Decor Drama Cure: How to Overcome a Home Decor Crisis
The other night, a friend of mine reached out to me in a panic.
A paint panic.
Oh man, you guys, they say choosing a paint color for your home is the cheap and easy part of the interior design process…
And I guess - relatively - it is, compared to tearing walls down or replacing 90’s beige carpet with dark hardwood.
But tell that to my friend, who thought she had signed up for chic gray walls throughout her entire home, but instead came home to the color green-ish.
If you’re at all familiar with the Moda Misfit ethos regarding interior decor, you know that I’m a huge believer in the idea that the state of your home reflects the state of your mind, and vice versa.
My home is my brain and my brain is my home.
And if your walls are the wrong color, your mind will be the wrong color as well. You’ll feel blue if your home doesn’t feel right!
So my friend came home to green-ish walls that were intended to be gray. Cue the emotional meltdown we’ve all felt when one of our home decor decisions doesn’t work out the way we had planned. All the stress from work and the weight from personal life stuff came crashing down on her, and at the height of her paint-panic-that’s-also-really-about-life-stuff-panic, she texted me:
Thus began a FaceTime conversation in which my belief that our state of mind is inexorably connected to the state of our home was proven - if one thing goes wrong in our home, it can amplify all the life problems we’re dealing with in that moment. My friend was a wreck! The paint job had created a domino effect of emotions in her - the simple disappointment in the wall color had toppled over every other issue in her life, and suddenly everything was wrong.
This is why creating a peaceful, beautiful retreat of a home is so important. You never know what personal issues the state of your home will dredge up.
Admittedly, I’m not an entirely innocent player in this green-ish paint color debacle. I’ve been helping my friend with her home decor for the past few months, and I’ve gladly become something of an interior styling coach for her. I encouraged the gray wall decision all the way, as a fierce lover of all things gray myself.
And here’s the thing. She and I did all the prep work we needed to do to achieve the walls she wanted. We did the Pinterest recon, gathered inspiring images, she painted swatches, all of it. She was set up for success. Yet despite our preparations, she was still left with… green-ish.
Here’s the reality when it comes to the interior decor process. You can prepare, research, and vision-board the shit out of your decor plans, but regardless, sometimes things will not turn out the way you envisioned them.
And that’s SO okay!
When I was decorating my studio apartment, I made a TON of mistakes. Some of them were out of my control, and some of them, quite frankly, were completely my fault. Either way, I beat myself up over them. I thought self-defeating thoughts like “I guess this means I’m totally untalented!” and “I thought I was good at home decor - do I actually suck at it??”
Take this gorgeous magnolia wall hanging by —- I ordered from Society6, pictured below. I was so excited to hang this beauty above my TV - an area in my apartment that gave me grief for the first entire year of living in the place. I just couldn’t get the wall behind my TV right, and I thought this wall hanging was the answer.
Ha.
It just looked… off. You know when a piece of decor you’ve chosen just doesn’t… click with the space? While it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, I felt like an idiot for not doing a better job measuring things out and envisioning the wall hanging in the space more effectively. This was one of those “oh my god I suck at this” moments.
BUT. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I was meant to buy this wall hanging. Because it was destined for another spot in my apartment…
And I did eventually figure out the wall behind my TV, and I absolutely love the way it looks now. It all worked out. 👊
So the next time a piece of decor you bought doesn’t feel right, don’t beat yourself up! It may be that you made the right decision in buying it - just not in the way you may have expected.
Home decor blunders are an inevitable part of the process. They should be accepted - nay, embraced! Embrace your home decor mistakes as necessary steps toward achieving your dream home. They are your education, they are your lesson books, and they will make you better.
I am a better interior stylist because of the mistakes I’ve made in my home decor.
I’d love to help you turn those self-defeating thoughts about your home decor decisions into fuel you can use to propel yourself in the right direction.
Because sadly, when faced with decor decisions that don’t work out, that’s when most people give up. And they’re left with a partially finished space that doesn’t make them feel the happiness they deserve when they come home after a long day of work.
They’re left with that “why bother?” feeling, and I don’t want that for you!
So I created a free 10-step cheat sheet that will guide you through your next home decor misstep so that you can handle it calmly and productively. Follow this guide and sidestep the feelings of defeat that cause so many people to give up on their interior decor.
Click here to download my Decor Drama Cure!
The Decor Drama Cure
Ease the emotional meltdown that can come when something doesn't work out with your decor.
Transform your frustration into a learning experience that will serve you throughout your whole decor process.
Move forward with confidence and continue creating the home of your dreams!
Click here to get your Decor Drama Cure cheat sheet!
The Decor Drama Cure takes you through how I’ve handled my own decor missteps and managed to create my dream studio apartment in spite of those missteps.
Ok, so maybe I didn’t handle those mistakes quite as gracefully as my cheat sheet would have you believe. I definitely indulged in my fair share of despair when faced with my apartment decor challenges - I beat myself up and mourned over what I perceived to be wasted money over my mistakes.
If only I had a quick, one-page resource that could have guided me through it all and provided some perspective. That’s what I created in the Decor Drama Cure.
After a quality FaceTime session with my friend the other night, in which she showed me her green-ish walls and vented about them for a bit, I think she was left in a better headspace. Sometimes you really just have to talk things through when it comes to the challenges that arise in the sacred space of your home. (Which is step #4 in the Decor Drama Cure. 😉)
And here’s a fun little twist to the tale of the green-ish walls my friend endured the other night: turns out, the paint company had gotten the wrong color.
So this decor “mistake” wasn’t even due to a decision my friend had made! It just goes to show that things will go haywire in the interior decor process - things entirely outside of your control. You just have to roll with it all.
We’re all human here. Be gentle with yourself. We all deserve a little grace when it comes to something as emotionally and financially draining as home improvement. Even the paint company with an apparent affinity for the color green-ish deserves some grace. 🖖