Design Dilemma: What’s Off in Your Home Design

It’s weird to feel that there’s something wrong in your space when you’ve basically followed all the tips in interior design magazines. What’s frustrating is, you can’t figure out exactly what it is that’s not okay. If you’ve ever hit this creative block, look into these areas, as they’re the likely source of eyesores:

Furniture arrangement

When you first move into your home, furnishings often get placed at random in a room. Unfortunately, what’s supposed to be a temporary position becomes permanent, with people never giving furniture arrangement a second thought. From there, they just throw in the decor and the accent pieces, like throw pillows, floor lamps, rugs, plants, etc. So yes, with these pretty additions, you get to have a nice-looking interior, perhaps one that looks so much like those you see on Pinterest. But, the furniture layout is inefficient. That’s what makes the whole thing off.

What’s the fix? Rethink the arrangement of your furnishings. Make sure that the pathways you intuitively use to go from one corner to another are clear. Observe proper spacing between pieces. You should be able to move around, sit, stand, and walk freely. It’s also important to define your focal point. If you need a wingback chair or a velvet sofa as a statement piece for your sleeping space, consider buying bedroom furniture online to make shopping hassle-free.

Visual height

When decorating, people tend to fill up only the spaces that are within their eye level. They tend to forget that there’s a greater majority of area left unfinished: the vertical space. What results then is a bottom-heavy room, which isn’t pleasant to look at. Your bedroom, for instance, does have the essentials, like the bed, the bedside table, the vanity dresser, and the cabinets, but when you look up, there’s nothing that captures your interest visually.

The good news is, it’s easy to fix this design dilemma. There are lots of options for filling up that vertical space — you can install an eclectic lighting fixture, hang an abstract painting above your bed, or use floor-to-ceiling curtains to further define the height of that wall. Place some floating shelves in one corner of the room. That will not just be a nice aesthetic addition, but also give you more space for storage. If you need to take out some furniture on the bottom part of the room, do it.

Neat corners

Sometimes, the reason your space feels off is that it’s too ‘right’. It’s too neat. Too polished. Much like the homes you see on renovation reality shows or Instagram. The problem with this is that the space looks impersonal. It doesn’t look yours. In fact, it can be anyone else’s precisely because it appears like a showroom design. To fix this, make your room more personal. Hang your family photos and travel pictures. Use the rug designed and handwoven by your aunt. Dedicate a ‘hobby’ nook, say, a reading corner or a yoga zone, if those are your interests. The bottom line is, don’t make it too neat. Bring your personality into it.

It’s the little, subtle things that make your interiors look a bit off. So after every makeover project, make it a point to look into these mentioned areas to avoid that weird, off-putting feeling.

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