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My Dumbest Decorating Decisions

by on May 13, 2014

Big Apple Futon Okay, so I just finished reading an article on Houzz by Fred Albert in which he confesses to his dumbest decorating decisions. Included are buying a too-big dining room table twice and dip-staining shingles. It’s a funny article with equally funny comments as his readers confessed to their disastrous decorating decisions too. (“Barney” purple and “Pepto-Bismol” pink are mentioned on more than one occasion.) Anyway, it got me to thinking about the dumb decorating decisions I’ve made over the years. So, here goes . . .my top dumbest decorating decisions:

1. Buying a sofa with a matching love seat.

We thought it was a great idea at the time, but after living with them for a couple of months, we realized if (but most likely “when”) we start to hate one, we’d start hating the other because, you know, they matched. Luckily we never got to that point because of dumb decorating decision #2.

2. Buying a sofa with a matching love seat in the wrong type of fabric.

Before we could even start to hate the sofa and love seat, an odd thing happened: all the seams on the cushions started to pull apart. We took one of the cushions back to the store where we bought them (a department store, not a furniture store, which might be considered a dumb decorating decision in and of itself) and asked WTF. They said that the fabric we chose was not suited for upholstery. Apparently, the salesperson we had when we originally ordered the furniture didn’t know anything about upholstery. The up side of this story is that the store replaced both pieces with a small up-charge. 

Work being done to the wooden frame of a aged chair.Country Living

3. Re-upholstering two side chairs, TWICE. 

The first time was bad enough, so I don’t know why we did it the second time. It’s not that they didn’t turn out okay. They did, but Sweetie Pie and I have never been closer to getting a divorce than when we were re-upholstering those effing chairs. After that, we made an agreement that we’d only re-upholster bench seats. 

4. A big, white, cotton, woven rug in living room.

It was too big and thick to wash in a washing machine, and spot cleaning it left water stains. Better than the fur ball stains that I was attempting to clean up, but still . . . stupid.

A white narrow bedroom desk with a small light on it below a row of clasps on a white piece of wood and a narrow white shelf and a brown wooden desk with six clipboards on the wall above it with pictures attached to the clipboards.DIY Maven 5. Painting my craft room blue.

Seriously, WTF was I thinking? Blue? I don’t mind blue, but on the walls in which I do my crafting, sewing and etc.?? The walls reflected back onto everything, so my color perception was compromised. AND it sucked up all the light that was in the room. (Ever wonder why artists paint their studios white?) And, yes, I blogged about both makeovers. The blue mistake here on Curbly and its white, minimal makeover on DIY Maven.

A green striped umbrella at the corner of a house next to a giant leaved light green bush.Chiot’s Run

6. Planting shade plants in the sun.

MAN was this dumb. When we first bought our house, we moved a ton of plants around. The previous owners had hostas everywhere, so when we re-did the landscape at the front south-southwest exposure of the house, we moved a bunch of hostas there. They looked beautiful–for about a week. And then they turned yellow. And then they turned translucent. And then we realized we did a very dumb thing. Now we’re hosta pros, but back then we were so impatient, we didn’t do any research about them and just assumed we could keep them alive with enough watering in a sunny location. Yeah, not so much.

So those are my top five. Now it’s your turn my dear Curbliers. What are your dumbest decorating decisions? 

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3 Comments

  1. I once bought a camel back sofa with queen anne legs (!!) in a navy blue and gold print fabric. Yes, it was as ugly as it sounds and the moment I laid eyes on it on pick up day I knew I hated it. Sad, because it was quite costly.
    Another time my significant other decided to “fix” the uneven walls of our old house by slathering on spackling and texturizing it. Worst. decision. ever.
    Third, and probably worst of all, wallpaper in the bathroom. Just don’t.

  2. Allowing myself to be talked into “faux” leather couch and loveseat with attached cushion backs. 

    The faux leather would retain heat and in the middle of winter would cause people to start sweating, not great to have wipe down your couches with a dry cloth almost five times a day. The attached cushion backs started to cave in and could not be plumped and tore too easily. 

    And they were a horrible brown color somewhere between toffee and baby poo…..terrible decision!