Interior Design Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Space and How to Fix Them

“Something feels off... but I can’t tell what it is.”

If you’ve ever looked around your space and felt this way, you’re not alone.

There are no strict rules when it comes to creativity, especially in interior design. Your space should reflect your needs, lifestyle, and personality. But sometimes, even with beautiful furniture and accessories, a room doesn’t feel quite right. It might not be about what you’ve chosen but "how" it’s been put together.

This disconnect often comes from overlooking essential design principles. Small mistakes in scale, layout, or lighting can make a space feel unbalanced or uninviting, even if each individual piece looks great on its own. The good news is these are easy to correct. Once you understand the root cause, transforming your space becomes much simpler and far more enjoyable.

Below, we’ll explore the most common interior design mistakes that could be silently ruining your space, and more importantly, how to fix them.

1. Skipping the Concept Phase

Jumping into decorating without taking the time to clarify your vision is one of the most common and most overlooked design mistakes. It’s easy to get excited by a sale or a beautiful piece you saw on Pinterest, but when you buy without a plan, the final result often feels mismatched or chaotic. Your home may end up filled with things you like individually, but they don’t necessarily work well together.

A clear concept acts as a creative compass. It helps you stay focused when making decisions about furniture, color schemes, materials, and layout. By starting with clarity, knowing the mood you want to create, how the room will be used, and which design style resonates with you, you’re far more likely to create a space that feels cohesive and intentional.

How to fix it:

Before you buy anything, ask:

• What’s the purpose of this room? - Define your concept and purpose of the space

• How do I want it to feel? (Calm, energetic, cozy?) – Determine the mood you would like to create

• What colors, textures, or styles support that? - Gather visual references (Pinterest, magazines, etc.)

  
  

After answering these questions, create a mini mood board, even just a Pinterest folder or saved Instagram images can help guide your decisions.

 

2. Choosing Furniture That’s Too Big (or Too Small)

One of the quickest ways to throw off the balance of a room is using furniture that is too large or too small for the space. Oversized sofas can overwhelm a small living room, while tiny coffee tables might feel out of place in a larger room. Even beautiful furniture loses its impact when the scale doesn’t match the room’s proportions.

People often skip measuring and rely on visual estimation, which leads to frustrating results. A common example is choosing a rug that’s too small, visually cutting the room and making it appear disjointed. On the flip side, furniture that’s too bulky can make even a spacious area feel cramped and hard to move through.

How to fix it:

• Measure everything (room size, wall height, doorways, windows)

• Use painter’s tape to mark where furniture will go.

• Balance is key: Combine large and small items for harmony.

3. Relying on a Single Light Source

Lighting is one of the most powerful (and underrated) design tools. Many people rely solely on overhead lighting, thinking it’s enough to illuminate the room. While it might be functional, it rarely creates the warm, layered look we associate with beautifully designed spaces. Flat or overly harsh lighting can make a room feel sterile, while poor lighting makes it dull or gloomy.

Layered lighting brings depth and emotion into a space. It allows you to highlight areas, set moods, and shift the energy depending on the time of day or activity. A well-lit room will almost always feel more inviting and thoughtfully designed.

How to The Fix:

• Incorporate ambient (Ceiling or pendant lights), task (Desk, reading, or vanity lights), and accent lighting (Floor lamps, candles, or wall sconces).

• Use dimmers when possible to control intensity.

• Add floor lamps, sconces, and candles to soften the mood.

4. Choosing the Wrong Color Palette

Color is emotional, it affects how we feel in a room more than most people realize. Yet many make the mistake of choosing colors without thinking about their impact or how they work together. Some spaces feel too flat with all neutral tones and no contrast. Others feel chaotic because of too many bold colors fighting for attention.

Color mistakes often happen when trends are copied without adaptation. A palette that looks amazing in a magazine may not suit your space’s light, size, or purpose. Without intentional color planning, rooms can feel off, even if the decor is beautiful.

