When it comes to having a beautiful home, design elements have to come together in order to create the perfect look and space. Having a unified theme creates the perfect balance and ensures that highlights of your home can be seen and appreciated by the people living there.
There are many tips on how to design a beautiful home. However, what is more, important is avoiding mistakes that can make your home look sloppy and cluttered.
Here are some designing mistakes that you don’t want to make.
Let’s start with the exterior first.
Too Small Shutters
Modern Australian homeowners prefer shutters over curtains, blinds, and other window treatments. This is because shutters can help control the heat, sound, and light that come into your home.
This is why having small shutters is a mistake. A good-sized shutter does not only make temperature control easier, it can also add to curb appeal.
A good-sized shutter should be able to fully cover the windows. This means that they’re not there just for decoration. Small shutters also look disproportionate to the size of the window.
When choosing a shutter make sure that it can cover your whole window and suit the style of your house.
Poor Paint Color
Cool neutral colors are en vogue right now. Grays, whites, and tans are appealing because they make the house look neat, clean, and welcoming. Neutral colors also work with many different architectural styles and allow you to try other design or landscaping elements.
We know that neutral colors are boring and you want your house to stand out. But the wrong exterior paint can make it stand out for the wrong reasons.
Before painting your whole house black on the outside; consider your environment, home style, and neighborhood norms.
A black house will surely be the talk of the neighborhood, but in reality, it will feel imposing and probably not practical especially during the summer.
No Visible Entrance
The front entrance is where we greet guests and welcome them into our home. For most of us that live in the house, we usually favor the garage entrance or the back door to go inside. In fact, most homeowners do not use their front doors to go in and out of their domain.
Even if you don’t use your front door regularly, it is important that the main entrance or door be visible to delivery people and guests.
Skimpy Columns
The original purpose of columns is to hold things up. Nowadays they are usually used for decorations a la the Temple of Apollo in Delphi.
If your house design incorporates columns, make sure that they are the right size. Many people make the mistake of making them look skimpy which makes your house look lopsided.
During the design process, check that the size and style of the columns match the design of the house.
Now for the interior.
Arrangement of Collections
First, it was 1 depression glass fast forward a couple of years later and you now have a sizable collection. Many of us are collectors of something like license plates, kitchen tins, or vinyl records.
The problem with collections is that they are hard to showcase especially as your collection gets bigger. The first thing that you have to avoid is scattering them all over the place. For example, your depression glass usually belongs in the kitchen but it can sometimes make its way to the fireplace mantle or on the coffee table.
No matter what kind of collection you have, the best way to display them is by groupings. For instance, you can have a special shelf for all your green-colored depression glasses and then another one for the purple ones.
Hanging Art
How you display your artwork can have an impact on your living space. The main problem with hanging art is the hole it creates.
The best way to avoid pockmarks on your beautiful wall is to trace outlines of the frames on pieces of newspaper and then hanging them with tape on the walls so that you can envision their arrangement.
You can try different styles of the arrangement until you find something that suits your style.
Don’t Be Afraid of Color
Neutrals are not only “in” for exterior colors but for interiors as well. As we have said, neutral colors can be boring but since you’re indoors, why not give your living space a pop of color.
For example, your walls can stay a neutral color but you can decorate your living room couch with colorful pillowcases. You can also put indoor plants so you can have splashes of green against your neutral-colored walls.
Don’t limit your bedroom to grays and beiges. Buy a colorful bedspread or maybe buy a purple accent chair that you can use for your reading nook.
Blocking Natural Light
Natural light can save you a lot of money in terms of lighting and heating. This is why blocking natural light is a big design mistake.
Ask your designer to incorporate natural light indoors as much as possible. Research shows that natural light makes people happy, more productive, calmer, and healthier.
Bottom Line
Designing a home can be intimidating especially if you have no experience. If you have no experience in home design, our final advice is to secure the services of professionals like architects and interior designers.
Architects are the best people to hire when you want to design a custom home from scratch. They will be able to advise you not only about design but also about important home elements like energy efficiency and other creative solutions to your living requirements.
Interior designers on the other hand can increase the comfort of your home. They are trained to look at a space creatively and spatially so that a room can be transformed into a relaxing or efficient area where you can relax or work.
We understand that hiring such professionals is expensive. However, they can prevent you from committing even costlier mistakes that could be difficult to resolve.