Green skirting boards hidden behind the sofa and a rug to hide a multitude of sins...what's your guilty decorating secret?

We may be interior design experts, but behind every closed door is a decorating secret or two...

wallpaper on wall with sofa and cushion
(Image credit: TBC)

We've all done it - a secret decorating botch job to finish the work a little earlier and a little cheaper. But that's ok - fridges don't get moved and no one looks behind the curtains, right?

Here are just a few of our shameful decorating secrets that may make you feel a little better about your own blunders...

Ignoring the skirting board behind furniture

white walls books basket with white table

(Image credit: TBC)

Skirting boards are the bane of decorating - who has time to prime, paint and polish a piece of wood that no one really appreciates? It's completely acceptable to skip the bits of board that big pieces of furniture cover... right?

Buying a rug to hide a multitude of sins

bedroom with white wall white flooring teddy bear on bed with cushion

(Image credit: TBC)

Whether the floorboards don't match, there's a stain on the carpet or you're hiding patterned laminate flooring from the 80s, rugs hide a multitude of decorating sins. Who's ever going to suspect that your traditional heritage rug or fluffy shagpile is secretly hiding something?

Considering all tones of cream paint to be Magnolia

armchair white walls with lamp and white flooring

(Image credit: Future PLC/Polly Eltes)

Magnolia paint has been our saviour more times than we care to remember. Whether hiding some grubby fingerprints or covering some old holes, we have touched in any vaguely creamy, beigey, whitey wall in the sturdy colour.

Using glue as a solution to all sticking problems

glue in women hands with black crystal

(Image credit: TBC)

Glue should strictly be saved for arts and crafts, not sticking curtain tiebacks in place or securing the sill that broke on the backdoor. Yet we are all secret superglue culprits.

Masking the problem with a wall hanging

white walls star on wall black table with books

(Image credit: TBC)

Water stains, paint-tester patches, grubby marks and old switches - hanging a painting, mirror or piece of art will hide them all. Just as a temporary fix, you know, until you get round to it...

Covering a botch-job with a huge plant

white walls black flooring potted plant and pictures on wall

(Image credit: TBC)

Big planters are highly fashionable and add a little life to the room, but these aren't their only uses. Behind most overgrown pots and canopies of leaves is a dodgy socket, cracked tile or broken brick.

Are you guilty as charged?

Heather Young
Editor

Heather Young has been Ideal Home’s Editor since late 2020, and Editor-In-Chief since 2023. She is an interiors journalist and editor who’s been working for some of the UK’s leading interiors magazines for over 20 years, both in-house and as a freelancer.