5 Interior Design Fails You Shouldn’t Copy

1. Don’t Pick Furniture Before Color Palette

Imagine you and a friend going to the grocery store to buy ingredients for a Mango Berry Salad. You both know you are going need some berries and mixed greens, so you and your friend split off to do the shopping and agree to meet at the checkout register in 20 minutes.

So far, everything you have is PERFECT. You have sliced mango bits, blueberries, strawberries, honey roasted peanuts, sweet tangerine slices, and a berry vinaigrette to top it off. You can already imagine all of those sweet flavors swirling together inside your mouth to create an explosion of happiness for your taste buds.

You get back to the register to find your friend already there. You ask them if they have the mixed greens for the salad and they happily pull out a bag of broccoli with kale leaves.

You see where I’m going with this? This is exactly what it is like when you pick out the furniture before picking out your color palette for your room. Except in this case, there is no friend betraying you because you are doing it on your own! Don’t pick out furniture first! Is the number one of the interior design fails!

2. Designing For Space You Don’t Have. Epic Interior Design Fail.

Look, everyone likes a big spacious living room that can hold everything. Normally, they have large furniture and look like they could easily host Superbowl parties. Unfortunately, some of us try to design after that dream without ever having the space to actually accommodate it.

Having a lot of nice, big furniture isn’t a problem if you have a nice, big space to put it in. However, trying to cram large furniture into a small space is a different story. Many people like to lie to themselves and say “it fills the room” or “it matches the decor so-“. Epic interior design fails you need to avoid.

This practice is tacky, and really sucks the life out of the room. Instead of having a nice focal point, like a wall or fireplace, your focal point is going to end up being a color faded couch or over sized beanbag.

Once you upgrade your space, then you can think about huge dining parties or large birthday get togethers but until then, stick to designing for the space you have.

Small space doesn’t mean you have to lose style either, just take at how the most is made out of the small space below.

3. Don’t Forget to Create a Design Budget and Stick to It

You already know you should have a budget, but sometimes that one piece of furniture you ABSOLUTELY need can be the difference between having 80 dollars leftover and going 300 into the red.

Just because something is expensive doesn’t mean it is the best option for your home. There are literally millions of different design items around the nation, and probably thousands just around your local stores. They definitely will help you to avoid expensive and unnecessary interior design fails.

Expensive doesn’t always equal best. Remember, it can take just one pricey item to really burn through all of your design budget.

4. Don’t Clutter

Don’t you just love your little kitty knick-knacks you’ve been collecting over the years? What about your souvenirs from all of the places you have visited? And what of grandma’s 1950’s vase she gave you before you left for college? Guess what, cluttering is one of the most common interior design fails.

Before we talk about where in our living space these things are going, we have to ask ourselves, “Do these things even go with my design theme?” If the answer is no, then they probably shouldn’t be displayed.

Now, we get that a lot of these things carry some sentimental value, but just because they aren’t on display doesn’t mean you don’t cherish those things. Besides, are you really admiring it every time you walk by it?

Do you talk it up as one of your favorite design pieces every time someone comes over? If it doesn’t belong, then it probably shouldn’t go up.

5. Don’t buy everything from the same store

Chances are you aren’t going to the same store for everything in your life. Bakeries are a great place to pick up desserts, but you wouldn’t bet on them making better donuts than, say, a donut shop.

The same idea applies to interior design. Some stores might have EVERYTHING, but each of your choices might be limited, such as a small number of sofas to select from. Don’t limit your purchases to one store.

There are furniture stores, lamps and lighting stores, paint warehouses, and tons of other places that you can choose from. Get creative and choose from different places to avoid interior design fails!

If you don’t, everything in your living space might look like all of the eggs came from one carton and one color.

There are several other interior design fails that we didn’t cover (I’m looking at you poorly lit rooms), but these are our top 5 interior design fails for now. Got any more great interior design ideas?

Lets us know and we might feature you on our blog!