Check out my top 5 tips on how to make your home decor look better!
These are simple tips to help you 'clean up' your act when it comes to interior design and decor!
It takes time, experience, and talent to pull together a cohesive design. Since not everyone can afford a professional design help – most everyone can avoid these 5 common design mistakes:
TOO. MUCH. CLUTTER!
If you want a clean, polished, sophisticated look – clean up your space. I am not talking about only clutter on the floor, I am also talking about clutter on the walls, on the fireplace mantel, bookshelves, you get the point. For a sleek, clean feel, less is definitely more. Yes, definitely clean up the room – if the room has too many furniture items, de-clutter those as well. A well designed room should only have the necessary furniture that serve both function and beauty! If your walls have too many small pictures, for example, swap out a bunch of those for one large piece and maybe a few smaller ones. Keep your console, mantle, bookshelves organized by purposefully decorating them – don’t’ let those be a dumping ground for junk!
TOO. MANY. COLORS.
A sophisticated room design will almost always stray away from too many color choices in the room. If you want your look to be polished, focus on mostly 3 colors. Work from those colors to add dept, dimension, texture. Select one main hue as a grounding color, and use 2-3 additional colors in the same or opposite family for accents. If you want contrast (also called complementary color scheme) – go with bold, contrasting color, (black and white, green and red, blue and orange; and yellow and violet) for a cohesive look, stay in the analogues color scheme (colors next to each other on the color wheel, like green, blue, violet or yellow, orange, red). When you add too many colors, your eye can’t really relax in the space, because there is too much going on.
TOO TRENDY!
If you are like millions of people watching HGTV, chances are you are being influenced by what is in right now by famous designers like Joanna Gaines, Property Brothers, or ---remember the shabby chick lady – all this is great, and their designs are beautiful...But ask yourself – do you really LOVE it, or do you just LOVE looking at it!? Do yourself a favor and take a design quiz and define your true style. (blog about design style coming soon) Then start designing!!
WRONG FURNITURE!
I am not talking about selecting the type of furniture – I am talking about SIZE – yes, size matters!!! In a small room, chances are you are thinking small furniture would work best – NO! Go with bigger pieces, but obviously, less of them. Add small(er) items for décor only. In a large room, don’t crowd the space with too much stuff. Also be careful about not using ENOUGH furniture. If your space is large enough for a sectional, a coffee table and an occasional chair, and there is STILL lots of space in the room, think about adding another furniture grouping.
ACCESSORIES!
If you are thinking that a clean sophisticated look should lack in personal items, you are WRONG! Forgetting about accessories can make a home feel empty and cold. In any home, it’s the final accessories that create a pulled together look. To accessories your home well, shop your own house for different items like family heirlooms, family pictures, things you LOVE. ADD in some newer items that will complement your color choices, or add a new spectacular frame to an old family photo. And don’t forget plants! They add so much color, texture, volume, and add warmth!