Why your home feels “Off” and how designers fix it

During my days as an interior designer and consultant, I was often called by people who said they were unhappy in their homes.

‘I hate my interior’

‘There is nothing nice about it’

‘I cannot live in it anymore’

One client disliked her downstairs room so much that she ended up using it as a dumping ground. Eventually she could not open the door; boxes had been piled up behind the door, they had eventually fallen down and blocked it all together.

Another client had stacked so much against the walls that I couldn’t even see the wallpaper she claimed to hate so much.

That’s when I realised something important:

what you think you hate is not actually what you hate

Most clients once loved their homes. They carefully chose wallpapers, furniture and finishings. These spaces were happy at one point.

So what went wrong?

Life happened.

Over time, rooms quietly change function.

The dining table turns into a home office.

The bathroom, a subsidiary of the laundry.

The garage, a storage zone.

Do I need to give you more examples?

When this happens, the balance shifts. An interior becomes a mix of things you love and things that no longer serve and you can’t see the wood for the trees.

Below is a practical checklist to help you identify what’s really wrong and how to fix it.

A practical checklist for regaining clarity with your interior

o Your design is no longer visible

—> Re-assign useful items to their proper rooms and declutter as possible.

o Traffic paths are not visible. Can you walk around as you should? Do you struggle to open and close doors and windows

—> Clear circulation paths as needed.

o Room functions are unclear. Preserve each room’s original function but rejig your space a little if you need to add more activities

—> If you work from home, dedicate a corner in a quiet room, i.e. dining room or guest room, to work from. If children’s activities are spreading beyond the frontier of a playroom, assign storage space in the other room. Painting and play dough things go well in the kitchen where you can clean easily. Jigsaws and Legos in nice storage boxes in the living room…

o Storage is not sufficient. Or do you need a different type of storage? Life and needs evolve constantly. Children come and go

—> Re-organise as it suits you best now. I review in my own home a few times a year because I always think I will need items that I end up ignoring all together and because I constantly seek to make my home as practical and easy to maintain as possible.

o Furniture is no longer adapted to the way you live now.

—> List the furniture you might need to replace, take note of the dimensions for the next pieces and source the shops that possibly sell what you are looking for.

o Colour schemes feel dated?

—> Choose a colour scheme with more intense colours for a stronger statement or paler ones for a softer, calmer feel.

o Colour schemes feel heavy?

—> Reduce the number of colours if your scheme looks too heavy.

Remember to look at all your elements, furniture, floors, walls, ceilings as they all bear a colour.

o Colour schemes feel dull?

—> Introduce patterns. You do not need to add new colours, just repeat the existing ones.

o Your interior feels a little flat? This is a frequent occurrence when using a monochromatic colour scheme (a one colour only interior, for instance, an all white or cream interior)

—> Introduce some new textures to create a diversity of sensory feels.

o Layout feels messy

—> Make sure your furniture is organised around a central point or the main piece of furniture. In living rooms, the coffee table is the central point around which seats are arranged, in a bedroom, all revolves around the bed.

o Room lacks interest

—> Create a focal point, i.e. a special point of interest that will attract your eye as you come into a room. It could be a hung picture and an oversized headboard. In all cases it must be positioned near the central point so the latter does not get undermined.

There is a solution to every interior problem. The key is not to judge your home or room as a whole but to understand the individual design elements that shape it.

If your home feels overwhelming or unclear, I’d love to hear what you’re struggling with.

I’m currently developing a practical design guide for non-professionals, built around real questions and real homes.

Reply to this post or leave a comment with:

• the room you find most challenging, or

• the decision you feel stuck on.