The one room in your house everyone who visits get to enjoy, your lounge. This space says so much about you. It can make or break your image, making family and friends or who ever visits, admire you and elevate your social standing or take your social listing down several knots – make an impression, the right impression! Well lets go through some no, no’s exposed here.
Shot Glass Parade
Oh really?! Are these from your drunken sailor days?! Not everybody’s cup of tea or shot I should say. Unless you going to walk the walk keep them out of sight – in other words if the shots are rolling bring them out, and only then! We all have our little secrets, keep this a secret.
Shot Glass Parade
Ditch The Loud Colors
Oh, you’re a bold one… You might like bold and bright colors, but painting your walls for such an intimate setting might be overwhelming. Maybe try a cushion or painting. Flowers are always a winner, especially the more natural-looking artificial flowers trending now.
Ditch The Loud Colors
Rugs
Imagine a 300lbs man, an obese man that is, in a tiny cheerleader’s sweater! Exactly! That’s what small rugs do to your living room. Rugs are supposed to compliment and bring your decorative creation together not expose your overzealous figure or lack thereof.
Rugs
Please Leave The Temporary Oddments
If you are a broke student living in a box, maybe… but you’re not! DIY’s are wondering if it’s a stunning handcrafted professional creation and fits the smart elegant lounge. However, the lounge is not a place to build a shrine to boast your coming into manhood project, just keep it in the garage until further notice, and no do not even try to class the monstrosity of raw crates stacked together as “eclectic”.
Please Leave The Temporary Oddments
No Circus Lights Please
Lighting the essence of creating the mood. The right lamp creates a soothing effect softening the mood and allows the audience to openly converse. Now retro might be cool but it is not grand and in most cases should be left back in its age, in fact, the door should be locked and the key thrown away never to be seen again. Those weird lamps and the colorful ones you bought at the garage sale, please take them back, even if you have to pay for the previous owner to accept them.
No Circus Lights Please
Legend Of Futon Sofas
Futon sofas, the only image that comes to mind, “The karate kid”. And he’s long gone, so should this sofa be. It was nice during the college days, but you’ve passed through college love, come on now. You have a home now, and homes have sofa’s… If you really want to hold on to it, leave it in some other obscure area of your home.
Legend Of Futon Sofas
Artificial Plants
Artificial plants… fake! Tragedy, a lifeless medium, oh the energy thief, Feng Shui is out of balance. Bring in a cactus at least, if not… no plants at all. Every element in your living room is a representation of you. You need the energy of life to move through your lounge so get rid of the lifeless intruding artificial plants.
Artificial Plants
Set Apart The Art
Art pieces are complementary, but the right piece can set you apart. No need for a van Gogh, there plenty of young individual pieces which will serve you lounge perfectly. Your décor theme is the key to recognizing the work of art which will create that ambiance you seek.
Set Apart The Art
Fix The Loose Cables
Connect me, give me power. The clutter of life, cables, and devices with which we cannot live without. The ever-dangling cable we cannot get rid of, so we have to manage it. For a measly few buck, we can get some trucking devices or just head over to your local electronic outlet to find a solution. Kill 2 birds with one stone, the lounge is neat and tidy and safe from potential accidents.
Fix The Loose Cables
The Endeared Case Of Pictures
Frames with inscribed messages are a no, no. and those tacky frames from yonder creek… well send them back up the creek. It goes without saying that we can pretty much surmise looking at those photos, the event and person it leaves you reminiscing about. So do it justice and go down to the local mart and buy some suitable frames.
The Endeared Case Of Pictures
Cushion Colors
Don’t be bland with your sofa cushions. Having those cushions matching your couch is just without taste. Do you like salsa or a lovely Greek salad? So let those creative juices flow, spice it up a little. We said a little, not go crazy, so consider your color scheme.
Cushion Colors
Pallet Creations
Your DIY handiwork is growing. That’s wonderful. Using pallets to create a coffee table is quite an accomplishment, now you and your buddy Freddy can use it in the garage to keep your drinks on, that’s right, the garage. Your living room is not a lumber yard buddy, so go refine those lovely Skills of yours and keep it in the Barn or garage, just not the lounge.
