Introduction
Hello everyone. Today I’m going to be sharing with you 9 common interior design mistakes you might be making in your home and how you can fix them. If you can’t quite put your finger on what’s a little off around your home and why your home isn’t really looking like you imagined, this article is just for you. If you enjoy watching and find this article helpful, make sure you give it a big thumbs up and hit that share button. And let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Mistake 1: Neglecting Vertical Space
All right, let’s jump right into one that affects every room of your home, and that’s neglecting your vertical space. Design is all in layers. You have to work from your floor all the way up to the ceiling. So, if you are kind of only stopping halfway with your decorating and just putting a rug and your furniture in, the top half of your room will feel super empty.
Think about installing wall shelves, whether those be builtin or floating. Think about installing wall art and even picture lights and sconces to up the lighting and decorative appearance of your walls. This will really help draw the eye up as well as your ceiling. Think about lighting, paint colors, wallpapering, any kind of trim. Completing your vision from floor to ceiling will give you a full decorative look. I think it’s very easy to forget about the vertical space around your home because you’re just worried about filling your space with furniture.
But if you stop there, your home really sits flat. Everything looks really low. And you can actually make your home feel larger by completing and filling out that vertical space. This applies to small spaces, large spaces. Just make sure that you’re thinking about filling your space as well as filling the height of your space.
Mistake 2: Overcrowding with Throw Pillows
If your sofa is lined end to end with throw pillows, it’s looking too cluttered and it’s definitely too many throw pillows. One easy thing you can do is just simply remove some or create groupings. And really create groupings of differentiz throw pillows to create a dynamic look. These can be all different colors, pattern, and material. So definitely don’t line your throw pillows all across in a straight line across your sofa. Separate them and group them just like you would all of your decor around your space.
Mistake 3: Not Trying Furniture Virtually
Now, there’s always a lot of pressure when it comes to choosing furniture for your home. You want the furniture to last a long time. You want it to be something that you won’t regret, something that’s timeless and comfortable and the right size and color. There’s a lot to think about. So, I always recommend trying on your furniture in your space first. I use the 3D visualizers that a lot of these retailers have.
You can just click on the item and see it in your space. Now, I love this virtual tryon option that a lot of retailers are offering cuz it fully allows you to walk around that piece of furniture in your space. Get a visual of what the color will look like and what the size looks like compared to the rest of your space or other furniture around it. So, I always recommend using those. You can also do this using a simple mood board. I like to collect images of all the different items that I’m going to be using in a space.
Put them together on a Photoshop document, Instagram stories, Canva, wherever you can to really visualize what all of your items will look like together. This is super important. This will give you a visual right there and then of what works together and what doesn’t. This allows you to edit your whole design before you follow through with it. And if you plan ahead like this, you definitely won’t be making any mistakes when it comes to your design.
Mistake 4: Over-Decorating or Under-Decorating
Now, this one kind of goes both ways. There’s such thing as an underdeecorated home, but that can sometimes pass as minimalism. There’s also such thing as an overdecorated home. And those homes can start to feel maybe a bit cluttered. So, it’s about finding the balance between the two. Really creating space between your decor.
Creating groupings normally helps with this. Create groupings of odd numbers, using decor that has different textures and height and color to really create a dynamic look. It’s going to draw your eye in to specific pieces and highlight items around your space instead of your eyes feeling a little too busy and not knowing where to look. I typically notice this on surfaces. So, think countertops, coffee tables, dining tables, bookshelves, any kind of horizontal surface is very easy to just fill.
So, think about strategically stripping back your decor to create some empty space in between. It’s going to create an airier look. It’s going to make all your decor look a little bit more intentional and I think it’s going to create more relaxed feeling around your home. So, if your home or any surface or small corner around your home is over decorated, think about removing some items and you can shift those items to a new area of your home to create a brand new look.
Mistake 5: Not Testing Paint Colors
Now, here’s a super common one. Not testing out your paint colors. If you just kind of wing it with your paint colors and you don’t analyze your paint color over time in different lighting, different walls of your home, you might end up making a huge mistake. All paint colors usually look a bit different in every home.
It really depends on what’s outside of your windows, what kind of light is reflecting in your space, what your flooring looks like, really what your entire space looks like. So, you definitely need to test out your paint colors. It’s always worth getting the little sample pots and testing out some swatches on your walls before you order all of your paint and get it up on the walls. This is super important with whites because white always can cast a different shade. So, you can get whites that look a bit green or yellow.
