Interior Design Mistakes Not to Make in a Small Home

Turning Your Small Home into a Mansion…

Over the past couple of years, I’ve learnt a thing or two on how to decorate a small home. Mainly, what mistakes can be made and how to avoid them. Decorating and styling a small home has its issues. However, these quirks are what makes the challenge interesting. And once you’ve tackled it, the results are worth the hard work.

So to make sure that your home is always on point and it feels like you’re living in a mansion, here are the interior design mistakes not to make in a small home…

Not Having Enough Storage.

Something that is always lacking in a small space is storage. One of the biggest design mistakes you can make is to not consider it when it comes to designing and styling your home. The key is to incorporate it in stylish ways, through furniture and decorative boxes. Where I can, I ensure that something can double and can hide some of the things we don’t want on show all the time.

Something to also consider is height. Small rooms can be mighty when it comes to ceiling heights, are certainly does. A lot of us think low to the ground storage. However, when it comes to small spaces, think upwards. Take cabinets and shelving as high as possible and make use of the vertical square footage you’ve got.

Storage doesn’t have to be all functional. In fact, I bare use any storage that doesn’t look decorative and stylish. Think woven baskets, bone boxes and storage jars. Anything that fits into my interior style.

Cluttering Up Your Surfaces.

Something else to consider in a small home is to clutter your surfaces. It can be tempting to fill up every bit of surface area with stuff, but there’s something about living with white space. Taking moments in your interior design to breathe and allow the eyes to relax will open up your space. So leave a few moments, gaps on your surfaces and countertops.

This is the same for the walls. Whilst you want some decor up there, you don’t want to fill them up. So leave a few gaps of blank space, little moments of rest bite.

Not Enought Light.

Light is so important in any home, but especially in a small home. You want to bring in that light, brighten up the space and make it feel bigger than it is. The first light to consider is from your windows. If you can, get them as big as possible. Dressing them with light drapes will give you privacy but also allow the light to flood in.

Another light to consider is the electrical lighting in your home. The main light is a given, depending on if you go for a single pendant or spotlight. However, there is also accent light to think about incorporating into your home. Wall scones, table and floor lights, all these lights are important when it comes to brightening up your home.

Not Embracing the Cosiness.

Something that many people do in a small home, myself included, is to go all light and bright in your home. However, there’s something to say about going dark in certain rooms and embracing the cosiness. This is something I want to incorporate into my home design in the future, as I’ve talked about on my Instagram Stories. Whilst I’ll always be a lover of neutrals and airy spaces, I’m looking to correct my own design error and have a few moments of cosiness in our home.

Cosiness and embracing dark spaces, doesn’t mean going fully dark. You won’t find me painting walls black in my home. You can take your tones darker. So perhaps going on the warmer side of sage green, or a deep brown. These are ways to bring in cosiness without feeling like you’re living in a cave.

Only Going with Bulky Furniture.

When you want to have all the storage, especially when it comes to embracing storage, it can be easy to go for the block, bulky furniture. It always offers a lot more storage. However, it’s important to change it up. You want to balance. I hate when everything matches up, so you want to play on different structures and textures. So have some open gaps, a little space between the floor and the furniture. Finer pieces will play off the bulk, the mix is what makes your interior design go to the next level.