7 Major Decorating Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

September 01, 2016
A huge reason many people don’t get around to tackling a decorating project is because they’re afraid to make a costly mistake. To give you the confidence to start your own dream design, and to help you get it right the first time, I’ve put together a list of seven major design mistakes that can affect your entire project. Now you’ll know what to look for and how to get back on course to decorating success.
Contemporary Living Room by Set Visions Ltd
Set Visions Ltd
Traditional Home Office by JBMP Architecture and Interior Design
JBMP Architecture and Interior Design
1. Choosing paint first. While paint is in many ways one of the biggest parts of your design (particularly in terms of pure square footage), that doesn’t mean it should necessarily be the first thing you pick.

Solution: Once you’ve settled on some of your essential fabric furnishings (rugs, pillows, draperies, upholstery, etc.), it’s relatively easy to pick a coordinating color from a fan deck or set of paint chips. Finding fabrics you truly love after already committing to a paint scheme is much tougher.

Scandinavian Living Room by CONCEPT SALTIN
CONCEPT SALTIN
2. Buying furniture without measuring. It’s hard to judge the scale of furniture when it’s sitting on a vast showroom floor. That’s why homeowners are sometimes shocked to find that the beautiful sectional or coffee table they saw in a showroom looks as though it eats up the entire room when it’s sitting in their living room.

Solution: If you know what measurements you’re shopping for, you can let the cold hard numbers guide you when your eyes might be playing tricks. Measure (or even mark with tape) the area available for each major piece so that you can figure out an acceptable size range.

Bring these measurements with you when furniture shopping and stick to them. If you fall in love with something out of your size range, ask if it comes in different sizes, or have it measured and bring the measurements home to tape off in your space to make sure it’s a size you are happy with.

Eclectic Living Room by Hunter Interior Design
Hunter Interior Design
Transitional Living Room by E & A Custom Homes
E & A Custom Homes
3. Shopping in just one store.One-stop shopping is all the rage these days, but furnishing your entire home (or even just one room) from the same store tends to result in a much less interesting visual story than taking some time to shop around.

Solution: Try boutiques that carry different design lines, or online stores that draw from different manufacturers and brands. This way, even if you have one preferred style or period, your home still won’t look cookie-cutter.

Read Full article at Houzz.com