The truth is, there isn't a single step-by-step way of bringing a room to life. It typically all depends on the author's own style and the genre they are writing in. You wouldn't use the same words to describe a cold, damp prison, as you would a cosy, little tea-shop, for example.
However, there are some techniques I have found in practise, that have been extremely helpful in my own writing. These can both give the audience a feel for the atmosphere the room is supposed to have, and give some concrete clues to what the room looks like.
So, I thought I would share them with you!
Space:
Whenever a reader is introduced to something new, particularly a new room, the easiest way to settle their imagination is to start narrowing down the space. This way, when you start adding things like furniture, colours and decorations, it will fit easier in their mind.
You don't need to add those things right after having described how big, wide, or tall the room is, however. Rather let those things come out as they become relevant to reader. I will address this further later on.
For shape, you don't necessarily have to add any descriptive words, since most rooms are either square or rectangle anyway. Only when the room defects from that, like round or triangular, is it handy for you to add the shape of the room, otherwise it may come across as either patronising or overbearing.
The size and height of the room is what will inform the reader the most in terms forming a basis of an image in their head. On top of that, depending on the wording you use, it's an ideal moment to give off whether the reader should feel comfortable or unsettled in this room.
For two short examples: if a room is small, the word 'tiny' or 'snug' is going to bring out a more positive reaction, as supposed to 'cramped' or 'suffocating', and if a room is tall, the word 'towering' is going to make the reader feel more overwhelmed than 'elevated'. So, if the character is meant to feel uneasy in this room, or is simply not in a good place mentally themselves, using words with more negative connotations to describe a room is a good way to illustrate that. The same goes for positive words if the character is meant to feel comfortable.
This works as an initial description if the furniture isn't overwhelmingly packing up the space or if the room isn't depressingly empty. However, if the furniture does have a deep effect on the room in terms of how it fills it up, that is what a character will most likely notice first.
This is an excerpt of the paragraph where I describe the dining room of the Girl House in my in-progress novel:
"Chipped, white paint on long rows of chairs on either side of an equally long table filled most of the long, narrow space, packed further by a stone fireplace on the right and a cabinet full to bursting with plates, cutlery and cups on the left. Not to be outdone, the top of the cream-coloured curtains were adorned by various bundles of holly and mistletoe, their bright red and white berries intertwining with the dried green of the leaves, scraping over the greyish brown-painted walls."
-Chapter 1. Morning Cinnamon
I chose to address the table here first, because not only did it tell something about how it affected the space around it, but it also led me easily into describing the rest of the things in the room, since it's the central piece of furniture.
However, had the table, or any other furniture, not been such an overwhelming presence, it would've been a better call to start describing the room as a long, slender room with a fireplace at the end, and then start describing what else the character sees in it.
So, first determine whether you want to start from the room size to what's inside, or start from the furniture, and allow that to tell the size of the room. This will mostly depend on which one will be most noticeable to the character.
In my own excerpt, I chose to immediately describe the rest of the scene in one fell swoop. However, that doesn't mean it works with everything, If a room is particularly detailed, or the character is sitting at an angle where only part of it is visible to them, it doesn't make sense to immediately describe everything. If a room is less hectic, and is in full view of the character, you can get away with it more.
Another reason to keep part of a room in the dark, is if there is something in there that's relevant to the plot that can't be discovered yet, and so it's not paid attention to. However, if room is needed for a couple of more scenes, and therefore has to be established to the reader already, it makes more sense to describe it fully. That was my reasoning for the way I wrote the excerpt above.
Colour and Light:
Similar to space, the way you describe colour and lighting is going to partially depend on the mood you are trying to convey, either because of the season, time of day, or just the general atmosphere.
Lighting especially plays a big part in this, since it will determine the shadow angles, what a character is able to see, and how dull or bright the material and colours are going to be visible to them. So, first decide what the light source in the room is going to be, in order to have a focus point. Then determine how strong the light source is, so you know its reach and how much of the room it will show. Finally, think of the warmth and colouring of the light, because this will act as a 'filter' of some sorts for what the room will look like to the reader and the characters. A small, flickering candle is going to make a room look a lot different to midday winter sunlight coming through floor-to-ceiling windows. So, make sure you have a clear image of what is causing the room to be visible.
The 'filter' of the lighting is going to influence the colours of walls and furniture to some extent as well, but more than anything, the colours and lighting are going to work together to form 'the aesthetic'. Any colour can be mixed with any lighting, but each combination is going to have its own atmosphere, which you can use to your advantage.
For example: the living room in the Girl House is first introduced when it is dark, meaning that the light source comes from the large fireplace. This gives me a filter of reddish orange light with a limited reach, so the furniture and ceiling are going to have a lot of long shadows. This works for me, because a ghost story is about to be told, and I can use the shadows to convey an unsettling mood. The walls here are already a warm, brown colour, because of the wood, so the colour warmth is amplified by the light filter. The same goes for the furniture, which are variations of faded red and brownish yellow.
However, had the colours been different, the mood and feel of the room would have been different as well. The already warm colours are both meant to give a sense of homeliness and cosiness, but also act as a contrast to the dark, freezing winter outside. If the colours were of a colder variety, like grey or blue, that contrast wouldn't be as strong, and the room may have a more calm or tranquil feel, as supposed to cosy. However, with the light from the fireplace, the colours also wouldn't be as pronounced, because of the clash of warm and cold.
So, if you want your room to have a pronounced feeling, make sure the lighting and colours both match the atmosphere of that feeling, and enhance each other. If you want it to be more muted, or even distorted, you can make the colours and light clash instead. This will help you bring out the atmosphere you want in a more practical way.
Surfaces, Smell, and Sounds:
Sight isn't the only way you can inform the reader about a room, especially when it comes to surfaces. A character will typically touch the furniture or move around the room in some way, meaning they will experience the room in more ways than just through their eyes.
Think about the material and the quality of the furniture, and whether they feel soft, hard, smooth, stringy etc. Think about whether they are comfortable for the character or not. Even consider whether they make a sound when being sat on or not.
How a surface feels can tell you a number of things about not only the state of the room, but also the people occupying it. Specifically, by telling the reader about the age of the furniture, and how well the room is being cleaned and taken care of, they can get a feel for both the economical state of the characters, or simply how much they care about hygiene and appearance.
Each room also tends to have a distinctive scent, whether because of cleaning, incense, age, fabric, smoke, or other factors. These can help distinguish one room from another, as well as tell something about the people occupying the room in question. For example: the room smells very heavily of perfume, it may indicate that particular space is mainly used by wealthy ladies. Or, if a room smells awful, it can show it hasn't been cleaned in a while.
I said before you should consider the sound of furniture when it's being used, but the sound of the rest of the room is just as important. A floor's material, for example, can be explained just by the sound of footsteps alone. Smooth, marble isn't going to creak, and heels on carpets aren't going to click in echoes.
Consider the space as well when thinking of the sound, particularly how the voices of the characters are being carried through the air. Small rooms with flat ceilings, for example, aren't going to have as much as of an echo as large, tall rooms with a curved ceiling.
These can be considered details, which can add character and depth to a room. So, you don't need to immediately address these when first introducing the room to the reader. However, as the room gets explored, they are handy tools in creating the atmosphere you want, without having to just rely on the room's looks to do so.
I hope these are at least somewhat helpful for you all, and if you have something you would like me to cover, let me know in the comments!
Goodbye, lovelies!