20 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Home Décor – And How to Fix Them

Are you making any of these 20 home décor mistakes? I’m sure you’re making a few, like I have in the past. And I’m so glad I learned how to fix them. I’m sure most of us have made décor mistakes when trying to style our home. I remember painting the family room in my first home as a married woman a bright bold gold color. I don’t know what I was thinking! But I should have known I wasn’t really committed – I kept the large painted swatch on the wall for over a year while I “made up my mind”. So, I know I’m not the only one who wonders why their home doesn’t look Instagram worthy. I’ve sat and stared at the perfectly curated pictures and wondered what I was doing wrong. Over time, and lots of research and studying, I’ve learned that there are several common things that we get wrong. And here, I’m sharing these design mistakes and tips on how to fix them. But first, go ahead and join my FREE Decorating Made Easy Challenge. You’ll learn the tricks to easily decorate your home, even if you don’t have an eye for design.. Okay, now let’s get started.

20 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Home Décor – And How to Fix Them

Rug doesn’t fit space – you’ll definitely notice something is off about your room if the rug on the floor isn’t to scale with the furniture. Remember the Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs? Well, the too big rug will swallow all the furniture that sits on it and can overpower the entire room. While the itty-bitty rug will look like it doesn’t belong. It does nothing to anchor the space or tie the furniture together. But that perfectly sized rug? It will help pull all the other elements in the room together.
Ignoring the needs of your family – it’s easy to get caught up in the latest design style. Wanting your home to look like it’s ready for its first photoshoot. But really, what good is a room if you can’t use it? As you decorate your space, make sure that you take time to step back and think about how it will actually be used, by whom and that the furniture and accessories you pick make since for you.
Matching everything – I know the matching sofa, loveseat and chair combo used to be all the rage. And so, did buying the bed, headboard and matching dresser and nightstands. Some stores even give you a package deal if you buy the whole room. But now, a little variety spices things up! To keep your room visually interesting, don’t be afraid to mix and match sets and styles. Keep in mind that there’s an art and a science to this, and we’ll talk about that in mistake #8.
Nothing matches – the other side of having everything match is not having anything match! There’s typically a method to adding variety to a space. You might get a matching sofa and loveseat while making the chair different. Or having a matching headboard and nightstand but making the dresser different. But when all of your furniture pieces are different styles and colors, it’s just a recipe for disaster.
Curtains aren’t to scale – curtains are a nice way to set the mood in a space. They can show that the room is formal or whimsical. Cheery or somber. It all depends on the color, fabric and texture. But in order to have the curtains make their proper statement, they need to be to scale as well. Hang your curtains high and out from the window a bit. The curtains should touch the ground. I’ve got more detailed tips and pictures on how to properly hang curtains in your home.
Not having a plan – this is probably how some people end up with mismatch furniture. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll buy the first thing you see that fills a need. Or, you’ll purchase an item that looks beautiful, even though doesn’t quite match the design style of your house. If you haven’t already, I really suggest you find out your design style and then create a plan so that you know what you want in each home. It will save you time, money and mistakes – so you won’t buy things you don’t really need or that don’t match your design goals.
Not knowing your design style – there are several design styles and to top it off, some people are a mixture of more than one! I’m more of a French country farmhouse girl myself. But knowing this helps me understand what will work in my space. I know that I like glitz and glam, but also like to be comfortable. So, while I’m out shopping (or shopping online) I might mix a crystal lamp along with a cream-colored cozy cable knit throw in my family room. Knowing these things about yourself helps you choose more of what you want and make fewer design mistakes.
Mis-matched design styles – this can happen so many ways. When you don’t understand your design style or have somehow ended up with several different pieces without making a plan. You can end up with more than 3 or 4 styles in a space or home. Shabby country farmhouse modern with a taste of urban loft won’t appeal to anyone. Take the time to find out the textures, colors and wood tones or metals that make your house feel more like a home and you’ll be better for it.
Choosing paint from small swatches – ooh child, I had to learn this the hard way. And now that I think back on it, I don’t know what ever made me think that I could pick a wall color just by looking at a two-inch color strip. Literally! Your room is obviously bigger than you, so you need some paint swatches at a much larger scale. Having sizeable color swatches is just one of the color tips I talk more about in the Color 101
