I've been looking really hard for articles about combining round corners with sharp corners in UI design because I think that they don't need to be mutually exclusive, but I haven't found anything yet.
I appreciate the feedback but without suggestions I don't have another path to take, at this point.
An idea - which you may hate - why not take some of the emphasis off the edit button - make that a lighter grey but not red and use the red surround (background fill) for the heart and style it with the heart inside the button in white and the number of likes next to it also inside the button.
Does that make any sense?
The controls are very light until they are hovered, so I don't think the conflict between those elements is an issue.
Well, in that case I would be tempted to make the heart a "button" which matches the rest anyway. If the edit only goes red on hover of that element (rather than the whole containing div/ul of the buttons) then the red/white might work.
The heart is a very different – and intentionally more emphasized – interaction type. It's a form of passive interaction whereas the others are direct actions you can take on the post.
Maybe a good idea to look at moving it to another location then? I really don't think it fits where it is right now I'm afraid.
Like where? I actually can't imagine where else it could go.
(I realize I sound really contrarian right now, which isn't intentional – I'm not blown away by my design here but I also haven't heard of or thought of any compelling alternatives.)
Maybe put it on the other side of the postbit so the style contrast is not so prominent; I see where you are trying to go, but the two looks are so different it jars (good word?)
Putting an actionable icon on the inside edge of the post is not good. When you're reading a post in English your eyes are going left to right. Maybe I could move Quote, Edit, etc to the left ... those are not such crucial interaction elements.
The word you're looking for is "jarring" btw
I agree it belongs on the right, and preferably at the bottom (users tend to "like" a post after having read it after all). The problem is choosing exactly where and styling it to look like it fits.