4 mistakes to avoid if you want your home to feel more spacious and liveable

Sometimes we do not realize that the choices we made over the years, or even those that were made when filling the house with the necessary furniture (by furnishing it from scratch, perhaps), can end up ruining the potential of the space we have decorated.

If a room is small in size, you need to find a way to make it seem more spacious, airy - a place to move freely without sacrificing comfort. And sometimes this goal is hampered by some short-sighted choices, which seemed good at the time, but turned out to be wrong in the long run. In fact, there are some furnishing errors that happen more often than others, such as those that we describe below:

Dark toned furniture

Dark furniture items are a tempting choice: beautiful, impressive and fascinating, especially when we see some perfectly beautiful examples - but they are also installations that one can get bored more easily. Regardless of the degree of appreciation we may develop for them, over time, dark walls, floors and furniture are possible choices only when the room is large and above all very bright - both thanks to an abundance of openings to the outside that lets in plenty of natural light during the day and which spreads thoroughout the room. Otherwise, dark colors are to be avoided.

And if you think you will sell or rent the house, it is almost certain that rooms with colors that are too dark will make potential buyers or tenants think twice.

Bulky TV cabinets

Modern taste is turning more and more towards having only a few functional elements in every room: agile and light lines, simple shapes and space-saving. So, the more voluminous or bulky structured wall units, drawers and furniture have an aged feel and are falling out of fashion. One of those that can now be ignored is undoubtedly one destined to hold the television. Nowadays TVs are flat screens, with dedicated feet or to be fixed directly to the wall (at most with special column support mounting), so they are enough to fill an entire wall, perhaps surrounded by speakers or sound bars, and nothing else - and certainly not needing a dedicated TV cabinet.

Heavy curtains and window frames

Heavy drapes are a bit like the dark colors discussed earlier: under certain conditions, they add a unique and elegant touch, but in most cases they diminish light and block the windows. Considering that the window is also the source of natural light, leaving it as free as possible is much better. OK to use curtains as tent-style coverings (or tie-backs), but it's better if they are not too bulky or showy. The same goes for the frames and cornices above and around the window, and the valances: the former can finish off an otherwise anonymous and sloppy frames; the latter can do the same too, but they work well only on very high and not excessively wide windows.

Consider if changing up any of these elements could modernize and make your home brighter and more spacious!