Furniture is one of the most important interior design elements that most people can envision in their brand new Singapore home or office. Quality furniture is beautiful, functional and exceptionally comfortable. Bringing all these elements together while staying on budget, however, is not an easy endeavour.
Singaporeans doing furniture shopping and arrangements are guilty of various mistakes that interior design professionals can spot right away. Some of these result in unnecessarily costly purchases while others can ruin an interior design concept altogether.
If you’re seeking ways to create the perfect home interior design, you will need to avoid the following major furniture mistakes at all costs
Getting Furniture That’s Too Large for Your Space
This is probably the number one furniture-related mistake that suggests the interior design concept was executed by an amateur rather than a professional.
Good design, whether residential or commercial, is all about flow and scale. Elements have to correspond to each other to create visual harmony. If one piece of décor is out of proportion, it will stick out like a sore thumb.
Putting an oversized, over-stuffed sofa in a small living room will immediately get the space to feel much smaller and more cramped than it actually is. And once you have acquired your oversized pieces for a small Singaporean flat, the issue will become very difficult to fix.
Always measure your rooms and the furniture pieces that you want to buy. It’s very easy to create a scale diagram on paper that will show you exactly how furniture will occupy the space. Don’t rush into buying just because you like something. You may end up with a piece that’s really out of proportion.
The same applies to placement. Positioning a large coffee table in a wrong way will impede movement in the room. Flow is very important to make spaces functional (and safe!). When buying oversized furniture, you’ll have to be even more careful and strategic about placement than in the case of obtaining streamlined items.
Going big isn’t the only mistake connected to size and space. Having too much furniture is a similar mistake that can have almost the same negative effect.
A space can easily become cramped when you have too many furniture pieces in it. The mistake connects to flow again and fixing the situation through a rearrangement will be difficult. After all, having way too many pieces will limit the amount of space, no matter how these items are arranged.
Remember that furniture has to be functional first and foremost. If an item is not serving a specific purpose, it has no place in your home or office.
If you’re attempting to handle interior design on your own, stick to the following simple mantra: less is more! Start with the absolute essentials for the room. A bedroom, for example, cannot go without a bed. Storage furniture will also be required while everything else is usually open to debate.
When doing furniture shopping, many homeowners tend to prioritise the wrong things.
Form over function is a typical rookie mistake that we’ve seen committed by so many Singaporean homeowners.
What exactly does it mean?
The concept of form over function refers to the appearance of furniture pieces or a particular layout format that people embrace. A bed, two nightstands and a dresser is a standard layout for a bedroom that most homeowners will embrace without asking questions. Are all of these items, however, functional and required?
Always question the use of a certain piece of furniture before buying. If you don’t, you’ll end up with an item that looks pretty but that most of the household neglects or under-utilises.
Furniture Placed Against the Wall or Blocking Windows
Let’s take a look at a common furniture arranging mistake. Many people who are not interior design professionals will use walls as guidelines. They’ll typically position furniture pieces against the wall in an attempt to create some movement and open up space.
Placing furniture against the wall, however, isn’t always optimal (not to mention the fact that such arrangements tend to be quite boring).
A space can be divided in functional zones by grouping furniture pieces together. This approach is especially beneficial for larger flats and open-space Singaporean apartments. If the living and dining rooms share a space, for example, you’ll be losing functional space by pushing the largest pieces against walls.
Having furniture positioned against the wall creates the added risk of blocking windows and reducing the amount of natural light entering the room. There should always be some space between the window and the larger pieces in order to avoid such a mistake.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever bought an entire furniture set for a certain room from the store, just because the solution is easy and convenient. Most of us have been there. Not only are pre-designed furniture sets easy to get, they are often available at a discounted price. So, getting all of the pieces for a room and saving some money may seem like the ultimate deal. In reality, it isn’t.
Furniture sets usually have a pretty generic appearance. They tend to be bland, as the purpose is to match as many lifestyles as possible. Such sets aren’t reflective of your personality. As a result, the interior design of your home will lack character and spark.
Matching different pieces is a lot more difficult but the result will be highly rewarding.
If you don’t know how to accomplish the task, partner up with an experienced home interior design company. Seeking out individual furniture pieces doesn’t have to be expensive. There are numerous vintage and budget-friendly choices out there that will be perfectly matched to the interior design concept you’re trying to execute.
Thinking of a Single Function
The final mistake we’d like to mention today is furniture selection that’s based on a single function.
This is especially detrimental if you live in a small, space-starved flat.
To avoid the issue, think of everything you’re going to be doing in a room. For example, the living room will be a place where you’ll watch a movie, read a book, relax, play board games with the rest of the family. Now that you know what you’ll be doing there, can you think of furniture pieces that serve more than one purpose?
A coffee table, for example, can have an underneath storage compartment for books, magazines and board games. This way, a single piece will be used instead of getting a coffee table and shelves combo.
Interior design conventions and standard wisdom can be helpful when buying new items for your home. Sometimes, however, being creative and unorthodox in your choices can really pay off. Don’t feel pressured to embrace standard furniture just because everybody else is doing so.
A bit of professional assistance can go a long way when it comes to designing the perfect home. Our home renovation company in Singapore has enough experience to guide you through the numerous choices on the market and help you realise an idea that’s well matched to your lifestyle.
Don’t hesitate to check out the Home Guide residential portfolio and get a better idea about our interior design philosophy. Alternatively, you can contact us and get started with design conceptualisation right now!
