Knowing what not to do when redecorating your home can be as useful as having a firm grasp on what you should do. Sometimes even professionally designed rooms could do with some improvement.
Nate Berkus, an American interior designer, author, and television personality, who runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associate advises that your goal should be to make your space feel personal.
“Ask yourself: What does the space mean to me? What are the colours and textures I love, and what is the feeling I want to have when I get home?”
He suggests not slavishly follow trends but make design choices based on your personal aesthetic to create a space that you’ll love for years to come.
“The easiest trick is to think of your space as a city and fill it with a combination of heights and proportions,” says Berkus.
Décor no-nos
Here are some of the mistakes interior designers advise homeowners to steer clear of:
Never choose the paint colour first. Looking for furniture and fabric you truly love after committing to a paint scheme is usually a mistake. Rather choose your most expensive items first, then decorate around them. Paint is available in thousands of colours, so it’s relatively easy to pick a wall colour to match your chosen furnishings.
Don’t create a theme room. It may be fun to decorate, but you could soon get tired of it. Also, theme rooms tend to get quickly outdated, so you will waste money replacing items you no longer want. Instead, add some theme elements to a conventional room.
Don’t buy furniture without measuring. It’s difficult to judge furniture size on a vast showroom floor. The gorgeous coffee table that looked like a medium size in the shop might occupy your entire living room. The solution is to map out your space before shopping. Measure the area available for each major item of furniture so that you know what will fit. Remember to take these measurements with you when furniture shopping and stick to them.
Don’t position all the furniture against the walls. Room sizes can make this difficult, but try to move furniture away from the walls to create more intimate conversation areas. This is particularly important in lounges and family rooms. If furniture backs are well-finished, there’s no reason why they should be concealed.
Don’t hang artwork too high. Artwork should be hung at about eye level. This varies from one person to another, but it’s preferable to err on the lower side. Use a removable hook to test the placement, and wait a few weeks before hanging it permanently.
Carpets, curtains, and cushions
A too-small living room carpet is one of the most common decorating mistakes. Designers agree that, ideally, all the furniture should stand on the carpet. If this isn’t possible, the front legs of more solid pieces should be on the carpet with the back two feet off. All four legs of smaller pieces should be on the carpet.
Curtains that are too short make walls look truncated and shorter than they are. Curtains should skim the floor. If they’re longer and puddle a bit, that’s fine.
Too many throw pillows mean you will have to move them off the couch, chair, or bed every time before sitting or lying down.
Lighting
A mix of overhead, ambient, and task lighting is preferable to relying solely on overhead lighting.
- Overhead lighting doesn’t offer enough illumination, and it’s not very flattering. Using a mix of wall sconces, table lamps and floor lamps will provide more light and will flatter the room - and everyone in it.
- Hanging chandeliers too high will light up the ceiling rather than the room. Attaching the chandeliers too high will limit the spread of light, which will make the room appear darker than it should.
- Harsh white lights can make a space feel bleak and unappealing. Warm lighting makes a room feel friendly and warm.
As tempting as it may to get started on your decorating project immediately, it’s important not to rush into making decisions you may later regret. It’s often best to live with your home for a little while longer and spend later. This will also give you time to bargain hunt.