As a professional interior designer (and host of best-show-ever, Stay Here), it’s Genevieve Gorder’s job to work with folks of different tastes and preferences. But there are instances where she stomps puts her foot down. We caught up with the TJ Maxx spokeswoman to learn the decor choices that make her blood boil.
These 3 Design Faux Pas Make Genevieve Gorder Cringe
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Published Oct 22, 2018
Twenty 20
Led Bulbs
While Gorder wishes she could get on board with energy-efficient LED lighting, she “hates them, hates them, hates them!” (That’s three hates.) Why? The light they give off is much too white and hurts her eyes. “Designers are so overly sensitive to lighting that it becomes a disability,” joked Gorder. She further confessed that when she goes into friends’ homes with LED lighting (or any bad lighting concepts, really), she’ll literally make up an excuse to leave because it turns her into “a pirate.”
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Swag Curtains
You know those bunchy, shortened curtain panels in Granny’s kitchen? Fun fact: They’re called "swags"—and they were Gorder’s first knee-jerk reaction when we asked her what we’d never find in her own home. We can see why—not only do they look a bit awkward and dated, but they don’t really provide much function.
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Matchy-matchy Decor
But the biggest design faux pas of all? “Matching!” insisted Gorder. “It’s not about making sets and matching something over and over. Stores like to sell things in matching suites because they think you’ll buy more,” she explained. “You think: ‘I’m done! I designed it!’ Well, no—you matched it. Style is actually a constant balance of opposites—and complementing rather than matching. Start thinking about design like that instead!” she implored us.
