Decorating Tips for Awkward Shaped Rooms and Wonky Houses

Do you struggle to interior design your home around awkward shaped rooms and wonky ceilings and walls? You are not alone... Find out some easy decorating tips to help you find effective and stylish solutions...

Our homes are all shapes and sizes - rooms can be large, small, L-shaped...

Over time, walls can be knocked down, built, extensions added - all this can leave some very odd shaped rooms, and awkward nooks and crannies...

Older homes can often have lumpy walls and wonky ceilings - right angles can be very hard to find!

If this rings a bell with you, you'll know that these wonky angles and awkward shapes can make decorating really quite difficult!

It needn't be though... here are some easy decorating tips to make sure your interior design choices don't draw attention to those wonky bits you'd rather hide...

• My top tip for awkward shaped rooms has got to be to decorate in one uniform color. This smoothes out and disguises any awkward angles and odd corners.
• Paint chair rails, skirting boards, and other door and window frames all in the same color as walls, too.
• Using a wallpaper all-over, especially one with a small-scale pattern, can really help to disguise lumps, bumps, cracks and awkward angles...
• Don't use stripes or geometric patterns, though, as this can really emphasise any hint of wonkiness!
• Make the most of odd angles, corners, nooks and crannies, by adding custom-made storage areas









• Where walls or ceilings slope, you can minimise this effect by positioning shelves, chair rails, picture rails, curtain rails etc, parallel to the wall or floor line they are closest to, rather than at a true horizontal.
• Painting the wall above a picture rail the same color as the ceiling, and/or fitting coving can help to disguise a sloping ceiling.
• Fit large super-sized pelmets that reach from window top to ceiling, to hide any window or ceiling wonkiness.









• One of the most effective decorating tips is to create your own focal points, with fireplace, furniture, pictures, shelves, etc. to draw the attention where you want it - not to any wonky areas!
• Look out for non-standard sizes of furniture, especially:
  • baths
  • beds
  • cupboards
  • sofas and chairs
  ...to fit into those awkward corners or small spaces









• Fitted cupboards make the most of all available space, and if painted to match walls, can blend seamlessly into the room.
• Consider how the layout of your furniture affects the look of any awkward corners. You may get the feeling of a straighter and squarer room, if you position furniture a little distance away from the walls.
• Consider the layout carefully - how you can fit furniture into awkward shaped rooms. Make sure you have enough space to move safely around the room, and consider headroom with sloping ceilings too - a layout plan can help you with this...

  Find out how to draw a layout plan, here...

• Finally, do consider whether an awkward nook or cranny could become a real focal point or feature in your home, which should be celebrated as a 'quirky' feature, and not disguised!

More ideas for decorating small spaces...

More about layout and arranging furniture

More interior decorating information about playing with your room's proportions.

More decorating tips and tricks about using color in your home

More Fast Fixes for all your decorating problems

More interior design tips on how to actually design

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