#4: Decorating Do’s & Don’ts From Designer Orlando Soria

Do Decide How the Room Should Feel

Before shopping for furniture, choose a few words that describe the atmosphere you want. Perhaps the room should feel warm, playful, relaxed, polished, dramatic, airy, or comfortably eclectic.

This emotional direction is more useful than forcing yourself to select one rigid decorating label. Most people do not live entirely inside “midcentury modern,” “traditional,” or “coastal” boxes. A homeowner may love the clean shape of a modern sofa, the character of an antique chest, colorful contemporary art, and a rug that looks as though it survived three generations and one extremely opinionated cat.

Create a Visual Reference

Collect 10 to 20 images of rooms you genuinely like. Then look for repeated elements:

• Are the walls light, dark, or colorful?
• Is the furniture tailored or casual?
• Do the rooms contain bold patterns or mostly solid fabrics?
• Are there natural woods, painted pieces, metal finishes, or vintage objects?
• Does the lighting feel bright and practical or soft and atmospheric?

The purpose is not to copy one photograph. It is to identify patterns in your own taste. Your inspiration board should function like a compass, not a court order.

Don’t Decorate for a Trend Label

A room should not feel obligated to prove that you understand the latest design vocabulary. Trends can provide inspiration, but they should not erase your preferences or the architectural character of your home.

If you love a fashionable object, use it. If you dislike it, allow it to continue living a happy life on someone else’s social media feed.

Do Start With an Anchor Piece

One of the hardest decorating questions is also the simplest: Where do you start?

Begin with an element that provides direction. That anchor might be a patterned rug, a large painting, a sofa you already own, a favorite textile, or an architectural feature such as a fireplace. Pull colors, textures, and shapes from that item to guide later decisions.

For example, imagine a vintage rug containing rust, faded blue, cream, and charcoal. Those colors immediately suggest several possibilities: a blue-gray sofa, cream curtains, black metal lighting, and rust-colored pillows. Suddenly, instead of staring helplessly at the entire internet, you have a manageable palette.

Make a Basic Room Plan

Before purchasing anything large, record the room’s dimensions and mark the locations of doors, windows, radiators, vents, and electrical outlets. Measure existing furniture as well.

Create a simple floor plan on graph paper or with a digital planning tool. Test different furniture arrangements while the sofa is still a rectangle on a screen and not a 200-pound object wedged emotionally and physically in your hallway.

Don’t Buy Everything at Once

Rooms usually feel more personal when they develop in stages. Buying a matching furniture collection may be convenient, but it can also produce a space with all the character of a catalog page.

Choose the necessary large pieces first. Live with them for a while. Then add lighting, side tables, textiles, art, and accessories as you understand what the room actually needs.

Do Mix Patterns With a Clear Hierarchy

Pattern mixing becomes intimidating when every print demands equal attention. The solution is not to avoid pattern. It is to give each pattern a different job.

A successful combination often includes:

• One large-scale pattern that establishes the mood
• One medium-scale pattern that supports it
• One smaller geometric or textured pattern that adds detail
• Several solid surfaces that allow the eye to rest

Suppose a living room has floral curtains with large green leaves. A narrow striped pillow could provide contrast, while a small dotted fabric on an ottoman adds another layer. The patterns are different, but a repeated green or neutral tone keeps them connected.

Repeat Color, Not Necessarily the Same Print

Patterns do not need to match perfectly. In fact, perfect matching often makes a room feel less sophisticated. Instead, repeat one or two colors across different fabrics.

A navy stripe, a botanical print with navy details, and an abstract rug containing navy can live together comfortably because the shared color creates continuity.

Don’t Use Three Competing Stars

A giant floral, an oversized plaid, and an enormous geometric print may each be wonderful. Placing all three in one small room, however, can create the decorative equivalent of three people delivering separate speeches through megaphones.

Let one pattern lead. The others should provide rhythm, texture, or contrast without trying to seize the microphone.

Do Mix Furniture Styles and Finishes

Soria’s interiors frequently demonstrate that furniture from different periods can coexist. A midcentury-inspired loveseat can work beside a Craftsman cabinet, contemporary side tables, and inherited objects when the pieces share compatible proportions, colors, or materials.

The secret is intentional contrast. A room containing dark wood furniture might benefit from a lacquered white table rather than yet another slightly different brown finish. A traditional room can feel fresher with a modern lamp. A sleek apartment can gain warmth from an old dresser or handmade pottery.

Mix Metals Thoughtfully

Chrome plumbing fixtures do not require chrome cabinet handles, chrome lighting, chrome frames, and a chrome dog bowl. Mixing brass, stainless steel, blackened metal, and chrome can create depth.

Use one finish as the dominant metal and another as an accent. Repeat each finish at least once so that the combination looks deliberate rather than accidental.

