When renovating your home, it’s not uncommon to want to make it look and luxurious as possible. Since you’ll most likely be spending thousands of pounds on it, you don’t want it to end up looking cheaper than it is.
However, this task can often become overwhelming and expensive quickly, which might leave you to make some impulsive decisions that you might come to regret later.
To help, interior designer Carina, from Harford House, has shared the six home decor items she hates seeing as she claims they instantly cheapens the look of a house – no matter how much money you may have spent on them.
“I’m an interior designer and these are things that make your house look cheap,” she said in her video. “And before you get on my case about this, it’s not about the items being cheap, they could be very expensive, they would just still look cheap.”
She went on to share her list of things you should avoid adding to your home when renovating or updating it.
Slab doors
The first thing on her list is slab doors, which are standard plain doors that are usually painted in one colour and lack any other details.
“A slab door is just a door with no detail to it at all, especially if it’s like cheap material,” she said, before saying they often make your whole home look cheap.
She said: “Terrible. Cheap, institutional, nasty high school vibe. No.”
Lever door handles
“I have a personal vendetta against lever door handles,” she said for her second point. “I think they very rarely look nice.”
Instead she urged people to look for other alternative door handles, with door knobs being her favourite.
“It needs to be a door knob, preferably oval if I’m being really specific,” she recommended “But a lever handle, especially in like chrome – a hatred of mine.”
Thin curtains
“I’d rather you have no curtains than thin curtains, okay,” she said.
She went on to explain that what she meant by thin curtains are curtains that are not porperly lined or interlined.
“So it’s not, like, heavy and voluptuous. It’s just kind of like thin and saggy. You don’t want that,” she said.
‘Bad’ light switches
“Bad light switches – devastating. You don’t want those, get them away from you,” she said.
While ‘bad’ light switches may be subjective, Carina specifically the standard white, plastic light switches that can be found in most homes.
“Like plasticky, they make a bad noise when you click click them, they have like crispy paint on the edges. Don’t do it,” she urged her viewers.
Light switches too high on the wall
Next up, Carina urged you to think twice before you decide on where on the wall you want your light switch, as making the wrong decision could also make your home look cheaper.
“A sister complaint to this is that light switches that are too high up on the wall always look like they’re in an institution,” she argued.
Metal tile edges in bathrooms
For her final point, she urged people to pay extra attention to the showers they’re picking for their homes, as one small detail could cheapen the overall look.
“Final hatred of mine, the metal tile edges that you kind of see on the edge of cheap showers and like bad hotels, or when the builder hasn’t really explained to you and they stick one in anyway. Truly foul. Truly cheap and shortly looking. Do not do this,” she said.