Ok, this is my list of things in interior design that really must be stopped! Perhaps more shocking to me is that they continue and someone thinks they are good??
So hopefully you don’t own or practice any of the following but think about ‘Why?’ if you do!
1. Puffy Furniture
I am not talking about furniture for outdoors where sometimes big can be an asset in windy weather. I’m talking about the giant-armed massive pieces left over from the 1980s when we had lots of room in our homes (even if our style was questionable).
This is not to suggest that comfort needs to be compromised, but in fact the opposite. Rather than buying bulky and big furniture, buy pieces that are smaller overall but still offer the same seating area. These big huge sofas take up a lot of valuable floor space, dwarf a room and frankly are hard to talk over top of when you sit beside the over-sized arm.
Lets stop buying furniture ‘by the pound’ and instead buy it ‘by the style’! If you like rolled or rounded arms, continue to purchase this, just keep scale in mind!
2. Pictures Hung Too High
I know you have seen this before where you desperately want to grab your father-in-laws photos off the wall and just move them down by six to eight inches!! Yes, there is a rule to how high pictures are to be no matter how tall your walls!
The average eye height in North America is 5′-6″ so the middle of a picture should hover around this height in general. Even if your walls are nine feet high, the current average wall height, your pictures do not move up to meet the ceiling. Pictures are to be hung in relation to the furniture, otherwise they look like they are floating away.
3. Too Much Bling!
Yes, Bling is a good thing…but too much is just tacky! Learning to find the balance been shine and matte is important as adding flat or non-shiny surfaces here and there makes your bling that much more pronounced. Having said this of course, should you like the look of Las Vegas, and don’t want to leave what happened in Las Vegas in Las Vegas, by all means add bling where ever you can!
4. Poorly Fit Bed Linens
This is a tough one as the size of beds and mattresses has wildly changed over the last few years. Box springs are less deep, mattresses are ‘double depth with padding’ so it seems like linen just doesn’t quite fit right anymore.
Here is my suggestion:
- If your duvet does not cover the mattress from one side to the other completely, buy a larger size, even if the bed is queen, buy a king duvet.
- Buy deep fitting sheets for the mattress and a cover for the box spring and if necessary, have a duvet and feather insert made to ensure it covers the bed completely. (And this should help with the fights over who stole the covers at night)
5. Fake Flowers
Surprisingly I have to bring this up… but yes, there are a few of you who are still hanging on to their fake flower bouquets in peach, sea foam green and dusty rose, left over from the 1990s. Time to let these go!
Fake flowers have their place and I completely understand if you do not have a green thumb and you love the idea of having flowers in your home.
So here are two ideas:
- Buy really good silk flowers already arranged in a vase. Select arrangements that look like plausible replacements for the real thing. (It won’t be cheap. A good arrangement can be upwards of $300) If the selection seems slightly wrong in colour or a little over the top, forget it….it will always look fake and get worse as it ages, changes colour and collects dust. (check out Union Lighting and Furnishings for some great arrangements)
- Or buy fresh bouquets bi-weekly. My local variety store carries a nice selection at very reasonable prices. It cheers me up to have fresh flowers in the house. And once they die I use the remains in the garden to add to the soil composition.
Well, that is it…for now! I have more, but all in good time!