Don’t Force Every Wood Tone to Match

Natural wood varies. Trying to match every piece exactly can be frustrating and unnecessary. Instead, balance warm and cool tones around the room.

If several dark wood pieces are grouped on one wall, move one elsewhere and introduce something lighter nearby. Contrast is often more convincing than an almost-match that misses by just enough to be annoying.

Do Use Color With Confidence

Color can enter a room at several commitment levels. Accessories such as pillows, throws, vases, and artwork offer an easy starting point. A colorful chair, cabinet, or upholstered headboard makes a stronger statement. Paint and wallpaper can transform the entire atmosphere.

When choosing a strong wall color, consider a slightly less saturated version than the first dramatic swatch that catches your attention. A color viewed on a small sample can become much more intense when it covers four walls.

Always Test Paint in the Actual Room

Paint a large sample area or use movable sample boards. Observe the color in morning light, afternoon light, and artificial light at night. Flooring, vegetation outside the windows, upholstery, and nearby rooms can change how a color appears.

A sample that looks like an elegant gray in a store may become lavender at home. This is not the paint’s fault. It has simply chosen your living room as the location for its dramatic reveal.

Don’t Assume White Will Brighten Every Dark Room

White paint reflects available light; it does not manufacture sunlight. In a naturally dim room, a weak or cool white may appear dingy. Sometimes the better strategy is to embrace the limited light with a saturated blue, green, charcoal, or earthy tone.

Balance the deeper walls with warm woods, pale upholstery, mirrors, woven materials, layered lamps, and lighter artwork. The result can feel intentional and atmospheric instead of unsuccessfully bright.

Do Prioritize Function Before Styling

A beautiful room that is uncomfortable, difficult to navigate, or unable to store ordinary belongings is not finished. Good decorating begins with the activities the room must support.

Ask practical questions:

• How many people need comfortable seating?
• Where will drinks, books, and remote controls go?
• Can doors and drawers open fully?
• Is there a clear walking path?
• Does each reading or work area have suitable lighting?
• Where will toys, blankets, chargers, and daily clutter be stored?

Use Furniture in Unexpected Rooms

A dresser does not have to remain in a bedroom. It can become a dining-room storage piece, an entry console, a media cabinet, or a linen chest. Baskets can hide blankets, toys, exercise equipment, and the mysterious collection of cables nobody is brave enough to discard.

Repurposing existing furniture saves money and adds history. It also prevents the common mistake of replacing a useful piece simply because its original label says “bedroom.”

Don’t Block the Room’s Natural Flow

Furniture should not obstruct doorways or force people through a domestic obstacle course. Leave clear routes between entrances, seating groups, and frequently used storage.

In a large room, create zones for conversation, reading, television, work, or games. Rugs and lighting can define these areas without requiring walls.

Do Choose the Right Rug Scale

A rug helps organize furniture and visually grounds a room. When it is too small, the seating appears to float around it like strangers avoiding one another at a networking event.

In a living room, the rug should generally connect the main seating pieces. Depending on the layout, all furniture legs may sit on the rug, or at least the front legs of the sofa and chairs should rest on it.

If a favorite patterned rug is too small or too expensive in a larger size, layer it over a more affordable natural-fiber rug. The larger base establishes the seating area, while the smaller rug provides color and personality.

Don’t Choose a Rug Before Considering the Layout

Room dimensions alone do not determine rug size. Furniture placement matters just as much. Finalize the primary arrangement before ordering, and use painter’s tape to outline the proposed rug on the floor.

Do Layer Your Lighting

A ceiling fixture alone rarely creates a comfortable room. Effective lighting usually combines three categories:

• Ambient lighting: general illumination from ceiling fixtures or broad wall lighting
• Task lighting: focused light for reading, cooking, working, or grooming
• Accent lighting: decorative lamps, sconces, or picture lights that add mood and emphasis

A living room might include a pendant, a floor lamp beside a chair, a table lamp on a console, and a small light highlighting artwork. These separate sources create depth and allow the atmosphere to change throughout the day.

Don’t Treat Lighting as an Afterthought

Lighting affects how every color, texture, and object appears. Plan outlets and fixtures early, especially during a renovation. Select lamps that are appropriately scaled to the furniture around them.

A tiny lamp on a massive credenza looks nervous. A large sculptural lamp can become both a practical light source and one of the room’s strongest design elements.

Do Display Art and Objects That Mean Something

Personal items give a home identity. Family photographs, inherited objects, travel finds, handmade ceramics, books, children’s art, and work by independent artists can coexist with mass-market pieces.

Not every wall needs a generic quotation informing visitors that they should live, laugh, or love. Your guests probably arrived with those skills already installed.

