5 common design mistakes and how to avoid them

Have you committed these crimes against design? Our designers share the most common mistakes they see time and time again.

1. Not having a clear vision

This common mistake is often committed by people rushing into a room transformation and purchasing items for the room without a clear vision of the end result.

Milena: "We tend to design our spaces from details upwards rather than the other way around but I always suggest to have a very holistic approach to the design to avoid the final results to look not cohesive."

Mood boards are a wonderful way of creating a design scheme for a room. An Interior Designer can create either a physical or a digital mood board (like the ones we provide our clients) which provides a guide for the colours, materials and style of the room you should follow. Anything you purchase needs to incorporate an element from the mood board. 

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2. Buying the wrong size furniture

One of the most common design mistakes we see time and time again is furniture in a room that's completely the wrong size. A banquet size dining table in a small room will only make it feel smaller. Equally a tiny sofa in a lofty space will look comical! Make sure you measure up correctly and use a floor plan to be certain before you buy.

Lucy: "A really common mistake we see our client’s make is buying furniture that doesn’t fit the room. Maybe they’re out and about and they make an impulse buy on that sofa and there’s just not enough circulation space or it just doesn’t fit in the room."

Ricky: "The two things I tell my clients all the time is to look at scale and space. With scale it’s to measure your pieces of furniture, getting the right size furniture for the room. Then space: try to allow space between the pieces of furniture so you can actually move between pieces."

3. Trying to mix too many different styles

It can get so overwhelming when designing a room as there are so many styles out there to be inspired by but this can lead to the end result looking like a hot mess!

Rosie: "One of the biggest design mistakes that client’s often come to us with is having too many styles."

Milena: "One trick that I sometimes use to mix different styles together is the 70/30 rule. I use about 70% of the space in one style and then I add the 30% of a different style. For example, you could spice up a very traditional space with a few contemporary pieces."

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3. Not having enough contrast

Contrast is key to a well considered design as it keeps the space from looking dull and flat while also helping to highlight certain features in a room. Just think about how much more impactful a black vase looks set against a white wall compared to a very dark one. 

Contrast is all about colour though. It can be light vs dark, shiny vs matte or rough vs smooth. 

Lucy: “Quite often we see very little contrast in a space. It’s commonly seen in people’s homes that don’t really like colour or pattern. But there’s so many different ways of adding contrast within a space, so just by adding texture and different materials and plants."

In a neutral scheme, natural elements can make a lovely contrast without being too overwhelming.

5. Relying on design trends

We all love a trend but relying on them too heavily can have a negative impact on how we feel in our homes. Your home should be unique to you so use trends as inspiration rather than a strict formula to follow.

Milena: "Creating a space that doesn’t feel like you is another classic mistake.”

Lucy: "We have clients that come to us and they’ve created a space but it really doesn’t feel like them. They’ve maybe been influenced by someone else's home or somebody’s house they’ve seen on social media."

Milena: "It’s virtually impossible not to get influenced by all the styles and all the trends that we see around, we are bombarded with images. We need to take those images as a source of a design and then add our own spin to it."

Lucy: "A designer can help you pinpoint your style and get your home to reflect your own personality."

For more common design mistakes to avoid, check out this blog: