6 Common Home Décor Mistakes You Make,… To err is human but to keep on erring is totally unwanted, not to mention derogative to your home if the mistakes you make are in the home décor front. To take the err out of things and make your home more beautiful than ever, here are 6 common home décor mistakes you need to avoid.
1. Absence of curtains/ shades
Maybe saying that a room with windows but no curtains is like an ugly man with no clothes on would be an exaggeration. But by saying it the point is not stretched too far. While letting in light to the room is important, there’s till no need to go to the extreme of avoiding all and any blinds on the window. If you are the sun-loving sort, you can use soft curtains- cotton or linen serves best. And remember that windows are windows- functional utilities with a limit to the beauty they can have. ‘Clothing’ them would envelop the whole room in a higher aesthetics. No, really.
2. The artwork that hangs too high
While a Vermeer might be out of the budgetary range for most of us lesser mortals, there’s still plenty of good art out there waiting for you to pick it up and hang on your wall. And there are days when the bright flowers in a still-life could liven up your day when it was beginning to veer southwards.
Not that this is a well-kept secret of the art world. In fact, many are the householders who instinctively understand the value of having a pleasing work of art looking down at them so that they may look right back and enjoy it. But the problem that ruins what could have been a delightful home décor move is the misjudgment of height which many householders are prone to while hanging a painting. One probable reason for this inadvertent mistake is that artworks are hung while standing when they are to be enjoyed while sitting down. So, the simple rule of thumb is to have the artwork hanging from somewhere near the center of the wall rather than from way above.
3. Your collections are everywhere in the room
Even if you don’t see yourself as a collector, chances are you actually are one. Books, clothes, soft toys, seashells, peacock feathers, merchandise of your favourite movie franchise..long is the list of things that people collect. And there’s nothing bad about it, except when you have them lying around all over the place. The cool thing for collectors to do is to demarcate a specific area in the room for your precious stuff. That way, not only would the place look neater, it’ll also be easier for you to find something when you need it.
4. Poor light in the room
Unless you descended from a certain count of Transylvania, there’s no reason why you should keep yourself in the dark. However, not having enough light sources in a room is a mistake that many make. The thing is, having just one light source-typically somewhere near to the middle of the ceiling, is not enough for a room. Ideally, every room should have at the very least three sources of light in addition to the one in the middle of the ceiling. And while choosing the light sources, keep in mind that these are the types that work best:
- Indirect lights- meaning lights with lamp shades rather than just naked bulbs
- Lights that can be mounted at positions in the room below your eye level
Also, for spaces in the house where you frequents the most, table and floor lamps are ideal since they not only improve visibility but also put the texture and colours of your furnishings in a better light-literally.
5. Avoiding bright colours
For some reason, even though we all love vibrant colours(yes, ALL of us) there’s an unspoken stigma attached to using bright colours in a home. The walls are almost always painted in muted tones and the furnishings etc. in the household are chosen accordingly. Meaning, nothing will even come close to exciting your primary sense-the sight. The alternative needn’t be a distinct splash of colour on every wall of the house. You can start by experimenting with brighter coloured furnishings like pillow covers or bedding. For an idea of which colours could work for you, check out this handy pictorial.
6. Lack of enough rugs
t’s not just to add colour to living spaces that rugs are useful. They also act as excellent padding for absorbing sounds and adding softness to make your tread easy. Besides, a large enough rug on which can rest all the furniture in a room will enhance the overall look and feel of the place. And in case you are wondering where all you need rugs in the house, the answer is everywhere with the exception of the bathroom where you can have a bathmat. And the sit-out/veranda can also be exempted.
The good news is, quitting home décor mistakes is not as hard as quitting many other habits in life-like smoking cigarettes, for instance. The bad news is…well, there really isn’t bad news associated with it to counter-balance the previous sentence. That is unless you fail to take the ideas mentioned here and give them a try. And that’s one counter-balance your home can well do without.
