Oh, boy. Have you ever been there?
You look around on Pinterest and read blog after blog after blog. And then you look around where you are sitting and feel utterly hopeless?
Yes, I have been there! It’s frustrating to see all the beautifully, pulled together rooms and then see your home disheveled and half done.
It’s OK. I promise. You don’t need “talent”. You just need to…
Stop over-thinking it!
How to decorate when you feel like you have no talent.
1. Lose the fear of being wrong.
I spent years so afraid of making mistakes. But let’s get real. If you make a mistake in decorating your home, that is SO not the end of the world. I promise, promise, promise. I’ve make plenty of mistakes. Just take a look at my Truss Headboard. YIKES! And let me say that was one of my first posts, so be ye warned!
You might be loving that truss headboard, but for me that was a huge mistake. It wasn’t really my style and I was just going with the trendy rustic vibe. But I am ok that I was wrong, because I was experiementing and learned a ton from the process. I’m much happier with my bedroom now even though, as you can see from that post, it’s still a work in progress. My absolute favorite thing in this room now is the little vintage desk my grandaddy gave me.
Other decorating fails? Um. Yeah. My dining room was originally pumpkin because orange was my then, 4 year old’s favorite color. There was orange EVERYWHERE. The floor looked orange, my table looked orange and my eyes bled orange. This update is moving in the right direction, but I think I can do better as my style continues to evolve.
2. Stop comparing your beginning to someone else’s middle.
This one was huge for me. I used to look at other bloggers who have their entire house done and think
What’s wrong with me??? Why is my house not gorgeous like theirs???
Now, after much calming of the mind, I’ve wrestled that monkey to the floor and know that I’m working at my own pace with the resources I have. A big part of feeling untalented comes from comparing yourself to someone else. I’ve found investing in a few books about decorating is really helpful. I love this book from the Larson sisters and this book from Emily Henderson.
So, start meditating if you need to. Embrace where you are and what you have with the knowledge that you will, bit by bit, get there!
3. Pick a space. Start small.
When you feel like you have no talent, trying to decorate your entire house is WAY overwhelming. One of the first spaces I “decorated” was our breakfast nook. It’s a tiny space that allowed me to have a quick feeling of success.
Just stenciling these two small walls with a white Crayola Dry Erase Crayon gave me lots of confidence that I could do this on my own!
I found a unique vintage table and recovered the chairs. I also painted the top of the table to give it a bit of personality. Beware, that’s another of my very first posts. You’ve been warned!
4. Find 3 rooms you love and write down what draws you to them. Find what they have in common and make a list so you can use that in your decorating.
When I started my office update, I knew I wanted something fresh and light and clean. So I searched around for inspiration and narrowed it down to a few ideas. It felt good to make some decisions about the overall direction that I wanted to take with the space. I was inspired by Mandi’s living room, mostly. And I knew I wanted board and batten, because, umm… board and batten!
Then I used a gold sharpie, but in a different pattern than Mandi’s.
I wasn’t about to copy anyone, but I allowed myself to be inspired.
Picking just a few elements from rooms I loved helped me get the office where it is today. I still have curtains to make and need to deal with the nasty carpet. But, to date, this is my favorite, most pulled together space! Visit my Office Gallery to see all the fun updates that I’ve made so far.
5. Pick solid, classic pieces of furniture that will ground the room. Then add inexpensive pieces around them to infuse your own personality and style.
I have never spent much on furniture. Honestly, most of what we have has been given to us. The only major purchase I have made is our couch. I knew when I bought it, I needed to make a good decision because we’d be keeping it for years and years. The first one I fell in love with was a bright teal microfiber couch. You have no idea how much I wanted to buy that!
Maybe I should have, but I felt like I needed something a little more classic and I’m so glad I listened to that inner voice.
Mainly, because I have love the Moody Blue paint color so much. I couldn’t have done that with a teal couch!
So, the couch was the most expensive, and I added these DIY Yard Sale Lamps ,this Geometric Heart Wall Art, this Stenciled Coffee Table. Everything in this room besides the couch was either thrifted, made or given to us. Not too shabby, eh?
6. Take something big that you love and shrink it down.
So, you don’t want to stencil your walls? {see #1} Ok. That’s alright. But you can take a big impact wall and shrink it down to something much more manageable and less permanent!
I found a huge pixel wall that I loved but wasn’t about to recreate that sucker. Instead I used a 36″x48″ canvas and now I have just a small piece of that big statement in my office.
It was fairly easy and very inexpensive! Making something like this DIY Pixel Art is probably one of the best ways to dip your toe into the decorating water. Just go for it!
DIY Wall Art in general is a great way to add personality to your home in small doses. Try something like this Geometric Heart or, even easier, frame some free Gold Foil Printables!
I hope these tips will help you overcome your fear of getting started. Just remember, you don’t need “talent”, you just need to fill your home with what you love. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
Drop me a line in the comments and let me know what little space you’ll be starting with!
MORE DECORATING TIPS AND TRICKS for the Budget Conscious Creative:
How to Make the Most of Your Home Decorating Budget
10 Thrifty Ways to Decorate (or How to Decorate on the Ch-Ch-Cheap!)
How to Decorate When You Feel Like You Have No Talent
How to Decorate when You are in a Rental aka temporary decorating solutions!
