When doing a question box on Instagram a couple of months ago I had a follower ask, “What’s your biggest design mistake?” and it reallllly got me thinking. I’ve made a lot of mistakes as a first-time homeowner. Sure there are paint colors I’ve tried and didn’t like or a DIY that was attempted that didn’t turn out, but those things aren’t really a regret and were easily fixed. When I really dug deep there was one mistake that really took the cake and taught me the biggest lesson when it comes to design:

Trying to fill and renovate every single room too quickly.

When we moved into our home in 2019 we were coming from a one-bedroom small apartment so the only furniture we had was a bed, 2 couches, 2 night stands, and a desk. While that amount of things filled our apartment space well it didn’t even make a dent in filling our new 1,700 sq ft home! With our entire house being empty coupled with the excitement of finally owning our own home I rushed to decorate it.

To be completely honest I didn’t have a plan. Most of the money we had saved went towards the house so we didn’t really have a budget for new furniture. Heck, I didn’t even know my own design style at this time! I didn’t know how to design a room, much less make the different rooms of the house flow together cohesively. Soooo much impulse shopping occurred which makes me cringe thinking about it now. I’d stroll the aisles of Home Goods, see something on super clearance, and immediately add it to my cart. Or peruse the Facebook Marketplace CONSTANTLY looking for pieces that were cheap and would fill our home. I filled each room of our house super quickly, but after a few months, I realized that I didn’t even LIKE any of the things I had purchased and half of them were falling apart because apparently the saying, “You get what you pay for” is true. I felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of random things that weren’t a reflection of me or what I liked. Everything just felt “off” in our home.

Not only was my home filled with random items I didn’t love, but every room was painted grey and white. Now don’t get me wrong, at the time it was very on-trend for all trim to be painted white and all the walls to be grey! I didn’t put any thought into choosing paint colors and just felt like I HAD to get every single room painted as fast as possible. So, why not make it easy on ourselves and paint everything the same color? I mean all the new builds in our area were doing that so I thought that was the move to making our house feel “new” and “homey”. Well, boy was I wrong! I felt like I was living in a sea of grey. There was no warmth or visual interest. Things felt almost sterile and cold and who wants to come home after a long day of work to a home that makes you feel cold?!

 I also didn’t think twice before completing our first DIY project in our house-adding a dark grey accent grid wall to our primary bedroom (wooo more grey). To be fair, at the time I LOVED how this turned out and these accent walls were all over the place on Pinterest and Instagram. But you see, that’s the only reason I added it to our room…I was seeing it everywhere else. I hadn’t made the choice based on anything else. The longer I looked at the accent wall as the years went on the more I grew to dislike it. Once again, it didn’t feel like me, and the longer we were in our home the more I was learning about my own style and design preferences. So what’s a girl to do when she’s surrounded by a bunch of stuff she likes and swimming in a sea of grey in every single room? You do what should have been done when you first moved in:

Don’t jump into renovating every single room at once and as quickly as possible. Actually LIVE in your home and let it tell you what it needs. Slowly and intentionally start collecting quality pieces for your home and learn to be ok with spaces being empty and not being “finished” right away!

After being in our home for a couple of years we slowly started listening to our home. What I mean by that is we got a feel of what we NEEDED from our home. For example, our home doesn’t offer a lot of storage space so we needed to make sure any furniture pieces we were adding were not only aesthetically pleasing but offered functional storage for us as well! We needed a home that felt warm, cozy, and inviting to come home to after a long day of work, so we slowly started deconstructing the greyness of every room and infusing it with dark, deep, and rich colors that felt more like us.

I slowly but surely started selling off all of the impulse purchases and forced myself to be okay with the fact that we didn’t need a dining room table until we found a quality, solid wood one that we loved. Did it feel weird to not have a table in our dining room for months? Yup! But did being patient and looking for a piece we actually love pay off in the end? Double yup! Home renovation and design definitely teaches you patience (something I’m often lacking in). I started to narrow my scope and just focus on one space at a time which felt much more manageable. For example, we renovated our guest bedroom adding board and batten in a beautiful green color. We watched sales for a new bed frame, desk, and nightstands and only purchased something if the quality was there and we truly loved it. The feeling of admiration for the space I got when we were finally “finished” just solidified that “slow and steady” was the way to finish renovating and decorating our home.

My top 3 lessons learned from my biggest design mistake:

1. Start Small: Begin with one room or a small project. Things can get too complicated and overwhelming if you try to renovate an entire house all at once! Often times we’ll cut corners just to get things crossed off our to-do list, but in the end, we might not like the finished product. Take your time in creating a space you love! 

2. Evolve Your Space: Allow your home to evolve over time. Don’t rush to complete everything at once; instead, add and adjust as you live in the space and discover what works best.

3. Enjoy the Process: Decorating should be fun! Take your time to explore different ideas, shop around, and experiment with various elements until you find what you love! 

Photos by Revel Woods Photo

Implementing these lessons has been a game-changer for us when designing our home. Let us know in the comments if you have ever made any mistakes when designing your home and if so, how did you fix it?!