7 Home Decor Blunders To Avoid

Sarah Rose Anderson Sarah Rose Anderson
homify Modern dining room
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It’s fun to play interior designer! Picking out fabrics, furniture, and decor for the home is one of our greatest joys. Unfortunately, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. 

As much as we want to do our best, our homes can be a far cry from what we see in the blogs and magazines. Maybe you’re guilty of DIYing your way into a mess or getting carried away with your minimalism purge?

What’s great about decor is that there are no hard and fast rules that dictate how you should decorate your home. There are, however, a few glaring mistakes that we see time and time again. To help you avoid frustration and love playing interior designer again, we have a round up of 7 decor blunders to avoid to help your home appear larger and more stylish.

All you can do is your best! If you feel like some professional help, homify knows all-star interior designers and decorators to get your home on the right track. Let’s start our list!

Furniture in all the wrong places

Problem: You put all your furniture against a wall and now there’s a big gaping space in the middle of your room. You can feel the walls closing in!

Solution: It’s counterintuitive, but, try grouping furniture together in the middle of the room. It creates a lot more living space! Thank us later.

homify tip: If you want to have an open space in your room, leave a sliver of room between the walls and the furniture. It makes the walls look further away than they actually are, giving you a larger room!

All matching all the time

Problem: Your entire room has matching colours, fabrics, and patterns. By trying to get everything to go together, it has melted together, and the room appears smaller.

Solution: Use a variety of fabrics and styles for your pillows, throws, rugs, upholstery, etc.

homify tip: Going overboard is never cool. Matching your pillows to the wallpaper is fine, but matching floor tiles and curtains, too? You’ve gone overboard.

Dark wallpaper

Problem: You have a room full of dark colours with a dark wall treatment, too. The room seems flat and small. 

Solution: Use lighter shades for your furniture and accessories. A dark wallpaper can be glamourous and stylish, but not with heavy and dark accents.

homify tip: The best place for dark colours in the home is on the wall!

Accessories overkill

Problem: Every flat surface and nook in the home is covered with accessories, photos, souvenirs, and other kitch. Now your belongings are overwhelming the home. 

Solution: Put it all in the closet and create seasonal collections of your favourite items. Change them out as you like instead of having everything you own on display at once.

homify tip: Instead of packing every closet full with bric a brac, make a pile of things you can stand to let go and bring them to the local thrift store. It’s put to much better use there!

Curtains at half length

Problem: Too short curtains that dangle above the floor make the ceiling appear lower. 

Solution: Curtains that fall to the floor elongate your home. It’s a more flattering look and the room will appear larger.

homify tip: Put a curtain rod as close to the ceiling as possible to create the illusion of a higher ceiling.

Too much furniture

Problem: There’s too much furniture in your room with hardly any space to move about.

Solution: Move extra furniture to a bedroom or study Perhaps an extra armchair would look nice in your bedroom? It will free up and transform your space.

homify tip: Keep furniture away from windows. It creates a greater sense of depth in the home.

Poor lighting

Problem: You relied on your overhead light for the room and now it feels too dark or too harsh.

Solution: Try layering your lighting. Spread out lamps and don’t rely on built in lighting fixtures only. The more customizable the lighting is, the better!

homify tip: consider whether you want warm or cool light in your home before choosing bulbs and fixtures. It helps set the mood of your design!

Thanks for taking a look at our list of design blunders! Can’t get enough blunders? Check out our list of 10 cleaning mistakes that you’re probably making.

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