There is nothing better than bringing the keys into a beautiful old home and enjoying it to meet your taste and personality. But every house also comes with a personality. Think about how your changes affect the character of the house before making irreversible or expensive design decisions.
We have asked three Mediterranean designers to share the most common decorative errors that they encounter, which completely erase the personality of a house. Avoid these faux pas if you want to be a good administrator of your home and honor what makes it unique.
- Colleen Bennett is the owner of the CBB design company in Morganton, North Carolina.
- Sara McDaniel offers design and renovation consultations about her company based in Louisiana, simply Southern Cottage, and sells curated household goods in her newly opened boutique, purvéy.
- Michael Mitchell heads his own interior designer in Charleston, South Carolina,
Paint everything knows
Design by Michael Mitchell; Styling by Andrew C. Thomas; Photo by Tori Sikkema
When you first move to a home, selecting colors can feel intimidating and overwhelming for every room. Therefore, it is tempting to create an empty canvas to paint the walls, the ceiling and the safe -neutral. According to designer Michael Mitchell, this is a lazy design and leads to a missed opportunity to honor the original era of the house by color.
“In bright white to overwhelm, there is a way to kill the character of a house,” he says. “Play with color and be brave.”
If you want a bright and airy look, Mitchell suggests to infuse into the rooms with additional lights, fabric lamps and table lamps.
Paint original wood work
Similarly, but more precisely, but more precisely, the design and renovation expert Sara McDaniel from the Simply Southern Cottage about painting via original wood is taken into account as a pure travesty.
“During the design and renovation of historical houses, the greatest thing I see that the people do, which ruins the original, unique feature of a house, is the painting of beautiful woodwork,” she says. “When I renovated a Victorian house from 1905, we found that the house had extremely rare, knotted pine work, including a breathtaking staircase in the foyer. It would be devastating to cover this woodwork. The rarity and history would have been lost forever.”
If you are worried that your home with stained woodwork looks too traditional, you can compensate for it by mixing modern pieces. The coexistence of styles will make a breathtaking design statement.
Completely ignore his architectural style
If you buy a house with a very unique and defined architectural style, says designer Colleen Bennett from CBB Design Firm that it is best to work with this style. In other words, she warns her customers, not “to fit a different style in a house that it doesn't want”.
It gives a great example. “The attempt to bring a coastal house to a modern house will not work,” she says. “A house doesn't want to be coasts when it is in the mountains.”
This does not mean that you cannot mix modern pieces into a historical home or contrasting styles, but it is important to anchor everything with decor that pays homage to the original style of the house.
Update all lights
If you inherit original lights when you buy your house, McDaniel says to make yourself happy. However, if you decide for the tear, designers will like to use your castoffs in a project.
“Original lights can be a missed opportunity for historical domestic renovation work,” says McDaniel. “I am not sure whether people know that they can re -wire and restore original lights.”
Replace original floors
Design by Michael Mitchell; Styling by Andrew C. Thomas; Photo by Tori Sikkema
Both McDaniel and Mitchell have to see the removal or coverage of original floors.
For McDaniel, it is sufficient for homeowners to destroy old tile to let their heart sink. “Most people cannot imagine how original tiles can fit into a modern design plan,” she says.
She recently renovated a villa around 1931 and made great efforts to save every single piece of original tiles to honor the work carried out by the craftsmen. She gave the room an updated look by earning a more modern color palette.
Mitchell particularly hates that a home loses its old hardwoods. “Often they only have to rework the character of the original flooring,” he says. “It is very difficult to get the same feeling on a new wooden floor.”