The Worst Design Mistakes in Male Living Spaces

1 Black Furniture

By far the most common mistake in male living spaces is the addiction to black wood & black leather. Large black pieces are such a visual extreme that they don't easily work with neutral accessories or diverse materials. Once you have a black coffee table and a black media console, guess what colors you start picking to try to make sure the rest of the room matches the vibe? More black, brown, red (bright red accent pillows... yikes), white, chrome and glass. And when it's time to frame the art, we all know black frames are on the way.

This is the male living space death spiral: it's ugly, sterile and surreal in a bad way.

There are some schemes using black that look good, but they usually use expensive pieces, have interesting structural/architectural features to work with, and almost never use a black leather couch or cheap black IKEA/Walmart wood. This must be what men are picturing when they slide the fifth flat-packed box of black wood onto their IKEA cart, but let me ask you this — can you actually recall any of your friends' living rooms that you think of as being the nicest setup you've seen, and being full of black wood?

2 Tetris Syndrome

Guys have a tendency to fit tables and other furniture into the corners of a room like puzzle pieces, and to also push couches and rugs against the walls instead of floating them as islands. There is no reason to have a square table tucked exactly into the corner of a room. If you're doing this, you have too many tables and not enough space.

And unless the room is extremely small, the couch should be floating at least a few feet away from the wall instead of being shoved against it. If these ideas seem unnatural, then commit to trying them for a week just to see how it feels. Most of the time floating the furniture and getting rid of tables in the corners of your room will lead to a better space that feels bigger (paradoxically) and more liveable.

3 Sky High TV (and Art)

You should not have to angle your neck towards the sky while you watch your favorite shows. The ideal height of your TV should allow your eyes to focus on the upper-middle part of the screen when you are sitting on your couch in a relaxed position. The most common causes of this issue are:

• Oversized media console — should be less than 40" tall
• Fireplace — above a fireplace, use a mantlemount that can swing downward
• Incorrect mounting height — the bottom edge of the TV should only be 2–8 inches above the top of the media console

The same tendency for sky-high mounting can also affect art.

4 Unbalanced Lighting

One important feature left out of many male living spaces is balanced lighting. Three mistakes people make are:

1. Using an all-or-nothing ceiling light or can lighting
2. Having RGB lighting
3. Using lighting with a harsh color temperature like blue-ish 5K bulbs that belong in a hospital's operating room

A balanced room should have task lighting in the form of multiple table and floor lamps that can be used to set different moods on top of the overhead lighting system or ceiling fixture. The bulbs should all be the same color temperature and usually 2700K or 3000K (warm white) is the safe choice because it is soft but illuminating.

RGB lighting comes off as childish and is usually seen in rooms that also suffer from the Black Furniture mistake.

5 Childhood Collectables

Harry Potter books displayed like trophies, action figures lined up on shelves, pot paraphernalia on the coffee table — and just for good measure, let's throw empty old alcohol bottles in here too.

There's nothing wrong with having interests, but displaying them like a museum exhibit in your main living space sends the message that you haven't evolved past your dorm room. Curate what you display. A few well-chosen objects tell a story; a shelf of Funko Pops tells a different one.

6 Too Much Matching (a.k.a. The Roomstore Effect)

A nice collection of furniture should have a cohesive set of colors and materials that go together along with an overarching theme or style, but finding "matching" pieces does not mean buying a giant set where everything is the same color and material!

Avoid buying furniture "sets" that contain multiple pieces that match because it will end up looking simple and bland or even childish. Also avoid creating your own set by making everything the same color — instead find some nice complementary colors for some of your major pieces.

A general rule of thumb you can use is to find three different complementary materials (e.g. mango wood media console, concrete coffee table, saddle-brown leather couch) as the foundation of a varied color/material palette and then you can make sure any new item you buy works within the framework of color and texture created by these.

7 Cliché Printed Rugs & Art

Aim for timeless rug styles and local art. Here's what to avoid:

• Don't use canvases and unframed posters
• Avoid simple black block frames
• Don't buy printed pile rugs, especially "Safavieh" and geometric trends
• Skip mass-produced oriental-style reproductions

Go with flatwoven or higher quality rugs instead. For art, look local and look unique — box store canvas art is the printed pile rug of art.

8 Shortcut Window Treatments

Poorly done curtains, shades or blinds can ruin a room. Window treatments have the same effect as art on the walls and they also affect lighting, so doing a bad job on these can be essentially the same as having terrible art and unbalanced lighting. Even more importantly, well-done treatments can make a room seem grand and well-adorned.

Here are some tips on how to get it right:

• Mount curtains wider than windows to make the windows look bigger
• No blackout treatments in common areas
• Use mini-blinds or bamboo sparingly
• Curtains should reach the floor, not window or "capri" length

9 Cord Management

Under no circumstances should even one single cord be visible hanging down from your TV! Would you buy art if it came with a black rubber string hanging down from the frame?

Once this is fixed, it's time to take a look around your place for other visible cords and do as much as possible to re-route them or at least replace them with clear extension cords.

10 Giant Messy Coffee Tables

Lots of guys use coffee tables that are taller than the seat of their couch and wider than a 2:3 ratio to the couch. This does make it easier to eat in front of the TV and show off your paraphernalia collection, but it relegates the main part of the living space to an all-purpose fun house instead of a peaceful central area.

In fact, getting a right-sized coffee table will hopefully start you down a path of leaving less clutter on the table and being less sloppy.

11 Lack of Plants & Art

Bare walls and zero greenery are the hallmark of a space that says "I just moved in" — even if you've lived there for two years. Plants add life, color, and crucial vertical dimension to a room. Art gives walls purpose and personality.

You don't need to spend a fortune. A tall plant from a local nursery in an interesting pot and a few pieces of framed art or photography will transform the feeling of any room.

12 Non-Neutral Wall Colors

Bold wall paint choices sound exciting but they limit everything else you can do in the room. A bright blue accent wall or red dining room constrains your furniture and decor choices and can look dated fast.

Stick with neutral tones — warm whites, light grays, greiges — and let your furniture, art, and textiles provide the color. This gives you maximum flexibility and makes the room feel more sophisticated.

13 Nothing Original

An entirely store-bought space with no personality is almost as bad as a poorly designed one. Your space should have at least a few pieces that tell your story — family heirlooms, travel finds, DIY projects, natural objects you found, local art.

The best spaces feel like they belong to someone specific, not like a showroom floor.

14 Trend Gimmicks

River tables, pipe shelves, RGB lighting, LED strip backlighting — these are the trend gimmicks that will date your space faster than anything. They look cool on Instagram for about six months, then they just look like you were chasing a trend.

Invest in timeless pieces and let trends happen on cheap, replaceable accessories if you must.

15 2D Thinking

This goes along with Tetris Syndrome. Lack of vertical elements, furniture pressed against the wall and selected because it fits without using too much floor space. Everything lives in a flat plane at hip height.

You need some big pieces, some floating elements, some extreme elevated features. A tall pot with a tall plant, floor-to-ceiling curtains, a leaning mirror, wall-mounted shelves at varying heights — these create visual interest in the vertical dimension and make a space feel intentional rather than flat.