Pallet Creations
The Plastic Conundrum
Every woman’s go-to, plastic storage ware… Asif we do not have enough plastic in the world, you’re still willing to consider using it in your living room?! Heck NO! Now we know it makes for lovely storage in the kitchen, refrigerator or just to store things in. So, the question is do you really want to display your junk in plastic containers in your lounge where you entertain with friends and Family? Exactly, so drop them in another space where they’re out of sight.
The Plastic Conundrum
Matching Curtains
Can we get some color blocking here please? You might not like to stand out or you prefer to fly unnoticed under the radar, but this! This just lights you up for all the wrong reasons. Matching every possible piece of fabric is dreary and sends your mind through the gates of Hades from which there is no escape. Get some color coding to break the monotony, who knows, life might become a little groovier.
Matching Curtains
Leave Tacky Vintage Décor
Bigmouth Billy Bass, oh yeah, the one that didn’t getaway. At this point throw him away, in fact, the further the better. Billy Bass and old Moose were never fashionable, they were more intimidating than inspiring. In this time of vegan diets and eco conserve, your best bet is to put as much distance between you and your inherited stuffed trophies as possible.
Leave Tacky Vintage Decor
Frame-less Photos Are Distasteful
Frameless photos, unless you living in a trailer and even then it’s a no, no. The concept is tasteless and probably born out of prison diaries,” convict décor for your cell 101”. You want to be creative or different, put some effort into it and don’t downplay your memories..
Frame Less Photos Are Distasteful
CSI Living Room
Plastic wrapped furniture for your lounge?? Looks like the setting for a “B-grade” Tarintino movie. Yes, kids are messy but, really now! Now you can’t even enjoy the best of your lounge out of fear for the kids and wear and tear. If it’s a real concern, when the kids are around, use a throw to cover up.
CSI Living Room
Naked Windows
Natural light is lovely and healthy and so refreshing. Curtains or blinds, each has several variations to choose from. So, there’s no need to sacrifice privacy to enjoy the gift of sunshine. And if privacy is not a biggie for you, maybe it is for your neighbors as you enjoy the replenishment of vitamin D on your sun kissed body. Either you drape up or cover those windows.
Naked Windows
Barn Doors
Do you have a horse in your house or maybe some rhino walking through from time to time? No you don’t so let’s get over this “fad”. Sure, it’s trending at the moment but so did the mullet and beehive hairstyles at some stage. Let’s keep what belongs in a barn, in the barn.
Barn Doors
Drowning in Pillows
A sea of throws and pillows, you might like to swim but not in the lounge. You want folks to be comfortable not covered or struggling to be seated. Remove the clutter of abundance of pillows. 2 or 3 pillows are sufficient and enough to pivot visitors with that little extra they might want for comfort.
Drowning In Pillows
Shaggy, Don’t Let It Be You
Shaggy is not plush, shaggy is shaggy like shaggy dog. The 70s were “shaggadelic”, but we have moved on already. If you really have to have shaggy, a shaggy cushion maybe, but otherwise maybe the bedroom is a better place to have your shaggy carpet.
Shaggy Dont Let It Be You
Wallpaper
Wallpaper is the inn trend, but don’t be fooled, get the wrong combination and you might just find yourself in the heart of Kensington, London. The very walls closing in on you, the sun seemingly disappear behind what looks like a cluttered apartment 100 years ago. When it comes to wallpaper, tread with caution.
Wallpaper
Furniture Skirts
Ruffled skirts on the furniture, oh dear, “Has grandma moved in?”. Skirts were used in yesteryear to hide the raw or ugliness of homeware, now you want to do the opposite, hide beautiful furniture. If you want to create that vintage era in your living room, consider the era you would like to recreate and minimize the skirts.
Furniture Skirts
Don’t Go Gold
Gold, once an exclusive fixture, limited to the “La Dee DAA As”. Now as we head for Mars only your imagination can limit you. Gold as a fixture has lost its luster. However, as we head for Mars, gold can still be a strategic part of your living room décor as long as it is not overbearing.
Dont Go Gold
Ornaments
Ornaments, ducks, or dogs, if you are an ardent collector of these pieces, all good. However, it’s merely a piece of décor filling a gap, maybe move it to the lavatory where it will assist in the concentration needed for the job at hand. Replacing these pieces with more modern elements will enhance the elegance of your lounge.
