Common Interior Design Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Designing a beautiful and functional home isn’t always straightforward. Even the most stylish spaces can fall victim to common interior design mistakes that affect comfort, flow, or visual appeal. In this guide, we’ll walk through frequent missteps and provide practical solutions to elevate your home with confidence and clarity.

1. Ignoring a Cohesive Color Scheme

• Mixing too many unrelated colors creates visual chaos.
• Lack of harmony between rooms can make your home feel disjointed.
• Fix: Choose a consistent palette with complementary tones throughout your space.

2. Choosing Style over Function

• Aesthetic pieces that aren’t comfortable or practical reduce livability.
• Overly minimal or overly decorated spaces can lack usability.
• Fix: Prioritize furniture and layout that support everyday life while staying stylish.

3. Hanging Artwork Too High or Too Low

• Art placed at the wrong height disrupts visual balance.
• It can make walls look awkward or ceilings seem lower.
• Fix: Hang artwork at eye level- typically 57-60 inches from the floor to the center of the piece.

4. Buying Rugs That Are Too Small

• Undersized rugs make a room feel fragmented and cramped.
• They fail to anchor furniture and define zones.
• Fix: Choose a rug large enough for at least the front legs of your furniture to rest on it.

5. Poor Lighting Choices

• Relying on a single overhead light flattens the room.
• Inadequate lighting creates dark, uninviting spaces.
• Fix: Layer lighting with a mix of ambient, task, and accent sources like floor lamps and sconces.

6. Pushing All Furniture Against the Walls

• This can make the room feel empty or too boxy.
• It reduces intimacy and disrupts conversation flow.
• Fix: Pull pieces inward to create inviting layouts with clear zones.

7. Overlooking Scale and Proportion

• Oversized or undersized furniture throws off the room’s balance.
• A too-large sofa in a small room feels overwhelming; tiny decor in a large room gets lost.
• Fix: Measure your space and choose furniture that suits dimensions and ceiling height.

8. Cluttered or Over-Decorated Surfaces

• Too many accessories compete for attention and reduce visual clarity.
• It’s harder to appreciate key design elements when the eye has no rest.
• Fix: Edit ruthlessly- curate vignettes with varying heights and groupings of 3-5 items.

9. Neglecting Personal Touches

• Spaces that feel too staged or generic lack warmth and character.
• Relying solely on trends can make your space feel dated quickly.
• Fix: Incorporate meaningful items like art, travel finds, or heirlooms to add soul.

10. Forgetting the Power of Texture

• A room with all smooth or all soft surfaces feels flat.
• Lack of contrast in materials diminishes depth and richness.
• Fix: Mix textures- add knits, woods, glass, metals, and natural fibers for a layered look.

Final Thoughts

Design mistakes are part of the process, but with a few strategic tweaks, any space can be transformed. By being mindful of layout, scale, and balance- and avoiding these common pitfalls- you can create interiors that are not only beautiful, but truly feel like home.