Despite what you might think, I don’t walk into normal people’s homes and judge the design, mostly because I know firsthand how much time and work it takes to make a home look fully designed, especially with jobs and kids. But that doesn’t mean I don’t take note when I see something cool or, in this case, when my entire team notices some clear “room ruiners.” We’ll go ahead and define this as elements in a room that make you not want to be in there or use that room at all. Maybe otherwise known as “enjoyment killers”. Many people might tolerate these things without noticing how unhappy they are, but we are super attuned to how enjoyable and comfortable a room can be, so these crimes scream at us. And the good news! They are fixable, I PROMISE. 

I also want to admit that at our Airbnb (the mountain house), when we went last, the bulbs over the island were OFFENSIVELY blue/bright. Obviously, I didn’t install these bulbs; they were replaced, but I forgot to order warmer ones, so I fear that our Airbnb guests there are having the exact same reaction that we did in our Palm Springs Airbnb. I need to fix it ASAP. 

The Ruiner: Bad Overhead Lighting + No Lamps

Deserving the design death sentence is bad lighting. This is so easy to get both right and wrong. In this case, there were so many canned lights that were 5000kelvins (super bright and cold) and not on a dimmer. It was like staying in a research lab. We turned them off immediately, only to note that there were so few lamps. We moved all the lamps around in the whole house so we could enjoy the house (which was otherwise nice!). This was likely the builders doing who just chose standard and then installed them without realizing that you have options. Even after you install them, most canned lights these days have temperature options, and the answer is choose “WARM AF.” Unless you are in a laundry room or garage, I’m just unsure why you’d want such cold lighting and so many. 

Solution: 

1. Choose recessed lighting with temperature control (most have them now). 

2. If you move in and they are already installed, then I believe you can just replace the bulbs with warmer ones. 

3. Worst-case scenario: put them on a dimmer and add lamps. Even in kitchens and bathrooms, add lamps (or plug-in wall sconces). Bad overhead lighting over your dining table? Get two cute cordless lamps for meals or homework. 

4. If you have overhead fixtures with normal LED bulbs, this is so EASY. Just switch out the bulbs to 2700 kelvin (3000 is fine, too), and if it’s a multi-bulb chandelier, reduce the wattage to 40. 

To prevent, in the first place, you don’t need nearly as many recessed lights as you think. Like at all. Probably 1/3 of what a builder would do. Read this post to see how many we put in our garage, which was far less than recommended, and it’s plenty of light. 

Extra Tip: They also had motion-censored auto lights in the bathroom that were crazy bright and not what you want to turn on in the middle of the night. And then when you take a shower, they would turn off, and you’d be in pitch black because you forgot to turn on the normal non-motion censored light. So be very wary of choosing that option, especially if it’s in your own home. Make sure you can control the brightness settings!

The Ruiner: Push-Drawers That You Accidentally Open

This is a new, to me, problem that I’ve only experienced firsthand twice. The first time was my fault – my brother’s river house. THANK GOD that we didn’t do it in their kitchen. But for all the seated benches (flanking the fireplace, in the dining room, in bedrooms), we wanted a cleaner look, so they looked like benches, not storage. So we intentionally didn’t put on hardware in favor of a push mechanism. They first arrived as normal drawers (sans hardware), and we had the cabinet guy take them back and replace the mechanism inside (which was likely annoying but very doable). So when they reinstalled them, they looked great, but when you sat on them, your feet inevitably touch them and kick them open. It’s manageable there because they are secondary seating and not frequently used/kicked. We laugh about it as a kind of annoyance, but nothing worth changing. 

But at the Airbnb, ALL of the kitchen drawers were push drawers, and anytime you accidentally leaned on them, they would pop open (which was constant). Is it a huge deal? Nope. But it’s a persistent annoyance, which affects your daily experience of the home. 

Solution:

Choose normal drawers with hardware. But if you love the sleek look of a push drawer, edge pulls are a potential good alternative for you.

The Ruiner: Dining Chairs That Make The Worst Noise On The Floors

I’m extremely sensitive to this noise (I think most people are, too, but my tolerance for it is lower and my reaction is definitely bigger). There is a restaurant in Arrowhead that I won’t sit inside because the chair legs on the cement floor are so incredibly loud that you can’t carry on a conversation (I kindly tell them every time when I ask to sit outside, and they apparently don’t share my kind annoyance). This is definitely the worst on concrete flooring, but it can also be bad on tile or stone. 

The Solution:

Felt pads. I almost went to Lowe’s and bought and installed felt pads for them. Chairs don’t need to make a sound when you open and close them! 

So easy! Now, in terms of our Palm Springs Airbnb, I wasn’t upset with them. We knew that we were in a flipped Airbnb and that the owners likely didn’t stay there long enough to experience some of these annoyances or deem them important (because to a lot of people, they aren’t that big of a deal). 

My team and I can notice a million design crimes, but a lot of them are harder to solve, or require expensive changes or new furniture, so shaming people for them feels unkind. But these were so solvable (fine, the drawers would be more work to switch out) that it pained me not to tell them. I would never leave them in a public review because we actually had a great time, and it was a good Airbnb. To bring those up would be the most Karen of all Karens, design edition. But those are such little things that you don’t notice 

Quick note – when we stayed at The Carly (which is booking out weddings and lots of retreats now, yay!), we traded social media for our stay, but another ask of us from my friends who own it is to list every single detail that felt slightly annoying, off, or simply something we noticed that could be better. So as a design team, we got to be so granular and hyper-picky in the name of eliminating everything that could possibly hinder the best time ever. 

There are plenty more that we could talk about, and maybe we will if you like this type of post. Are there any you’ve got? Let us know! xx

Opening Image Credits: Photo by Kaitlin Green | From: River House Dining Room Reveal