Avoid These 5 Decorating Mistakes To Increase The Uniqueness Factor of Your Design Project

It's easy to get pulled into someone else's vision of what your home should look like. That's why furniture is always sold in sets. However, that's a quick way to lose your individuality and wind up with a space that looks like a thousand others with the same set. Today we are featuring a video by Youtube user AtHomeWithNikki, in which she shares some excellent tips on how to keep the YOU in your home decorating projects.

Here's what you'll learn...

• What you should avoid buying when furniture shopping
• What you should never put on your walls
• What to be careful of when buying accent pieces
• What you should be mixing and matching
• How you should shop for lamps

Decorating Tips To Make Your Home Represent YOU (Transcript)

Hi everyone, it's me Nikki here with my decorating tips to make your home represent you. I love shopping in Target and Pier 1 and HomeGoods and places like that, but a lot of times we all shop there and our homes can start to tend to look alike if we don't kind of individualize ourselves and have a certain thought process when we're putting our home together. The purpose of this tip is to share with you my thought process and my tips that I have for putting my home together to give me my unique style, as I hope you can find this helpful and let's jump right in.

Okay, tip number 1 is to stay away from buying sets. I don't like buying furniture sets, like going in a furniture store and seeing a table and four chairs and buying that, because it doesn't represent my style. It's not a set that I put together. I think if you kind of make yourself put together your sets, it brings a better feel for your home and makes it more individualized to you. Here's an example of my kitchen kind of table, and what I did was I bought the table from Pier 1, I love the table and I could have bought the four chairs that went with it, but when I put it at my home, it would have might have looked like my neighbor's who went to the same store, and so what I did was just limited myself to getting the table and forcing myself to find the chairs.

When I found these two linen chairs, fell in love with the script chairs, but again I could have bought four of these chairs and it would have been not still too matchy-matchy, and so I only got two of them, forcing myself to again find another piece to coordinate with it to bring my set together. This is in the end a set that I put together, not one that I was sold on in the furniture store. To me, it is my style. It brings in the look that I love and it's something that I put together and it feels cozy, it feels like my home, it feels warm, and it feels like Nikki. That's what I encourage you to do. Don't buy the sofa and the love seat and the matching chair. Buy the sofa and then go somewhere else and buy your chair and buy your love seat from a different place, but then coordinate it together and bring it all together to get a look that you put together. Not one that you were sold on from a furniture store, so that is the tip.

Tip number 2 would be very selective with your artwork and things like that. We can tend to be sucked in to going into Target and Ross and buying these kind of pre-made art and putting it on the wall and your neighbor may have it or whatever the case may be, and again it's not individualized to you. Instead, I encourage you to buy your frames from different places like the top frame here I got from Michaels years ago. The bottom I got from a discount store somewhere, but I took out the artwork and I just used the frame.

I went to my local bookstore and for discount and a bargain section, found a artist that I like and then used the pages of that book to frame to make the artwork for my wall, because it's something I love, it's my style. I created it and so I put it together and then it makes your home feel like more of you because you actually did it. You weren't sold on it from kind of buy in a grouping in a store and actually it's cheaper to do this than sometimes buying those groupings. That can be expensive whereas you can go get a 40% off coupon and get your frames 40% off from Michaels. The mat board is from Michaels for a 5 bucks, and then you can go get a 2 or 3 dollar book on sale.

Now, tip number 3 is to watch your scale. Sometimes we can be sucked into buying something because of the price, but then when we put in our home, it doesn't look good. We all love the Dollar Store. We all love going, finding inexpensive home accessories, but if you buy that small kind of vase but you put it on the table and it looks so small scale to the table, it takes away from the look, and does it truly represent you? Just like this candle here. I knew I needed a larger scale candle here for this space, for to give me the look that fits me and represents me.

