5 Unpopular Design Opinions

Every designer has their own opinions, and every person looking to design their home has their own opinions. What matters most in your home is that you like what you choose and it makes you happy! There are design elements and principles to follow to have the most successful space possible, but bottom line is that your home is a place to reflect YOU, and for you to rest and recharge.

With the age of the internet, there has never been more information at our fingertips. Things like interior design have become muddled from good design and ideas to trends and Insta-worthy pictures. Just because something looks beautiful on Instagram does not mean it should be replicated in your home. With that being said here are my unpopular opinions based on internet trends.

1. DON’T Painting over good quality pieces!

   I have seen this in a few different ways, two examples that come to mind are painting beautiful vintage furniture, and painting epoxy on granite countertops. Yes, both of these examples have their place, but not on high-quality pieces. I think both of these are perfect for lower-end pieces to make them seem elevated and more expensive. Like if someone were to epoxy on laminate countertops- it takes the quality up a notch. But granite is a beautiful natural stone that was made in nature and is being painted over to a lesser quality.

   I, myself almost fell for this. We bought our house in June 2020 and I don’t love the countertops. I thought about this trend but was always hesitant, and I am so glad we did not end up doing it. A good designer should be able to look at the quality and make it work in the space in whatever design style. For our home, I found a solution (DIY blog to come), where the granite stayed and the area is still beautiful.

   The same goes for wooden vintage pieces. I understand painting them if they are damaged, or are lower quality, but some pieces I have seen painted break my heart a little bit. If you were to restore the piece rather than paint it you will get so much more money out of resale. Painting lowers the quality.

   Bottom line- don’t lower the quality of what you have!

2. DO Hang curtains high and wide!

   This is something I constantly see in Instagram posts, or by a few YouTubers I follow. The curtain is a wall treatment, not a window treatment! Window treatments are blinds and shades, things that attach to the window. Since curtains are considered wall treatments think of them that way. A curtain should be as high to the ceiling as possible. If you have higher ceilings (the standard for a home is 9 feet, if you have 11+ feet you have high ceilings) then the curtains do not need to go to the ceiling but rather as high as possible that the curtain still dusts the floor. The reason for putting the curtains as high as possible is that this draws the eye up and helps make your space feel bigger and more grand (same for shower curtains).

   BUT, when you hang curtains don’t only put them high, but also put them wide. This is where curtains become more of a wall treatment than a window treatment. You want the curtain rod long enough that when the curtains are open they just overlap the window, and when they are closed the outside end doesn’t move much. Doing this in your home helps your window feel bigger to the viewer and doesn’t cut out any light from your space. This will fill up a wall and accentuate that wall. For sliding doors opt for a curtain track where the curtain can be completely on one side of the wall and accent that space beautifully.

3. DON’T have too many features in one place!

This is a classic Instagram-designed space flaw. I think we have become such a picture-perfect culture that we want every square inch of our home to be “insta-worthy”. This is not practical and not beautiful. When designing a home you want to think of each room as a canvas. All four walls, ceiling, and floor are part of one picture. Similarly, an open floor plan acts like one room. You can vary design styles/ colors etc from room to room but within one room it should be consistent.

For open floor plan spaces, maybe you have a living room, dining room, and kitchen altogether, but it acts as one space. Therefore if you have a statement light in the living room putting one in the dining room and kitchen as well would make the space very busy. The onlooker’s eye wouldn’t know which feature to settle on. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and it depends entirely on your floor plan. However, I would recommend choosing one of those rooms for a large feature and then having the other two spaces have smaller complementing features. For the light example, having a beautiful black chandelier in the dining room and then more simple semi flush black lights in the kitchen and a bit bigger semi flush light in the living room. For a single room choose one accent feature and have the rest of the room compliment that space.

4. DO fill your space!

This is a common mistake no matter the size of the house you have. As humans, we always want to have the most space possible, so we opt for furniture that allows this. Though inherently, not a problem, filling out your space properly will actually help your space to feel larger. A common example of this mistake is living rooms. I often see people pushing their furniture up against the wall and having way too much space between couch and chair, or buying a couch that is too small for their space so that they can have more space. Both of these examples, though they do give you more space, will make your space look small and unbalanced. The pieces will seem smaller since they are so far away from each other, and may make conversations awkward.

Instead opt for furniture that fills the space, and less pieces. Have one large couch and two chairs instead of three smaller couches and two chairs. Applying this to your home will help your space feel larger and more expensive!

5. DO Have artwork that fits your wall, and hang it properly!

This is something that I see too often, in homes, on Instagram, and even in make-over videos. Your artwork should be 60-75% of the wall it is filling. If you don’t want one artwork a gallery wall should also take up about 60-75% of the wall. Having anything bigger will take over the wall, and not let the negative space compliment the art. Having anything smaller will make the art feel lost and lonely.

Some design styles compliment that feeling, like minimalist. Having lonely artwork is absolutely fine if the rest of your home continues with that design style. But it becomes a problem when there is a table full of textures and colors and the artwork behind it is lacking and sad.

On a similar note, don’t hang your pictures too close together, too far apart, or too high! I see this ALL THE TIME and cringe a bit whenever it’s a beautifully decorated space that has pictures too high, or too close together. Hanging a picture the midpoint should be between 57-60 inches from the floor. If you are hanging a gallery wall have the centerpiece abide by this rule. If you are hanging two frames next to each other there should be 3-6 inches depending on the negative space around them (more space to each end of the wall = 6 inches, less = 3 inches, etc.).