You’ve spent a fortune on the perfect sofa, drop-dead wing chairs, and truly
artistic wallpaper. You’ve even sprung for an entertainment center that’s
not made out of plywood and cinder blocks. So why doesn’t your room feel
pulled together? What’s keeping it from looking great?
Chances are, you’re making one of the decorating world’s common mistakes,
whether it’s a roller coaster effect of uneven furniture heights or something
as simple as skipping accessories. Scan this checklist to see if you’ve made
a decorating faux pas:
Buying without a plan. Who hasn’t snatched up a comfy chair or a great
lamp just because it caught their eye? It’s often hard to incorporate such
impulse purchases into the rest of your decor. It’s better to start with a
plan -- one that matches your lifestyle. If you have kids or pets or simply
love to put your feet up, opt for furniture with sturdy, not delicate,
fabrics. If you love to eat in the family room, choose a large enough coffee
table and end tables.
Forgetting a focal point. A fireplace, an incredible entertainment armoire
or anything large and eye-catching should be the dominant feature of a room.
That gives you a starting point -- like an anchor for your room from which
everything else emanates.
Creating a shouting gallery. Don’t be afraid to pull furniture away from
walls into a cozier grouping. For an ideal conversation area, use a sofa and
two great armchairs -- all in close proximity. Put a coffee table in the
middle and end tables within easy reach. Try to avoid furniture placement
that requires people to walk through this conversation area to get somewhere
else.
Making rooms off-balance. Both the placement and the size of your
furniture can make a room look off-kilter. Don’t crowd all the large pieces
on one side of a room. A low-slung sofa; a long, horizontal wall unit; and
bottom-heavy tables force the eye downward. Balance them out with taller
furnishings or accessories. Make sure your upholstered pieces are about the
same height; anything that’s much taller or shorter will look out of place.
Choosing the wrong lighting. Inadequate lighting can wreck a room. A
ceiling fixture alone is rarely enough. For reading, choose table lamps or
floor lamps rather than up-lighting torchieres near your favorite chair. Use
track or recessed lighting to highlight artwork. And brighten all your rooms
the easiest way possible -- by using the maximum wattage bulbs your lamps
allow.
Getting hung up on artwork. The old decorator’s standard is to hang art at
eye level. Instead, decide where you think the picture should be -- then hang
it three inches lower. Group similar types of pictures together rather than
scattering them throughout a room (or your house). Hang similarly sized
pictures so their bottoms are flush. Complementary, not competing, frames
bring cohesiveness.
Forgetting to include YOU in the decor. You’ve
just bought a home, not a sterile doctor’s office, so surround yourself with
things you love. Don’t be afraid to have a stack of magazines in a basket
near the coffee table, paperbacks you love on the built-in bookshelves, or a
pretty - but functional - throw on the sofa so you don’t have to drag a
blanket from the bedroom on chilly nights.
Several of these mistakes are illustrated in before-and-after pictures in Use
What You Have Decorating (Perigree, 1998), a terrific resource for
easy-on-the-budget decorating, written by Lauri Ward. She’s the founder of
Use-What-You-Have Interiors in New York City, a company that does one-day
decorating makeovers.
Published: May 16, 2003
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