What most of us don’t understand is that interior design takes a very keen and knowledgeable eye. There are elements of design like color, scale, lighting and placement that should be taken into consideration in any space. We may be out shopping and see something we love, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will look perfect in our home. There are a lot of common mistakes that almost everyone makes when designing their interiors. Here we look at the common mistakes and how to avoid making them:
1. Buying Décor That's the Same Height
The ideal space will have a mixture of different sizes, shapes, and heights. Fill it with tall and short and large and small pieces. This will add interest and variety and help draw the eye around the room.
2. Styling Dark Furniture in a Small Space
Finding the perfect décor for a small apartment space can be a serious design challenge. Many people tend to lean toward heavy, bulky, and dark furniture pieces, while it might seem like a harmless choice, dark décor instantly makes a room feel cramped and cumbersome.
3. Hanging Art
Art is the easiest way to add style, personality and color to a space, and, if hung incorrectly, the easiest way to make things look off. Hanging a piece too high is probably the most common mistake. It should be hung at eye level. An easy rule to help avoid this decorating mistake is to keep art only eight to ten inches higher than furniture.
The best way to ensure there are no mistakes, and nasty nail holes to fill, is to trace and cut-out the frames outline on paper. Simply tape the paper cut-outs onto your wall, trying numerous placement options until you have the desired outcome.
4. Pushing furniture up against a wall
Putting your furniture up against your wall is a common mistake that's made in an effort to make a space look bigger. However, while that may work in very small rooms, oftentimes it will look strange and leave you with a design that isn't cohesive. Allowing space between furniture and the walls lets the room breathe.
5. Choosing the Wrong Rug Size
It’s important to choose the correct size rug for the room. One of the most common mistakes designers see is rugs that are too small for the space. If you’re using a rug in a living space, it has to be big enough to reach at least the front legs of every item of furniture in the grouping. In a dining room, it has to extend far ought past the edges of the table so that when guests are seated, all four legs of the chair are on the rug.
6. Hanging Curtains Too Low
Another all-too-common interior design mistake is hanging curtains at or just above the window frame. This can make windows seem smaller and actually blocks natural light if the curtains don’t open wide enough to leave the windows completely unobstructed.
Hanging curtains just below the ceiling and allowing them to extend all the way down to the floor, will make windows appear larger. Be sure the rod extends far enough past the window frame to ensure the window is completely uncovered when the curtains are open.
7. Failing to Establish a Focal Point
Every room needs a focal point—it offers a place for the eye to rest and assigns a room with a function. This is a very common mistake—forgetting to give each room a purpose or point to focus on.
Don’t just scatter furnishings about the room— first, find a focus or purpose for the room, and then place the furnishings around that focal point.
8. Thinking Everything Has to Match
Extreme matching is a big interior decoration mistake, mixing and matching is the way to get a comfortable and stylish room. Of course, this does not mean that the room should be a random jumble of mismatched pieces. There should be one dominant style that account from 75 to 80 percent of a room and the remainder can be anything else.
9. Sticking to one source of lighting
It’s an aspect people often misjudge. A well-thought-out lighting plan will ensure each room has enough light to perform any task that is usually done in the space. Each room should have overall (ambient) lighting to allow you to move around safely, task lights for performing specific tasks, and accent lighting to highlight noteworthy items such as artwork or architectural features.
10. Treating Greenery as an Afterthought
Adding elements of life with a bunch of sticks shoved into a tall vase and then stuck into a corner, it often doesn’t co-relate with the place, people tend to add plants on the left over spaces, thinking all spaces should be filled with something think but this is not the case, leaving areas blank is not always bad. Plants are something that should be incorporated in the design since the beginning and not something added afterwards, not relating to the space and not adding anything into the space.
PICTURE CREDITS - INTERNET
