Five Design Mistakes to Avoid

July 9, 2021 Janet Lorusso

You should love your home. It should make you smile and feel relaxed to walk in the door. But making your house into a home can be a daunting task, and sometimes ,despite your best efforts, it still doesn't quite evoke the feeling you want.

I’ve been in the design biz for nearly 30 years and seen it all… Here are 5 mistakes I see all the time that may be coming between you and your perfect room.

1. Unflattering lighting

Nothing can take the down the atmosphere of a room faster than poor lighting choices. Consider how you feel in a discount store with fluorescent lights versus your favorite art gallery or boutique … totally different moods. Nobody wants to live in a Kmart.

Lamplight is more flattering than overhead lighting, and any overhead lighting should be on dimmers. That goes for recessed fixtures, and surface mount fixtures like chandeliers, pendants, sconces, or ceiling fixtures too. Dimmers are your friend! The type of bulb, lampshade lining, and placement in the room all affect the character of the light you will get. Choose wisely!

This guide to choosing the right light bulb for the space will help you get the atmosphere right so you avoid an unfortunate interrogation or operating room vibe!

2. Stingy area rugs

When purchasing an area rug for your room, size matters! Remember that at least some if not all of the legs of each piece in a furniture grouping should be ON the area rug – it is the visual cue that collects the furniture into a group. Don’t go too small.

A yoga mat for the coffee table is NOT the right rug size. Most living rooms need at least a 6 x 9, and more commonly an 8 x 10 or larger. Pro Tip: sometimes, turning a too small rug on the diagonal can connect all the pieces and save the day.

Rugs under dining tables should be large enough that the chairs don't catch on the edge when you pull them out. This post for getting the right size rug for the space will help you find the perfect solution for your living, dining, or bedroom rug.

3. Furniture lined up around the walls

Furniture lined up around the walls tends to look like a waiting room. Furniture belongs in “conversation” groups – think of it as extroverted…it wants to be able to talk to the other pieces without shouting across a vast expanse of empty space, so pull your furniture away from the wall and into groups so it can party on ... and the people sitting on it can too!

4. Poorly hung artwork

Almost inevitably, artwork is hung too high …. generally placed there by well intentioned tall people aiming for “eye level”. Artwork should relate in scale and placement to the furnishings below it, or if there is no furniture below it, then to the size of the wall. A too small lonely picture placed too high on a wall is just sad. Please don’t just hang pictures where there was a nail already … forge new and better arrangements that flatter the artwork and the room. Everyone will be happier.

This post has more tips for hanging artwork

5. Cookie cutter rooms

You liked the room in the store or catalog, so you bought all of it and dropped it in your house and now, even if you are lucky enough and it happens to be appropriately scaled for your space, you can’t figure out why it doesn’t feel like “home”.

Home is an emotionally charged word – and to create it you need to curate rooms that reflect you and your family’s personality. This is the magic of good design that you can’t get from a catalog or big box store. Pieces culled from different sources and time periods keep a room from being stale and boring.

This doesn’t necessarily mean everything has to be be custom or expensive. Upcycled thrift store or vintage shop finds, family heirlooms, travel momentos, nature discoveries, meaningful artwork - all of these can add personality and help tell the story of your home.

Take your time and put together a collected look from a variety of sources so that your room cannot be mistaken for anyone else’s!

Love the home you live in!