This week, the girls on TheNest.com boards were trading stories about their worst design and renovation disasters. Most centered around rushing: rushing to buy furniture rather than waiting to find the perfect pieces, rushing to chose a paint color -- then realizing that nothing matches nausea-green, rushing to decorate a room around a specific item, then admitting you don’t really like that item. I get it. When it comes to a renovation, so many things are about timing. Jack and I have been renovating our house upstate for what feels like forever, so the word rushing does not spring to mind when I consider our progress. Words like “snail” and “glacial” come closer to capturing it. But even we’ve had to make decisions based on, "OMG, the electrician is coming Wednesday, we have to choose all the lighting in the next 15 minutes."
So here's my worst decor/renovation mistake to date: For the kitchen flooring, I chose (actually insisted on) wide, painted boards with a beveled edge. The wide board element is great -- it's a historic home and both the width and the paint are accurate. The beveled edge, however, is probably the dumbest thing ever manufactured. It's essentially a dirt ditch impervious to mops, vacuums, and all manner of Swiffer. I can't believe that did not occur to me as I force-rushed the installation of the floor. (Cue eye roll.) It was an idiotic decision that I absolutely regret.
Now you. What was your worst mistake?