A properly designed interior allows you to relax and pleases the eye. A room that looks like a page from a magazine is a mistake. In fact, most people don’t live like this. In catalogs and magazines, photos were taken with the aim of selling furniture or accessories and professional designers offer you ideas for how your home might look. Therefore, treat the information carefully and create your own unique, "live" interior, in which you will be comfortable.

Choosing an interior for ourselves, we often follow the lead of emotions and the desire to fill it with the most original ideas and accessories. Large beanbag chairs, strangely shaped lamps, or furniture of unthinkable color seem to us to be the highlight that will make the design unique. But be wary of fashion trends. After some time, they will be replaced by other design ideas and if you can still change the lamp or wallpapers, then getting rid of irrelevant furniture is more difficult and more expensive. Here is a list of the 15 most common interior decorating mistakes you should avoid.

1. Uncomfortable chairs

There is nothing more frustrating than sitting in an uncomfortable chair. When buying chairs for your dining table, sit on each one to see if it will be comfortable for you to sit on for a long time. If you buy chairs separately from the table, you need to know their dimensions so that the heights of the table and chairs match.

2. Clutter in the interior

Unsightly clutter and chaos in home decoration are stressful and ruins the pleasant interior experience you have been striving for. Add stylish wicker baskets for storing small items that will help declutter your room. The baskets can be placed on a shelf, in a closet, or under a table. If there are a lot of things, then a good solution would be to purchase a cabinet with many drawers and shelves. 

3. Furniture that doesn't fit

Showrooms are much larger than a regular living room, so keep that in mind when choosing and buying furniture. What looks attractive in a store may not fit into your living room space. In order to avoid mistakes when choosing furniture, use the following tips:

- draw a plan of the room and indicate on it the places for the table, chairs, cabinet, taking into account their sizes. Consider comfortable aisles between pieces of furniture

• - don't try to fit too many items
• - take measurements of the room to avoid mistakes

4. Too many colors

If the interior has a lot of color and patterns, it looks oversaturated, too variegated, and doesn’t allow you to concentrate. Additionally, bright colors can make your eyes get tired quickly. Use 2-3 colors in the design and add all the rest to the interior in the form of decor and accessories.

5. Carpets

The most common mistake is to buy a rug first and then try to place it between the furniture. Everything should be the other way around. First of all, draw a floor plan of your room with dimensions. Decide what size carpet you need and only after that go shopping.

A carpet on the floor always brings together a group of furniture such as a seating area, coffee table, and armchairs, or dining area furniture. At the same time, all the front legs of the furniture are placed on the carpet for good fixation.

6. Incorrect lighting

During the day, you need different lighting intensities in your home. It depends on the purpose of the room and the time of day. Use different types of lighting in your interior:

- chandelier

• - wall sconces
• - floor lamps
• - backlight
• - led strip

You can choose the one that is required at the moment. Another good way is to install a dimmer. It's easy to install, easy to use, and inexpensive. With its help, it is easy to choose the light intensity that suits you at the moment.

7. Paintings and posters on the wall

If you have to raise your head in order to examine a picture, poster, photo hanging on the wall, then you have hung your masterpieces too high. Squatting and bending over for the same purpose is also wrong. The ideal height for wall decoration is at your eye level. 

Pay attention to the level of the doors in the room since your paintings and photos should hang no higher than this level. If you decide to place the painting above upholstered furniture, then the distance from the bottom of the painting to the back of the sofa or chair should not be less than 7-8 inches.

8. Polyethylene furniture covers

Do you take good care of your furniture and try to avoid contamination? Even though it is a wise decision, plastic covers are not the only way to get out of the situation. There are more interesting and comfortable ways to protect your furniture4. You can use a protective spray on upholstered furniture, lay a blanket, and scatter cushions.  A beautiful bedspread can be an additional decoration.

9. Don't forget about the windows

Curtains on the windows are one of the easiest and cheapest ways to change the look of a room. Usually, the curtains are hung 1-2 inches from the upper edge of the window opening. If the ceiling height is low, then the curtains should be hung directly from the ceiling. In this case, you can use the ceiling cornice. This technique will stretch the room in height. Add a linen roman shade to your window. With its help, you can easily shade the room on a sunny day and the curtain itself will become an additional decoration of the room.

10. Don't be afraid of color

Most people love bright juicy colors. But they are afraid to apply them in the interior, they doubt the correct selection. Don't give up on your favorite colors. Take advantage of bright colors in the interior and make the right choice. It is better to paint (or wallpaper) one wall in the color you like before renovation. You can use several shades of the chosen color but you shouldn’t mix many bright colors.

11. Too many knickknacks

If you used to have many knickknacks in the apartment, you should understand that they are no longer relevant. You should not display everything and place it on all surfaces. Choose those accessories that match the style of the interior and are in harmony with each other. A well-chosen small collection always looks better than a flea market.

12. Artificial flowers

This is a controversial issue, but many designers think that artificial flowers don’t decorate the interior. They collect dust and don’t bring life into your home like living flowers. Indeed, natural flowers are more expensive, but they also look better and are fragrant. If buying fresh flowers is expensive, you can decorate your room with a vase with bright fruits (lemons, oranges, apples) or a composition of bamboo stalks.

13. Too many sofa cushions

Sofa pillows greatly decorate the room, but when there are too many of them, they interfere with sitting or lying comfortably on the sofa. Don't waste your money buying extra pillows. Instead, get a wall piece that you will be looking at while sitting on the couch.

14. The fewer pictures on the wall, the better

People are often sentimental, so the walls, tables, shelves in the house are occupied by photos of relatives, friends, or important events for us. This doesn’t decorate the interior and it is impossible to pay attention to the photographs since it is scattered in such a variety.

Choose some of the brightest photos filled with positive emotions and hang them on the wall or put them on a shelf. For the rest of the photos, organize thematic albums by date or event. So you will always easily find those photos that you would like to see or show and the interior will be light and harmonious.

15. Ignoring the hallway

The entrance hall (hallway) is a good opportunity to make a presentation of you, your home, and your preferences. The hallway doesn't have to be grand, but any presentation is better than nothing. So you can add color and graphics to its design.

Hang a mirror or picture on the wall. A beautiful, large mirror will also visually increase the size of a small hallway. Don’t forget to place shelves at the entrance where you can put your keys, umbrella, mail, hang your bag, etc.