We've all been there. We see the sofa of our dreams, the color is perfect, the fabric is a so soft and it's on sale! We buy it. We bring it home. It wont fit through the door! Hubby takes off the door to give you an extra inch, you angle it and strategically maneuver it through, you position it exactly where you envisioned it - Oh, wait...it's too big!

Well, it's one thing to actually realize it's too big. Most people however don't see it, and they leave it, and continue buying furniture to complete the room that is too big, too small, the wrong shape etc. 

Today I'm going to share with you my top 10 tips on what to avoid when furnishing your living room - but this can easily apply for any room in your house really.

Here we go!

1. OVER-SIZED FURNITURE

Ok, you guessed it. Avoid buying furniture that is simply too big for the space. Resist the urge to buy the complete living room set that has the matching sofa and loveseat plus the matching coffee table and two side tables. Really take the time to plan out your living room layout BEFORE you buy absolutely anything. By having a floorplan you'll have a road map of what pieces you need and how big they should be. You will save yourself lots of trouble and money if you take the time to do a little planning first. It is not hard. You can do it. Simply take some graph paper and draw your room to scale. 1 square = 1 foot. Remember to include any windows, doors, fireplace and built-ins. Take note of the dimensions of the furniture you are considering and draw them into your floorplan. You will be surprised at how many times you'll have to re-consider a piece simply because it is not the right scale. And, yes, measure the width of your doors to ensure your stuff will fit :)

If you're feeling ambitious check out this post from A Beautiful Mess that walks you through how to draw a floorplan AND the furniture so you can cut it out and play house! 

2. SMALL RUG

When I was a Realtor I worked with more Buyers than Sellers. So I've seen my fair share of homes. I can't tell you how many times I walked into a living room where the rug was just the wrong size - usually too small!! DO NOT DO THIS!

Most of us living in average sized homes with average sized living rooms will need an 8' x 10' or a 9' x 12', period. Do not even consider the 5' x 7' let alone the 4' x 6'. Just don't do it! A rug so small that only the coffee table goes on it, just looks bad and really serves no purpose except to draw attention to the fact that it's the wrong size. Designers always say that "a rug anchors the space" but what does that mean you ask. In my opinion, a rug in a living room should define the conversation area. If the room is particularly big and the seating arrangement is floating in the middle of the room, then having a large rug where all the legs sit on the rug will be the best option. However, in a smaller room perhaps where you do have a sofa against the wall, then having only the front legs (of the furniture pieces) on the rug is just fine. Be sure to be consistent all the way around with whatever option you choose for your situation - either all legs on the rug or just front legs on the rug. Check out this handy diagram below as a guide!

3. PICKING PAINT COLOR FIRST

We are all guilty of this. Even I have done this! We fall in love with a paint swatch, we put it up on the walls and then design a room around that paint color! Then we end up driving ourselves nuts hunting endlessly for the right pillows, accessories and curtains that will match perfectly with that paint color. Well, I learned many, many years ago that paint color is one of the very last things one should select. There are a million and one paint color choices out there, so choosing the right shade of blue for your space AFTER everything else has been selected will not be that difficult, I promise! If you're wondering here's my process in a nutshell: I like to begin by selecting the most prominent pieces - sofa, accent chairs and fabric colors and textures. I feel that that starts to give the room it's style and direction. Then based on that I will select a casegood, coffee table, end tables and lighting. Then I focus on artwork, rugs, window treatments and accessories, and lastly paint.   

4. NOT ENOUGH LIGHTING

Lighting is so often overlooked. We simply think that since we have recessed lighting in the room already that no additional lighting is needed. Wrong! In my opinion, lighting in a room is like the jewelry that completes an outfit. Having a nice prominent light fixture can add so much elegance and drama to a room. Additional floor lamps and table lamps can also add the right amount of ambient lighting and romance in the evenings when trying to keep it moody and cozy. Best of all, lighting nowadays is so gorgeous! How can one resist not to use beautiful lighting to complete a room?! I like to keep recessed lights and chandelier on dimmer switches to control the brightness. And don't forget about candles and battery operated candles as a source of lighting too. Having battery operated candles in lanterns or wall sconces set on a timer throughout your house adds such a nice ambiance in the evenings, whether you have company or not. Enjoy those little details!

5. TOO TRENDY

Don't get too caught up in the trends! If not done right they can make your room look chintzy or like a furniture showroom. This beautiful and luxurious room is perfect for a Z Gallerie, marketing campaign but too trendy for anyone to implement in their home. Once this glam style goes out of style, then you'll have to replace everything!