Ornaments
No Wooden Panels
Wood is a wonderful element which awakens the organic man, back to his roots. That’s right, to nature we go, and nature holds our log cabin. Coming home, oh yes indeed, the wood remains in the cabin! In fact, if you have a fireplace, that’s where else in you lounge wood should be.
No Wooden Panels
Make It All Come Together
Mismatched colors, retro designs just sends our minds reeling as we struggle to make sense of walking into the “Twilight zone”. Once again, the lounge is as the name say “lounge” – relaxing area. Adopting a minimalistic approach can do so much more at bringing about serenity and comfort.
Make It All Come Together
Rustic Wooden Blanket Ladders
Want to go rustic? With pleasure, just not that old ladder with blankets. The old blanket ladder as an element in your lounge is nonsensible, adds no relevance to your greater efforts for the rustic persona. Take it back to the laundry room or attic where it belongs.
Rustic Wooden Blanket Ladders
Haunted Room
If you are a hunter, taxidermist, or lover of things creepy, then mount your kills or stuffed paraphernalia to the walls. Love may be scary sometimes but not as scary as a room full of dead animals, so keep the family and sweet and intimate elements out of this “living room” unless you are the “Addams Family”, then it’s up to Gomez and Morticia.
Haunted Room
Grandma’s Lampshade
Sentimental as we may be, when you find that old lampshade grandma made, think twice before considering it as a piece for your Lounge. The lamp itself could possibly pass but do remember lampshades are fashion timepieces that signify an era. And in all likeliness that shades era has passed. Granny was meticulous and trendy, so please follow in her footsteps and keep your lounge trendy with a lamp that compliments the space.
Grandmas Lampshade
Live The Sign
Spread the love, just don’t spell it out. An invitation into your sanctuary is the cliché to spreading the message, so don’t use literal signage, rather proliferate with a beautiful artistic impression. A painting or sculpture, whatever moves you and ties in with your lounge will have so much more effect.
Live The Sign
Dash Space
Around the world, you go like Willy Fog, and you love it so much you bring back momentous to share the experience. You don’t even have to imagine the clutter anymore cos the momentous have defunct your living room, and what happens with DEFUNCT, it is avoided. Bring some life into the living room store those noteworthy memorabilia in a safe place so when you tell your family and friends a story you can simply go get it from a nearby storage room.
Dash Space
Frame Those Posters
Teenage years, the best time of your life, pubescent, rebelling and don’t care what anybody thinks. Posters decked on your bedroom wall, bed probably unmade and clothing strewn all over. Are you still in that phase of your life? I think not. Take that poster and frame it, give it the due impression it deserves and save yourself face as well.
Frame Those Posters
Glass Table
Glass is magnificent. The transparency or tint, the shape and placement are all considerations for this delicate element. A glass coffee table is not for the faint-hearted. If you deem yourself sophisticated, this will be an incredible centerpiece, as long as you choose the right styled and sized table to compliment your living room.
Glass Table
Color-Changing Lamps
Oh, yes! Disco time at “The Lounge” with DJ Sofa. Do you really want disco lights going as you try to relax with friendly conversation in your lounge? Maybe your teenage cousin would like them, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the gift of color-changing lamps. Lamps can create an ambiance for relaxed interaction, so please consider carefully.
Color Changing Lamps
The Tapestries
Tapestries are lovely, but… That’s right, there is a “But”, as a hobby to create or collect these items, please keep them in your bedroom or another space. Boho-chic has come and gone, so this is not an option for the living room.
The Tapestries
Bookcase-Style Wallpaper
Once upon a time, there was a bookworm, but he doesn’t live here… You like books then have a real bookcase. The wallpaper of a bookcase does little to enhance you as a learned scholar, in fact, you probably just got knocked down a few notches among your peers. Get real, the real McCoy going, it says you “real”.
Bookcase Style Wallpaper
Wordy Wall Decals
Decals are wonderful if you are running a special in-store. So, unless you a store calling out something to be noticed, don’t do it. If you feel the insatiable need to have a decal, then do it outside of the lounge. Having a decal in the lounge can be distracting and this will negatively impact the company you are keeping.
Wordy Wall Decals
Busy Patterns
Busy patterns are good for road markings. They draw attention to the traffic situation at hand. Your lounge is likely not a drive-through, so please let’s calm down with some softer patterns and designs. Using softer designs puts your guest at ease as the room now is soft and inviting.