How to fix it:

• Follow the 60-30-10 rule: 1 dominant, 1 secondary, 1 accent.

• Test paint samples at home, colors change with lighting.

• Choose colors based on how you want the space to feel. Warm tones = cozy, cool tones = airy. Choose based on how you want the space to feel.

Learn how colors work in interior design by clicking here.

5. Incorrect Art Placement

Artwork can elevate a room, or ruin the flow entirely if it’s placed incorrectly. Hanging pieces too high, too low, or selecting ones that are too small for the wall throws off visual balance and draws the eye in the wrong direction. This is especially common in gallery walls that are haphazardly arranged or single prints that are drowned by a large wall.

Good art placement isn’t just about filling empty space, it’s about reinforcing harmony, drawing focus, and enhancing the architecture of the room. When art is placed thoughtfully, it ties everything together.

How to fix it:

• Hang artwork at eye level (~57–60 inches from the floor to center).

• Choose pieces that match the scale of the nearby furniture for proportion

• If you are including a gallery wall, lay it out on the floor first before installing.

6. Too Many Small Decor Items

Filling shelves and surfaces with small decor items may seem like a way to add personality, but too much can cause visual clutter. This mistake is particularly common in open shelving, coffee tables, and entryways. Instead of looking styled, these areas end up looking chaotic and unintentional.

Well-decorated spaces balance negative space with focal points. They allow your eye to rest and move naturally from one element to the next. Editing is just as important as styling.

How to fix it:

• Group items in odd numbers (3s or 5s) for visual harmony.

• Mix heights, textures, and shapes to add interest

• Use fewer, larger decor pieces rather than many tiny ones, it looks more intentional.

7. Designing and decorating Without Function in Mind

A stunning space that doesn’t support your day-to-day life becomes frustrating, no matter how well-designed it is. This mistake often shows up in overly decorative living rooms, impractical kitchen layouts, or homes where there’s no consideration for storage or flow.

Design should work for you. Your home isn’t a showroom, it’s a living environment. When function and form work together, that’s when design truly shines.

How to fix it:

• Think about how you use each room daily Who uses it (you, kids, guests, pets?)

• Prioritize comfort and practicality alongside style.

• Consider storage needs, movement, and multi-use features.

8. Copying Trends Without Adapting Them

It’s easy to fall into the trap of replicating a Pinterest photo or a designer trend you saw online. While inspiration is valuable, blindly copying styles without adapting them to your own needs and architecture can make your space feel artificial or disconnected.

What looks amazing in a bright loft with 10-foot ceilings might not translate to your cozy apartment or suburban home. Your home should feel like yours, not a copy-paste of someone else’s.

How to Fix it:

• Use trends as a starting point, not a blueprint.

• Always consider your space’s layout, light, and function.

• Layer your personality into the design, don’t erase it.

9. Neglecting Cohesion Between Rooms

Sometimes people treat every room like a new project, switching styles and palettes from one to the next. While variety can be good, a total lack of continuity makes your home feel disjointed, like each room belongs to a different person. It disrupts the overall experience of your home.

A connected home doesn’t mean everything has to match. It simply means creating a thread, whether through repeated colors, textures, or materials, that ties spaces together and creates flow.

How to fix it:

Maintain a consistent thread throughout your home:

• Repeat key colors or elements across rooms.

• Maintain a cohesive color palette throughout the home.

• Think of your home like a story, with each room as a chapter

 

A Space You Build with Intention

There’s no such thing as a “perfect” room, but there are rooms that work better, feel better, and support your life more beautifully. The design process isn’t about following strict rules, but about being aware of the choices you make and how they affect your space. If your home doesn’t feel quite right, you’re not failing, you’re just in the middle of the process.

With a few thoughtful adjustments, you can create a space that feels polished, functional, and completely “you.” The goal isn’t perfection, it’s connection.

If you are still curious, make sure the check out our post about the interior design rules here.

Stay creative!