Today I am sharing 4 interior mistakes I have done when decorating my house so you can avoid them. Some were my own making, some happened because of the developer’s choices before we bought the house. What they all have in common is that they will be avoided in our next house!
Warning – if you are expecting a pretty interior post with Pinterest-able pictures, look away now! Today I am showing you the ugly truth.
Flat water taps
When designing a bathroom we all love the idea of an elevated look giving what could be a very boring room a spa-like feel. Fancy tiles, moody hues, snazzy lighting and designer water taps are often involved in the decorating process. It is all very well but if I could give you one piece of advice, it is to avoid flat handle taps like the plague. They look great and sleek but in a city like London where the water is really hard they just get covered with a permanent puddle and when the said puddle eventually dries or is wiped away they show mineral marks pretty badly.
We had a flat tap in our previous rental apartment so we knew how bad it could get and, unfortunately, the developer fitted one in our current bathroom. I just really dislike how they look constantly dirty, because of the nature of their design and the constant puddle on the top, they are awfully high maintenance (who got time to clean a tap after every single use?). They also age very badly, in our previous place the flat tap was being eaten away by corrosion because of the stagnant water covering it.
Matt paint in high traffic areas
Again not exactly my mistake, just a poor developer choice which could cost us A LOT in the longer term. When we bought our house we were so happy to see that the developer had picked a very pale grey paint to decorate the double-height walls in the living space. No magnolia here!
It was great until we started living in the house and slowly but surely scratches appeared on the staircase walls, little stains of food decorated the painted backsplash and the last thing you know our pale grey walls are looking more like Dalmatian-inspired statement walls. I am exaggerating but it does drive me crazy to see constant tiny marks appearing. The worst part is that these cannot just be wiped away BECAUSE the paint is matt. I learned the hard way that wiping matt paint with a damp cloth creates a new bigger stain…
Our staircase is against a double-height wall so repainting would involve paying someone to do it and potentially scaffolding which would cost a fortune. So we are living with it, but the day I can afford it I can guarantee you those walls will get covered with a good old, very wipeable eggshell emulsion!
Wood kitchen countertops
I am not OCD but I do like things to be tidy when it comes to interiors, this is why the wood countertops we have in our kitchen are my worst enemies. They soak up literally EVERYTHING and stain as easily as a white shirt when eating spaghetti bolognese – it is comically bad.
We had wood countertops in our previous rental flat too and they were covered with mould because of the moisture around the sink. I hated them and was bummed to see our new place had them too, but I could hardly justify replacing brand new countertops. So we accepted to live with these as we had learned how high-maintenance they were in our previous place. Yet, while being as careful as we can (well it is still a work in progress with Andrew ***cough***), they still grab any opportunity to stain! A drop of water left unnoticed for 30 minutes – stain! A splash of sauce/oil/egg left unwiped for 90 seconds – stain! Wood countertops, never again…
Hanging wall art too high, too low…
…Or simply just in the wrong place! Luckily it didn’t happen too much but I have been guilty of hanging a few bits and bobs in rather random places. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but the last thing you know we have to bend our necks in a rather awkward position to appreciate the art. Most of those mistakes I have corrected since, but there are still two posters in the en-suite bathroom which I need to re-hang.
Why on Earth did I think that aligning them with the toilet seat rather than the entire wall was a good idea? Go figure…
Hopefully, me sharing these 4 interior mistakes will help you avoid them and decorate your house in a much more sensible way.
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Claire Imaginarium 