Why are some Homes harder to Decorate than others?

I have had lots of conversations with clients who have said “I have decorated many homes with great success over the years but this house has me stumped.”  They call me because they need an objective opinion to get past something they can’t see on their own.

Image via Inspired Room 

Here is a great example of what I’m talking about. . .

See this lumpy green furniture below (lumpy to me because of the chair 1/2 from the 80’s—truly, even though this chair style is comfortable, the scale is too big for most homes in general) well this was in my last house. I wasn’t ever very happy with the whole room and I think I only showed this living room once on my blog because it did not represent 'my look' and we were renting so I had just pulled it together without a real plan. I hated the large in-your-face orange brick fireplace the existing carpet, drapes. . . the list goes on.



However when people walked into the room from the front door (this is exactly what you saw--above), they barely noticed the furniture because it practically blends right into the green hedge outside (sigh, I miss all the windows in that house).  Really, your eye goes right past the furniture and straight outside the windows. And then if you were standing in the living room (below), the huge, overpowering (high contrast) brick fireplace totally dominated the space visually.



So my green furniture?  It was almost in the background because there were so many other elements that overpowered it.

  Photos by Maria Killam

Then, fast forward—we move the same furniture into a new space and suddenly, you walk into the room and all you see is the back of it all, eeeeek (below) not to mention it had totally faded in spots from the sun in the old living room. Now I had already decided I was starting again in the new place because I was never in love with my old furniture and it wouldn’t have been my choice (it had been given to me in a break-up, don’t ask :).



Anyway, I got so depressed (okay I’m exaggerating but those of you that are highly affected by your surroundings understand) sitting in this room before my new sofa arrived (below) I barely spent any time in it for the first 3 months that we lived here, I just sat in my new office upstairs which was the first room I decorated. See the pink standard sheers that are 4 inches too short?  Brutal.

(Not finished yet) Interior by Maria Killam

So, if your furniture looked great in your last house and here it’s not quite right, this might be the reason. And this is just one of course, there are so many other ways that a new house can twist your normally good aesthetic into a pretzel and make you wonder if you even have a creative eye at all (trust me this occurs to me often in my house, I’m too close to it and—have I mentioned this already?—there are way too many options because I’m in the business).

The lesson here is to pay serious attention to the first thing you see when you walk into any room because whatever you’re looking at many times is the focal point of the room and it’s not always the fireplace (below) even if you have one. I wrote a great post long ago that elaborates on this further, ‘10 Ways to Save money NOW by Creating a Focal Point’.

  source

Bottom line, if there’s something in your house that bothers you and you can’t quite put your finger on it, email me for my on-line rates or find a designer you trust to help you. Trust me it will save you time, money and a lot of angst!

What bothers you about your house?

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person consultations.


Related posts:

Virtual Colour Consultation; Before & After
2 Questions to ask before you Renovate vs. Decorate
Danger; The First 24 Hours after you Take Possession

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