Interior design mistakes. Most of us – at least those of us who aren’t professional designers – have made at least one of them. We’re so well-intentioned when it comes to creating an inviting home. How does this happen?
We accumulate things we like over time but don’t purge anything. We see a room in a magazine that appeals to us and try to emulate it, not realizing that an expert put that room together for the magazine photo shoot to evoke a feeling, but likely wouldn’t do it exactly like that in a client’s home. Perhaps we go into a showroom and take the whole display home as it sits on the showroom floor. And we are not professionals with training and experience.
Fortunately, the most common interior design mistakes are easy to recognize and correct.
The Biggest Interior Design Mistake
As with most things in life, failure to plan is sure to result in a room that falls short of your design goals. Granted, planning isn’t nearly as much fun as shopping, but it is the critical first step.
Step 1: How will you use this room? Who will use this room? Is it a place for the family to gather to hang out, play games, watch TV? Will you be entertaining? Obviously, if you’re designing a bedroom you’ll be sleeping there. It’s the least desirable place for an office, but sometimes that’s necessary. Or maybe a reading nook or place to just have a few minutes of quiet to recharge. Child’s room may need play space or somewhere for homework. What feeling do you want it to have? Calm and soothing? Energizing? Cozy? Having a firm grasp on these – the use and the feeling – will guide your furniture choices.
Step 2: Measurements. Very unromantic but very necessary. Raise your hand if you’ve ever purchased something, sure it would fit only to discover upon its arrival that it did not. A sketch is also helpful, especially if you’re working with existing pieces or architectural details. Your sketch doesn’t have to be to scale, but a close approximation is a boon. Be sure to include windows along with their measurements, the perimeter measurements and the measurements and placement of any existing pieces. Add in new pieces as you go.
Step 3: Bring a tape measure and your sketch whenever you’re shopping for furniture. The sketch and measurements will also be helpful when choosing items to adorn the walls.
Furniture Faux Pas
Matchy-matchy
This is where purchasing the entire room off the showroom floor appears. Everything matches. It’s cookie cutter. There is nothing creative or inspired about this room; the feeling this room evokes is chain hotel.
Exciting, inviting rooms are collected and curated. Furniture pieces should complement each other in shape, upholstery and finishes, but come from different eras or even parts of the globe.
Ignoring Scale, Proportion and Visual Weight
Simplistically, scale is about how an item relates to the room and proportion is how something relates to other items in the room. Visual weight is a little more complex. It can refer to how pieces relate to one another and the room in their placement, or color (some colors recede, some are forward), or material (for example, a brass bowl will have more visual weight than an identically sized glass bowl). A chair that sits directly on the floor will have more visual weight that a chair of the exact same size that has taller legs, exposing some of the floor beneath it.
A general rule: big rooms can take big furniture and small rooms cannot; conversely, big rooms look awkward filled up with a bunch of small pieces and small rooms feel claustrophobic with large furniture. There are caveats to this, but an experience designer is the best judge of how to handle it. An over simplified example of this would be that you have a large room but a collection of smaller pieces you would like to use, a designer can help you create the correct scale by grouping them in a way to give them visual weight. This creates the illusion of proper scale.
Furniture placement is key. It may be counterintuitive, but furniture that marches around the room against the wall actually makes the room feel smaller. Placing larger pieces on one end of the room causes all the visual weight to be there, making the room feel out of balance. And of course, furniture needs to be placed so there are clear paths to move around and into/out of the room.
Also in Accessories
Scale, proportion and visual weight also apply to artwork and other items that hang on the wall (mirrors, sconces, etc.), lighting (undersized or oversized overhead fixtures or table lamps), curtains and drapes (color, pattern and texture), patterns on furnishings and wall coverings, and rugs as well as accessories. For instance, hanging curtains and drapes closer to the ceiling visually raises the height of the ceiling making the room feel larger. Surprisingly, small rugs make the room feel smaller. Use larger rugs to give the illusion of more space. Artwork above a piece of furniture should be one-half to two-thirds the size of the furniture. Or smaller pieces should be hung as a thoughtfully arranged group or gallery-style. And hung at eye level, which for all practical purposes is between 57 and 60 inches from the center of the piece.
Lighting Lessons
Incorrect lighting is one of the interior design mistakes most easily corrected. Lighting plays several roles in a room, not the least of which is creating atmosphere. Layered lighting creates an inviting environment.
It may be tempting to rely on overhead lighting, but don’t succumb! All rooms need ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. Natural light, when available, should be maximized. Natural light makes spaces feel larger and is good for the soul. Using mirrors and other reflective surfaces helps bounce natural light around the room.
Ambient lighting is often achieved with an overhead fixture of some sort: a central ceiling fixture, a fan with a light kit, recessed lights or a chandelier. This is an opportunity to introduce really beautiful and affordable decorative features to the room.
Task lighting is a reading lamp next to a chair or perhaps a desk lamp. It should be in proportion to the other furnishings and at eye level.
Accent lighting brings ambience and draws attention. For example, an up light in the corner or a light over artwork.
Color Calamities
Color choice is the element that just might be the most stymying for many homeowners. Something for inspiration is most helpful here. Pulling a color from the upholstery is a good place to start. Presumably, you chose the upholstery because it contained colors that appeal to you. But what if you chose a neutral upholstery? Now you have to decide what color to put on the walls.
For example, you like blue, but which blue? There are blues that are more true blue, or that have yellow, green or gray undertones. Are you going for cozy (warm blues) or breezy and zen (cool blues)? Once you know the direction – warm or cool – don’t rely on swatches or those tiny cards and strips. Use those to get direction, choose one or more that you like, and paint large samples on all the walls. The light in the room, which changes throughout the course of the day, will affect the way the color reads. All four types of lighting – natural, ambient, task and accent – will change the way a color looks and feels. Even neutrals like white and gray have undertones that are greatly affected by the changes in the light.
Miscellaneous Interior Design Mistakes
This group of mistakes is a general collection:
- Over-decorating: even in modern maximalism it’s necessary to have visual pauses
- Under-decorating: modern minimalism is clean but not sterile
- Lack of cohesiveness between spaces: a certain amount of coordination of color and style between rooms is termed “flow.” It makes the home feel balanced.
Creating a Home Free of Interior Design Mistakes
This overview is far from comprehensive, but by employing the corrective actions listed here you can make a good start on ridding your home of that “something just doesn’t feel right” feeling.
The easiest way to correct these mistakes – or better yet, prevent them – is to work with an experienced interior designer. They will guide you through the process. Part of that just might be showing you to break a few of the rules to create a truly one-of-a-kind design for your home.
Design Mistakes: Scale and Proportion in Interior Design
4 Common Decorating Mistakes to Avoid, According to Interior Designers
