4 Interior Decorating Faux Pas to Avoid

Interior decorating can be fun, and in many cases, it’s even necessary in order to have a comfortable, attractive clutter-free apartment. However, it’s easy for the inexperienced to get carried away and make some poor decisions when it comes to interior design. When decorating your apartment, avoid these common missteps:

1. Wrong Area Rugs

Area rugs are one of the largest pieces of the interior decorating of any room, but they shouldn’t be so glaringly obvious that they make the room appear overly cluttered or a little “off.” It’s easy to pick a rug that seems attractive in the store, but it can be the wrong color and/or design for your room. When choosing designs, think of the wall and floor color of your room, as well as the color of your furnishings. Dark colors compliment most dark colors and light colors compliment light colors.

As for the size, it’s a general rule that area rugs should leave between 8 and 24 inches of floor space exposed around its edges. Hallways and foyers can have smaller exposed floor space (8 to 12 inches) and larger rooms should have an average of around 18 inches of exposure. Rugs should also protrude 12 to 18 inches from beneath beds and should stop before couches or chairs.

2. Hanging All Wall Decorations Uniformly

Hanging pictures and art at the same level throughout the apartment is not only visually boring in an interior decorating sense, but it gives off a bit of a disconcerting look. You may try to be hanging pictures at eye level, but remember that “eye level” differs by person and a 6 foot person may be staring at blank wall if you prepare the room for an average 5 foot 5 person. Stagger your pictures and art throughout the apartment at different heights, starting from around 5 feet off the ground to about 5 inches from the ceiling. This gives off a much more lively, dynamic look—just don’t go overboard.

3. Going Overboard with Knickknacks

The whole point of collecting knickknacks that don’t have much of a function is to decorate your home, and yet having too many knickknacks on display, even if they’re dusted often and out of the way, can make a room appear cluttered and messy, even if it’s really not. Choose a select few knickknacks that compliment your room’s decor and put them on display. You can rotate knickknacks out every few weeks if you wish.

4. Forgetting the Apartment Rule: Maximizing Small Space

It’s too easy to forget, especially if it’s your first time interior decorating an apartment, that apartments have limited space. You need to make the most of your space and that means you mustn’t buy furniture and furnishings that are too large for your needs, as they’re likely too large for your apartment. For example, a couch shouldn’t take up half of your living room, nor should a bed take up virtually all walking space in your bedroom. You can look for attractive, coordinated pieces of furniture, but remember to think small.

When one piece of decorating goes wrong, it naturally draws the eye to it, undermining all of the rest of your decorating work. Avoiding interior decorating faux pas can make the difference between an attractive room and a decorating disaster.