I frequently get asked how I help people decorate when they have bad taste.
My response: There is no such thing as bad taste. What you like and don’t like is purely subjective. If you like something, no one can tell you it is wrong. If it feels right, it is right!
Make selections based on your wishes. We have different experiences and histories when we create the picture of our own style.
I was recently asked in what style I had decorated my home. I answered, “Barbara Contemporary,” but I had no idea what that actually meant.
Yet it felt right, comfortable and accurate.
I have spent the past 10 years recovering from being the child of antique dealers. I lived a major part of my life with 18th- and 19th-century antiques as an expression of who I was.
It was comfortable, until I moved into a more contemporary home.
It was then I decided to shed the old and begin anew. I sold the antiques and moved with no furniture or accessories. I even sold my dishes, flatware, pots and pans. I had cleared the space to find out what fits me today.
First, I realized I didn’t need as much as I thought I did. I appreciated open spaces. When I was able to feel what was missing, I began buying.
Antiques were my heritage – they were my parents’ business and life – but I didn’t have to live with them. I had my own ideas and interpretation of the look I wanted.
I would have never given myself a chance to find the real me until the antiques were gone.
Emptying out the old gave me the space to find the new.
This led to the discovery of new colors, styles and a way to live that was more satisfying.
Was one bad and the other better now that my taste had changed?
No, it was just time to re-evaluate myself and determine what was important to me now.
Here are some questions you might ask yourself to see if what you are doing is right for you:
Are you comfortable living with the things you have chosen?
Have you chosen the things you have – or have you inherited them or been influenced by others in choosing them?
Are you holding onto things because you are afraid you might offend someone or afraid you can’t afford to replace them?
If money were no object, what would you do differently?
Let go, explore and be open to new ideas, styles and colors you never thought about using before. Select some new things and keep some of the old – then combine them to create your style.
Remember, rooms have no feelings, YOU do!