Top Interior Designer Los Angeles: List of Top Design Tips

Here are a few more thoughts from my “pet-peeves” list:

-Have you ever been in a powder room or guest bath and not been able to find the things you need. Think a hand towel; the waste can; fresh tissue; soap…etc. I hate when my host thinks that discretion (i.e. hiding all the things their guests might need) is helpful.

Think about your guest standing in the middle of your powder room with freshly washed hands dripping on your lovely hardwood floors while they play Sherlock trying to find where you’ve hidden the hand towels.

Do us all a favor, pretend you’ve never been in your home before and now navigate through the simplest of tasks.

For instance, how easy is it to find the waste can that you’ve cleverly hidden behind one of the three cabinet doors? This is not the Price Is Right. This is me standing with a used guest towel (which I may have rummaged through drawers to find) wondering if I should just chuck it behind the toilet and risk its discovery by the next guest.

At this thought, my mother’s voice channels through air vents and threatens. Do us all a favor and consider your guests to be the simpletons that most of us are. Make our bumbling and stumbling as simple as possible. We’ll enjoy ourselves more and you will have better guests in your home.

-Accent walls. Why would you want an accent wall? What has that wall done which suggests even in the slightest way that it deserves added attention? An accent (Something that accentuates or contrasts something else…..thank you Websters) indicates that special attention should be given or paid. Is that wall really worth it? What special feature, decorative highlight or architectural wonder are your drawing attention too? Please make it worth the effort or pass on the accent.

-Blank Ceilings. How many times is the sixth plane in a room ignored? It always seems odd to me that people will fret and worry over hundreds of little fussy details in a room while ignoring completely 1/6th of the room itself.

Fine if you decide to leave the ceiling white, but make the decision consciously don’t just ignore the ceiling. Paint, paper, fabric, paneling, plaster details……the list is long of options available to bring life and energy to that big canvas overhead. So at least think about it.