Jump Start: Some Secrets To The Decorating Process

Secret # 1. The process of creating anything comes from stimulating the brain. Putting in ideas and stirring them up with your own concepts, viewpoints, preferences and experience. There is no one correct way to decorate your home. Everyone is as different as their fingerprints. Unique is actually the most common thing there is. It is you and everyone else on the planet.

It's easy to be Unique. Unique  is the most common thing there is on the planet.

What is exciting is to see a home that has been created by someone who is confident enough to do what feels right to her or himself.

Chair by Ralph Lauren.

That is not to say putting in a chair by Ralph Lauren is cheating. On the contrary.

Find a good chair and put your spin on it.

Playing with an item and putting your own spin on it is like making your own version of a delicious recipe. Put in the ingredients that are the bones and then spice it up with your own seasonings.

Spice it up.

Patterns and Color can start the process of design

That chair...that picture...the pattern or color, that is the Jump Start, The Ignition, that starts the whole process, that creates the excitement so that your own creativity comes alive and moves you into the realm of acting out your own goals and dreams. A little secret...all and I do mean All artists and designers, except The Great Creator, Jehovah, get their inspiration going by looking through others work in magazines, pictures, or something in their environment that excites and inspires them.
Oh, you say, I tried that and it was a disaster I am just not very good at decorating.
Secret # 2.

You have to expect to be bad at it to begin with. Everyone has to practice to get better.

Start out small if you're scared.

Start out small . 

With a picture or something easy to change. Make a grouping on your coffee table.

Start with something small you can play around with and change easily.

Look up different ideas in magazines or at Pottery Barn

Look up different ideas in magazines or at Pottery Barn online and see how they put together something that you like. Okay buy one piece in the grouping if you want, but chances are if it's something that speaks to you, there will be similar things somewhere in your house. Go on a shopping trip in your own home as well. Notice it has to be something that YOU like. Ask yourself this question...What is it that I like about this? 

Do I like the colors? 

Is it the baskets or shells or plants, like a natural theme? Whatever it is notice the relative sizes, shapes, textures, colors...then make your own. It is not a copy but a representation of your taste, that your hand, eyes and thoughts brought into being.

Maybe something more simple.

It takes time and paying attention to begin to see what you like. Becoming aware of that feeling of satisfaction when it is right to you is important. Trust yourself...Listen to yourself...and do it again and again. You will begin to see something taking shape inside your mind so that you can make it appear outside your head in your home.

Next: What challenges do we run into in many homes and what we can do to fix, hide or even use them in our decor.