5 Design Don’ts For Any Home

There’s no shortage of lists and articles highlighting numerous trends and ideas for nearly every room in your home. From paints, to furniture to accessories, there’s a plethora of information about what you should do, especially after doing a home renovation in one or more spaces in your home. But what about the pitfalls you should avoid? As varied as personal tastes can be, there are a few design rules that are tough to break. For those looking to get the most beautiful results out of their space, here are just a few important design don’ts to remember after a home renovation.

Don’t Push Furniture Against The Wall
As natural as it may seem to put a large chair or couch flush with the widest wall in your living room – resist the urge! Letting your furniture “float” in the middle of the room creates much more visual interest and a more intimate living area, whereas the opposite will leave a large space in the middle of the room with seats relatively far from one another. Every room shape and placement is different, so it may take a few tries to figure out the arrangement that works best for you and your home.

Don’t Forget About Lighting
After choosing wall colours, furniture, accessories, flooring or carpeting and other details, often lighting is left until the very end in terms of consideration. It’s important to keep lighting in mind at every step of your renovation and design process so that every part of your final look works well together. You may have to scale down other parts of the room to accommodate lighting that is truly a perfect fit for the space, but this will be difficult if you leave it until the very end. Lighting is one of the most aesthetic defining aspects of a room, setting the tone and drawing the eyes upward then around the rest of the space; almost like a piece of jewelry in an outfit. Move away from relying solely on recessed pot lights and don’t be afraid to make a statement with bold lighting options.

Don’t Break Up A Flow
As much as each room can have it’s own personality and individual aesthetic that can stand on its own, it’s important that there is also a succinct flow throughout your entire home so that all the spaces work together as well. It’s important to find a linking factor that can be carried from one room to the next. Repetition will be your best friend in this scenario, and you can zero in on a visual element like an accent colour or fixture detail that will translate from one space into an adjacent room.

Don’t Obsess Over Matching
As important as it is for elements in a room to work together, it’s also imperative that they’re not too matchy. You don’t need to purchase every piece in a furniture set or accessories from a singular accessory line for a room to make sense. Find ways to relate pieces rather than match them exactly. Colours, materials, motif, time period, mood – these are all things that could potentially link items together more than having a room full of identical damask patterned items. Find pieces that complement each other and have a few similarities and go from there.

Don’t Ignore Architectural Cues
While you shouldn’t relegate yourself to exact matches in any space, you should still take cues from certain elements it so that it makes in the end. A room with elaborate vintage crown moulding can definitely have modern furniture, but you must be sure that the lines and silhouettes are still appropriate and don’t look completely out of place. Find a way to combine the room’s permanent detailing with more interchangeable pieces since the entire room has to work together.

Don’t Overdo It!
Interior design can definitely be exciting. Once all the right pieces and looks begin to come together, there seems to be endless ways to build on your space and go for more, but skip the “go big or go home” motto when it comes to spaces in your home. From taking a design aesthetic too literally like vintage or monochromatic, to over-accessorizing, it’s possible to go too far in your decorating process. Keep in mind that you’re designing a home, not a museum, and the spaces should be as welcoming, comfortable and functional as they are beautiful. Beds, couches, tables and knick knacks can all be moved around, switched out or revamped – so remember to have fun with it and make it your own.

It’s important to go into any home renovation with a clear plan, but do be open to fresh ideas that may arise in your search and find ways to make it work in your final vision.