When I started out in interior design, I quickly realised that practical, down-to-earth advice was hard to come by. You can create stunning moodboards and floorplans, but making those ideas work in real homes, with unpredictable light, daily wear, and actual living, requires a different set of skills.
Over the years, I’ve learned valuable lessons through projects that didn’t go quite as planned. So in this blog I have condensed my top 5 interior design tips that I wish I’d known much earlier.
Each tip comes from experience, projects where things didn’t quite go to plan, or where a client asked a question I hadn’t thought to consider. Over time, these became part of our studio’s process.
HERE ARE MY TOP 5 FIVE OF THE MOST VALUABLE INTERIOR DESIGN TIPS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE STARTING OUT:
1. Get Furniture Spacing Right from the Start
One of the most crucial, and often overlooked, interior design tips is mastering the precise spacing between furniture pieces, beyond just fitting the right dimensions on a floorplan.
It’s about how people physically interact with the space. For example, when selecting bar stools, allow for a comfortable gap of 20 to 24 cm between the seat and the worktop edge. This clearance ensures ease of movement without awkward squeezing or banging knees.
Similarly, for desks and chairs, the height relationship matters more than you’d expect. You need to account for drawer clearance under the desk and adequate legroom, usually around 25 to 30 cm between the seat and desk underside. Without this, chairs can’t be pushed in properly or may cause discomfort during use.
In the Sophie Paterson studio, after we finish our layout plans and before we order any key furniture, we do a site visit to mock up layouts using masking tape, boxes, or foamboard cutouts on the floor. This physical step prevents costly errors and ensures a space feels balanced, functional, and comfortable long before installation.
2. Don’t Rely Solely on Manufacturer Guidance for Fabrics
Choosing the right fabric can make or break a design, but many overlook how essential it is to test fabrics personally rather than relying on manufacturer claims. This is a critical interior design tip that separates professional results from guesswork.
Before you make a final decision, always test fabrics to ensure durability, especially for upholstery in high-traffic areas like living rooms or entrance halls.
Rub Test: Check that the fabric has passed a minimum of 25,000 rub cycles (Martindale test) for everyday use. For pieces that will endure heavy wear, such as sofas or hallway seating, opt for fabrics rated at 40,000 rubs or more.
Real-World Testing: Go beyond specs and perform your own hands-on tests. Rub the fabric with sharp items like rings or jewelry to check for snagging. Test its resistance to friction from bags, and assess how it handles pet fur or denim transfer, which can stain or cling. Try applying common household substances like coffee or makeup to see how it cleans and recovers.
At the Sophie Paterson studio, we scrunch curtain fabrics to observe crease retention and evaluate how upholstery fabrics stand up to simulated daily wear and tear. This ensures our selections not only look stunning but hold up gracefully over time.
These practical fabric tests are a must-have interior design tip for anyone aiming for luxury design that’s built to last.
3. Lighting Plans Need More Than Just Style
Lighting often gets treated as an afterthought or purely decorative, but here’s one of the most impactful interior design tips: successful lighting requires technical precision as much as style. The right light can transform a space; the wrong light can make it uncomfortable or impractical.
Layer Your Lighting: Combine multiple light sources to achieve both practical illumination and mood. Use overhead lights for general brightness, task lighting, such as under-cabinet LEDs or wall sconces, for focused activities, and softer accents like table lamps or pendants to add warmth and texture.
Create Your Lighting Plan: Sketch out a lighting layout for your space marking table lamps, wall lights, downlights, and any accent lighting. Use colour-coding to differentiate light types and ensure your plan balances illumination evenly while emphasising architectural highlights.
This approach to lighting design is an expert interior design tip that transforms a simple room into a layered, luxurious experience, one of many advanced strategies covered in the Sophie Paterson Academy.
4. Allow Enough Pocket Depth for Window Treatments
Curtains seem straightforward until you run into issues with fabric catching or an awkward stack when drawn back. One of the most overlooked interior design tips for window treatments is ensuring the correct pocket depth for your curtain tracks and poles.
If you’re layering sheer and blackout curtains, these should be mounted on separate tracks with enough clearance, typically 10 to 15 cm apart, to prevent fabric interference and allow each to operate smoothly. Heavy drapery fabrics require robust fixings, ideally drilled into a structural lintel rather than just plasterboard, to support their weight without sagging or damage.
Pocket depth also impacts how curtains stack when open. Allow for fullness and projection, usually 1.5 to 2 times the width of the window, to ensure curtains fall naturally and elegantly. Neglecting these details results in frustrated clients with curtains that don’t function as beautifully as they look.
In the Academy, we break down precise measurement techniques and material choices to help you nail this critical yet rarely discussed element of luxury design.
5. Plan Access Routes, Not Just Floorplans
Even the most meticulous floorplan can fail if you don’t consider how furniture physically moves through the home. One of the most practical interior design tips is measuring every access point, hallways, stairwells, door widths and plotting the furniture’s path before committing to purchases.
For example, a stunning headboard might be the perfect size for a bedroom but won’t fit through a narrow doorway or around tight corners. Similarly, bulky sofas may need to pivot through stairwells or hallways, which requires precise measurements and sometimes alternative delivery solutions.
In our process, we map out every route on site and simulate turns with templates or taped outlines. This foresight prevents costly returns or awkward compromises, and it’s an essential part of delivering a seamless, professional interior design experience.
Why These Interior Design Tips Matter
There’s a big gap between interior design as it looks in magazines, and how it works in real homes. These interior design tips aren’t glamorous, but they are game-changers. They’re what elevate a good design to a great one.
And that’s exactly why we built them into the Sophie Paterson Academy course. Whether you’re a homeowner working on your own property or an aspiring interior designer, these practical insights are what will give you confidence, clarity, and control over your design decisions.
This is what I wish I’d had access to when I started out – and now it’s yours.
Ready to learn all the things you won’t find in a textbook?
Enrol in The Sophie Paterson Academy HERE.
These are just five of the 50+ lessons we cover in depth, with visuals, templates, and real-life examples from my studio.
If you want to learn more about my biggest lessons & advice I recommend you watch this video here: How I became an interior designer- my biggest lessons & advice if you want to be a designer.
For more inspiration, visit our website and explore our portfolio to see how we’ve brought individuality and character to each of our clients’ homes through thoughtful, personalised design.
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