I talk about decorating mistakes all the time I know, here are a few that I’ve seen recently when working for clients on their homes. These are all such easy fixes but make a big impact when done right.
Painting everything white
We all want light and bright homes these days. It wasn’t always this way, in the past we saw a lot of deeper tones on walls, and often we wanted to create darker more cosy rooms. To be honest I still like to carve out darker spaces in a home, somewhere to go to snuggle in for a good movie or a read. But sadly almost every interior we see now is white on white. If a light bright home it what you are after you don’t have to paint everything the brightest white you can find. Try looking at some beautiful neutral. Soft warm grey’s, sandy beige, and taupe tones can all add character, warmth and interest to a home without being stark and quite frankly a little hard to take on a lazy Sunday morning! Also these colours will make your skirtings and architrave pop if you paint those your brighter whites, keep the ceilings white too and you’re onto a winner.
My Rose Bay renovation painted in Dulux Grey Pebble, one of my all time fav greys
Too much hardware on joinery
Hardware such and door handles and knobs have seen a revival, from different metal finishes to gorgeous oak and walnut through to porcelain and recycled plastics, there’s so much to choose from. Too many times I see a beautiful kitchen looking over cluttered with too much hardware, that could mean either the hardware is just too big, or a strong feature handles has been chosen for a kitchen with lots and lots of drawers. Think about your overall kitchen concept, how many handles and knobs do you need? do your doors with profiling on them? can you make your top level cabinetry finger-pull to open just to avoid that cluttered look?
Keep hardware smaller and simple when a kitchen has door detailing
Playing to safe
By this I mean not taking a risk on creating features or interesting design choices throughout your home. Often when people are faced with hundreds of decisions in the middle of their renovation the tendency is to go with the safe option, but that’s not always the best option. I think that’s often why I get the call from clients needing help. Not only are they overwhelmed with indecision, but also they can see that everything is turning out grey. It’s important to push yourself on the design choices, step outside of the square occasionally and you’ll thank yourself for it as these are the details that you will notice every day.
Sandstone feature wall makes this kitchen far more interesting
Installing curtain rods incorrectly
Again I often see curtains that are mounted incorrectly and hang over the window to much blocking out light. When installing rods ensure you have 200/300mm clearance at least of the edge of the window so that when your curtains area pulled open they are just sitting against the edge of the window. Also as a rule of thumb I install the rods close to the ceiling just under the cornice. The only time when I may consider doing something different is if there are extremely high ceilings and a big gap between top of window and ceiling.
James Tutton design from The Design Files. Great curtain placement to clear the windows.
NOTE: Images used under Fair Use, and the above commentary is a personal view and not commercial in nature, and were sourced from a variety of online sources and personal archives.