You can get whites that look too blue. And sometimes this happens. So, it really is a good idea to always test out your paint color and watch that paint color kind of change in the morning through to the afternoon and into the night. Try it with your lamp lighting. Try it with your ceiling lights on and see if you like that paint color because you’re going to be living with it.
Mistake 6: Choosing Wrong Rug Size
Now, a very common design mistake I noticed when it comes to rug selection is just simply choosing the wrong rug size. This is very noticeable in rooms that have furniture in them, like dining rooms, living rooms, and bedrooms. If all of your furniture can’t fit on that rug, it starts to look a little offbalance. But this is also very noticeable in rooms that don’t have a ton of furniture, like hallways, front entryways, or bathrooms.
Those spaces tend to have runners or doormats. And I think it’s always important to go as large as possible with those rooms as well. Even if you’re not trying to fit furniture on it, it definitely makes your space feel larger when you expand the size of your rug. I really noticed this when I was choosing a rug for my front entryway. I first started with a typical 2×3 doormat, and that instantly made the space feel funneled in and small. As soon as I swapped that out for a large rug, it made all the difference.
I did have to cut around my vent to make it work, but it made such a big difference. So, don’t let those small things get in the way of creating the look that you’re going after. Really go for a large long runner that’s going to span the length of a hallway or a long runner that’s going to fill the entire length of your bathroom. And definitely go for a larger area rug by your front door so that guests can come in, walk easily without having to just stay on a tiny little mat. It makes such a big difference and it will really make your entire home feel a lot more balanced.
Mistake 7: Poor Room-to-Room Flow
Now, I’m all for trying different styles and different colors and experimenting with design around my home, but I’m always trying to keep things cohesive. If your home has poor flow, it’s probably because you have too many different things going on in every space. Maybe your dining room looks a little mid-century, but your living room looks very traditional, and the color palettes are very different, and the style is very different.
The way you decorate those spaces look like completely different homes. You really want to make every room of your home feel individual and unique, but like it’s part of the entire design. So, you can do this by linking a color palette and an overall design style throughout every room of your home. So, no matter what decorating you do, no matter what painting or DIY project or furniture you choose, as long as you stay within that color palette and design idea, it will make for a really beautiful flow throughout your entire space.
Mistake 8: Not Mixing Shapes
One small detail that I think makes a huge difference in design is just simply mixing shapes around your home. If you have a home that every furniture piece and decor piece and wall mirror and rug is just straight edge and square or curved and round, it can become a bit boring. I think you can add a ton of interest into your home by just simply mixing shapes. So mix in a round coffee table with your sectional and your rug that fit more square.
add in an arched mirror or a really interesting shaped mirror instead of your typical rectangular mirror. This is a great way of just throwing in new shapes and creating some interest in your home. It’s very easy to keep things very rectangular and square because that’s the way spaces are built. But once you bring in those unique shapes, it adds a ton of interest to your home. I played with shape a lot in our sun room because the space was so rectangular and so angular with the ceiling that I thought it’d be nice to mix in some round curved edges and I think it adds so much interest.
One simple choice that you can make that goes a really long way. Grounding that on a rectangular rug makes the whole space make sense. So throwing in these interesting shapes in very rectangular spaces can make all the difference.
Mistake 9: Ignoring Storage Solutions
Now, good design is always a mix of form and function. You want your space to look beautiful, but you also want it to function for you and your family. I think that’s where storage and organization is huge. It’s always a big part of interior design because you need a place to put things, put things away, quickly clean up, and a home that doesn’t have storage often doesn’t feel too functional. So, make sure to include storage in every room of your home.
This can simply be a storage bench, a storage ottoman, any kind of basket with lids. This is especially important if you have children or pets. You always want to have closed storage opportunities that you can just shove toys away in, clean up your space quickly without it being a hassle. So, I love any kind of closed storage that looks like decor, looks like furniture. Sometimes open organization can be a lot of upkeep. So, I think the most lowmaintenance way of tidying up your home and feeling like it’s organized and put together is just having closed organization.
So, that can be cabinets, baskets, ottomans, storage pieces, even your sofa. Having storage underneath could really, really help. So, if you have additional items around your home that are adding to the clutter of your space, the simple thing you can do is just add storage to every room of your home so that there’s always a place that you can put things away in.
Conclusion
All right, so that’s it for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope this gave you a better idea on ways that you can improve your home. You definitely don’t need to buy new things or rearrange your entire space. Sometimes it’s just tweaking a few little items that will make the biggest difference. So, if you enjoyed reading and found this article helpful, make sure you give it a big thumbs up and hit that share button.
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