Busy Patterns
Bland Space
Aesthetics are appealing, however, when you get to a certain point, it can be regarded as insipid. This is hardly the status anyone would aspire to, unless you suffer an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Having a pristine lounge can still be inviting and beautiful if you have a add a touch of color to break the monotony.
Bland Space
Wrong Sofa And Furniture Size
It cannot be said enough, The right furniture for the right space. Having oversized furniture will take away your comfort and the beauty of the space and the furniture itself. The impact goes for undersized pieces as well. A sofa alone could establish the lounge, so be considerate of choosing the right pieces for your space.
Wrong Sofa And Furniture Size
Shop Around
It cannot be said enough, The right furniture for the right space. Having oversized furniture will take away your comfort and the beauty of the space and the furniture itself. The impact goes for undersized pieces as well. A sofa alone could establish the lounge, so be considerate of choosing the right pieces for your space.
Shop Around
Poor Layout
If you have an eye for choosing the right pieces to complement your lounge, it will gain the admiration of all who enter your space. It’s always a great conversational topic as you chat to visitors, how you shopped around and connected the dots to create such a phenomenal setting.
Poor Layout
Hang Your Arts Right
Your Lounge is not an art gallery. Art is beautiful, but you risk having your visitors overlooking it if it’s not positioned properly. The risk of mounting all your art together is that you create a self-defeating clutter. It becomes impossible to see and appreciate the individual masterpiece. Let each piece breath and talk to the admirers, match each piece with a specific point which accentuates it in the living room. Your special pieces will give you and your fellow appreciators many hours of bliss as you admire your collection.
Hang Your Arts Right
“Live” In Your Living Room
Stepping into your living room should fill you with serenity, recognizing you are in your space, where all is well, this is me, draw comfort from it. If you feel this way, then I am sure your friends and family will delight in this space. No demands, the only expectation is to relax and enjoy the company. The flow of this room is natural, the setting inviting and delightful, nothing squashed and no flat spot to lose focus of one or the other.
Live In Your Living Room
The Matching Game
If you are living in a house which once was occupied by the great forefathers of time, this might be an excellent way to bring the two worlds together. Bring a fresh breath into the ancient, honored house. It has stood the test of time, because at its heart, it is a young vibrant home. Mix it up slightly to bring in that young vibrancy and a touch of vintage to set the calming ambiance.
The Matching Game
Measure Before You Buy
A very obvious error many make. In the excitement to buy new furniture or perhaps to furnish your new home, you buy the most beautiful furniture, only to find it does not measure up. Either it’s too large to fit or to small and inadequate for space you had in mind. Before you step out and purchase the new furniture, measure the space and consider various options for the layout and décor. This will have you choosing the right pieces to show off your new pride and joy.
Measure Before You Buy
Wrong Fabric
Choosing the correct fabric is essential. The window size and location, the sofa and chair styles, the floor size, your social “frequency” all have to be considered. The last thing we want is for the fabrics to start fraying before we even had good use of the living room and its various elements. It is hardly comfortable when things start coming apart and you try to cover it hoping no one will notice, and there will go the comfort of your living room.
Wrong Fabric
Merge Or Toss Them Oldies
Not all us have the pleasure of having multiple lounges to suit every occasion, so the one we do have has to achieve everything we need. As much as we like some vintage settings, lets try to keep it lite and relaxing with a bit of bold. You can do vintage, but then change the color to something fresh on modern, keep the lighting clean and use young vibrant pieces instead of trying to match the older outlines with matching ancient elements. Alternatively, toss the artifacts for a total modern theme.
Merge Or Toss Them Oldies
The Right Coffee Table
Coffee tables are the merging point of a living room. The right table will enhance the company. Beside the sofa the one other piece of furniture visitors come in contact with is the coffee table. Will it wood, metal or glass, possibly a mixture of the elements will it be large medium or small, maybe it will be a set instead of a single table, or an ottoman which doubles up as a seat and a table. This all depends on your setting and what will best compliment your space.
