Here are some of the biggest interior design mistakes to swerve when it comes to home décor…

Today I’m talking about interior design mistakes. We wouldn’t be human if we hadn’t made a few rookie errors when it comes to styling our homes, right? And I’m right there with you, because I’ve made a lot of them too! Today I’m sharing the biggest home décor mistakes you can make when it comes to designing your home – and how to swerve them!

1) Getting the measurements wrong

This is probably one of the easiest interior design mistakes to make – and one of the most common!

This blog post idea actually came to me when I was shaving my legs in the shower. My foot had slipped off the ledge of the bath, and the reason it slipped is because I got my measurements wrong and bought a bath that was too wide.

For some reason, I didn’t realise that you had to pay attention to the width of the bath as well the length. This meant that plumber had to push it into the wall to make it fit, so the ledge is narrower on one side. It’s not a biggie, but it still bugs me.  

My advice? Do your measurements, then double and triple check them before you order anything. With it’s picture frames, vinyl flooring, or buying a mattress, it’s always worth saving yourself a headache – and cash – by checking everything carefully.

2) Not filling a space

One of the most common issues I see when it comes to interior design is not filling a space properly. You know what I mean… there might be a living room with a sofa, and TV unit and maybe a coffee table, and that’s it. It’s all perfectly functional but it just looks stark, empty, and not particularly welcoming.

I’ve learned that it takes a while to make a space feel homely. For that to happen you need to have a good size rug, you’ll need good lighting, and you’ll need some decorative pieces that add interest and transform the space into something that isn’t purely functional. That’s how it becomes a space you want to spend time in, right?

Fill your space with the following:

• Storage baskets
• Plants
• Pouffe
• A good rug
• Decorative table

3) Overfilling a space

And here we go with the opposite problem to the above – stuffing a room.

Scale is so important when it comes to interior décor, and the only thing worse than underfilling a room is overfilling it. There’s nothing worse than squishing a sofa – or even worse, a whole suite – into a living room that just eats up the whole space! It just makes everything look messy and crowded and doesn’t let the rest of the room breath, right?

But it’s not just about the practicalities – you also want to keep it interesting and give your eye somewhere to land. You can’t do that if there’s busyness and clutter everywhere, because it just becomes chaotic. I love an oversized print or a large plant with the best of them, but only when it fits the space and when it’s balanced with other smaller accessories.

Top designers say that your room should be like a cityscape, with different pieces of furniture setting at different levels throughout the room. Intriguing!

4) Not adding enough softness to a room

I really can’t overstate the importance of soft furnishings…

Textures add so much to a room and can really help to turn a space into somewhere that feels cosy and inviting. I love raw natural materials for example, such as wood and concrete, but you need to balance them out with throws and cushions so that your space doesn’t feel too harsh or industrial. I mean, who even are you if you don’t have three or four or five cushions on your sofa and at least one or two throws you can curl under each night.

Don’t think your walls can’t have texture either. I’m a big fan of tapestries and they’re a different – and warmer – take on just another standard framed print.

Add texture by adding…

• Cushions
• Rugs
• Throws
• Tapestries
• Storage baskets
• Lamps

5) Choosing the wrong rug

This is another of the most common interior design mistakes. And I confess: once upon a time I chose the wrong rug.

I picked a rug that was lovely; soft, white, fluffy and had a lovely bohemian vibe. However, as my style evolved I realised it was too small. It didn’t connect the different pieces in the room and just made it look like everything was floating.

This is similar to what I see elsewhere –a tiny rug in front of the fireplace and that’s it. However, now I realise that you need a good-sized rug to anchor your room. You can then place your sofa, coffee table, side table, storage baskets, and so on and pull everything together, creating one cohesive space. You can still have your dinky rug layered alongside your large rug, just not as a stand-alone.

6) Having all your clutter on show

Nothing ruins a room more quickly than having all your junk on show. That stuff needs to be tucked away and hidden so that it’s not the first thing you see in a room.

Some people are into wall to wall storage and that’s great from a functional perspective – it hides everything away really cleanly and looks really slick. For me, though, I prefer individual pieces that have a bit of character. I have an old trunk in my living room, for example, which is where I put all my extra throws. I’m also a big fan of storage baskets – particularly cute ones with pom-poms or tassels. I have a few of these dotted around the house and they’re perfect for chucking in whatever you need when you’re having a quick tidy up.

Ideas for characterful storage

• Apple crates
• Wicker baskets
• Rattan boxes
• Vintage trunk
• Rustic shelves

7) Getting rid – instead of upcycling

Decluttering your property is great… but don’t be too hasty. You don’t want to throw something out that you later realise you could have done a stellar job of upcycling.

For me, the thing I most regret getting rid of is a wooden fire surround. I chucked it out when I first moved into my flat when I was still in the headspace of thinking we’d get a fancy wood burning stove at some point in the future. Fast forward a couple of years and I came to realise that there was no way I was spending that amount on a wood burner.

That’s when I decided a paint job of the existing fireplace would do just fine. I purchased a bottle of black paint to give the grate and the wall behind it a bit of a spruce up and then bought a cheap new fire surround on Etsy and painted it white. Lesson officially learned. So don’t be too hasty – vinyling, painting, and tiling can all have a magical effect on your interior.

8) Buying everything brand new

When I first started decorating my house I followed all these ‘aspirational’ bloggers on Instagram who seemed to have endless money to spurge on whatever they fancied. Or everything was just hashtag ‘gifted’ of course. It was a bit of a bummer and it made me feel like I had to save up for all these expensive pieces to make my place look nice.

