Distracting attention: 6 tricks in the interior to help hide design mistakes

 Marina Donkovtseva, interior designer, founder of the LiDesign design studio and the Textile LiDesign home textile brand, shared her secrets on how to correct design mistakes and bring the apartment closer to the ideal.

Real estate is one of the primary material values ​​for a person. Even a small private apartment adds confidence in the future. This is why people often list home ownership as their number one goal. And now the long-awaited apartment is bought, the keys are received. You go inside and see...

Let's just say that what you see is far from the idea of ​​an ideal interior. “But your own,” you reassure yourself and think what to do with it. Global repairs are no longer included in the plans, since there is neither strength nor budget left for it. And you need to come up with something to ennoble the apartment with minimal losses. 

Determining the scale of a disaster

Of course, under an ideal set of circumstances, an apartment should be purchased new and without finishing, because this is the only way to equip it completely for yourself. But, unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. Apartments can be purchased already renovated or on the secondary market, or they can be inherited. And then the happy new homeowner has to put up with what they got. And there are different things. We will analyze the most common problems and tell you what can be done about them.

Do not forget that if the new apartment has already been renovated, then it is unlikely that it was finished right before the sale. And this means that many elements are already obsolete or have lost their appearance. 10-15 years ago, a completely different range of materials was presented on the market, and the trends were different. And if the repair is older, then the number of finishing touches can be shocking. 

The most common problem is the inconvenient arrangement of furniture or appliances. For example, if the room is furnished with furniture around the perimeter and there is absolutely no free space along the walls, or if the wiring of electricity to the equipment is not thought out, extension cords and wires are everywhere. Still, perhaps, the color scheme of the decoration of the apartment does not suit you.

All these cases are not very pleasant, but not hopeless. Yes, in some cases you will have to change something. However, there are ways to remedy the situation through more decorative solutions. 

Doctor, what's the problem?

Problems are different. Some of them lie on the surface along with solutions, others will have to break your head. 

1. Placement of furniture

Previously, the arrangement of interior items was not given much importance. It was considered standard to arrange all the available furniture around the perimeter and leave an empty space in the center of the room. However, now we already know much more about zoning and are quite good at handling it. To make the room more interesting with the help of furniture arrangement, divide it into two zones. Let's say it will be a living room and a dining room or a living room with a dedicated work area. In these cases, you can expand the sofa or shelving. Accordingly, a dining group or a desktop can be placed behind the back of the sofa. The rack will allow you to organize the storage system at the same time. By the way, both options can be combined, this will add comfort to those who feel uncomfortable if there is an empty space behind the back of the sofa.

2. Equipment location

Placement of equipment is a whole story. There are often problems with it, because earlier in circulation a person, in principle, did not have such a number of various electrical appliances. And now, not only has the equipment increased, but it is also necessary to provide power for it, hide the wires, and so on. If we talk about electricity, then, of course, it would be great to hide all the wiring under the finish. But it is unlikely that someone will dare to ditch the wall with wallpaper pasted. So cable channels come to the rescue. Yes, mounting on top of the wall will not make the room look perfect, but at least it will help to put things in order in the wires. 

The location of the technique itself can also be unsuccessful. For example, a TV can hang in front of a window. This means that daylight creates glare and a high-quality picture can only be seen at night. Here you can consider 2 scenarios. If it is possible to outweigh the TV, then you should consider the decor for the old place, which will hide the traces of the bracket. If you can't reposition the screen—maybe that's the only place it could have been—dark the window. Roman or roller blinds directly on the sashes are well suited for this .

3. Finishing elements

Here most often we are faced with a riot of colors. For example, an aggressive ornament can be laid out on the floor, which, in combination with bright wallpaper, will look almost psychedelic. There can be only one advice here: something will have to be sacrificed. That is, leave only one accent. From the point of view of alteration, of course, it is easier to change the walls. For them, you should choose plain wallpaper or paint in restrained colors.

Otherwise, the doors may fail. Once upon a time they were often made contrasting. For example, black with light walls. It looks rude and draws too much attention to itself. In this case, you need to reduce the contrast. Again, it's easier to change the color of the walls to a darker or lighter color if the doors are white. With dark colors on the walls, you need to be careful not to visually steal precious space.

Also pay attention to the baseboards - if they are made of MDF, they will lose their appearance very quickly, or, probably, have already lost. In order not to repeat this mistake with the new ones, choose the polyurethane option in the color of the walls.

4. Color range

The use of colorful details creates visual noise. The brain reads it like a mess. Of course, when there are so many colors, you shouldn’t even think about any accents. Therefore, it is necessary to work on reducing the colorfulness on the contrary. Let's take the bathroom as an example. Often, contrasting tiles, ornaments or panels are used in decoration.. At the same time, a large number of multi-colored jars and bottles are always concentrated in the bathroom. To fix all this extravaganza, you should buy plain bottles and dispensers and pour cosmetics into them. Even better, if the dispensers and bottles match the style of the soap dish and the glass for toothbrushes. In the same color scheme, it is recommended to withstand towels.

The same principle should be followed when choosing textiles for rooms. In order not to dazzle in the eyes, choose one dominant color and add color details to it. You can play a little with monochrome solutions or with textures. For example, if you already have velor decorative pillows , you can purchase satin pillows in the same color scheme for them.

5. Decor

One of the obvious problems with old renovations is the mixing of styles. That is, it was probably once possible to trace the style there, but over time, the number of details was added, the furniture was updated, and now it is not clear whether this modern sofa ended up in a classic interior or a vintage chair accidentally lingered in modern.

On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with mixing styles, but it is important to maintain a balance. Let there be only two left. So, for example, a laconic sofa and a table will be able to take an armchair made in a different style to their company, and vice versa - a minimalist pouffe will suit a classic sofa and a table with carved legs.

6. Lighting

Few apartments can boast of good lighting. And if you add a shadow from neighboring houses or trees to standard windows, then it will be quite difficult to do without additional lighting. However, there is a way to “brighten” even a dark room. Reflective and mirror surfaces and separate light sources will come to the rescue - floor lamps, table lamps, sconces. The use of lamps will also allow you to place accents on the zones. And in order to let more natural light into the room, give up thick curtains and limit yourself to tulle. This will add soaring and lightness to the interior.

Of course, all these methods do not completely solve the problem. That is, they create a view, but the cause itself does not disappear. Even the same TV on the wall opposite the window would not have ended up there if the space had been properly planned in the first place. But it happened the way it happened. Correct these mistakes to make yourself comfortable and live in a new apartment with pleasure!