The Right Coffee Table
The Look
A key to your space is your personality, and the price is simply a benchmark to status. Cheap is tacky, but tacky is sometimes what you are. Cheap is sometimes a luck or a bargain if you a good negotiator its value for money. So, as we perceive so it is. The question is then how would you like people to see you. Your living space reveals all those things, and folks associate with like-minded folk. Sometimes you have to take your time to get your Space to where you want it, with a little sacrifice that is, but don’t buy down just because.
The Look
Poor Hanging Curtains
Badly draped or unkept curtains can mess up the most stunning of lounges. Curtains can create an atmosphere softening the harshest setting as a soft breeze flows through the window. The soft net fabric allowing large amounts of light in, fabrics enriching the setting and fabric thickness and design also representing the season in rich or soft tones. Curtains which are well-kept are an astounding part of your living room.
Poor Hanging Curtains
Adequate Lighting
A light is a light is a light, right? Only if your Fred Flintstone. Lighting has evolved, with incandescent and fluorescent lights taking a back seat, LED lights are at the forefront. Lighting tones range from warm to cool, the choice is yours. The cost to gain the experience you want is growing cheaper at “light speed” and saving you megabucks while using LED lights. There is no excuse to suffer poor lighting in this age.
Adequate Lighting
Accessorize
We all like to showoff, however, let’s tone it down cos it becomes a bit of clutter, and clutter is just messy, even if it is expensive clutter. Ornaments are little pieces of art, some are obscure but generally acceptable. Declutter the lounge, remove some pieces and put the remaining quaint pieces into positions into suitable positions that look like seamless fits.
Accessorize
Off the Wall
If you want to be flat and ordinary about your living room so be it, but how much more interesting if instead of lining the wall with your furniture, you move them to the center of the room, or change the normal facing direction. Change things up, get interesting.
Off The Wall
Uncomfortable Sofa
Suffer for beauty, Woman know this better than men. Moving around in those 9-inch stilettos can be a painful affair, same with a sofa. Sofa’s and lounge suites can look awesome, but you need to try them out. Senseless you buy a sofa that looks like something from the starship Enterprise but sits like a tin can wrong way round. Make sure the seats are comfortable before you take off at warp speed and end up at a chiropractor.
Uncomfortable Sofa
A Man Cave?
I will not deny that men tend to be guilty of creating shrines for their beloved home theater and Xbox systems. And that’s why we have partners in our lives to bring balance. The lounge is a chill spot for us, to come together with friends sometimes. So, let’s get the living room to incorporate the gathering of some buds where the TV is not the focal point.
A Man Cave
Timeless Decorating
The key to setting up the house is vision. You got to think forward, what are the plans for the future, especially young couples. We can’t foresee everything, but we try, so is there potential to extend the family, is the furniture childproof and child-friendly. Is the furniture we’re purchasing durable and is it possible to rearrange as we need to accommodate as our family grows?
Timeless Decorating
Durability
Everything as a lifespan. A piece is only timeless if it works. Purchasing furniture can be trying as good quality furniture is expensive. You have to consider the design, the material quality and the guarantees and warranties… If it outlasts the warranties and guarantees, marvelous, it’s a good buy, this probably means you can find a company to recover or repair a good piece of furniture purchased eons ago instead of replacing the whole set.
Durability
Painting a New Place
The age-old dilemma, “which came first, the egg or the chicken”, What do I do first, move-in or paint first? Now if common sense were to prevail, you would move in first and then paint, for the following logic. You already have furniture; chances are you going to have a problem if you paint first and your furniture doesn’t match the theme. So, unless you are painting white to play it safe, settle in first and take things from there, you have a little time considering it’s a new place you’re moving into.
Painting A New Place
Warning About Trends
It’s great to keep abreast of trends, but not all trends fit our space. Bear in mind, a living space needs to reflect you who occupies the space, so make it yours. Don’t be discouraged by not following trends, it’s you the space must reflect.
Warning About Trends
Lighting Matters
Lighting is essential for the sighted, it provides a clear path and can influence your mood. We often take the lighting aspect of our space for granted, yet as we move forward and technology hits closer to home influencing our understanding of what effect the environment has on our wellbeing, we have come to understand that our mental health is also affected by the lighting in our environment. We then understand that we take responsibility for how we influence friends and family visiting us and having the right lighting set in our space is essential to influence the mood. Use natural light as much as possible and the amount of light needed to remove dullness brought on from poor lighting is essential.
