We are all guilty of making a design mistakes at some point. You may rush to get your home ready for company or find a rug you love but need to figure out what size to get or how to hang pictures. The excitement turns into disappointment, and you can’t find out why.
Most design mistakes are easy to make and just as easy to fix. The best thing you can do is take your time and make decisions carefully, and you can avoid these mistakes in the first place.
Pictures hung too high
I almost always see pictures or artwork hung too high and occasionally too low. Hanging these items at a random height makes a lot design mistakes all over the home. It’s not ideal because it can distort the proportions and make the ceiling height seem lower. So, in general, you want the center of the picture to be about 64″. So, let’s say your picture is 20″ tall. The center of the picture hook is 10″, so you’ll want to measure 10″ up from the 64″ mark, which gives you a height of 74″- that’s where you put the nail or hook. Apply painter’s tape to the back of the frame, push the nail into the tape where the hanger is, then place the tape level with the line on the wall and hammer in a nail. Invest in all the tools you need to make this whole process easier, especially a small level.
Overly themed kid’s rooms
If you research kids’ bedroom ideas, you’ll find gorgeous themed rooms, but my issue is that they are so expensive to replicate. A room full of 2 or 3 bunk beds for sleepovers, a carnival theme with a wall built down the room for a circus area, and elaborate built-ins and jungle gyms. When I see rooms like this, the dollar signs start adding up fast because they are all highly custom. The one thing it accomplishes well is that, for the most part, kids will enjoy these rooms. But we often need to remember that having an overly themed room with built-ins and elaborate customizations hinders property value. It won’t work for the child as they grow into older kids or teenagers.
Blocking doorways
Sometimes, we don’t have enough room for the furniture we want and choose to put furniture in front of doorways. And I get it; we see beautiful homes with chairs seemingly in front of the doorway or closet, but we can’t see how big that room really is, so we use that photo as a plan when that space is larger than ours. Big design mistake. In reality, that chair is 5 feet away from the doorway because the room is so large. We shouldn’t be looking for a furniture plan from a photograph that is smaller than our living room because there are far better ways to plan your furniture layout. Whatever your plan is, don’t put furniture in doorways; we need to think about how guests or ourselves will use this space and have exits and doorways clear in case of emergencies.
Furniture layout
I often see too much furniture or what seems like a random placement, which doesn’t help the space function as well as it could. Before you buy furniture, you should create a sketch of your space. Get some graph paper and measure the room. Sometimes, looking at it from a bird’s eye view can help. Consider the room’s primary purpose and create seating areas that suit that purpose and create symmetry. If you have a long and narrow living room, you will use it to watch TV, sit by the fire, and have seating for guests. Make the sofa the main seating area and ground it with a rug. Add two chairs by the window for guests and a rocker for the fire. And remember, less is more, especially when creating a functional space where people can move around easily.
Rugs too small
Most people commit this design mistake in their living rooms. You will need an 8×10 rug, and some may need a 9×12, and I rarely see a room that can take a 5×7 rug. You want the furniture or the front legs of the furniture to be on the rug and the expend 2′ to the left and right of the furniture. Don’t float your rug in any room. Rugs ground the seating area, are more comfortable on your feet or little ones, and ground the space. Rugs can be expensive, so if you only have room in the budget for a 5×7, save your money and wait until you can get the right size. I’d rather see people get the correct-sized pieces than have them spend money on something that doesn’t look right and have to spend money again on another size.
Matchy Matchy
Matching every piece of furniture in a room is an outdated style, bad advice and one of the biggest design mistakes. Having all the furniture match perfectly makes the room feel impersonal, like stepping into a furniture store. It also looks cheap. Choose furniture that is one style, like modern, or mix in some antique pieces to make it look more unique. Buy wood furniture in different colors as long as they are warm, like red, orange, and yellow. There’s nothing wrong with mixing different colors if they are at the same temperature.
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