Decorating mistakes I’ve made (and will now admit to)

Here for all to read

Admitting when you’re wrong…I’ve been trying to come up with a comparison to sum up how that feels. Perhaps a bit like a trip to the dentist – you know you should but it’s not the most pleasant, you don’t look forward to it, but once you’ve been you usually do feel better that it’s over and done.

You see, what I’ve learned is that holding your hands up to a mistake takes courage and, for me at least, it also means ignoring my incredibly stubborn streak’s attempt to silence me. Funnily enough, I’m probably more comfortable with admitting I’m wrong in a workplace environment than in my personal life. Especially when it comes to my decorating forays and grand ideas for room transformations.

So with courage comes growth and here I am, in black and white, admitting to the decorating mistakes I have made, what I’ve learned from each of them (mostly to never do it again) and why they happened in the first place. Whether someone was right or in fact told me so shall remain undiscussed – it’s better that way for all involved.

Probably the most probed décor mishap was my most recent one. Somewhat annoyingly, it’s still being brought up in conversation whenever the topic of my newly decorated downstairs loo crops up (huge eye roll from me). Here was my vision: tiny room, big impact. Complete with very dark, almost black walls, a patterned floor, sage green accents and touches of natural wood and faux foliage that would ‘thrive’ in the windowless room. Oh and I wanted the ceiling painted dark too, in the same almost black shade. The space before was beige on beige on beige so it was to be quite the difference. I’d decided that I’d take on the decorating as a ‘maternity leave project’ (pah!) so as soon as naps happened, the paint brushes were out and I was in. I knew almost instantly as I put the first bit of dark paint onto the ceiling that it wasn’t right. But of course I kept going. ‘It’s just because it’s so different to the beige’ I told myself, ‘it’ll look so dramatic when it’s a double coat’, ‘once the rest of the space is done it’ll look just like that Pinterest picture’, ‘it simply needs better lighting’... You get the idea. I made it to one thin coat, stepped away with some unease to let it dry and kept peeping in to see if my vision had been ‘the one’ all along. It wasn’t. It made the small room look like a dodgy nightclub toilet – dingy and not somewhere to linger. Begrudgingly, I backtracked and admitted defeat. Five, yes FIVE, coats of trade white later, I was back to where I started. 

My next faux pas is grounded in my general impatience when it comes to decorating, despite my usual list-making, diary-keeping, organised persona (typical Virgo). For some reason, when it comes to house projects, big or small, I just don’t have the time in me to spend properly prepping, even though I know it’s the most important step. Gosh, I’ve advised so many homeowners of this through features, Q&As and podcasts over the years, but loathe am I to take my own advice – to my detriment, clearly. Spray painting might well be the impatient person’s vice, now I’m thinking about it. Great for a quick update – I’ve done pots, a lamp base, vases, handles and the like, and my bathroom radiator. Bish, bash, bosh, right? As well as overhauled homeware, I have stains on my patio, the lawn wasn’t meant to turn patchwork black and green, and there are definitely a few tops speckled with a fine spray that won’t wash out. When I took the paint can to my bathroom radiator, I covered the room in bin bags stuck together with masking tape (I improvised). But the spray still got through, the little blighter. Cue a deep clean of the floor and a recoat of the skirting board. Not my finest moment. Did it teach me patience?

Not exactly. You see, I upcycled some wooden shelves and skipped the sugar soaping and rough sanding step. What should have been a quick two coats to transformation success was more of a three coats plus some touch ups once in situ. What’s that saying? Fail to prepare, prepare to fail…? Quite. 

Painting aside (maybe I should pack up the paint brushes? Or just read the instructions), my final admission concerns my bed. Or rather what was my bed and has now been sent off to the spare bedroom as a guest bed. It’s comfy enough and all in all a good bed, but it’s giant. When I bought it, I wanted a big upholstered headboard that would be nice to lean on when sitting up to read or when lounging on weekend lie-ins (you can laugh, my weekends now begin at 6am!). It served its purpose very well, ticking the comfort and stand-out style boxes, but the headboard is so large that it’s turned into a bit of a hindrance. There’s only one wall in the main bedroom where it fits and it’s not the best place for the bed in terms of room layout. The best spot for the bed is actually under a window, which this headboard would block almost half of if it were cited there (hence it’s move to the spare room). When we moved into our previous rented house, a small cottage, it *just* squeezed up the stairs, with a good deal of squishing. And you know, I did the due diligence and measured up before I bought it for the house before the cottage, but what I didn’t think of was the practicality of making such a big bed work in more than just one property. So if you’re renting or planning a move, think longevity. Lesson learned. 

In the grand scheme of things, my decorating mistakes have all been relatively minor (if annoying) with easy, cost-effective fixes that simply take time (probably the time I should have put in in the first place, I know), but I’m admitting to them nonetheless. Whether I’ll gain some decorating patience as a result remains to be seen. There’s still lots of work to be done in the house so we shall most definitely see. 

In the spirit of admitting when you’re wrong, do you have any decorating mistakes to share?