Years ago I had this friend who was super annoying. She was, (and probably still is), a fairy-decent cook which made her an absolute nightmare to go out and eat with. All she would do was criticise the restaurant. She always made me choose the venue and then would spend the entire meal scrutinising the cleanliness of the cutlery or sneering at the menu, and she always sent something back. I would find myself pulling that apologetic ‘I’m sorry about my friend’ smile to the waiting staff. Disapproving of my choice of restaurant was her way of disapproving of me. So we’re not friends anymore. No one needs a friend like that!
So when I qualified as an interior designer I promised myself I wouldn’t be a dick about it. I was determined not to spend my social time with my friends, criticising the layout of the restaurant or the lighting of the coffee shop or the decor of their own home (unless they asked me to!). And because I am a nice and kind person I have stuck to that. No one wants to hang out with a negative Nancy. But that doesn’t mean I’m not being constantly offended by interior design crimes. I see them happening all around me. Things that really make me want to stick a fork in my eye.
So here they are. A round-up of some of the most offensive interior design crimes to avoid.
1. Wall art hung too high
Artwork is there to be enjoyed so make sure you can see it! You don’t want to be straining your neck to enjoy it. Also, if it’s too high it’s just randomly floating up on the wall and doesn’t feel connected to anything. Hang it so your eye line is directly in the centre of the painting, this is normally about 145cm from floor level. If it’s going above a piece of furniture keep it nice and close so they have a connection with each other. And if you are hanging paintings together leave no more than 10-15cm between. So many people hang paintings too far apart and they just look like they’ve had an argument. And if you are going to be enjoying a piece of art whilst sat down then hang it even lower.
Oh, and this isn’t one of those ‘subjective’ things. There are no circumstances where breaking these rules looks good. So stick to the rules people!
2. Rugs that are too small
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, don’t buy a rug that is too small. It looks pointless and makes your room look smaller! The front legs of your sofa should sit on the rug. If you have a rug that’s just floating around on its own in the middle of your room it will look ridiculous, like a detached island that is not connected to anything. The purpose of the rug is to anchor your scheme and provide a solid base to layer the design on. If you want all the rules read my blog on ‘how to choose the perfect rug’. And again, this isn’t me having a weird preference for large rugs this is something every interior designer across the land would agree with.
3. Short curtains
If you want to achieve a dated look from circa 1986 then by all means go ahead and buy some curtains that sit at windowsill height. In all other circumstances go floor length. They should sit on the floor ideally. There are some occasions where pooling curtains on the floor are called for, but these are often limited to romantic schemes in Georgian properties with full-length windows and parquet floors. But never, never with carpets. So floor length will work in most houses just fine. If you really can’t accommodate full length because of sofas or radiators then reconsider altogether and go for blinds or shutters. Just anything but short curtains.
4. GOING ALL Matchy Matchy
Whilst we’re speaking of the dated look then let’s talk about matching furniture. This was all the rage a few decades ago with matching sofas and armchairs, matching curtains and sofa upholstery, matching coffee table bookshelf and sideboard. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to have a couple of pieces from the same range, but you want to avoid your living room looking like a page torn out of the Next catalogue. It’s far better to find individual pieces with personalities that work together. You just need your pick items that have things in common, like the same shaped legs or the same proportions. Mixing different pieces creates a more bespoke and unique home that has more character and interest. You can read more about mixing furniture styles here.
5. Putting resale first
If you are going to be living in your home for ten years or more then don’t stress about the resale. You need to make your homework for you. Put yourself first rather than the imaginary buyers in ten years time. People are often scared of making changes that suit their needs, but the alternative is living with a compromised home for a significant chunk of your life.
If you want to sacrifice a bedroom for a bathroom then do it. Don’t live with a titchy bathroom for ten years just so you don’t scare off future buyers. And anyway, if you do it well, I bet you’ll find some buyers who are glad you did the hard work (so they don’t have to).
6. The feature wall
If you like a colour then paint it on all of your walls. There is really no need to just paint a single wall. It’s dated, makes your room look smaller, and all it really does is highlight how scared you were. So if you love a colour commitment, you won’t regret it.
7. SOULLESS CHIC
This is the new build show home look that makes me feel sad, uninspired and angry. Young couples and families work so unbelievably hard to achieve home ownership in this country, they deserve better than this grey bland bullshit. This kind of look doesn’t make me want to spend my life’s savings and grans inheritance, it makes me want to run a mile.
Don’t put up with grey walls, grey curtains and bland furnishings. Our homes are our sanctuary they should nurture us and fill us with joy, so everything in it should fill you with joy. Choose colours, furniture and objects that mean something to you that express your character and personality.
