I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed when my home was being filmed for a TV segment. The interviewer had a variety of questions about my environment. I’m sure this is how my clients must feel when I ask them to explain their environments to me. I ask questions that help me understand how they live. In this case, the interviewer was interested in how I had personalized my own interior.
At first, I found myself being slightly uncomfortable being on the other side of the interview. (I found myself saying things I had not realized before.) During the interview I became aware that I had made decisions and purchases based on the things that I like, without consciously knowing what I had done. I love geometrics and hadn’t realized that I had chosen pieces with that theme in every room of my home. Besides a definite color scheme, I was attracted to definite shapes. The triangle is my favorite, followed by the circle/ball, strips, diagonals and squares. I prefer angles to soft curves but need the soft curves to balance the sharp angles.
The drastic change occurred when I moved into a new home and decided to change my style. Previously, I had a home full of beautiful 18th & 19th century antiques that came from my parent’s antique store, which had been the only style I had ever personally lived with. Before I moved, I sold all the antiques. Curiously, I moved into a contemporary home without a stick of furniture and not one accessory, literally with nothing—this new home was an empty canvas.
This is how I began my personal journey of self-discovery. I had to determine how I wanted to decorate my home to express my feelings. Since the antiques had been my entire previous life, my heritage had dominated all my design decisions. Now I had no demands, have-tos, or shoulds. I was free to do anything I wanted. The question became: what did I want? It was the first time as an adult that I could decorate with anything I wanted.
This journey took several months. I started very slowly, acquiring a few contemporary pieces to see how I would like living with them. I was shocked to realize I loved them and, for the first time, really felt celebrated in my own home rather than showing off the antiques. I found my personal signature and style.
During the tour of my home, the interviewer asked me which part of the house was my favorite. I was surprised to tell her I didn’t have a favorite place because the décor and I resonated together throughout the entire house. My heart is in my home, and my home is in my heart!
I know that my home is not everyone’s taste because it is me, and I’m very happy to be living in it.
My rooms have no feelings, I do!