Decorate with Intention
Your home is unique and should evoke a FEELING from the moment you enter each room, never wanting to leave. The feeling is captured through the art of decorating. A balance between function, flow, visual interest, and touch. It is often the most overlooked and underrated aspect of investing in your home yet has a power that can only be felt when done intentionally. It appears effortless and easy when the space is complete, which is why so many homeowners embark on their decorating journey without a professional.
Here are 4 common findings that have led to homeowners contacting us:
They started without a vision.
Shopping is often viewed as the best part, so people like to get right to it… but there are SO many steps prior. We follow our unique 8-step process for all projects and shopping (Sourcing & Ordering) is step 6! We begin every project with the homeowner’s inspiration photos, so we can create the overall vision, prior to making the detailed selections. So, what is the result if you jump in without a vision? It is a space that FEELS incomplete, even if it is full of furniture, art, and décor. Maybe you have a space in your home that feels like this? Just a bit incomplete? Establishing the vision from the very beginning keeps you on track for the hundreds of decisions to be made. With endless furniture options available, the guidance of a vision board is crucial to the success of the finished space, one that FEELS as it was intended.
They picked every style they loved. Piece by Piece.
When you select all your favourites from every style, it leads to an array of items that don’t seamlessly fit together. The mid-century modern armchair beside a traditional sofa, on a bohemian rug, with a mirrored glam coffee table in a mountain home… just doesn’t work. Once you put them together, it looks confusing to the eye and your mind doesn’t quite know how to feel in this space. This is typically a reason why homeowners reach out to designers saying, I don’t know what it is, but something is off about this space.
They collected everything over time. Sale by Sale. Trend by Trend.
It can be quite the price shock to tackle an entire room from scratch if your current space was collected over time. A great exercise when planning to budget for a new space is to add up what your current room costs as it sits now. Remember to not only budget for the large furniture, but also the decorative accessories and even the lightbulbs! Although it may seem more budget conscious to add to the space over time, it can end up being more expensive in the long run. The risk of collecting items over time is that the overall look and feel may appear confused and unintentional. It would likely lead to frustration as you keep swapping items out (far before the return on their investment) to feel a sense of completion and joy when you are in that space, yet it keeps falling short. Spaces that are collected over time, end up being an endless project, rather than a retreat.
They had sentimental pieces to incorporate. Gifted or Inherited.
This is a sensitive topic. Much like ‘the elephant in the room’, it may literally be a ‘large rustic hutch in a modern minimalistic home’. As a design team, we address these areas of concern with compassion, understanding and empathy, while also shedding light on what could work and what just won’t. We offer ideas for areas in which these pieces can be moved, any ideas for refinishing or sometimes finding a new home entirely. The reason for this being that the pieces that were passed down or given to you, may not reflect the desired style which has been visually expressed through inspiration photos. Designers can pull together many different styles and find balance, but the truth is, regardless of how talented someone is, a Victorian dining set will not fit into a modern home with cohesion. When we are decorating, we want the rooms to flow from one to the next, creating the feeling of home and comfort in each space.