8. TVs over fireplaces
Please don’t do this. Firstly it’s too high. The middle of your television should be the same height as your eye line when you are sat down. Because sofas are all different heights you really need to measure this in situ to establish the perfect height, but generally it’s about 107cm from the floor. So you see, above the fireplace is way too high. Secondly, do you really want your television to distract from your (hopefully beautiful) fireplace? You’ll be creating a focal point of your television rather than the fireplace and no TV ever won a prize for being a thing of beauty (unless you have the Samsung Frame TV that costs a gazillions of pounds maybe).
Some of you may only have alcoves on either side of your fireplace as an alternative place to situate your television. If they are too narrow to accommodate the mahoosive super-size screen you were after, then get a smaller television. Do you really need a screen that large in your small Victorian living room? Or maybe move house. Just don’t have your TV above the fireplace.
9. Artex ceilings
Urgh, those bastards who came up with Artex have a lot to answer for. I come across this issue all the time and I always, always recommend skimming it. No matter what you do to a room, no matter how much money and skill you throw at the decor, if you have an Artex ceiling it will always look dated. So you are basically wasting your time if you are trying to modernise the room with the decor and don’t take care of the artex. A plasterer will charge around £200 a day, and do a medium to large room in two days. I would rather you spent £400 less on the furnishings and styling than try to battle on with the ceiling as it is.
10. Too much symmetry
Over-symmetrical designs are a bit stuffy and unimaginative. On the flip side asymmetry is informal, relaxed and interesting. So don’t obsess over your bed having to be slap bang in the middle of the wall. Or having identical pieces of furniture in each alcove. Relax and be more flexible with your home.
11. Bad lighting
Because of inconsiderate development over the last fifty years, we have two common lighting problems. You are likely to be plagued by the sad single pendant scenario where you have one ceiling light fitting per room. Or, you have a grid of harsh spotlights giving you a nice spaceship vibe.
Both are terrible. What we actually need is a mixture of downlights, wall lights and decorative lights to create the perfect ambience that is practical and beautiful to live with. So don’t put up with what you have inherited, change your lighting to suit you and your home. You can read more about how to do this here.
12. Ginormous canvasses of babies and children
Okay, now I appreciate this may be a bit controversial but hear me out. I’m not anti-children and babies. I’m really not. I have a delightful toddler of my own and I have tons of pictures of her. But what I object to is the scale of these huge canvases because they are not appropriate for the subject. Babies are teeny, tiny, beautiful miracles so it doesn’t feel right for them to be blown up to the size of a billboard. There’s something weird about them being so much bigger than life-size. I think it is much more beautiful to have a collection of smaller photographs to celebrate the beauty of your children. That way you get to display even more photos of them but still fill up a big space.
Sorry if that came across as a bit of a rant. I just feel passionately about helping people avoid these mistakes. If you would like some interior design advice and live in Southampton or Hampshire then get in touch. I’d love to help you avoid these toe-curling mistakes and create a beautiful home.
Good helpful sense.
Brilliant advice, straight to the point. Love the humour too!
Thanks Jo, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Interesting, very useful information and funny! Thank you! 🙂
Hi Laurie, thanks for reading! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Thank you great advice.
Thank you very helpful
You’re very welcome, glad you enjoyed it.
Brilliant advise, I have been telling people for years….. DON’T PUT YOUR MASSIVE F#@%£&N TV ABOVE YOUR FIREPLACE.
No just no 🙄👍😂 Thankyou.
Thanks Ann, I’m glad it was helpful 🙂
Great advice, thank you. Love your sense of humour too.
Thanks Maggie, glad you enjoy the blogs! Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
Thank you for your knowledge.
Thank you for your comment 🙂
Thank you, this has been very freeing, indeed.
Hi Ann, I’m glad you found this of interest! Thanks for stopping by and commenting 🙂
Really enjoyable read! Just setting up my first home, so very useful tips and reminders!
I am also from Southampton and looking at interior design qualifications. Can I ask where you did yours please?
Chloe
Hi Chloe I studied at the Interior Design Institute. Good luck setting up your home 🙂
Yes! I agree with all of this, espexially the last one and may i add photos printed on canvas… Ouch.
Yes you may add that as a crime scene!
Agree with everything you said. So many baby and family photos in living rooms and up the stairs drives me crazy. Bland grey everywhere, teeny pictures halfway up a wall, one pendant light in a room, half mast curtains… ghastly!
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Ah yes the photos up the stairs, good one!
Just read this Sarah- not sure how many crimes I’m committing?? Obvs none in my bedroom x
Ha ha! Of course none in your bedroom. I think you pass Sue 🙂
I do love a rant – especially a valid one! And there are some very valid points. I couldn’t agree more about a distaste for ‘the big canvas’ family/baby print. Too in your face and completely soulless and lacking imagination. Pictures and photos grouped together look great (but not one on each wall!). Frame some sketches and children’s paintings instead!