Lighting Matters
Don’t Go Catalogue-Style
Have you ever walked into someone’s house and it feels as if you have just entered a movie shoot or a showroom? It might seem beautiful in a magazine but it’s not practical in real life, in actual fact it’s quite eerie. The fact is it is nice to buy décor, but you should not forget the experience is to provide onlookers of your home with an unspoken insight into you.
Dont Go Catalogue Style
Be Flexible With Your Theme
Limiting yourself to a single theme is ridiculous, we all have had those moments where we look at things in our mind and said,” I will use this and add a touch of that and…”, well, here is your chance. We, humans, tend to be highly creative; your lounge can be your portrait to paint. Have some fun or be interesting, be your best self.
Be Flexible With Your Theme
Not Connecting
Sometimes you talk to someone and there’s just no point to what they are saying, well sometimes we meet people whose space are exactly that. Maybe you missed the theme or maybe the theme is “Barbarella off at a tangent”, if that is the case, they probably missed the point as well. Even Alice in wonderlands yellow brick road led somewhere, so when putting together a new-look space consider the theme needs to be reflected clearly, don’t be ditsy.
Not Connecting
Dead Space
Many have the overwhelming desire to plug every space, just filling it up, for what? To cover insecurity maybe. Be careful not to create a busy or cluttered space. Sometimes instead of running a flat living room with everything lined against the wall, maybe angle the furniture somewhat, create a 3D appeal to your lounge. Just make sure you have sufficient lighting and space so everyone is comfortable.
Dead Space
Go Color-Code
Women are good at mixing and matching, and that’s what you need to do with your space sometimes. Take a look at your current setting, maybe it’s loosing its appeal. Take the bull by the horns and add some color, maybe change the sofa suite’s color or alternative carpet color. Once more tread with caution we’re not going heavy metal in a pop joint.
Go Color Code
Vintage – Too Deep
Unless Austin Powers is moving in, let’s get the vintage theme jamming out our current hits. We don’t want the space to reflect a bygone era, it has to be here and now. A vintage element or two must be a delight to see as it seamlessly merges with the twenty-first century. It’s like being born in the 70s and rocking bell bottom jeans in the 90s or something like that.
Vintage Too Deep
Ditch Boredom
Monotone is not just boring it’s outright deathly. If you gain inspiration from being lethargic please see a professional. In this day and age we’re fast-paced, always inspired and in reality our feats on the ground with simplicity. We like mixing up our colors and elements with shades of complementary textures designs and the odd fixture for character.
Ditch Boredom
Bold Choices
Being bold is a characteristic of confidence. The bathroom here is not bold, it’s just straight up tacky at the highest level, and might cause an epileptic to have a seizure. To be bold might have been having a red bathtub. There is no cure for bad taste, but being bold is awesome, create a focal point which is pleasant, not overbearing and is notably you.
Bold Choices
Too Modern
Row, row, row your boat … No one minds watching folks’ row downstream, but at no point do I want to watch anyone’s logs floating or going down the toilet. This is not futuristic or fun, it is just crappy. Being modern has a limit, and once more if transparent toilets are your thing, “grand”, but it’s not for everyone. Not everything modern or trendy is appealing.
Too Modern
Padded Furniture
If you made of glass this could work, or maybe you’re a Liberace fan who likes flamboyance. We can understand having custom furniture made to suit your grand abode, however, unless you are a superstar known for your eccentric lifestyle, this is just short of playing house in the loony bin. Custom designs can be great, but please do not lose touch with reality. Your designs are not for competition, but to share yourself with those you like and love.
Padded Furniture
Let Your Mural Bring Life
Ever have that feeling you being watched as you enter a room, and realize it’s a picture or photograph set in such a way that no matter which way you go those eyes are on you. It might be a photo or mural of your favorite great aunt, but it’s creeping everyone out. Please remove it or place it in a less obvious part of the room or attic… Let’s get comfortable, remove the watchful “ones”.
Let Your Mural Bring Life
Limit Fabric Use
If you want to create Austin Powers’ Shag pad, that’s groovy, but maintenance is going to be a headache. We have to be practical, going overboard with anything is ridiculous and wasteful. Further to this no one really admires this kind of spectacle. Keep it real, being grand doesn’t mean you lose your head.
Limit Fabric Use