Kernel leads to pop!
Sometimes you just have to get something down on paper.
As someone who built a career as a professional communicator before being tempted down the path of color, fabric, and fun that is decorating (for me), I know that sometimes the most effective approach is to start typing. You can always edit later. Or throw it away. But usually the kernel is there.
Decorating is the same. I’ve seen family, friends, and clients deliberate endlessly about the merits of six essentially identical gray sofas and paralyze themselves from having a family room they love in the process. Or how about those who debate the subtleties between café au lait and cappuccino and sandy path and timeless tan when they should just pick the paint and get it going. Because then they could be drinking a cappuccino on a sandy path on their way to a timeless tan …
Nike capitalized on the idea: Just do it!
I’m not advising against a plan. Plans are great, both in terms of accomplishing the look and feel you want and for staying on time and on budget. But if you don’t start … you’ll never finish.So by all means think it through. Visit Houzz and Pinterest and HGTV and Architectural Digest and wherever else you draw your inspiration from. Then take a step. You’ll be surprised how once you’ve made some key decision – say seating – the rest will flow. Go sit on those gray sofas. Measure them. Consider how you want to use your space and who the users are. Then go with it – and let the project roll.
And if some small element doesn’t come to you immediately, that’s OK. The corner can sit empty while you learn to use the new space. The coffee table doesn’t need a centerpiece immediately. And the shelves on the media unit can be bare for a bit. Because the kernel will be there … and the pop will come.
