If decorating is a struggle for you, you’re not alone. Many people get overwhelmed and feel unsure of themselves – but, it all becomes easier and more manageable when you follow a system.
Before you can have a home filled with rooms that wow you, you must focus on what you want. How is each piece of the puzzle going to fit into the whole? Once you understand your goals for your home and each room, it’s easier to address the challenges in front of you.
As Steven Covey writes in “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” the way to begin is to start with the end in mind, habit number two. Think about what you want the outcome to be, as opposed to purchasing odd items of decor such as a piece of furniture, an accessory, or a rug, and seeing what happens from there.
When you start without knowing where you want to go, things go downhill fast. What works time after time is to start with where you want to end up and work backward from there. The counterintuitive part here is that you may start with one piece of furniture or art or a color that you love and build around it. There is a difference between consciously selecting something that you love and using it as the inspiration for the rest of the room and aimlessly selecting something because it strikes you at the moment.
Looking at the process from the perspective of the desired result helps you to focus and think about the look, feel, and function of the room. You must be happy with all three of those criteria in order to declare the project a success in the end.
For assistance with this thought process, go to www.styleprintdesignsystem.com, download Worksheet #1 (“Focus Step”), and listen to the podcast that walks you through the thinking involved in filling the worksheet out.
