3 design mistakes you're making in each room of your house

• Robert Gigliotti and Ethan Gaskill went viral on TikTok for sharing their home decor "icks."

• They stressed the idea of working with your space's unique features, rather than against them.

• Gigliotti and Gaskill told BI that trendy, expensive furniture pieces are overrated, too.

The internet is full of interior design aesthetics — Scandinavian, Boho, Country House, Maximalist — each complete with its own set of experts and influencers explaining what must-haves you need to best accomplish the trend.

From quirky pastel candles and oblong mirrors to designer couches and industrial curtain rods, it's no wonder Americans spend an average of $1,599 on home decor annually, per a 2024 Opendoor survey.

But LA-based content creators Robert Gigliotti and Ethan Gaskill have taken a different approach to interior design influencing.

The friends and collaborators have garnered more than 3.5 million views on TikTok sharing their most disliked interior design and home decor trends in a series called "home decor icks."

Gigliotti and Gaskill are not designers but have self-taught eyes for design fostered by family experiences.

Gigliotti told Business Insider that his mother flipped houses while he was growing up in Connecticut and he became "tired of them all being builder gray," so he got involved in helping pick out tiles and other finishes.

Meanwhile, Gaskill was raised in North Carolina and drew inspiration from his father, a custom home builder, and his mother, a real-estate agent.

"My mom was always around the house and really ingrained in my brain the idea of keeping a tidy space and making sure your space is a kind of reflection of who you are, in the way that it sort of impacts your mind," he said.

Gigliotti and Gaskill said their opinions have resonated with audiences online partly because they're calling out mistakes they've made or seen themselves.

"It's all things that people kind of agree on or relate to in a way, that they can kind of laugh about," Gaskill said.

Gigliotti added, "The second anything becomes too serious, it's not fun anymore, so it's not like we would actually go in someone's home and be like, 'This is disgusting.' Honestly, it's amazing effort if you painted everything pink and did your statement wall of floral wallpaper. At least you're having fun. If you love it, we like it."

Business Insider spoke with Gigliotti and Gaskill to hear more about what they think you should avoid when decorating each room of your home, from "cringey" art prints and DIYs to overly curated shelving.

Let's start with the living room. You can skip the statement couch for something cheaper and more timeless.

Gigliotti told Business Insider he thinks trendy, statement couches are on their way out.

"I think a lot of people went in the last few years to those really funky bubble couches or the Togo sofas, like Mario Bellini. All those extravagant, huge, showcase piece sofas that aren't comfortable, are $12,000, or there's a lot of dupes that are just not good quality," he said.

Those intense pieces are hard to make work as you move from space to space and as time passes, meaning they could be a waste of money.

Gigliotti knows this from experience.

He, too, had the orange bubble sofa by Mario Bellini. "That was a lot of when I was letting social media — like I'm saying — determine, 'This is what's cool. I can't have a gray sofa. I can't have this. I have to have that really cool thing,'" Gigliotti said.

It was sold within a month.

Instead, there's nothing wrong with choosing something more classic or even using a slipcover. Gigliotti and Gaskill agreed that a linen slipcover would work in any home. And, thrifting is a great option, too.

You shouldn't rely too heavily on your interests to inform your home decor choices.

A recurring theme across the collaborators' videos has been finding the right balance between highlighting your interests, and not letting them overpower your home.

In the fourth installment of their TikTok series, Gaskill said one of his "icks" is "letting your personal interests be your interior design style" and offered an anecdote about how he once let his love of horror films seep into his home decor with an art print of a skull melting.

"Your home can speak to your interests in more subtle or timeless ways," he said.

Gigliotti elaborated, saying, "You can love fashion, but you don't need to display your Gucci and Hermès boxes as decor. Just wear cute clothes."

And it's time to get rid of those grommet curtains.

In the first edition of the duo's "home decor icks" videos, Gaskill likened grommet curtains to "a shower curtain hanging in your living room."

Enough said.

