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Feb 20, 2024

I'm an interior designer

FROM your walls to your bathroom sink, there's a lot to consider when decorating your space - and a lot that can go wrong. And an interior design expert has revealed the three things she would never

FROM your walls to your bathroom sink, there's a lot to consider when decorating your space - and a lot that can go wrong.

And an interior design expert has revealed the three things she would never do in her own home renovation.

In her video, TikTok user Abbi McKeown (@alm.interior) explained: "I design for homes that look and feel contemporary and high-end."

The TikToker shared her preferences on lighting, bathroom tiling, and wall paneling.

For her first tip, Abbi recommended not overdoing it with the lighting.

She gave the example of a room flooded with natural light that she said had too many overhead spotlights.

Abbi explained: "You don’t need that many lights, you don’t need nine spotlights in one singular room, especially one that has such big windows like this.

"I also just don’t like the look of it either. I know most of them are dimmable but still dimming nine lights just feels like overkill."

She suggested using spotlights to highlight specific areas of the room like a center coffee table or piece of artwork.

Abbi pointed out: "They act as a main light but they’re not directly over any seating so you don’t give anyone a weird whitewash and they don’t give anyone a headache if they look directly up."

She also showed her followers a room with LED lighting on the bookshelves, which she recommended using in rooms with smaller windows.

For her second suggestion, Abbi discussed the importance of the tiling around your bathroom sink.

She told viewers that she would never tile just the backsplash of her sink.

"It feels like an afterthought, it feels like someone has designed a whole bathroom and then thought ‘Oh wait, we didn’t think about the splashes behind the sink,'" she explained.

Abbi suggested avoiding tiles altogether or tiling the lower half of your bathroom instead.

Finally, the interior designer shared her personal preference when it comes to wall paneling.

She explained that she is not a fan of traditional paneling without coving on top.

"The coving is the bit that you see that runs around the perimeter of the room that bridges the gap between the ceiling and the wall," Abbi told her followers.

She said: "It’s really important to me with these designs that they have the three elements, coving at the top, picture molding in the middle, and skirting on the bottom.

"If that is too traditional then I’d go with modern furniture, modern accessories, modern wall lights, that helps bring that blend of classic and contemporary."