5 Common Interior Design Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them
Renovating your home and creating new interior designs can be fun and rewarding projects for you to take on. There is a sense of pride that goes along with walking through a room, knowing that you are the one who made it look like that. With that said, Interior design is a double-edged sword, and we are willing to bet that you know at least one person that absolutely botched their most recent reno, or worse yet, the project has been at a standstill for a couple of years, and there are no plans to finish it, even though their basement is in disarray.
The decision to begin a new reno is not one that should be a spur of the moment. It can absolutely be one of the best decisions you can make, but they can also quickly turn into terrible mistakes if you’re not careful. To help ensure that your next project falls into the “great decision” category, we’ve compiled our top picks for 5 common mistakes that are made in DIY renovation projects, and how you can avoid them.
Figuring it Out as You Go
Yes, we know it’s fun to window shop and impulse buy pieces. We can practically hear you saying “This is so cute! I’m not sure where it’ll go yet, but it’s on sale and there is only one left. I’m sure I’ll find a place for it once I bring it home”. Even though you may find a spot for the one piece, when you’re starting from the ground up, it’s better to have a plan in place before buying. This is because otherwise, it gets more difficult to track what you have, what you need, and if it will all go together. That’s why when approaching a new interior design project, the worst thing that you can do is go in without a plan.
Planning on the fly can also mean that you can get side tracked from what really needs to be done next. Imagine you order a bunch of furniture for a new space, it gets delivered, then you remember that you wanted to do new floors and paint as well. Can you imagine how much more difficult it would be to work around all of your new furniture? Whether you are ripping down walls or just redecorating the space, trying to figure out what you are going to do as you do it will be a mistake.
Our Tips:
Before starting your project, take some time to think about what you want the end product to look like. Using one or two-word adjectives to describe your ideal space, such as “inviting”, “cozy”, or “intriguing” can help you get an idea of what vibe you’re looking for. From there, you can create a mood board, or just go deeper into the atmosphere that you are looking to achieve.
Once you have an end goal in mind, you can develop a basic game plan for project execution. If there are any parts of the projects that you will need the space empty for, make sure that you take that into account, etc.
Having Too Many Ideas
Going into your interior design project without a plan often results in you trying to combine too many ideas into one space. It’s normal to love many different types of spaces, and your space may look awesome with any one of them, however, if you try to incorporate several ideas into one space, the place could end up looking disorganized, sloppy, or like it lacks cohesion.
Our Tips:
Similarly to before, we recommend that you organize your ideas in whatever way works for you. Moodboards work great, however, they are by no means the end all be all of interior design planning. Regardless of how you decide, once you figure out what you like, stick with it. This isn’t to say that you can’t draw ANY inspiration from ANYWHERE else, however you may find more success by keeping your ideas tightly knit within the specific feel that you are looking for.
Decorating with Pieces that don’t fit the space
One of the easiest ways to make a small space feel cramped, or a large space feel hollow, is by filling it with incorrectly sized furniture. Especially if you are starting from scratch and buying all new furniture, it’s important to ensure that what you are putting in a space will be the proper dimensions for what you have to work with. Failure to do so will result in your room feeling off, even if you can’t figure out why. But low and behold, if there is a space in your house that you hate spending time in, check and see if the furniture correctly fits… Often, that just might be the reason.
Our Tips:
Before buying new pieces, take some measurements to figure out what you have to work with, and what sized furniture you can get away with using. If you are working with a small space, Living Edge Design already has a guide on how to decorate your space.
Designing off of another person’s taste
No, we aren’t saying you can’t take inspiration from other interior designs that you see. We also aren’t saying that you shouldn’t take your spouse’s tastes into account when making decisions (regardless of how much you may want that to be the case). What we mean when we say that you shouldn’t design off of another person’s tastes, is that you shouldn’t design a space just because you think that other people will like it. There is no point in renovating the room if you aren’t doing exactly what you and your family want to do in it. The minimalist styles and open concepts that are popular right now are lovely for the right people, but if you follow the trend just because it’s in style, you may never fully love your space because of it.
Our Tips:
Part of the joys of interior design is building something that you love, based on your preferences alone. Forget what other people think, and just focus on what you want to see in the final product. If your friends don’t like it, that sucks for them. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable in your space, and the way it looks makes you want to spend more time in it, not less.
Thinking you can do it all
Picture this: You are beginning your reno project, and all you have to do is remove a pony wall so that you can open the space up. You begin ripping out drywall and 2x4’s thinking “this isn’t so hard”. Little did you know, you forgot to flip the breaker, and you electrocute yourself by hitting a wire you didn’t know what going to be there…
Ouch.
The less extreme version of that is that you remove the pony wall, only to realize that you are going to need to add some more hardwood to fill in the gap that the pony wall left in the flooring. You then learn that they no longer make the flooring you have, and you just bought yourself a new floor that you didn’t want.
Renovations and interior design is hard. That’s why there are literally entire businesses dedicated to doing them full time. Even if you have unlimited time to work on the project, your time and money may be better spent by hiring someone who knows what they’re doing.
Our Tips:
Be brutally honest with yourself about your abilities. Figure out what you think you can do, and avoid the famous last words of “how hard can it be?”. There is no shame in asking for help, even if it just means asking a carpenter friend what they think may be behind that sheet of drywall. By no means are we telling you that you need to outsource the entire project. Just make sure you know exactly what you are in for BEFORE you swing around that hammer or paintbrush. And hey, if you find that what you wanted to do is outside the scope of what you can do, that’s no problem… In fact, we happen to know some people that can help you out 😉 .