Thank you for confirming that tv over the fireplace is a no-no. Had this convo with my husband yesterday who suggested we do it. I told him I’m not looking for neck strain as an addition to my life. I agree with all your points here!
I’m glad it helped to settle that score! 🙂
Excellent tips! I agree with everything you said!
Thanks Tina! 🙂
Thank you,
I enjoyed reading your advice, but I am even more unsure now on which colour to use its all white at the moment. I have a two bed bungalow with an open plan sitting /dining /kitchen area. This is the first time I have had this sort of layout so not sure how to start with colour the kitchen units are two shades of grey with light work tops nd there’s a builtin unit on the other wall it covers half of the wall in two soft shades of green floor is a light oak. It would be really helpful if you could give me sum ideas. With kindest regards
Ah, yes open plan living is always a tricky one. So it sounds like you have two shades of grey in your kitchen and two shades of green as well? It would be great if you could email me some images so I can appreciate the space. sarah@paperroominteriors.co.uk. When your colour is all white do you literally mean pure brilliant white on your walls? I would recommend an off-white to soften the look but that has the right undertone to work with your greens and greys. You could try something like Slipper Satin by F&B or Strong White. But it’s hard to say without knowing what orientation the rooms are and how much natural light you receive, so send me an email and we can chat it through x
Spot on on everything!
Don’t apologize for being right.
Would you write something about the wallpaper?
Hi there, iam just about to move into the same house type with open plan living/dining/kitchen, it would be great to hear the suggestions and ideas regarding this, please if you can keep me in the loop,. Thanks in advance. B. Brido41@gmail.com.
Great advice! I totally agree, except about the giant babies. I’m not in the UK, so maybe that isn’t a thing here in the US. It does sound truly terrifying, though.
I’m in the final planning stages of a complete kitchen renovation and am also stuck on colors, which is odd, because I’ve never been shy to pull the trigger on any shade at all. My kitchen hasn’t been functional since I moved in over a year ago, but it was such a godawful mess, I knew it had to be a total redo. I’ll have lots of old wood with both a rich, reddish brown patina, as well as silvery grey patina, a rusty roofing metal ceiling (to cover several sins), a stand-alone galvanized mop sink with drain board (as my sink), a modern/retro-look circular ceiling fan in silver and white, aluminum industrial lighting, concrete floor, 1950s working fridge (painted Robin’s Egg), white washer & dryer with wood folding table “enclosure”, etc. so, as you can imagine, it’s just skirting the edge of over-the-top, which is normally my comfort zone. But, you’ll just have to trust me that I’m fairly good at making things work in odd combos. The problem is, that I don’t want to cross the line and am waffling on Wall and cabinet (original, hardwood) colors. I was thinking of using a bucket of greige (finally) on the walls and painting the cabinets a purplish pink. I also have black, dark grey, celery and brownish-pink paint on hand. Oh, I should say the room is ginormous. Any thoughts on my quandary? Thanks!
Hi Dinah, oh yeah the massive baby canvas’s are a thing over here! Your renovation sounds amazing email me some pics if you would like me to help with colours. It sounds like you have a very clear idea about what you like and don’t like so trust your gut.
Thank you for the great advice!
Thank you for reading!
The advice ways very helpful. I feel as if I just read the cliff notes to interior design 101. Thanks so much!!!!
Ha ha, cliff notes! That’s an expression I haven’t heard for a while! Glad you like it 🙂 x
Good Tips! Especially TV above the Fireplace! I’ve Always HATED to See a TV ruin A Perfectly Good Fireplace! Can also add Stainless Steel Appliances Just for the sake of having what ” EVERYONE” else has! Be Different! Same goes for All White Kitchen trend! When Will That Be Over!
As a Fellow Interior Designer that had me in stitches! Well said.
Best tips I’ve read yet!
I can’t fully agree with the skimming over artex.. There are a lot of homes with tacky overlapping fish scale or poorly scratched on artex, but I’ve seen some really interesting and brilliantly done examples too. There was an old Chinese man who covered much of my area in the 70s and some of his pattern work totally changed my perspective on artex… Also please don’t remove your artex by hand, there’s a solid chance you’re destabilising asbestos in the mix and no one wants lung cancer…
You made me chuckle.
Only wish you wer’e nearer, I live in Nottinghamshire.
My home is so beige it’s a crime scene
Enjoy your day x
Ha ha, I’m sure it’s not that bad! Thank your for reading and commenting. What a shame we’re not local to each other. I’m always happy to try and help over the phone or Zoom. Take care x
Where is part two please!!! Or the 2024 secuel