Trends come and go, but there are some decor decisions that are just never en vogue. In fact, they can outright sabotage the look, and sometimes the functionality, of your room. Below are four mistakes that decorating professionals would agree are cardinal decorating sins.

Poor Lighting
When done right, lighting lends a room a warm, inviting atmosphere while providing enough light to carry out the tasks for which you use the room. Too common, however, are rooms so dark they give new meaning to "man cave" or so harshly lit they make you feel like you're on stage. Often the problem is a single overhead fixture. Rooms should have three layers of light: ambient, for general lighting; accent, for highlighting features like bookcases or artwork; and task, for reading in the bedroom or chopping veggies in the kitchen, for example. Dimmer switches and soft white light bulbs are very useful in the creation of good lighting schemes.

Hanging Artwork Too High
Make artwork diffucult to see and you defeat its purpose. Hang it where it can be comfortably viewed: at eye level. Keep in mind that "eye level" differs between standing and sitting positions, of course, so when hanging art, consider where it will be viewed from - art to be viewed while seated at your dining table should be hung lower than art in your hallway, for instance. Rules of thumb: "eye level" for most people is 60 to 64 inches from the floor to the centre of the artwork; there should be six to eight inches between the top of a furniture piece and the bottom of the artwork hung above it, so that the art anchors to, rather than floats above the furniture.

Clutter
Accessory overload is an all too common affliction: picture frames obscuring every available surface, collectibles everywhere you look...In addition to being visually draining and making rooms appear smaller than they are, clutter is mentally draining, adding to your stress level and making you feel a lack of control over your life. Edit your stuff: if you don't use or love it, it goes; consider rotating your knick-knacks so that only some are out at any time - changing them with the seasons, for example, can help you keep your decor fresh. For greater impact, keep collectibles together instead of placing them throughout the room.

Awkward Furniture Arrangements
Oft-seen mistakes include: pushing all the furniture back against a room's walls, leaving a void in a room's middle, making conversation difficult; traffic paths that don't allow enough walking space around your furniture or that direct people through the conversations or activities taking place in the room; layouts in the which seating areas aren't accompanied by a place to set down, at the very least, a drink; placing all the visually "heavy" pieces of furniture on one side of the room, resulting in a space that's unbalanced; and overlooking proportion, in terms of how pieces relate to each other (e.g. diminutive tables next to oversized sofas).