A classic, timeless look, with some personal pieces, whether vintage family heirlooms or unique items from your travels, mixed with a few trendy touches is a much fresher approach. You will also end up saving money in the long run. Aim for making your key pieces - sofa, dining table, buffet, casegoods, even a rug - of good quality and classic in style. To add a trendy touch you can select smaller, less expensive pieces like an accent chair in a fun print, or a unique coffee table, an eye catching chandelier or even use an inexpensive rug that makes a statement. Your accessories should be a mixture of classic, personal pieces that tell a story about you, your family and your travels or interests, mixed with a few stylish pieces to keep your room (or entire house) looking updated and in vogue.    

 6. FURNITURE TOO FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER

This is one of my biggest pet peeves! Just because there are walls in a room it doesn't mean that you have to put all your furniture against them! This room below has many things wrong with. Let's not go there. Let's stick to avoiding placing furniture against the walls...

 If you a *blessed* with a large room, use a rug to anchor the space and create a wonderfully intimate conversation area. Place a console table behind the sofa to act as your "wall" and define the space if the space needs it.

In a smaller space where furniture must be placed against the wall, be strategic in the placing or your sofa by selecting the right scale for the wall and the room. Avoid having the sofa and love seat combo in a small space, instead opt for the sofa and one or two accent chairs and even some fun stools/ottomans for extra seating without taking up too much valuable space. 

7. ANGLING ALL SEATING TO TV

Ok, this one might actually be my biggest pet peeve! This clearly defines the room as a TV watching room. Instead go for the room that says, "this is a fun room for gathering, for conversing with friends, for playing board games, for curling up on the sofa on cold, chilly nights" you get the idea. Give your room a personality that is inviting and cozy, taking the focus away from the big elephant in the room - the TV. Oh, that brings up another point. The size of the TV...hmmm, this one is a little tricky for us ladies to win. The men seem to always want the biggest TV they can find. That's true in my case. My husband would not let that one go and having to deal with a 50" screen in the living room in no easy task. My advice on that is to make the room as pretty as possible, hopefully all the prettiness distracts from the black whole in the wall! Story of my life!  

What I love about this room below is that even though there is a pretty large TV in the room, you still have a sofa facing the fireplace, taking away from the importance of TV watching and thus subconsciously giving importance to conversation and gathering. And see, all the prettiness makes you ignore the TV for a bit!

8. DRAPERY PLACEMENT

I know we've all been "taught" (by HGTV) to place the rod as high as it can go. But I don't always like this look. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't! I almost always prefer to divide the space between the top of the window frame and the ceiling (or crown moulding) AND if space permits I like to extend the brackets several inches (about 10”) beyond the window frame, covering just a bit of the window frame. This allows light to still enter the room and gives the illusion that the window is much bigger.

Use this diagram to guide you:

9. ART TOO HIGH OR TOO SMALL

Well this one can be easy to mess up but also easy to fix. Surely you've heard that art should be placed at eye level. Well, eye level for me may not be eye level to you. Most often, I see art that has been placed way too high rather than too low. It's best to aim at placing the center of the artwork around 58-60" high. I also often see art that is just too small for the space. The image below shows art that is too high with a small, teeny tiny piece sitting up there all alone on a big wall with a big sofa... Avoid that please!

Take into consideration the size of the wall and the size of the object directly below it. For example, if you have a console table directly below the art piece, I like to keep the art work a few inches smaller than the width of the table. If you have a sofa directly below the artwork on a large wall with tall ceilings for example, then you can select an over sized art piece to make a statement. If your artwork is slightly smaller than you wish It was, a nice trick is to add sconces on either side of the art piece to visually fill in the space.

10. TOO MANY SMALL ACCESSORIES

Lots of small accessories of the same scale and height in a room look like dandruff sprinkled throughout. I love using varying scales and heights of accessories to create interest. A good trick is to place smaller accessories on books to give them the height they need next to a bigger object. Also try to stick to grouping of odd numbers, 3 or 5 objects together will look better than 2 or 4. 

If you follow these simple simple rules you will look like a pro and will avoid making costly (and embarrassing) mistakes ;). But, most important of all, have fun when decorating your space. Always make it personal to you, your family and your lifestyle. That's what makes homes so unique and interesting!

XO,

Claudia