5 Common Challenges in Interior Design

When designing and decorating a home, you may have beautiful images of HGTV homes floating through your head. However, when you get into the space and need to make interior design decisions, you may encounter some dilemmas. Here are 5 of the most common interior design challenges.

1. Small bedrooms can be difficult to work with when designing a home. Tiny bedrooms are especially common in older homes. Often lack of space may restrict you from incorporating certain design ideas or elements into your bedrooms. When working with a smaller room, be sure to enhance the features it does have to make it look its very best. Accentuate higher ceilings, choose accent walls, and considering downsize the size of your bed to utilize as much space as possible.
2. Another issue can be a lack of cabinet space in your kitchen. This makes design difficult since you likely have many of your kitchen appliances and utensils out in the open, taking away from any style choices you had previously made. Consider repurposing a linen closet in the hallway for added storage. Store kitchen items that you don’t use frequently in this area so that you can easily access them when necessary.
3. Room purposing can also be a design challenge. Many rooms are “mystery” spaces and sometimes it’s hard to decide what exactly to do with the room. Is it a closet? A guest room? An office? As a result, many homeowners often make multipurpose spaces since they can’t decide what they want. This is a big design mistake. When designing your home all spaces need a function, and so you will need to commit to a room purpose and stick to that, otherwise your design will seem uncertain, awkward and out of place.
4. Dark rooms are another issue. Sometimes spaces do not have enough, if any natural light coming in through windows. If possible, adding windows could be a wise investment, however this is not always feasible structurally or monetarily. Dark rooms can look depressing, scary, or dull, no matter how well you design. It is important that you are sure to add lots of useful lighting throughout the space to open it up and brighten it. Consider recessed lighting on the ceiling, floor lamps, and smaller desk lamps as well. Be sure to use bulbs that will not look fluorescent, but will instead exude a warm, welcoming glow.
5. Finally, awkwardly shaped rooms and layouts can cause many roadblocks in the interior design process. Some rooms have awkward corners, angles, or shapes that make it difficult to decide where furniture should go. Instead of fighting the floor plan, try to embrace it and play up its unique features. Consider making that strange; out of place corner a reading nook in your bedroom. You can define it as a separate area with a defined purpose so help make it look less awkward and more accommodated.

Whether you work with interior designers in London or decide to design your home on your own, these are issues you will likely encounter. Luckily there are ways to make the best of even the worst design nightmares, to make your space beautiful, stylish, comfortable and practical!