Interior decorating couldn’t be any easier right now. It couldn’t be any harder either. It’s a quandary. It’s an oxymoron. Let me explain.
My scrambled thoughts all slotted into place after a recent speaker session at the OpenSpace in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Three very different speakers spoke about their experiences in ‘design’ and here I heard others verbalise my thoughts.
Today, we live in society where we desperately want to fit in, and be well connected to, an industry or community. But at the same time want to stand out from the crowd and be different. You only have to look at the fashion and beauty sector and its impact on body image to see this perplexity.
Its also true in the interior decorating sector. A sector creating beautiful interior spaces in which to go about our daily lives. Individuality is en vogue right now. Its a noticeable leap and a stark change to the interior decorating style of the nineties. The magazines attest to this. In fact we leaf through magazines, websites and blog sites getting ideas about what we like, what we don’t. But if we take these designs into our own spaces, as an entirety or as a smorgasbord, how can they be ‘individual’ to ourselves, or yourself?
This is where you need to be creative. Anyone can be creative. With a bit of grey cell training. Its true. All you need to do is ask yourself the right question to your design problem and have the freedom to explore the answers. You also need to be brave, push the door labelled ‘fear’ open and step right on through. Its rewarding to see your creativity and individuality come out of you and into your space. Its about being comfortable about who you are and having fun putting it out in your space.
I’ve always been a great believer of ‘more heads is better than one’. Todd Sampson, a speaker at the OpenSpace session, coined this term as ‘rent a head’. And this is what recruiting an interior decorator is. Or even a friend for that matter. Magnifying the grey cell capacity to identify potential creative answers to your interior problems. Sometimes you need others to get you started, or even to find the end.
In today’s age of ‘individuality’ interior decoration couldn’t be easier as its a case of anything can go (well almost anything). But it couldn’t be harder, because you need to understand what you really want to achieve and have the confidence to pull it off. A good interior decorator will ask the right questions to help you understand what you want and give you that confidence to be who you are and express that in your space.