You are walking down the aisles of your favourite furniture show room, and all of a sudden, your eyes stumble upon the perfect home decor accessory. You go gaga over it, thinking that its addition would enhance an area or a corner of the room even further! Of course, you give in to the uncontrollable urge to buy it and excitedly bring home your new-found treasure.

However, soon enough, you realise that it doesn’t look as you had anticipated, and you end up tucking it away in a corner of your attic. Sounds familiar? Impulse buying is one of the errors we make in our enthusiasm to furnish our homes. We’ll tell you about a few more common mistakes people tend to make and how to avoid them. Here they are:

Going overboard
Too much is messy. So, if you have a lot of print on print happening, or accessories cluttering your space, you are definitely doing it wrong. Decorating too much is overwhelming and tacky.

Solution: Give it a personalised touch. Use a piece which highlights the room. If you have a house in the mountains and love the beach, display a collection of seashells or coral, instead of designing an entire beach-style room.

Making it too formal
A formal approach to a room isn’t wrong; but you should still make sure that people feel comfortable in it. Too much boxy furniture that does not add comfort gives an uninviting feel to the room.

Solution: Make it inviting, yet elegant. Use your space to the maximum. You can give a warm vibe to it. Give your room a function, make it liveable and ensure that it’s pleasing and welcoming to your guests.

Retaining artwork
That bold-coloured artwork that your boss gave you on your housewarming party might have looked nice during summer, but it’s not ideal for the winter season.

Solution: You should get something less striking, hang some black and white pictures or painting that you find fit for the ambience.

Going for bold drapes
Drapes are one item in your home decor that people do not ponder over much; yet have the ability to make or mar the look of the room.

Solution: Don’t just go ahead with a particular style because it’s ‘in’. Rather, study your room properly, with the textures, colours, and styling, post which, go ahead and find out whether you need drapes with bold prints/shades or neutral tones.

Wires, wires everywhere!
With the advancement of technology, we have now reached a point wherein it’s impossible to function without our electronic devices, such as our TV, Playstation, laptop, and so on. Using multi-plugs is great, but with the wires hanging all-out, it ends up making the room look too untidy and tacky.

Solution: Take a container with three or four storage spaces, and keep all the wires that are unused for the moment, into them.

Incorrect or lack of planning
A lot of people feel that furnishing their house is a job that could start and finish soon. However, it’s easier said than done. Solution: One should always plan with regard to what kind of a look one wants, the intricacies, and the duration in which they want it.

Staying put forever
Some people continue staying in the same house forever, even if while it is being redecorated. While that ensures you being in your comfort zone, it wouldn’t be the same for those who are working on redecorating.

Solution: It is okay to shift to another place for a while and leave them alone.

Trying to fit in
Doing up your house is one of the most challenging things to do as it has to reflect  your personality. A lot of people in the name of following fads tend to furnish their homes with the ‘latest’ trends.

Solution: However, the numero uno tip in this case is that whatever you go with, do it only if you feel comfortable.

(The author is co-founder, Design Deconstruct)