Use fewer objects with greater visual or emotional value. Group accessories by color, material, or shape, and vary their heights. Leave open space around displays so individual pieces can be appreciated.

Don’t Overstyle Every Surface

A coffee table still needs room for a cup. A nightstand must accommodate a phone, book, or glass of water. A kitchen counter should support food preparation without requiring the daily relocation of a decorative forest.

Style should improve function, not repeatedly interrupt it.

A Practical Decorating Checklist

Before Shopping

• Define three words describing the desired feeling.
• Measure the room, furniture, windows, and doorways.
• Create a basic floor plan.
• Select an anchor piece or starting palette.
• List the room’s storage and lighting requirements.

While Shopping

• Carry dimensions and fabric or paint samples.
• Check return policies before buying large items.
• Avoid purchasing an entire matching collection.
• Compare each item with the room plan, not just with the sale price.
• Prioritize comfort and construction for frequently used furniture.

While Styling

• Repeat important colors in different parts of the room.
• Vary pattern scale and accessory height.
• Distribute dark, light, and visually heavy items evenly.
• Add plants, wood, woven materials, or pottery for texture.
• Remove one or two objects if the room begins to feel crowded.

The Most Important Orlando Soria Decorating Lesson

The strongest idea behind Orlando Soria’s decorating advice is that a beautiful home should be accessible and personal. Good design is not limited to wealthy clients, enormous renovations, or rooms furnished exclusively with expensive objects.

Thoughtful improvements can begin with moving furniture, repainting a wall, replacing harsh lighting, framing meaningful art, or reusing a dresser in a different room. The aim is not perfection. It is care.

Choose rooms that reflect the people living in them. Mix old and new. Use color when color makes you happy. Let practical storage be attractive. Break conventional rules when doing so creates a more useful or expressive result.

Your home does not need to impress every person who sees it online. It needs to welcome you when you walk through the door.

Real-World Experience: Applying the Do’s and Don’ts to an Awkward Living Room

Consider a common decorating experience: a homeowner has a long living room with one small window, an off-center fireplace, a gray sofa, a television, several inherited wood pieces, and a rug purchased years earlier for a much smaller apartment. Nothing is technically broken, yet the room feels incomplete.

The first instinct is often to replace everything. The sofa seems boring, the wood furniture does not match, and the walls appear too dark. A shopping list rapidly forms, accompanied by a budget that appears to have been calculated by someone who has recently won the lottery.

A more practical process begins by identifying the actual problems. The sofa is comfortable and appropriately sized, so it stays. The inherited dresser provides valuable storage, but its placement near another dark cabinet makes one side of the room visually heavy. The rug is attractive but too small. The single overhead fixture produces flat, unpleasant light. The walls are pale gray, but the room’s northern exposure makes them look cold rather than bright.

The desired feeling is defined as warm, collected, and relaxed. A vintage landscape painting becomes the anchor piece because it contains olive green, rust, warm cream, and muted blue. These colors work with the existing sofa and wood furniture.

Instead of replacing the rug, it is layered over a larger natural-fiber rug. The new base connects the sofa and two chairs, instantly making the seating area feel intentional. The inherited dresser moves to the opposite wall, where it becomes a media console. Its warm wood now balances the cabinet rather than competing with it.

The furniture is adjusted to create a clear walking route from the entry to the adjoining dining area. One chair is angled toward the sofa instead of being pressed flat against the wall. That small change turns the layout into a conversation area rather than a furniture lineup.

Pattern is introduced gradually. Curtains feature a medium-scale botanical design containing olive and blue. A rust-colored striped pillow adds a smaller pattern, while cream and charcoal pillows provide visual rest. Because the colors repeat, the patterns feel connected even though they are not identical.

The cold gray walls are tested against several warmer colors. Large sample boards reveal that a muted olive paint becomes rich during the day and cozy at night. The deeper color does not make the room feel smaller. Instead, it gives the previously weak architecture a deliberate mood.

Lighting provides the final transformation. A floor lamp is placed beside the reading chair, a ceramic table lamp sits on the dresser, and a small picture light highlights the landscape painting. In the evening, the homeowner no longer needs the overhead fixture unless searching for a lost contact lens or conducting a police interrogation.

The finished room contains new purchases, but not many: one large natural rug, curtains, several pillows, paint, and two lamps. The most significant improvements come from planning, rearranging, and reconsidering existing possessions.

This experience illustrates why decorating do’s and don’ts should not be treated as rigid commandments. The inherited furniture did not need to match. The small rug did not need to be discarded. The dim room did not need white walls. The layout did not require every piece to face the fireplace.

What the room needed was a clear emotional direction, better scale, repeated color, layered lighting, and permission to evolve. That combination produces the kind of interior Orlando Soria’s advice encourages: useful, expressive, imperfect, and unmistakably connected to the person who lives there.