Like any practice or procedure in life, there is a good and bad way of doing it. In this article we seek to point out some of the things that should be given a miss to make your interior design project more successful.

1. Not planning.

When taking on an interior design project, planning is a must. This allows you to get your theme or style sourced and make any adjustments as necessary, including financial factors. There is nothing worse than launching into a job and completing half of it only to discover you haven’t got the remaining funds or can’t get that focal point for the middle of the room. Save yourself time and trouble.

2. Not looking at proportions.

One common mistake is to have too much of something, too little of something, or everything at the one eye level. Not having regard for space or surroundings is also something that needs to be thought about. The trick to good interior design is variety – shapes, sizes, styles, eye levels, colours everything.

3. The lack of character.

Whilst interior design can be complicated with so many designs, patterns, styles and choices it is actually a relatively easy thing to achieve a good end result. One thing to be careful of is making every interior design project look the same and simply a rinse of something you find on TV home renovation programmes. Having this is fine, but add your own character and personality to it aswell. Bear in mind that this works the opposite way too and you can characterise a place too much. Having everything that matches and looks perfect can degrade your humanness. Assess where in this ‘scale’ you are and want to. Your house is a home not a showroom remember!

Above: The empty looking room.

From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/timsamoff/15161734/

4. Working forwards?

Yes you did read this correct! When attempting interior design, many of us get all the painting out the way first (afterall it is the most sensible thing to do to avoid any mess.) Have you ever thought though that by doing it this way round, you can potentially make it more difficult for yourself to ‘kit out’ your room?

If you choose the fixtures and fittings first, it is much easier to then find paint, wallpaper etc that matches or compliments it, meaning it is less likely you will have to start again or risk a mishmash.

5. Going it alone.

There is nothing wrong with taking the initiative – doing what feels right and going with that. Sometimes we can become tunnel visioned in our own projects and so will ignore the (potentially valuable) advice of outsiders. The most successful interior design projects are made up of people who at least listen to these viewpoints even if they fairly dismiss. Sometimes it might only be the case of small adjustments and these can make an excellent project truly special and grand.

6. Forgetting the lighting.

Lighting is one of the most overlooked yet important things when it comes to interior design. If you are taking the trouble to design a room then you need to think about how you can show it off both by day and by night. In doing this, remember to make use of natural as well as artificial light. In thinking about the former pay particular attention to your windows and how you let light enter the room. For artificial, go for something bright and capturing and perhaps a combination of different lights.