I could have easily got a Dollar Store candle and put it there like I did here, but look it just takes it down a scale and it's not my style and it just really takes the way from the look. Even putting it on this candle holder here, it's still is not the same impact, so I'm careful with that, especially with lamps and things and accessories. Like this lamp is cute, but it's too small for this table. It takes the style down a notch because the scale is all wrong. I may have paid less money for this lamp, but in the end if it doesn't give me the look and the feel that it feels comfy for me in my home, it's not going to work for me. By putting this larger scale lamp that I love on here, it's my style, it's what I love, and the scale is appropriate. When I'm sitting there, the lighting is actually in the right place for me to read my book. Yes, I might have paid $20 for this lamp versus 10, but over the years, I love it more.

Now, tip number 4 is combine high-end with low-end. We all love shopping in Pier 1 and in Target and places like that, but I'd say get some really high-end items but at an affordable price. Go to estate sales and buy some real silver candelabras. Go to Etsy and eBay, great places to find. People are getting rid of some beautiful expensive high-end pieces and then combine them with those pieces that you get from Target or Walmart or Pier 1 and places like that. Because in the end, the unified look is better. Like these candelabras, two are from low-end places and two are very high-end candelabras, but putting them together, they all coordinate.

The same here. This is a nice bowl, very expensive bowl, but I only paid $16 off Etsy. One of my subscribers asked about this though, you know who you are, I'm answering this question for you. It's a very beautiful bowl and I'm fitting it next to some items that I got very inexpensive from, I think maybe Ross or T.J.Maxx years ago, those lanterns, but by putting them together, they can all work together but everything doesn't look like I ran to Ross or like inexpensive. If I throw that kind of high-end piece in there, it gives a better look. Just like this lantern here. Sitting in on top of this candle holder here, this is an expensive candle holder that I got from eBay or somewhere inexpensive, but it looks, it fits.

Now, tip number 5. You guys heard me, you kind of rave about this for my lamps. I'm so particular with picking lamps. I don't think you should buy lamps in sets and kind of matchy-matchy. You should buy them very carefully. When you look at your lamp, make sure it's something you love. It has the beautiful shape to it. It's really a unique piece that fits your style. Again, make sure everything is your style because you want your home to feel like you.

Sometimes, we can get sucked in to going to Target and they have those kind of standard lamps that are kind of boring, but it's only $10 whereas you can just pay an extra $5 and go to somewhere else and find something that's truly a artwork and a beautiful piece. Every lamp in your home should be different to me. I don't think you should buy sets of lamps. I'd say buy them individually and make sure they're beautiful and catch them on sale. Just take your time with your accessories, so that is the tip there.

I hope you all have enjoyed me sharing my tips for how to kind of keep your home from looking like the standard. I thank you for watching. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments. Please like this video if you liked, enjoyed this video, so I know to keep coming with these types of videos and have a beautiful day. This is Nikki saying goodbye.

I hope you got some value from this article.  I know I did.  Nikki offered some great advice, but my favorite is to just take your time.  She offered that bit in the last tip, but I think it applies to all of them and anytime you are decorating your home.  It's easy to get worn out during a major interior design project and the natural tendency is to start taking short cuts by compromising on your style.  When this starts to happen it's best to just step away from the project for a day or two and give yourself time to re-energize.  Then come back with a fresh mind to complete your project to the best of your ability and without losing yourself.

Take-Aways & Tweetables:

• Buy partial furniture sets and complete them with other pieces that represent you. - Tweet That!
• Never put pre-made artwork on your walls.  Instead use the frames and fill it with your own creative work. - Tweet That!
• When buying accents, make sure they are proportionate to the platform on which they sit. - Tweet That!
• Mix and match high and low end pieces that represent your style. - Tweet That!
• Never by lamps in pairs.  Instead find unique lamps that compliment your style. - Tweet That!

 Posh Rug makes it easy for you to stay true to yourself.  With a wide selection of area rugs to choose from, you are sure to find the area rug that represents your unique and perfect self.  Use the search box at the top of this page to find exactly what you need to create the look that satisfies your style.  Also, be sure to give us a like or tweet if you found this article helpful.  Happy decorating!