That’s not the case, however. I didn’t realise that you could do your home up cheaply but in a cool way; a way that was aspirational in its own right. It was only when I started following people like @loftnq on Instagram that I realised the budget styling could be cool.

I started shopping on Facebook Marketplace, upcycling my furniture, painting everything black – like my fireplace – and I’ve never looked back. If you’re not doing this then you really are missing out on a treasure trove of bargains – and the buzz of transforming them!

• Read my complete guide to Facebook Marketplace here

9) Winging it

I can be one for winging it with interior décor. However, there are some things you can wing and some things you can’t, and a gallery wall definitely isn’t one of them.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say the gallery wall in my living room is my nemesis. The wall is like a pin cushion because of all the times I’ve hung prints up and then changed my mind a few days later – I’ve honestly had about three incarnations of the wall and it’s only now that I’m finally happy with my living room gallery wall.

I realised that the only way I could create a gallery wall I was truly happy with was to plan it out. That meant laying out all my prints on the kitchen floor and arranging them until I’d found a layout I was happy with. Even that took three or four attempts!

Looking for tips on how to choose wall art? Read my post below:

• How to choose wall art for your home

10) Being too influenced by other people

It’s so hard NOT to be overly influenced by other people’s style, especially when you’re first starting out in styling your home. That’s what Instagram is for, right?

I remember for ages having a bookmarked image of what I wanted my living room to look like. There was a turquoise sofa, a black and white print, and a minimalist coffee table. I was desperate for my living room to look just like that. When I finally acquired all of these things, though, I realised that it wasn’t really me. It looked way too empty and minimalist.

That was the part I started developing my own style and realising what I liked. I don’t think I’ve totally nailed it yet, but I’m certainly a lot more comfortable in knowing what I like – if that means a monkey-shaped lamp or a coffee table made out of palettes then so be it.

11) Being in too much of a hurry

Rushing into decisions is probably one of the biggest interior design mistakes you can make.

When I first moved into my flat I was in so much of a hurry to make it look nicer that I probably rushed into a few decisions I wish I’d taken more time over. Buy in haste and repent at leisure, that’s the expression, right?

One big mistake I made was going for grey tiles with white grouting for the kitchen, rather than white tiles with black grouting, which are much easier to clean! You don’t want to always be thinking about practicalities but in such a high traffic area as the kitchen, I kinda wish I had.

Another one of my interior design mistakes was buying a white radiator cover for the living room which I thought I liked. However, it bugged me every time I looked at it – it was just too white. So then I decided that painting it matte black was a good idea. Turns out the black wasn’t any better. In the end I replaced it with a scaffolding board that cost about a tenner!

My advice would be to not always rush into buy stuff straight away as your tastes are evolving all the time. Just take your time!

12) Putting off the small jobs

I know, I know. I just finished saying that you should take your time. However, another mistake I’ve made in my home décor project is taking too long over small easy wins that I could and should have done years ago. One example of that is in my bedroom.

Until a few weeks ago it was total chaos: no flooring, piles of books and magazines everywhere, and ad-hoc bookshelves made out of old pieces of flooring and piles of bricks. Yes really. However, we recently gave the space a bit of a makeover with some vinyl flooring an upcycled box shelf, and a few decorative bits and pieces that I’d bought. That’s all it took, but suddenly the space it transformed. It now feels like this really tranquil space that I actually enjoy waking up in – I just wish I’d done it years ago. So that’s my point…

There are a few jobs that are easy wins. Instead of kicking them down the road just get them done asap so that you can enjoy your space as much as possible.

13) Being too matchy-matchy

In my eyes, one of the ultimate interior design mistakes you can make is the matchy-matchy look. Actually, it’s not just in interiors – I’m also not a fan of when people do this with their clothes and match their shoes to their handbag to their earrings and so on. Matching is just not my jam at all! In my view, it just makes everything look flat and a little bit predictable.

You can add much more richness to your interior by adding a variety of colours and textures, and they don’t all have to match. There’s a 60-30-10 rule that some people stick to, which basically means that you should have 60% one colour, 30% of another, and a final 10% of accent. I never want to stick to anything too rigidly but it is a way of enabling confidence in your colour scheme. Although rules are made to be broken of course!

14) Not thinking about lighting

Lighting can be a game changer to any room and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you only stick to your overhead lighting and that’s it. How do you then create a certain mood if you’re having a cosy evening in – or having some friends round for dinner?

Lighting can add ambience and atmosphere and really change the feel of a space. I love the idea of draping fairly lights around wooden beams or adding a couple of bespoke lamps to to add some soft lighting to your living room. Plus, there are so many amazing lamp designs out there you’ll probably be spoiled for choice – I even have a toad-shaped one!

15) Being too safe

This final point is a little more left-field, but I guess it ties into making sure you bring your own personality into the mix when you’re creating your space. Ultimately, it’s your house. People like me can dish out all the advice in the world but it’s really only up to you.

One of the more interesting elements I have in my home is what I call my DIY pergola – a bamboo ladder hung from the ceiling and styled with artificial ivy which lives in my living room. It’s a little bit out there but I love it! The long and the short of it is this: you do you. If you want to paint your walls black then go for it. If you want a a pastel pink sofa then buy it. And if you want a giant mural in your hallway then trust your gut and go for it.

You’re the one spending time in your home so what you think matters the most.

Those are my tips for avoiding the biggest interior design mistakes!