10 Mistakes That Almost All Interior Designers Make

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Hello, I am here once again and I will be looking at something really important, this is what most Interior Designers fail to address. At Simplinteriors School of Interior Design and Entrepreneurship, I outline mistakes Interior Designers usually make. I tell my Students that it may happen to anyone. For instance, you may be shopping and see the perfect Interior Home Decor accessory and immediately think, oh! This will look perfect in my TV room.

Usually, what we understand is that Interior Designing requires one who has a very keen and knowledgeable eye. We may be out shopping and see something we love, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will look perfect in our home. As Nigeria’s top Interior Design, I make sure that during all Interior Design training as upcoming Interior Designers, students are made to understand how color, lighting, room size, scale and placement all affect how items look in a room and dictates whether they will make or break a room’s Interior design.

There are a lot of common mistakes that Interior Designers make when designing living spaces. Here I will be looking at the most common mistakes and how to avoid making them:

1) Scale in Interior Design

I love how as an Interior Designer, I can easily explain scale and proportion in Interior design. When teaching my students at Simplinteriors School of interior design & Entrepreneurship I tell them,, “When you enter into a room, it should be like a city scape… a combination of different heights. You never want everything in a room to be at 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 Interior Designers fail to recognize during interior design process. This is probably the case because it takes a talented eye to decorate a room with impeccable scale.  Some times Interior designer put too many small things in a room hence cluttering the room and not giving the eye a place to land.

Others put too many large, bulky items in one room, making it look stuffed and small. I tell all upcoming Interior designers who come to enroll at my School of Interior Design that the secret to proper scale is a mixture of different shapes, heights and sizes.  If there is only one thing that you hire an Interior Designer for, it is help with proportion and scale.  With the right scale your room is well on its way towards a successful Interior design.

2) What is Your Budget?

As an Interior Designer, I know how we are all prone to impulse buying. It’s not to say that you shouldn’t buy something that you fall immediately in love with, but maybe just keep the receipt in case it doesn’t work the way you had originally thought. I tell my clients and also my Students that before heading to the furniture showroom, it’s best to have a plan and a budget well-established. First, your rooms need to be measured. The furniture placement and size need be planned properly so it is important you contact an Interior Design Company. You could as well contact us at Simplinteriors & Décor to measure the space before buying.

3) Seek Interior Design Advice

Even the most skilled Interior designers make mistakes, this can be difficult. All you need sometimes is a fresh set of eyes to spot the problems. You need to seek an honest opinion on color choice, fabrics, or room arrangement. Hire an Interior Designer or consult with family and friends for guidance or you can contact your classmate from Interior Design School like Simplinteriors School of Interior Design and Entrepreneurship as “Two head is better than one” because there are plenty of Interior Designers who charge by the hour. Interior designers like myself are full of clever design tips and trick that can transform your living or working space.

4) Arrangement of Accessories

In Interior Design, there are varieties of accessories which serve as aesthetics or have functional purpose or can boost Interior Decor. Somehow it started with one little ceramic bird and now you have a collection of birds in various shapes sizes and colors that you have amassed over the years. What is the proper way to display a collection such as this? The mistake Interior Designers usually make is scattering pieces of the collection throughout your home. One little bird may be on the console table, 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 group like that which I usually tell every Interior Designer whom I have trained.

5) Hanging Art Works

Art Paintings in interior design are Decorative items which improves the interior of whatever living space you need to design. 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. There is no error in many trials. As Interior Designers, many placement options until you have the achieved the desired outcome wouldn’t hurt. In Simplinteriors School of Interior Design and Entrepreneurship, I allow my students have fun with your arrangements, playing with size, color, and texture, remembering to avoid the number one mistake that most people make—scale (see number 1 above).

6) Fabrics Selection

Another common mistake Interior Designers make is while painting. You need to put that paint brush down! It is important you pick out the rooms fabrics and main textiles, such as rugs and curtains.

Why should I? Because it is simply much easier to find fabrics that we love and then pick out paint to match. So, with budget and room size in mind, go for a market survey, this I ensure I do for my students during Interior Design Training at Simplinteriors School of Interior Design of Entrepreneurship. Look through samples of fabrics, rugs, pillows 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 that paint brush and Start Painting. 

7) Add Character

I know how fun it can be looking through showrooms that are full of brand-new modern furnishings but like I advise my clients, don’t get carried away and buy everything at one time and one place. Doing so results in a common Interior Design mistake, resulting in a home that lack character. How do we add character? Slowly, over time. It can take years to have your home completed and fully designed. “Character is built within your Interior Design by adding the amazing painting you got at an auction” says a top Nigeria’s interior designer in Nigeria, Mrs. Joy Ofili-Yebovi, and CEO Simplinteriors. Go on a little shopping survey one of this weekends and slowly build your space character.

8) Add a Focal Point

In any Interior Design Process, it is important that every room has a focal point—it offers a place for the eye to rest and assigns a room with a function (Note: Larger rooms can have more than one focal point). This is a very common mistake. Interior designers forget to give each room a purpose or point to focus on. Some rooms are simple—in a TV room the focal point usually ends up being the TV and the unit it is placed on, while all the other main objects in the room (i.e. couches/chairs) are focused and pointing towards the TV. Other rooms are a bit more difficult, such as sitting rooms or dens. I would personally advise that you just don’t scatter furnishings about the room— first, find a focus or purpose for the room and then place the furnishings around that focal point. For a large painting, even a coffee table that encourages guests to sit and converse. 

9) Don’t Keep Grandma’s Antique if you dislike it

I know how we all have hand-me-down-furniture some are prized possessions, while others are weighing us down with distaste and guilt. Do you have one of those “guilty” objects in your home? You know that piece that was handed down to you—you hate it, you want to hide it in the basement, but you can’t because it was a gift from Grandma? Why make this Interior Decorating mistake? Why have something in your home that doesn’t bring you joy and happiness? We suggest you find a new purpose for all those hand-me-downs that you hate. Whether you paint it, hand it off to another relative or give yourself permission to sell it and buy something you love in its place. Set yourself free and make your home full of things that make you happy.

 10) Show Your Personality

As a Professional Interior Designer, whatever interior design space I am working on, I make sure its speak to me; my works are my personal memoir of my trips, what I love, my life. There is nothing worse than walking into any space to be greeted by beige walls, brown furniture and one mass-produced print on the wall, pretending to be art. The above-mentioned room just screams BORING!!!

I put in all the things you love, ensuring my Interior Design Projects are a unique oasis that welcomes you at the end of a hard day, and also tells an intriguing story to your visitors.

As an expert, I have highlighted and that which you have read, a lot of common mistakes that can be easily made when it comes to Interior Design. Luckily, there are also plenty of easy solutions to fix these mistakes. If all fails and you are too frustrated with all the Interior design and decorating decisions and obstacles that you face, then consult a professional interior designer. You can seek my honest and expert opinion at Simplinteriors and Décor or sign up for any of our program at Simplinteriors School of Interior Design and Entrepreneurship or Book an appointment with me, Mrs. Joy Ofili Yebovi I have some knowledgeable ideas to share in order to help you achieve your dream home—without all these mistakes.

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