As you’ll know by now if you follow this blog regularly writing blogs is a core part of the services here at My Deco Marketing. I’ve written hundreds of blogs for interior designers and home decor brands – over one hundred for one designer alone! Each one is carefully crafted in topic, creative writing, image choices and meeting technical SEO standards to give them the best chance of ranking in search engines such as Google as part of a marketing strategy to reach a wider audience.

As part of my research I also read a lot of writing, within the interior design world and other industries too. However this isn’t always blogs but a combination of books, editorial copy, online sales copy and social media posts. Whilst reading this content I come across these three interior design copywriting mistakes time and time again. They scream at me off the page, make me put my head in my hands and just shout why would you write that?!

To be fair they’re not really interior design copywriting mistakes and to help with this I’ll list some copywriting tips in good practice and what to avoid further on in this blog. The technical name for them is homophones which is a word to describe words that are pronounced the same way but have different meanings. They could more suitably be described as simple spelling mistakes or typos.

However how they read is as is slightly embarrassing misnomers that just don’t make any sense to a client. Not a good look if you’re trying to attract prospective clients to your business with the brand values of creative ingenuity and attention to detail.

3 Easy to avoid interior design copywriting mistakes

So here goes let’s take a look at the top 3 interior design copywriting mistakes, homophones, typos, misnomers or however you’d like to describe them that make me wince in pain on a weekly basis and that you should probably avoid to appeal to real human readers (not just Google) and attract new clients to your site.

1. Colour Palette

There it is, one of the most intrinsic elements of interior design practice – The Colour Palette. The dictionary definition of colour palette is… “a range of different colours.” An essential to write about on your website, blog and social media posts. I’ve listed this one first as it is the most frequently misused word with the most variants out there. Here’s what I often see as a substitute for this simple descriptive term …

Colour Pallet – This phrase makes no sense whatsoever. A pallet is a flat wooden structure designed to hold goods so that they can be lifted by a fork lift truck. You’ll often see it with furniture deliveries. The only sensible use of the word pallet in interior design copywriting I can think is talking about instagrammers’ diy garden furniture and not colour; which won’t really appeal to get target audience.

Colour Palate – Palate describes a part of your anatomy in the roof of your mouth. Palate also describes a sense of taste, both physically for food or intellectually and aesthetically for your taste in choosing things you like.

This is a tricky one as you may use the word palate to describe someones taste in colours. However more often than not people use the word palate not in the sense of a person’s tastes or appreciation but when they simply want to describe a range of colours.

2. Pared Back

The verb to pare means to trim or cut away at something from the outer edges. In a sense to cut away and reveal the essential core. Pared back is a common term in interior design copywriting. Often used in describing interior design schemes with a minimalist or very clean aesthetic where the design does away with frills, bells and whistles and makes a statement through it’s simplicity and clear focus. I bet you can guess what I’m going to say now! Which is that when you mean to write about paring back…. don’t write paired back!

Just one little letter makes all the difference here. I see this mistake so often… everywhere! I read it just yesterday, which is actually what prompted me to write this blog, on the Houzz profile pages of a large upmarket UK interiors brand. I went on to read the content to check that it wasn’t an ironic reference to symmetry in design or a pun to promote a new collection of something in pairs. Unfortunately not, the content refers to the simple aesthetic of shaker furniture with no mention of anything available in pairs.

3. Kerb Appeal

Finally let’s talk about kerb appeal. I’ve written about this in a few incarnations. Usually it appears in blogs about home staging or quick DIY tips such as bank holiday makeover projects. So what could be wrong with this one?

Kerb appeal describes a home that looks attractive from the outside, essentially meaning the property is attractive to home buyers. A very good topic to write about and give tips on. However the trouble comes with the word ‘kerb’. The American spelling of ‘kerb’ is ‘curb’ and here is where the confusion sets in. Here in the UK the meaning of the word ‘curb’ is to limit or control.

I’ve seen the expression ‘Curb Appeal’ so many times on Pinterest promoted blogs which is fine if your business is US based however if your business is based in the UK and aimed at attracting UK customers posting a blog or social media post about curb appeal is essentially advertising that you are limiting the attractiveness and appeal of their home – not a good look for a design business.

So there we have it 3 very easily avoidable mistakes when it comes to interior design copywriting. There are many more that I could mention – I don’t see them as often, yet frequently enough to feature here so believe me that they are out there, here’s just a few…

Sealing – Ceiling
Missed Coat – Mist Coat
Draught plans – Draft Plans
Window pain – Window Pane
Footstall/otterman – Footstool/ottoman

How can I avoid these mistakes as an interior design business

Well firstly you could take all of the stress out of your day and get a professional interior design copywriter to do it for you – get in touch if you’re ready to do this. We’ll start by looking at the topics that would best suit your business and analyse how we can write them to get your business found in the search engines. We’ve done this for many interior design studios and we’d be pleased to share some of our first page results with you that bring our clients traffic day after day.

Secondly these aren’t the only mistakes I see from novice writers within the interior design marketing world. If you’re ready to take on your own blog check out our tips on How not to write an interior design blog or buy the 365 Blog Post Ideas for Interior Designers ebook if you need tips to help your writing.

For more details about our copywriting and interior design marketing services get in contact through our website to discover how we can create more clients for your business

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