Moving on to the kitchen: Your appliances don't all need to be on display.

"You don't need a Ninja CREAMi ice cream maker on the counter, an espresso machine, a microwave, an air fryer," Gaskill said.

"Obviously, not everyone has the storage for everything, but I think some people just keep all their appliances out all the time and it takes up all your counter space," he added.

If you have storage space in your kitchen, display only your most-used appliances like a coffee maker or toaster, and bring any others out when you're actually using them.

Another note on appliances: They don't need to be a "design moment."

"Things don't need to be a focus," Gigliotti said.

"If you have a microwave, just get one that blends into the space. It doesn't need to be hot pink with cups placed on top of it and cookbooks. Just have a microwave and it is what it is. I use my microwave every single day, but I'm not making it the highlight of my space," he added.

This also means you can skip the fake vintage or retro appliances in favor of something classic like stainless steel.

It's also time to stop over-decorating your bar carts and open shelving.

"When it's overly styled, with six cookbooks stacked there and then a little jar that you're never going to use and never touch, I think that just doesn't look lived in," Gigliotti said. "It'll look like you're trying too hard."

Prioritizing functionality over aesthetics, thus, is much more practical and appealing.

"It's just like, if you're using a wooden spoon every day and it's functional for your kitchen, that's going to look so much better when it's authentic," Gigliotti added.

As for bathrooms, leave peel-and-stick tiles alone.

"Bathrooms are one of the most common victims for peel-and-stick tile, and because peel-and-stick tile is using an adhesive, when steam gets in the room, things start to peel up," Gaskill told BI.

Gigliotti added, "I almost would rather see an old ugly laminate countertop than a bubbling peel and stick. It is what it is."

Often, DIY projects are an attempt to mask or cover a disliked area of a home, but when done poorly, they can actually draw more unwanted attention, Gaskill warned.

"Most of us are still learning," he said. "I mean, not all of us are professional remodelers, so a lot of times it's not done very well, and then that's when it becomes more of an eyesore. I think you should have fun with DIYs, but at the end of the day, your home … I just don't like treating it like a craft project."

Toiletries are not decorations.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't keep your most used skincare or fragrances out, but rather that it's not necessary to install shelving specifically to display these items.

"I keep my skincare out or I'll forget to do it," Gigliotti said. Instead, the issue is when you're "making shelving just to put nail polish."

And it's time to update those "cringey" art prints.

Move over, "Live, Laugh, Love," there's another art trend that's losing its appeal: cringey, quirky art prints.

By "cringey" or "quirky," think of anything with food like bagels or pickle jars, cowboy hats, or odd phrases.

For other examples, Gigliotti told BI he recently went to a restaurant in LA that had posters in the bathroom of a giant red pepper that said, "Get spicy," and a cat that said, "This is a fat green cat that you're responsible for watching while you're peeing."

To maximize your bedroom floor space, stop placing your bed perpendicular to a corner.

When you angle your bed out from the corner of your bedroom, you create an alcove of space that will likely become a hiding spot for dirty laundry or otherwise go untouched completely.

In another installment of the series, Gaskill said, "It just kind of feels like you didn't know how to lay out the room."

"There's something about it that just doesn't sit well with me from a design perspective," he added.

You don't need to color code your bookshelves.

Color coding is a great method of organization for your closet, but it's not necessary to do the same with your bookshelves.

"A home needs character, it needs charm. Mix-match looks good," Gigliotti said on TikTok.

So, whatever order you read or place them back in is fair game.

And finally, don't force design elements into your home that weren't there originally.

Gigliotti emphasized the importance of accepting your home's characteristics and said there's no need to try to make it into something it's not by adding numerous DIY projects like fake beams, brick walls, or different tiles to the mix.

"Just let things be what they are, embrace it, and then aspire for something different in your next place," Gaskill added.

But, if you're really looking for a change or want to elevate your space, a new coat of paint and good artwork are the best places to start.

Read the original article on Business Insider