7 decorating rules you should always break according to interior designer Abigail Ahern
Interior designer Abigail Ahern has been sharing little nuggets of advice that break the 'rules' of interior design – and it's something we can all take notes from. If lockdown has taught us one thing, it's highlighted all the changes we've wanted to make in the home, and now more than ever is the time to be bold, fearless and confident when decorating to help us create a space that we love and one that truly reflects our personality.
Called AA's Musings, Abigail has been sharing design and style tips on Instagram that, quite literally, throws the rule book out the window. Abigail's tips ditch the 'boring' decorating rules that are 'restrictive and zap creativity', instead championing asymmetry over symmetry and using big furniture in small spaces.
Abigail – who runs her own design boutique, has an interiors collection at Debenhams, and more recently a kitchen range with Herringbone Kitchens – is known for her cleverly curated collections, famous faux flowers, and signature dark, inky colour palettes.
'Here's to decorating differently,' says Abigail. Take a look at her rule-breaking interior design tips below...
1. Go WildAbigail's tip: 'Make wild statements. Play with scale, supersize something, anything! Botanicals, art, chandeliers, cushions. It will give your room so much extra dimension.'
2. Mix MetalsAbigail's tip: 'Go on, mix metals. Yes you can! To avoid things feeling super overwhelming, choose a couple of metals and repeat throughout.'
Use antique brass, bronze and warm gold as a starting point. 'The trick is to make the mixing look deliberate not random,' says Abigail.
3. Asymmetry Over SymmetryAbigail's tip: 'Ditch symmetry. Odd numbered groupings always look cooler. Artwork and mirrors off centre draw the eye around a room and makes it work harder. Ditch symmetry always, that way you get a more multi-dimensional lively space.'
Abigail explains: 'It's too easy, everyone does it and it takes zero skill and looks super monotonous. Instead think about asymmetry, it feels far more relaxed, causal and with no mirroring or duplication so much cooler. Just make sure colours, textures and shapes relate.'
4. Choose Big Furniture For Small SpacesAbigail's tip: 'Use big furniture in small spaces. Always. Small spaces with small furniture make a room actually feel even smaller. One or two larger pieces will anchor and tantalise.'
Abigail says using small furniture in small rooms is what 'people get most wrong,' explaining: 'When you add something large magic happens. Rooms automatically look grander, bigger and so much cooler. Promise!'
5. Go For Dark Colours In Small SpacesAbigail's tip: 'Ditch pale colours in small spaces. They don't make rooms look bigger, EVER. They just make them feel more static and so much smaller due to the way the light interacts. Go dark I say, that way you get way more shadow and mystery, atmosphere and depth.'
6. Decorate With Blue and GreenAbigail's tip: 'Yes you can use blue and green together. Mother nature does and its time we ditched this boring rule of blue and green never being seen and embrace!'
7. Ditch Matching DecorAbigail's tip: 'Forget matchy-matchy decor. Far too boring, mix old with new, prints with patterns, boho with mod, fancy with friendly, grit with glam, cool with warm. Just remember to keep the colour palette restrained then mix away.'
Follow @abigailahern on Instagram for more decorating tips and inspiration.
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Olivia Heath Digital Editor, House Beautiful UK Olivia Heath is the Digital Editor at House Beautiful UK, uncovering tomorrow's biggest home trends all while delivering stylish room inspiration, small space solutions, easy garden ideas and house tours of the hottest properties on the market.This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
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