The interior of your home is one of the most important aesthetic aspects of your life. You wake up to it, you come home to it every day, you cook in it, you invite friends into it, you relax in it and you sleep in it. As such, it’s important to get it right for you. However, there are some common mistakes which can be found in many a modern home, and which you would do very well to avoid. Here are 4 of the worst, with some tips on how to avoid them.
Over-Clutter
Perhaps the most common of the interior design mistakes, over-cluttering is a pox on any home’s aesthetic potential. Too much furniture, and too much stuff on display, can make rooms feel far smaller and pokier: wardrobe units in small bedrooms are imposing and clunky; chests of drawers take up valuable wall-space. This can be countered with some clever storage solutions. Eliminate a chest of drawers and create more bedroom space with a tasteful divan bed; hang baskets above your washer and dryer to keep floor space from being taken up by dirty clothes or washing products.
The Beige Effect
When decorating a house, one of the first things that goes through any owner or developer’s mind is ‘resale value’. Out from this thought crept a home interior style in the mid-2000s, which has been terrorizing homes on the market ever since. The employment of beige wall paint, carpeting and furniture as an inoffensive, neutral answer to home décor is a sure-fire way to make a home boring and uninspiring. Mix it up with some contrasting colors: paint your walls brilliant white, and hang pictures with blocky black frames to create some intrigue on your walls; for a more rustic look, spring for a pastel green wall with a dirty-white berber carpet, and matte pine furniture.
Colour Clashes
Another decorating sin, though, can be found in running too zealously in the opposite direction. Spiritual bedfellows to over-cluttering, colour-clashing occurs when there’s a little too much going on with your interior design. Mismatched colour shades between walls and furniture can be loud, and opposing primary colors between wall and carpet is a no-no since the room appears smaller, and its contents get lost by virtue of the room itself being the main focal point. Keep any bold primary colours to your furniture – that way you have far more control over the general décor, and far less chance of permanent clash.
Trinkets and Ornaments
The acceptable, and indeed trendy, application or distribution of mantelpiece ornaments and trinkets around the house is a subjective, even controversial topic when it comes to home interior; often, these little objects and art can be quite important or significant to you or your family, but they can also be complete eyesores. A poorly-considered mantelpiece-or-windowsill display can throw the whole of your interior into jeopardy, but there’s no need to hide away your miscellany – use your ornaments sparingly at each location as a stab of antique or kitsch, a refreshing break from the otherwise dominating room décor.
