When decorating your home, getting stuck is easy. You may not be sure of what would look good, it is something you have never done before, or you are waiting for the “perfect” to appear. Maybe you’ve displaced a photo after photo of houses beautifully designed and thinking, “I could never achieve that.”
The reality is: most lovely houses, even those of magazines, in Pinterest or Instagram did not join without problems in a perfect weekend. Each project or decoration was not perfectly prequalified and coincident.
“The best houses are practiced to be.”
Like anything else worth doing, creating a home is something you learn doing. It is a process of trying things, moving them, consenting, reusing and, sometimes, even starting again. A pinch of courage, a pinch of vision and a cup of grace for those efforts on the road is needed.
Near the end of my house cleaning days, one of my clients was cleaning and this pair of lamps were in their donation stack. I asked him if he could have them and she agreed. It is fun to think that I had been dusting these lamps for almost four years and now they were in my house! They were sad and needed a facial stretch. To begin, a new layer of paint and saved and non -coincident tones made a big difference. Then, years later, I learned about the pleated lamps … and I decided to do mine! With a little hand blocked fabric, a hot glue gun, scissors and some time ~ This lamp acquired a completely new life!
Here are the three iterations of the same lamp. This is a simple example of practicing at home. A project like this is a great place to start. Bets are low and it really doesn’t matter if your efforts are a complete failure!
A house is not a performance
It may be easy to feel pressure so that our houses look like online ~ effortless style, always ordered, perfectly illuminated. But real houses are not photo sessions. Don’t stop at the door looking at your room all day, live In your home! Your rooms live, breathe and evolve spaces. For more thoughts about not decorating for the camera, read this publication.
“In fact, the best houses are the ones that have been He lived in.“
You don’t have to make it “correct” in the first attempt. The rooms reflect the trip of the people who inhabit them. That strange antiques that you could not resist in the flea market when you were on vacation, the paint color that you are not sure but now they love these things your story. And its history can develop in real time, the timeline is yours.
Living room 2023 ~ working towards the English country house Mira …
Living room 2025 ~ two years of slow adjustment …
Give yourself permission to practice
Designing your home is not an approval/failure exam. It is more like learning to cook: tests a recipe, adjust it and eventually you find your favorite version. You do not need all the answers and experience before starting. Move that chair to a new place. Hang the art. Mix those patterns. Light the candles and enjoy your perfectly imperfect home. You may not like everything you try, but you will learn something with each step. Learning is the point and will bring you closer to the house you are imagining. The home is not built in one day. It is made in layers, during seasons, with love and a lot of practice.
“The style is in the combination. Matching some of our favorites from past years, and a couple of things that are perhaps in a trend, and a couple of things that were transmitted ~ that is what our unique style creates” Myquillyn Smith
“Practice makes a home“Your home for you and your family is worth it.”
Bathroom of 1963 … This is the bathroom as we first saw it when we moved to our house. We knew that a change was in order, and an updated Bath Bath Bath was what we were imagining.
Here are three and four versions. This project was the first time we chose the mosaic, and we were looking for second -hand things. There were moments of uncertainty and error, and if we were doing this bath today, something like that would change, but we learned a lot and loved this serene space!
Risk courage
Sometimes, the fear of making mistakes prevents us from starting. But what happens if the “error” that worries you, ends up being the bolder and dearest option you do? What happens if the sofa that does not match brands the room? What happens if painting the wall of a color that is not sure leads him to discover his true style? Taking creative risks, especially small and reversible, is part of the creation of confidence in its design. Often, the best discoveries come from the boldest decisions.
“Your home does not need to be perfect, you just need to be practiced to be.”
Until next time
Take care,
Rachel
