Rules for the roost

When you were younger and first learning how to dress yourself, your mom undoubtedly helped you figure out how to button a button or tie a shoe along with providing fashion advice such as to avoid mixing stripes and polka dots, how certain colors go together or that you should only wear white between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Decorating your home is not much different. Home fashion has its own set of rules and its own mom, of sorts: the interior designer.

Although there is no home fashion police that will arrest you for breaking the rules, Linda Hoak, a design consultant for Ethan Allen, said good design is essential to making you feel good in your environment.

"That's one of the reasons why I love design so much -- the psychology of it."

Her co-worker Christa Daniel, a service specialist and design consultant, said that often even the homeowner doesn't know why he or she feels a certain way when entering a room. "It's subliminal. Good design can create a relaxing or energizing environment."

So, what are some common mistakes people make when decorating their homes and what advice does "Mom the Designer" have?

First, and, most importantly, consult an expert, says Hoak and Linda Abell of LA Design Ltd. in Henderson.

Places such as Ethan Allen offer free designer services to their clients and consultant fees for independent interior designers are relatively minor when compared to the cost of having to redo a room.

"People can avoid making design mistakes by carefully thinking out the space and how it will be used -- how they want it to live and what message they want to convey to their family members and guests," Hoak said.

Abell said once you figure out your theme, color scheme or style, things you enjoy the most, then it's easier to make decorating decisions.

"That's were a designer comes in -- to steer you," she said. "We're here to help you figure out what you need."

Among the common mistakes they often see are improper placement of furniture or furniture that is inappropriately scaled for the size of a room, too many flooring surfaces within a home, poor lighting and misuse or lack of color.

"For me, personally, one of the most glaring common mistakes is when I go into a room and the pieces are misplaced," Hoak said.

Pieces must be placed to allow for good traffic flow through the space and from one room to another, she said.

Good flow refers not just to being able to move physically in the room, but that the entire home has the same feel, personality and color scheme.

"A home will not flow if the carpet is a different color in each room," said Laura Franklin, design center manager for Ethan Allen's showroom at the Las Vegas Design Center.

Daniel agreed, saying there needs to be a sense of continuity. "You can make a really big home feel chopped up if there are too many different types of flooring."

The same is true if too many colors are used, Abell said. She recommends picking a few colors and varying the percentage of use in each room to create different looks. For example, a Tuscan home done in deep red, dark green and gold can play up the red shade in a girl's room or the green in a boy's room and use the other two colors just for accents.

Going hand in hand with proper placement and flow is the appropriate scale.

Abell said people who move to Las Vegas from Eastern cities have an especially hard time with scale and spatial arrangements.

"In the East homes are tighter; they have lower ceilings. We're more modern and open here."

So when they bring their Colonial-style furnishings to Las Vegas, they are dwarfed by the rooms' size. As a result, they go furniture shopping and end up buying something that is too big, she said.

"Furniture stores here have no ceilings so everything in them looks smaller than it is."

The best way to avoid buying furniture that is the wrong sale is to "measure, measure, measure," Abell said.

"One of the things that is glaring to me is pictures. The number one mistake people make with pictures is hanging them too high," Franklin said.

Other problems include hanging pictures that are improperly scaled for the room's size or staggering them when they are not on a staircase and the placement doesn't make sense.

Franklin also sees the overuse of accessories as a common mistake. "We have to learn how to edit ourselves. Just like Coco Chanel said, when you go out the door take two things off. You have to constantly edit your space or it becomes too much."

When there are too many accessories in a room, you can't see the beauty of individual items, Daniel added.

Having one large decorative accessory also is more dramatic and a popular decorating trend, Franklin said.

Although it seems to contradict her previous thought about accessories, Franklin said people need to allocate about 25 percent of their decorating budget for accessories. They key is selecting the right type of accessories. Area rugs, lighting, art and accents for the table are all accessories and most people tend to think of accessories only as "tchotchkes on a ledge."

"People forget about lighting," she said.

Or use it improperly, Hoak added. "Lighting is everything."

Hoak recommends putting lights on dimmers to help control and modify light according to the mood or purpose.

Abell said lighting is a good place to invest your decorating dollars. "Switch out the builders' specials," she said. "It makes your house special and distinguishes it from all the others on the block."

And when considering light in a room, Abell said you shouldn't forget window coverings. Most people improperly size their window treatments, getting them too short or putting on too much for the window's size, she said.

"There are tricks to hide and fix what you have. That's where the trained eye comes in.

"Just ask for help. Get a game plan and go from there. You can do as much or as little as you want."