Come on, don’t lie to me – we all have fears when it comes to decorating. Hopefully they don’t haunt you in your sleep, but I’m sure they may keep you from trying certain things or going with certain instincts you may have. There are all different types of fears I have when it comes to decorating (what if it costs too much, what if it doesn’t turn out the way I want it to, what if I don’t like it in a year), but one thing I have realized lately is that I have a much simpler fear. I have a fear of mixing patterns. I see designers and other passionate decorators mix patterns like it’s nobody’s business, but I seem to stick with one pattern or a couple patterns that are very similar and keep everything else solid or fairly neutral.
Let me give you a few examples of rooms I tend to decorate like (not that I am as good a decorator as the person who designed these rooms, but they amount of patterns used in these examples are similar of my design aesthetic).
Pops of color, one pattern, and lots of neutrals.
Even though this has the pillow pattern and the headboard pattern, I would say the headboard pattern is more of a neutral and isn’t something that scares me.
Love this little breakfast nook, by the way, and would love to design a whole house around it.
As you can see, these images incorporate one pattern or one neutral pattern and add color and neutrals to fill the rest of the room. I love every one of these, but think a person should not revert to these only because they are afraid of pattern. I would love these regardless, but think I need to broaden my horizons a bit and start mixing things up a bit as you can see in the following rooms.
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Confession: I love Sarah Richardson’s work with a passion. For example, I blogged about those chairs being my chair clone a while back and they are still my favorite. However, because I am afraid of mixing patterns, this room terrifies me. I have to look away when I see it or only focus on the chairs or the wallpaper because her talent of mixing patterns overwhelms me! I have to overcome my phobia!
These are all rooms from my inspiration files, so I know that deep down inside of me I love interiors that bring together multiple patterns. I’m just afraid to do it myself. I’ve learned from watching many episodes of What Not to Wear, which I think can be applied to interior decorating, that a person can mix patterns as long as they are in the same color family. From these examples, I would say that holds mostly true and is a good starting place for me to slowly overcome my fears.
What about you – what are your decorating fears? How are you going to overcome them?
Go-on Sarah it can’t be that bad :)
I’m not sure I have decorating fears bar the actual starting to decorate!
By the way those sarah ritchardson chairs- wow I almost fainted. Gorgeous. Love your choice of inspirational images as always!
I think I probably have the same fear as you do, only a little different. :) I’m not really that much of a pattern person, I love solids and neutrals, and if I’m going to do a pattern, it must be big, bright and bold! Which ends up being a slight problem if I want more than pattern in a room, because they all end up competing with each other, haha. I don’t know how many times I’ve come home with 5 or 10 new throw pillows, only to return them all the next day because they didn’t work. I think what I’m really afraid of (or just don’t like) are soft patterns. Perhaps it’s my graphic design background that draws me to the bright and the bold.
Great question! This post made me stop and think about my decorating fears for a minute. I think what gets in my way is my reluctance to commit. I like so many different styles and colors that it’s hard for me to choose one thing and go with it. As a result, I have several rooms that are sorely under-decorated while they wait for me to make decisions!
I think my decorating fear is choosing the right color. Sometimes it is hard to get the exact color you are thinking of in your mind. I also always think of resale value, so even if I might want to try something it may be too specific a taste for resale purposes. I think committing is also difficult. It is hard sometimes to translate something from your mind into the actual physical space. That is why I like to find pictures of things I like and use them as a guide.