By Kelsey Mulvey

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes," said Oscar Wilde. The interior designers we talked to would likely agree. Not only did they fumble earlier in their careers -- a dungeonlike living room here, a fast-aging trend there -- but their flubs proved instructive, paving the way to mastery. Luckily they're willing to let us learn, too, from their mistakes. Here, their hard-won wisdom.

Mistake

Christine Vroom fell fully for cement tile, whose elaborate motifs bewitched early-2000s design pros. "At one point, I was layering patterns, thinking it would create a bold, statement-making space," said the interior designer in Redondo Beach, Calif. "It did, but it also put a giant time stamp" on the rooms. "What once felt exciting quickly became overwhelming and dated."

Lesson

"I've learned to use trends sparingly -- maybe in a light fixture, a pillow, or an accessory -- but to anchor a space in elements that won't feel outdated in a few years," said Vroom.

Mistake

Painting her first apartment in Manhattan, designer Gabriela Gargano trusted a "tiny swatch card" to determine the color of her living room. "I thought I was getting a soft grayish white and ended up in a cinder-block jail cell," she said.

Lesson

Today Gargano requests that contractors paint samples on boards, or she uses Samplize. The online service sends you 9-inch-by-15-inch peel-and-stick sheets of colors by companies including Benjamin Moore and Farrow & Ball. "Both allow you to move the swatch around to make sure the color feels right on all the walls and at different times of the day," she said.

Mistake

When a client hired Cate Gutter to decorate a Georgian home that was "full of charm," the owner of CWG Design in Charlotte, N.C., chose an Arts and Crafts wallpaper for the powder room and tried to cut costs by taking the measurements herself. "I ended up majorly underestimating the amount of wallpaper needed, and there were some...let's call them 'pattern-repeat issues,' " she said.

Lesson

An installer managed to correct her wallpaper fumble, but Gutter has never again attempted to be a DIY hero. When necessary, call in the specialists.

Mistake

Early in her career, architect and interior designer Cathy Cherry was working on a traditional waterfront home in Annapolis, Md., where she is based. She thought she had found the ideal light for a windowless walk-in closet: a ceiling pendant with a linen fabric shade. Nope. "The fixture simply did not throw enough light to adequately light the space, " recalled the pro.

Lesson

"For an interior room without natural light," she said, "fixtures need to be clear glass with no dark or solid canopy."

Mistake

In 2023, Vicki Zagrodnik, a kitchen and bathroom designer in Madison, Wisc., installed glossy and glamorous black cabinets in a local client's kitchen. "I thought it would add a little drama and a unique touch," she said. "It was a disaster. Daily fingerprints, smudges, and dust made it impossible to keep clean."

Lesson

Don't let a trend blind you to practicalities.

Mistake

Though Hannah Goldberg loved Sherwin-Williams's Big Dipper color for a home office, the Washington, D.C., designer slicked only one wall with the moody blue-grey. Since the ceilings were low, she had feared making the room feel small, anxiously painting the rest of the walls a light creamy white and the trim and casing a light beige. Her favorite wall "ended up sticking out like a sore thumb."

Lesson

Commit to color. Likening Mr. Big's red accent wall to their relationship in an episode of "Sex and the City," Carrie Bradshaw ventured, "It's a good idea in theory, but somehow it doesn't quite work." The same holds true for halfhearted design decisions. In hindsight, Goldberg would have drenched the entire room in the dark hue.

Mistake

New York designer John Bambick accented his clients' mountain home with pillows sewn into cotton, straw-colored covers. A pretty choice -- until one of the owners' grandchildren got sick after a long day of skiing. "I received an urgent phone call asking how to remove the pillow covers," he said. He broke the bad news.

Lesson

While he likes the tailored look of a sewn-in insert, Bambick now kid-proofs decor when necessary. "Nothing is safe from children, so opt for an invisible zipper for pillow covers," he said.

Mistake

"I honestly don't know what I was thinking," said designer Kristin Harrison of a project in Bethesda, Md. She had found an orb-shaped chandelier so perfect it seemed created to hang in the home's hallway, which featured arches. But chagrin soon set in. It became clear the fixture, which "dropped about 30 inches from the ceiling," blocked a door from fully opening, recalled the founder of Georgia & Hunt Design House in McLean, Va. Embarrassed, Harrison offered to pay for the chandelier herself, but the clients loved it so much they shortened the door.

Lesson

Account for clearances. Doors need to open and close.

Mistake

When Chicago designer Dijana Savic-Jambert was seeking an elegant waterproof coating for the surfaces in a steam shower, she seized on lustrous tadelakt, a Moroccan plaster. But even if the material had been suitable for the Midwest's extreme cold and heat, the 100-year-old home was still settling. "Some micro fissures are to be expected and can be tolerated, but the cracks were going deeper and becoming wider," she said. "Then water can penetrate beyond the many layers of tadelakt."

Lesson

Understand the limitations of a material and of your home. Savic-Jambert pivoted to durable and stable Dekton material.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2025 15:00 ET (19:00 GMT)

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