Congratulations! You've created the perfect room, with or without the help of a professional designer. Friends compliment your good taste, your use of wonderful colors and fabrics, etc. Your spouse is comfortable with it, even with the fill-in-the-blank that you never thought would be accepted. Everything's perfect. But.

You've lived in this wonderful space for a number of years and you still love it, but it needs refreshing. The carpet can no longer be cleaned to your satisfaction, or the wood floor doesn't glow as it once did. The house has settled and opened up a few cracks in the seams of the walls, the caulking has shrunk in the crown molding joints, the drapes are dingy, especially at the top.

So you wonder if now isn't a good time to make some changes. And the real design dilemma begins. You scan interior-design magazines for new ideas. You see something that you would love to add, but wonder whether it would fit in.

This particular design dilemma is a version of "design paralysis," and it's not uncommon, especially with professional interior designers in their own homes. You'd like to try some new ideas, but the notion of starting over is daunting. Also, you have some beautiful pieces of furniture that you don't want to replace.

The easy solution is to just recarpet, clean the drapes and repaint with the same color. You commit yourself to a couple of weeks with everything displaced and the household being a mess. When it's finished, you'll settle into loving it just as it is now, only fresher.

The harder solution is to make changes. It's said that the only people who like change are wet babies, and nowhere is this more true than in making changes in your home.

There's a fairly simple way to begin. Start by giving the room a good hard look. Be objective with yourself and write down what you'd like to change if you had the opportunity. Put all those pictures of ideas you collected from magazines into a folder so you can look at them later.

Next, discuss your ideas with a close friend whose opinion you value and trust. Ask your friend to give honest, not just polite, opinions.

Now gather all the new ideas and think about them -- but not for a year or two, because then you'll just be in the procrastination phase of design paralysis. Prioritize the changes you've listed. Delete your least favorite from the list and see what's left that you really like.

It may be as simple as changing a lamp shade and adding a beautiful plant in a lovely container to give a corner of the room a new look. It may be more drastic, such as changing the window treatments. And, for the really brave, it may be changing the entire color palette of the room, which may mean redoing everything but the biggest pieces.

Few rooms are unaffected by even minor changes to bring them up to date and make you feel better about them. Big changes, like the overall redesign of an otherwise perfectly lovely room, are more challenging.

I used this strategy for a room in my own house, and two close friends gave me wonderful ideas to mull over. I'm still in the contemplating stage -- but it's been only a few weeks! Remember to start slowly, get the opinion of someone you trust, and relax. It's just decorating a room, after all.

 

TO GO BACK TO THE "ARTICLES" PAGE, CLICK HERE