Artwork not to scale – similar to having a “just right rug”, you want your artwork to fit the intended space. If you haven’t already, grab the free guide to help you choose the right scale for wall décor based on where it will hang.
Rushing – take your time, grasshopper! Know that rushing and trying to completely furnish an entire home quickly will either lead you down the road of regret or cost a lot of money. Or understand a lot about decorating. So, it’s OK to take your time. You take the time to think through your entire home style before you move and settle in. Or you can spend some time once you’re in your house and decide. Either way, give yourself some grace and take the time you need to make the right decisions.
Decorating on trend or mixing trends – another mistake is to go with the latest trend just because everybody else is doing it. It’s kinda like buying clothes, what’s hot today might not be hot next season. So, while buying trending décor items might not be so bad, here’s one tip. Buy trendy low-priced accessories, don’t buy trendy higher priced items. If you make sure your more expensive purchases have a more classic design styles, they’ll last much longer. And your wallet will be happier for it.
Not decluttering first – trying to decorate a space with a cluttered background just won’t work. Just like a painter, you need a clear canvas to create art. And decorate your home. An easy way to check for clutter you may be unknowingly ignoring is to take a picture. What your eyes may have become accustomed to and ignore will be very obvious in the color photo. Clear as much as possible and then start to think about what you can do to improve the space.
Too many small pieces – another word for this is nick knacks. Accessories are a great way to add personality to a space. They can visually show your guests who you are and what your interests and hobbies are just by being on display. But what happens when they’re too small? Clutter. Accessories should be to scale.
Not using a cohesive color palette – if you have blocks of color in each room, but they don’t flow together, you’ve got a Rubik’s Cube home. And it won’t seem like your house is cohesive. The best way to is pre-plan the colors you want in your home and use various shades of those pre-determined colors for different spaces.
Not decorating at all – this typically happens when you think you’re in temporary housing, you become paralyzed with fear because you don’t know what you’re doing, or life just gets the best of you. But did you know that the right décor can be known to brighten moods? Yep, environments make a difference! So, the quickest way to add a little personality to your space is to just try something. Anything at this point! You literally have nothing to lose.
Not admitting when you need help – now this is hard for a lot of people. As women, we tend to feel like we should automatically know how to decorate. Society and culture tends to put home styling and decorating on us woman. So, when we don’t know what we’re doing, sometimes we’re afraid to speak up. And it doesn’t help that we can peak into “everyone” else’s beautifully decorated home just by looking at phones and scrolling through the ‘Gram (or Pinterest or Facebook). But here’s the deal. Admitting that you want some help just makes you smart.
Not considering lighting – lighting can make or break a space. And unless you’re a vampire, you’ll not only want good lighting in your home, but light is good for your mental health. So even if you don’t get good natural light, take a good look at your house. You can increase wattage in your lightbulbs or upgrade to “daylight” lights to make a space brighter. You can also add several lamps in rooms in order to make it more inviting.
Not using variety – this is very similar to having all of your furniture match. Not having variety just makes a space plain old boring! To mix things up a bit, you can add variety by changing style, texture, height and color of furniture and accessories.
Lack of personality – very similar to not considering the function and the needs of your family. Don’t forget that the best decorated homes reflect the personality of the family living in it. But lack of personality has a lot to do with following the prescribed plan of how to make a house look like a model home. It’s time to take the black and white photo of the model family out the picture frame and get to reality. Make sure you house speaks to you. If bright yellow is your favorite color and the new design trend is muted green, do you boo! This is YOUR home and you deserve to have it fit you.

20 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Home Décor – And How to Fix Them

We just covered 20 home décor mistakes that you’re probably making. And then we talked about how to fix each and every one. Now it’s your turn to get honest with yourself and see which one of these you’re doing. So, you can take the next step and correcting these flaws. So, go ahead and join my FREE Decorating Made Easy Challenge. You’ll learn the tricks to easily decorate your home, even if you don’t have an eye for design.

And please, take a few minutes to leave me a comment below and let me know about some of your design mistakes.