While decorating your home can often be an ongoing project – swapping out items over the years to create a personal and homely space – when it comes to the basics of a room, you’ll want to make sure you get it right the first time to avoid making interior design mistakes.
Warning us of one of the biggest decorating mistakes when it comes to color trends is interior designer Ines Mazzotta, Principal Designer at Kelly Hopter Interiors, who took to Instagram to share a video in which she says: ‘The biggest decorating mistake that I see is homeowners matching colors with their furnishings and decor too closely, or pulling a color directly from one element and repeating.’
Inspired by the expertise of Ines, we’re exploring this color mistake as well as explaining what you can do instead for more expert-approved home decor ideas.
Admitting that this goes against ‘conventional wisdom’, Ines advises that for a cohesive look in a room, you should ‘consciously choose different shades, tones, and tints of a color,’ once you’ve chosen the primary color for your decor. ‘That’s what creates that beautifully nuanced and layered effect you see in spaces created by designers,’ she continues.
This can be achieved by adding variations of one hue through soft furnishings, for example, rather than finding the perfect match to the color of the wall paint ideas. While neutrals may be forgotten about when it comes to color rules, Ines uses neutral living room ideas as an example to show that this approach can be just as effective, opting for a mix of neutral hues to create a layered look.
‘Neutrals serve as a foundation but can be layered, mixed, and matched to create depth and sophistication,’ adds interior designer Nicholas Kaiko. This goes for maximalist decor rooms too, and Ines encourages different variations of the same color when using a bold color to create a balanced look.
Nicholas Kaiko, founder of Kaiko Design Interiors, is a highly sought-after interior designer based in Sydney, Australia. With over a decade of experience in the interior design industry, Nic has honed his skills as an interior architect and decorator, working on luxury hotels and high-end residential projects both locally and internationally.
To aid you in choosing the right colors, Ines recommends taking reference from the color wheel, suggesting using adjacent colors to give a room ‘real depth.’
When deciding on what colors are best for your room, it’s important to also consider balancing warm and cool colors. ‘Warm colors can energize a space and are excellent for living rooms and dining areas,’ explains Nicholas, while ‘cool colors are calming and work well in bedroom ideas and bathroom ideas.’