With the number of DIYers snowballing in the past couple of years, people have taken it upon themselves to remodel their homes, especially the living room. Not to question their design capabilities or talent, designing a home for the first few times will inevitably attract a myriad of mistakes. As design professionals, we could not sit back and watch people make such trivial mistakes. So, lucky for you, we have come up with the most common mistakes people make while designing their living rooms and how you can solve or even avoid these mistakes.
| Note: While we encourage every DIYer, we also recommend consulting a design expert before anything else, at the very least. Also, this list does not include mistakes people make while sourcing all the items required to execute the project. And to learn why that should be a point of concern, you might want to read why hiring an interior designer is better. |
1. A Sorry Layout
As novice decorators, the easiest mistake people make is creating a dysfunctional furniture layout. A dysfunctional layout can not only make the living room difficult to traverse across but may also cause your living room to seem overcrowded. Or, on the other spectrum, leave huge empty chasms of space between furniture and walls. People also, for some reason, instinctively tend to push the sofa to the wall, which shows a lack of inspiration or creativity.
Instead: Plan the layout beforehand, a great guide for creating the best living room layout is “The Art Principle”, these principles describe guidelines for organising different elements in a living room. Though, the principal takes a deep dive into organising a living room, here is a brief of the entire concept:
- Visualise the movement through the room; think about how people would move around, set a clear pathway through the room and ensure no furniture gets in the way.
- Now find a balance between the number of furniture pieces by visualising various complementary furniture in the room, such as an armchair, coffee table or a TV unit.
- Now think about the type of room it is and what is the purpose of the room. Since it’s a living room, grouping several adequate pieces of furniture, colours and shapes will create the right arrangement.
- Also, make sure these furniture and design elements are appropriate to the size of the room.
Also Read: 10 Home Renovation Mistakes You Should Avoid
2. Out of Place Furniture
Straying away from a design style while decorating a room is a legitimate issue newbies struggle with the most. And for good reason, modern design trends have homogenised the styles beyond comparison. It takes a seasoned eye to pick out complimenting furniture, and newbies lack this attention to detail. Hence, they end up getting furniture that seems out of place. Sometimes this might work in their favour. But more often than not, it does not, creating an incoherent décor and alienating the furniture. This is especially prevalent with sofas. While people try to get the best-looking sofas, they end up getting one that looks out of place.
Instead: The best answer to this issue would be to hire a 3D visualiser, who can visualise various pieces of furniture in the room without actually purchasing one, but that is wishful thinking. If you don’t have the budget for hiring a 3D visualiser, you have to consider – the colour palette of the room, the material palette of the room, available space & size of the sofa, placement and shape before looking at any options. Moreover, you can talk to the sellers about your needs and get their recommendations to make things easier.
3. Area Rug Disarray
Some people are all about “go big or go home”, but this doesn’t really work with the area rugs in the living room. While on the other hand, smaller area rugs can make your living room seem awkward, leaving the rest of the home’s furniture in a disarray.
Instead: An easy fix for this issue is to ensure the carpet you buy at the very least, encompasses the front legs of the sofa and chairs in the area. Also, it’s alright if the rug is slightly bigger than the grouped area, but don’t let it go on forever.
Also Read: Trying to Decorate a Rented Home on a Budget: Here’s How!
4. Say No to Monotony
The living room is for living; if the name did not give it away, the absence of diversity in colour and design styles can turn the living room into a boring room. On top of that, an overwhelming number of people are adamant about decorating the entire home in one design style, while there is nothing wrong with that, in hindsight, this can also leave the room seeming unimaginative, plain and dull. Meanwhile, mixing multiple design styles is a task for the most creative minds and for designers with years of design expertise under their belt, which is safe to say, most people lack.
Instead: Though never easy, try mixing more than one design style with one another. Or you can go for a design style that can hold its ground on its own. If you are a brave soul and would like to traverse the sophisticated world of mixing designs, a great trending design idea is to mix vintage and modern design elements.
5. Same Above as Below
Lighting in a room is one of those things most people think is easy enough, only to find out it’s not. If it was easy enough, proper lighting wouldn’t be such a relentless issue among DIYers. The most common mistakes people make unknowingly are either too much lighting or too less of it. Too much light can overwhelm the place, while too less can leave the space looking dull, plagued with dark spots in the room.
Instead: A single layer of lighting is never enough, including wall lights, ceiling lights, wall lamps and floor lamps throughout the space are vital to getting the lighting right. But merging all these lights alone is not the answer, you have to think about the kind of atmosphere you want to create and also the purpose of the room to get it right.
Also Read: Space Enhancing Design Ideas for a Small Living Room
Making mistakes is a sign of growth and learning. If you think you are not making mistakes – you are, you just don’t know it yet. So, don’t get discouraged if you make any of these mistakes, just move forward and rectify them. Hopefully, this blog helped you avoid and rectify your mistakes, and if it did, check out our other expert advice blogs for your home improvement.
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