Interior designers say a few common living room decor mistakes can make your home look cheap and tacky, but there are some simple changes you can make to give your space a more refined and elegant feel.
Homes will look cheap and tacky if you fail to remove 4 common living room features(Image: Eoneren via Getty Images)
The living room is amongst those spaces in your home that you genuinely want to perfect. It’s a communal area and where most of your visitors will spend time, so ensuring it looks its finest is essential.
Remarkably, a living room doesn’t require costly furnishings or high-end decor to appear sophisticated. Often, steering clear of a handful of typical decorating errors can immediately make the room seem more polished and carefully curated.
Numerous homeowners inadvertently make design decisions that diminish the aesthetic appeal of their living room. Thankfully, these problems are frequently straightforward to resolve without committing to a full-scale refurbishment.
Various interior designers have highlighted several decor elements that are worth eliminating from your living room that create a cheap and tacky impression.
Fake architectural decor will look cheap in living rooms(Image: Andreas von Einsiedel via Getty Images)
Fake architectural decor
Adding architectural elements to your living room can substantially boost its perceived worth. However, exercise caution; if the implementation is even marginally imperfect, it can detract from the room’s charm and create an appearance that seems incongruous.
Designer and founder of Colombe, Marta Chrapka, told Home and Gardens: “In my opinion, things that pretend to be something they are not or are fakes will look cheap in the living room.
“An example I see a lot is a fireplace surround; if the fireplace is not there and never was, don’t try to emulate it unless you have the budget and the right space to do so.
“Any kind of wall panels that imitate stone too – ultimately, their cost is high, and the effect is cheap.”
Wrong-sized rugs
Selecting a rug that’s insufficiently large can genuinely undermine the atmosphere of a space and lend it an inexpensive look, according to home decorator Lauren of The Turquoise Home.
She said, “Choosing a rug that’s too small or skipping one entirely can leave your room feeling cold and disconnected.
“We love having rugs in most all of the rooms of our main floor, and we get the largest size that the room can handle! It makes the hardwood floors feel soft and cosy, adds texture and colour, and brings the room together.”
Always opt for a more generous rug in your living room that permits the majority of your furniture to sit upon it.
Inconsistent flooring
The flooring you select plays a vital role in determining the appearance and atmosphere of your home. Clashing colours, textures or materials can quickly disrupt your entire interior scheme.
Jennifer Walter, owner and principal designer of Folding Chair Design Co., explained, “Inconsistent hard surface flooring like LVT and laminate in different rooms will make a house look cheap.
“A lot of people want to save money by selecting flooring other than hardwood, and there’s no harm in that.
“However, keep it consistent! Putting one type of ‘wood look’ in the kitchen in an oak colour and then changing it to another type of material in grey in the living room can be a disaster. “
Overly-themed spaces
Interior designer Stefana Silber maintains that no experienced designer would enter your property and recommend themed decoration.
She stressed, “You can achieve a coastal look without having seashells and pictures of the ocean all over your home. These are things that make your home look cheap and tacky.”
Rather, she suggests employing colours and materials to establish the “theme” throughout your property. For instance, simply incorporate lighter shades of blue and white to capture the coastal aesthetic you desire.
She added: “Bring in cosy and relaxed materials like cotton and linen with driftwood and greenery that reflect the climate you are trying to emulate.”