WHAT TO AVOID WHEN DECORATING

May 11, 2021 4 min read

It happens to everyone— you are shopping and see the perfect home décor accessory. Immediately you think, Oh! this will look perfect in my TV room! Of course, you give in to the impulse buy and excitedly bring home your new-found treasure— only to discover that what looked like the ideal accessory looks out of place when put in place, and you are left saying, What was I thinking? Where did I go wrong?

Scale in Interior Design

When you enter into a room, it should be like a city, a combination of different heights. You never want everything in a room to be a the same level or the same size. Accomplish this with different heights/sizes in your furnishings, art placement and window treatments.

Scale is the number one mistake that almost everyone makes when it comes to interior design. This is probably the case because it takes a talented eye to decorate a room with impeccable scale. Some people put too many small things in a room, thereby cluttering the room and not giving the eye a place to land.

While others put too many large, bulky items in one room, making it look stuffed and small. The secret to proper scale is a mixture of décor items in different shapes, heights and sizes.

At Leather Gallery we have a wide range of décor itemsthat will help you achieve scale in your home. A styling tip from our team is to use a mirrored tray and layer décor items on your tray. Adding ornaments on a mirrored tray is the perfect way to create height on a coffee table.

ARRANGEMENT OF ACCESSORIES AND COLLECTIONS

We all have them—collections. Somehow it started with one little ceramic bird and now you have a collection of birds in various shapes sizes and colours that you have gathered over the years. What is the proper way to display a collection such as this?

Well, let’s start with the improper way, and the mistake that most of us make— scattering pieces of the collection throughout your home. One little bird may tweet from a fireplace, while another little bird somehow flew all the way over to perch on the coffee table.

No matter what the accessory is, it is best to display them in arrangements and groupings. There are some steadfast rules to arranging items into groups—called the rule of three. So, gather what you love into groupings and display them proudly and properly.

HANGING ART

You can literally turn any wall of your home into your own personal art gallery. Everyone should display some form of art in their home—whether it is a rare oil painting or a cherished drawing from your child’s pre-school days. The road block that most encounter is how to properly hang art.

The best way to ensure there are no mistakes, and nasty nail holes to fill, is to trace and cut-out the frames outline on paper. Simply tape the paper cut-outs onto your wall, trying numerous placement options until you have the desired outcomes.

Have fun with your arrangements, playing with size, colour, and texture, remembering to avoid the number one mistake that most people make—scale

BUY FABRICS AND TEXTILES FIRST

A common mistake that most of us are guilty of—is painting the room first. Put that paint brush down! Firstly, you need to pick out the rooms fabrics and main textiles, such as rugs, curtains and scatter cushions.

Why is this? Because it is simply much easier to find fabrics that we love and then pick out paint to match. While it is much harder to find a fabric that we love, that also just so happens to match the paint we have already put on our walls.

So, with budget and room size in mind, go for a shopping excursion. Look through samples of fabrics, rugs, scatter cushions etc. Find what you love and then once you are happy with your design choices, pick out a paint shade or shades from the chosen textiles. Now you can pick up the paint brush.

ADD CHARACTER

While it is really fun to look through showrooms that are full of brand-new modern furnishings, don’t get carried away and buy everything at one time and one place.

Doing this results in a common interior design mistake—buying everything matchy-matchy, resulting in a home that lacks character. How do we add character? Slowly, over time. It can take years to have your home fully complete and fully designed.

Character is built within your interior design by adding that bright, bold occasional chair or a painting that you instantly fell in love with. Try a small shopping excursion to a Leather Gallery furniture store near you on the weekend, slowly over time you will find things you love and build your homes character.

SHOW YOUR PERSONALITY

Your home should speak to who you are; it should be like a personal memoir of your trips, your loves and your life. There is nothing worse than walking into someone’s home to be greeted by beige walls, brown furniture and one mass-produced print on the wall, pretending to be art.

Bring in all the things you love, making your home a unique oasis that welcomes you at the end of a hard day, and also tells an intriguing story to your visitors.