I can tell in 5 minutes why a room doesn’t feel right – here’s what I look for

Home decorator and content creator Grace H is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on colourful home design, mixing vintage pieces with new and making personality-filled spaces. See the rest of her articles here.

I’m asked for advice all the time about why a room isn’t working. I can’t, for the life of me, use an electric saw (yet!), but to borrow the words of Liam Neeson, what I do have is a particular set of skills. Skills I’ve acquired over a very long career. And that particular skill is being able to walk into a room and, usually within five minutes, work out why it isn’t quite working.

It’s not a superpower, and I don’t think there’s one magic formula for a good room (I wish there was). I just start looking at the things that are competing for my attention: the light, the proportions, the furniture, the empty spaces and, perhaps most importantly, whether the room actually feels like the person who lives there.

We’re all bombarded with dreamy homes online and gorgeous colour pairings that make us want to immediately reach for the paintbrush. But a copy-and-paste approach rarely feels authentic. A room can look beautiful and still feel completely wrong for you.

So, before you redecorate, buy a new sofa or convince yourself that the answer is another cushion, here are the six things I’d check first.

1. The room feels flat → check the lighting

As much as I love an excuse to buy a new lamp, I’m not suggesting you simply add more and hope for the best. Instead, look at where the light is coming from. Is everything illuminated by one ceiling light? Are there dark corners? Is the bulb so cold that it feels vaguely reminiscent of a spacecraft? Could moving a lamp completely change the atmosphere?

Think about layering your lighting so that it comes from different levels. A big light and one lamp in the corner isn’t going to cut the mustard. Wall lights, lamps on shelves, lamps on side tables flanking a sofa, small lamps on a coffee table - you catch my drift.

I also feel like I don’t see enough floor lamps in homes (including my own). A comfy chair with a floor lamp beside it instantly creates a little cosy moment and makes a room feel more considered. Add a small side table to perch a drink on and the space is given purpose and is instantly inviting

And I’m not a fan of a floor lamp being one texture from top to bottom either. Mix a gorgeous wooden base with an oversized pleated shade in a fun print and I’d be surprised if it didn’t look ten times better.

The point is, lighting should create pockets of atmosphere, not simply make sure you can see.

2. Everything feels a bit… disconnected → look at the scale

I’ve spoken about my disdain for a tiny rug floating underneath a large sofa before, but scale is one of the easiest things to overlook when a room doesn’t feel quite right.

The same applies to tiny artwork above a substantial piece of furniture, or furniture where everything is roughly the same height. It can make a room feel oddly flat and disjointed.

Think about what you see at eye level and then play around with different heights and proportions. Add a taller side table, a lower coffee table, an oversized lamp next to a smaller piece of furniture or a large piece of art above your sofa. You want the eye to move around the room rather than everything sitting on the same visual plane.

I know things like lampshades, rugs and artwork get more expensive as you size up, and it can be tempting to think, is it really worth paying extra for the bigger one?

In my honest opinion: yes. Yes, it is. A rug in the right size will out trump even the most beautifully crafted smaller rug.

3. It looks nice, but feels soulless → there’s probably nothing personal

A room can have beautiful furniture, interesting colours and all the right accessories, but if everything looks as though it could have been bought from the same shop on the same afternoon, it can still feel strangely soulless.

My favourite eclectic homes tell a story so add books that are well-loved, photographs that capture a moment in time, odd objects that you simply had to have even though you don’t really know why, artwork that you kept coming back to before finally buying it, holiday finds and second-hand pieces.

In other words, things that tell you who lives there.

I get plenty of messages from people online who like to tell me that they don’t like something in my home. Good. That’s the point. My home is for me and we don’t all have to like the same things. In fact, I’d much rather walk into a home and wonder “What on earth is that?” than walk into one where everything is perfectly coordinated.

4. There’s too much going on → find the visual resting place

This may come as a surprise to colour lovers everywhere, but the solution isn’t necessarily adding more and more colour and pattern (I know. Who even am I?).

The eye needs somewhere to rest. That might be a plain wall, a quieter piece of furniture, empty floor space or simply a bit of editing when it comes to accessories.

For example, I often use plain white bedding, which surprises people, but I love that it feels calming and provides a brilliant backdrop for patterned cushions and throws. I also have walls where I could, in theory, add more art, but I deliberately leave them alone. I want my home to feel considered rather than chaotic.

Having something empty isn’t the same as having something unfinished. Sometimes the space you leave alone is what makes everything around it work harder.

5. It feels smaller than it should → look at the floor

This one comes down to rugs, furniture placement and negative space.

I will always stand by the fact that a rug that’s too small can actually make a room feel smaller. When it’s floating in the middle of the room, the furniture can look as though it belongs to several separate zones rather than one cohesive space.

I also often see sofas pushed right up against the wall. Presumably, the thinking is that if you can see more floor, the room will appear bigger? Incorrect. Having a little space to walk around furniture can actually give the illusion of more space. It allows the room to breathe rather than making everything feel squeezed around the perimeter.

Because of the door placement in our living room, we annoyingly can’t move our sofas in as much as I’d like. What we have done is add a slim console behind one of the sofas, giving us another surface for lamps, photographs, flowers and other bits and pieces. And I swear it makes the space feel bigger.

Sometimes you don’t need more floor space. You just need to make better use of the floor you have.

6. Something feels “off” but you can’t work out what → photograph it

This sounds silly but take a photograph of the room rather than relying solely on your eye.

Ideally, I want to create little vignettes throughout a room - moments that look good individually but also work together as a whole. So, stand back, get your phone out and take a snap. Suddenly, you might notice that the artwork is too high, one side of the room is visually heavier, the curtains aren’t quite right, or the furniture arrangement feels awkward.

Yes, I take pictures of my home for a living, but it still amazes me how much difference a tiny tweak in placement can make when you see a room as a photograph rather than standing inside it.

It’s worth a try and it’s considerably cheaper than buying a new sofa!

The five-minute room test

So, before you start shopping, painting or moving every piece of furniture you own, spend five minutes looking at the room and ask yourself the following questions…

• What is the first thing my eye lands on?
• Where does my eye go next?
• Is there enough light at different levels?
• Does the furniture actually work for the way we use the room?
• Is everything the same visual volume?
• Is there anything personal or unexpected here?
• What feels too busy?
• What feels too empty?
• And finally: Is the problem actually the room – or is it just one thing in it?

More often than not, a room that doesn’t feel quite right doesn’t need a complete overhaul. It just needs you to stop, have a proper look and work out what’s actually bothering you.

So, diagnose before you decorate. You might find it doesn’t need changing at all – it just needs looking at differently, or perhaps just a quick switch around.