Decorating your own home can be a lot of fun. You get to choose the color scheme, get cool pieces that fit your budget and pretty much personalize your home décor in every way. As much as this is an extremely creative endeavor, it is also a bit of a minefield, especially for a novice. So if you are inexperienced, you have to be careful not to fall into some of the typical trappings that come with suddenly having a lot of space you don’t know what to do with. These are the room layout mistakes to avoid if you are taking on the creative challenge of decorating your own place.
Planning
Deciding on the layout of a room is tricky if done without any planning. This is the part of the decorating process that requires you to flex your practicality muscles more than any other. If you’re like most people, you’ll be scouring the internet for interior design ideas to help your creativity. While creativity is key, you’ll also need to put on your serious hat for this and start planning in advance. Unless you do so, you stand to make all of the room layout mistakes there are.
Mistake #1: Going too big
It seems pretty obvious you have to make sure the furniture you get will fit inside the space you are working with. However, people still make this mistake. The first way you can go too big is to literally misjudge the size of something that ends up being too big for its intended place. This is why it is important to measure everything very carefully. It is not enough to know that the piece will physically fit inside a space. You also have to make sure you know how it’s going to react with other furniture in the room.
That’s the second way you can go too big – buying too many large pieces for a small space. If even one of the pieces is too big, it can make the room feel cluttered and suffocating. For these reasons, tread carefully when it comes to size.
Mistake #2: Not accounting for lifestyle
Your home is supposed to reflect the way you live your life. It should also make your life easier, not harder. Forgetting to account for how you will use your space is one of the big room layout mistakes to avoid. If you often have friends over, for example, you want to make sure to have enough functional space you can use to host them. Furthermore, you’ll also want to be able to keep some of your home private even as you invite lots of people over.
One of the room layout mistakes people often make is forgetting to account for their own privacy. The way this manifests itself usually is by having a guest bath in an inconvenient location. Another example would be having a beautifully landscaped garden perfect for entertaining, but it is only reachable through the bedroom. You want to avoid this at all cost. And it’s not that difficult to do so. Simply always bear in mind how you plan to use any given space, and you’re good to go.
Mistake #3: Blocking natural light
This is one of the most egregious room layout mistakes to make. The more natural light you have, the better you will feel and the bigger your space will seem. Make sure you avoid placing any bulky furniture in front of windows. If you’re working on a home office, for example, you want to make sure your desk will get as much natural light as possible. Also, be careful about getting any glare on your TV when finding a place for it.
Mistake #4: Form over function
The trouble with this mistake is that it is the one that can creep up most easily. Very often, you’ll feel like you have perfected your room layout on paper. Then you’ll move in and quickly realize the place just isn’t working out the way you’d hoped. Some examples of this would be having your kitchen too far from the front door or your bedroom too far from the bathroom.
Within the rooms themselves, people can often be slaves to form in a way that won’t serve them well in everyday life. Just because a typical bedroom consists of a bed with a nightstand on each side, this doesn’t mean that you have to organize it in this way if something different will serve its purpose more fully. Moving away from what’s prescribed would in this case give your bedroom a dramatic upgrade. It can be tricky, but you should try to foresee any potential problems once you come up with a plan.
Mistake #5: Putting furniture against the walls
On paper, this doesn’t really sound like one of the room layout mistakes to avoid. However, if you have an open floor plan, placing all of your furniture against the walls can make you waste valuable space. The floor plan shouldn’t dictate the placement of furniture at all. The great thing about an open floor plan is that it allows you to group furniture in whatever way is most functional. You should pretty much use furniture to section off the space. Don’t be afraid of having your furniture simply float in the middle of the space. If it feels good, then it is.
Mistake #6: Not enough storage
If you’re the one making your own room layout, you could get drunk with all this power. It will feel tempting to create your dream space without accounting for the realities of everyday use. One of the ways this can manifest itself is through going for a very clean design and forgetting to include enough space for storage. Whether we like it or not, there are always items that need to get stored away within arm’s reach. Providing yourself with the right storage for different items is key to having a functional and uncluttered home.
