7 most common mistakes first time home buyers make when decorating

Decorating a new house should be a fun process, but you have to put some thought into it. There are currently a multitude of decorating ideas and home décor accessories out there that could leave you stupefied and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. From buying uncomfortable furniture to choosing the wrong paint colour, here are some simple decorating ideas and basic tips to avoid the most common first time home decoration mistakes:

1. Buying all your furniture and accessories from one place

It’s important to give the house some personality / Alexandra Gorn/Unsplash

It's easy to get wrapped up in the aesthetics of a single furniture store, like Ikea. You may not have a flexible enough budget to go to lots of different shops, but it's important to include home décor items from various different places so the space doesn't have a monotonous feel. Also, beware when buying furniture – it’s important to measure your available space before you buy anything.

2. Being in a hurry

Mixing home décor furniture is always a good idea / Ben Garrat/Unsplash

No, you don't need to decorate the whole house at once. And no, you don't have to run to Ikea to buy every piece of furniture and every accessory they have. It's best to wait for the house to fill up with different furniture and personality in a natural way.

3. Not thinking of the house as a whole

Try to ensure some consistency / Deborah Cortelazzi/Unsplash

When making first home improvements and decorations, it is important to think about the final look of the house and always bear in mind that each space has to flow into the whole. The best thing is to decorate your first home over time, but always with the mind fixed on the end product. The bedrooms, the living room and the kitchen all have to be related in some way.

4. Forgetting that each house is unique

A good way to make a difference / designecologist/Unsplash

Forget the idea of copying your sister's or your friend's house, or using home décor ideas in images from that Instagram page about home décor trends for 2019 that you follow. Your house should be unique and different from all the others, reflecting your tastes and style. It's fine to use others for inspiration, but remember to decorate differently and keep the originality.

5. Putting everything against the wall

The space has to be allowed to flow / Hannah Busing/Unsplash

The biggest mistake many people make when decorating their first house is putting all the furniture up against the wall. In this case, the decoration could benefit from the sofa being placed in another, less obvious, position.

6. Decorating the space you have, not the space you want

Simplicity is next to perfection / Ian Dooley/Unsplash

Make the most of the space you have and resist the urge to take all the furniture you had in your parents' house or in the apartment you shared with your friends. And if you are one of those people who likes to accumulate stuff, remember that "less is more".

7. Not trying out colours

In this case the white wall makes everything else stand out / Alexandra Gorn/Unsplash

So you have an obsession with salmon and you want to paint the walls of the hallway in that shade, even though it doesn't really look good with the decorative accessories you had in mind for that space. The lesson is simple: before starting to paint the house, it's a good idea to do several tests with cheap, little tester pots of paint. Make sure you choose the colours and shades according to the accessories, lighting and finishes you have instead of choosing a colour just because you like it.