As an interior decorator, one thing I am realizing in some people’s homes is that their heart just isn’t in it. I’m curious as to why this happens, but I am beginning to think it is more frequently found than not.
When I was growing up, we did not have much as a family but my father built our home, and once complete, my mother decorated it as best she could, given our funds and her little knowledge of décor. Back in the day (60s) the only décor mom found was in magazines but she had her own ideas instead. I remember when people would visit our home they would always be stunned by the kitchen which was the first room you entered beyond the porchway. I would hear people commenting “oh my goodness. This is gorgeous, how did you come up what the idea?” Well that would lead to a whole afternoon of coffee clatch and discussing the design of the home, it’s unique wood features, my mom’s stained-glass pieces, her antique vases. Our home was not lavish at all but both mom and dad made it unique with what they had to work with. To them, home was home and their heart was in it. You could tell.
Fast forward to what I see now. I am not sure what the disconnect is with homes these days in the general public. Perhaps people did not grow up with the sense of home due to the influx of single parent homes or latchkey kids, families who moved a lot for work, or perhaps they had parents who just did not care about how their home felt at all. When I say “felt”, that comes from what is in the home to create that feeling of “home”. For instance, disjointed décor, sloppy pieces strung together that make no sense… (you’ll just have to picture a home like this to get the feel of it), clutter, no rhyme or reason to anything… that makes you feel something, and it isn’t good. This can depress a person, cause them to be unmotivated, cause them to have no joy in their home environment. I could go on as to the ways that dark, dingy, disjointed, nonsensical décor affects a person’s mood, life and sense of belonging.
If we can’t feel like home is our comfort zone, I mean really where do we go to find that?
I was in a home once many years ago where a family had a beautiful big house and they had inherited beautiful furnishings, but the house was absolutely unkempt. The owners had a beautiful white dining suite and luxurious living room furniture they had just received from California, yet the whole home had a feeling that was not nice at all. I believe it was because before the beautiful pieces arrived the owners had kept their home in absolute disarray, and they were used to that feel. The beautiful new luxury pieces were out of place and the owners did not care. The home still felt awful, dysfunctional, and a bit chaotic. So this points to the fact that furnishings in and of themselves do not create a “just right” feeling in a home.
So, it is true, homes emit an emotional quality that we sense.
If you live in it, you sense it, if you visit it you sense it.
Over time, living in the same home, things become worn down, damaged, tattered. This can apply to furnishings as well as paint, lighting, walls, doors etcetera… you get the picture. A person might be really surprised to see how much a new coat of paint can make in a room. Changing flooring or carpeting has the same effect, you begin to see the space as fresh, clean and new. People tend to become complacent with how things are, and don’t even notice their drab environment after a while… but that can change!
Once you’ve decided that you need a décor intervention, and you realize you’ve been ignoring one of the most important pieces of your life (where you live and eat and breathe and yet still feel yucky in), then it’s time to make a change! So, if this is your current state of affairs, this can change, and needs to change for your own emotional well being.
It is healthy to change your living environment. It’s nice to live in a space that inspires us, is beautiful to live in, or just seems “right”.
It makes a major difference in the quality of life to your family and the experiences they have within the home.
Re-designing space and giving each space a “purpose”, whether that involves remodeling a room or just re-decorating, gives the homeowner a space that makes sense. Interior decorators look for space that function can exist in, then decorate around it. The function of a room is important to understand. For instance, is your entry way just a door mat, a coat rack and little else? The function of the room is not understood and it’s potential lost. It could be so much more, and so much more beautiful. Is your laundry room just a washer and dryer and maybe a rack, an unappealing place to visit a few times a week? Again, it could be so much more! The function of the room is there but it could be so much more. Laundry rooms can be a little piece of oasis, a place you love to visit and is no longer a dreary chore.
Of course, if your home is full of clutter and unnecessary junk, this needs to be cleared out a bit before redecorating or redesigning space. Making your home bigger, better and brighter allows you to relax and enjoy it more. If you look around, is your home in a state of disrepair, clutter, run down, needing a perk up? Is there an area of room that really needs attention? Is there a room that just makes you feel awful to be in, or you just avoid because it’s that bad? Many homes have entire main floors looking like this, and the basements are even worse. If your home feels like this to you, please do consider some remodeling, redecorating, or space definition changes. Make it a place your heart can be in and it feels like home.
Okay so now what?
A consultation is the first step for paint, flooring, lighting, space planning, then a consult for specific décor, furnishings etcetera. Not every home can afford a full reno, but décor can be simple changes done in the right manner, in the right order, and will cost you possibly a few hundred per room or a few thousand to many thousands, depending on the scope of work. I know people balk at that sometimes, but it is skill and knowledge that goes into good design and décor that the average person just does not have. Just as I do not understand the inside knowledge my vet has when she charges me thousands for repairing my dog, so it is with interior décor, it is a knowledge base that without it, you end up spending money and have a hodge-podge, half decorated space again that doesn’t quite make sense. An interior decorator has a thousand things running through their mind when they look at a room. We don’t just see the room, we see a bazillion things at once! Okay bazillion maybe not, but our brains are creating on the spot, taking in a myriad of information and at the same time, creating as we go. From there, we formulate plans.
A qualified interior decorator will save you money, create beauty, harmony, balance, and give you a properly designed home.
It is worth every penny just to wake up everyday, and totally enjoy your home. I literally walk into certain rooms in the morning and I always think “I just love this”. It makes me feel happy, comfortable, gives me some color and interest to look at each day, and when I’m out and about I look for little things to make it even better. Each room needs its personality and style… but uniqueness comes from planning, then doing.
You will be shocked to know how much a purposefully decorated and functional home makes a difference to your mood, your family’s mood, your enjoyment of the space and the comfort it provides you and your family, whether it’s a tiny apartment or a large home.
We all need to have our heart in our home… that place where we can truly live.
You need this. You deserve this.
Call us.
