everything i know about interior decorating

notes on interior decorating and decorating your interiors

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time redecorating my space and I have learned a lot along the way. These could be applied to just your space or the interiors of your brain. Take what you want, leave the rest at Facebook Marketplace because one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Let’s go!

General Rules!

• Decorating a home or a space is a lifelong experiment. It changes and evolves as you start to inhabit it, as you move and dirty the walls with your fingerprints, as you slowly build your home.

• You don’t build your habits around your organisations systems, you build your organisation systems around your habits.

• Don’t be afraid to mix things up or break a few rules if it makes you like the space a little better. Principles are just scaffolding, not shackles!

• DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ADD COLOUR! We’re so used to seeing the plain white/beige aesthetic on the internet, and it’s somehow masqueraded itself as the clean girl aesthetic. (If it works for you, cool). But I absolutely love colour, and no one should be afraid to add it to their spaces. Adding colour won’t make your space dirty. In fact, dirt shows up more prominently on whites and beiges than it does on colour.

• Have patience. You can decorate your room in a day, or you can continue to decorate and redecorate. Wait the extra few days if it means painting your ceramic kitchen tiles with your own bare hands, putting them in the kiln and then laying them on the wall instead of settling for stick-on wallpaper.

• Don’t be a perfectionist. It’s a delay tactic to avoid doing something you want to do. We’re often paralysed by the need to make the “perfect” decision because so many decorating choices feel permanent. Some are, some aren’t and stressing over them won’t do anyone any good.

• Pinterest is your best friend, but is so is everything else. Inspiration often comes from unexpected places — the way light falls through trees on a summer evening, a worm inching across the floor, the sound of leaves rustling outside, the typography on a store sign, or the art piece your favourite character has on her wall in a movie. Keep your eyes wide open and a notebook in tow. Catch ’em all!

• Know when to stop. Once you start, it can be very tempting to obsess over every little detail until it feels “done.” But the beauty of decorating is that it rarely is ever “done”. Sometimes stopping is what lets a space breathe.

Sprucing up the house!

• You will never find the best décor pieces under the décor section of any website

• You will find the best décor pieces when you go on a walk in a completely different city. You will find the best décor pieces in museums, in gardens, in flea markets and any other place that is not the décor section of a website or a store that is specifically meant for décor. Anything can be décor if you try hard enough.

• More expensive doesn’t always mean better quality. Sometimes the antique pieces and expensive art are works of craftsmen you are being upsold to. If possible, try to go directly to the source for your pieces.

• You most definitely will find all your daily essentials at your local store, or perhaps in the lanes of your city.

• Plant propagation stations make for the cutest décor

• The best (and cheapest?) way to spruce up your space is by adding plants. Try to get native species as much as possible. You cannot complain when your plants die if in the first place they were never meant to grow here.

  

  money plant is not native to bangalore but it grows okay here!

• Try to get it locally made. Give your design to your local carpenters instead of directly buying. It is a great way to customise and support local businesses.

Organisation and Functionality!

• Preserve the sanctity of your space (as much as possible). Create sections/spaces in the room for an activity. It sends a signal to your brain to start that particular activity. A reading chair invites reading. A clear desk invites work. A clean bed invites sleep.

• As my grandmother said, a place for everything and everything in it’s place!

• I have been a huge fan of fresh flowers for the better part of my adulthood. Ever since I learned the effects of flowers being grown on the environment, I have been trying to reconsider how I can spruce up my space. Local species and grasslands are being cleared at an alarming rate, and over harvesting of wildflowers makes every bloom precious. Forage flowers instead? Perhaps press them? I have lego flowers to make up for the lack of fresh blooms in my room for now!

• I have recently gotten into candles and they are the best way to really unwind. There is something about the dancing flame that signals my brain to start relaxing and my heart rate to slow down. Always remember to snuff it out. Always. You can experiment with scents. I am also a fan of the wallflower plugs from Bath & Body Works.

• The things you need to invest in are a good mattress, bedding, and curtains.

• Schedule a deep clean day every month and try to dust your areas at least once a week. Dust settles, and you must get it away.

• Maintain your space. To have tidy spaces it is important to have checks in place. Are your plants rotting? Is your cupboard filled with underwear and socks with holes? Does your bathroom cleaner need to be replaced? Is there expired food in the fridge? Allocate time for these chores based on how frequently they need to be attended to. A clean space equals a clean mind.

• Have a clutter corner. It is a designated space that is allowed to be cluttered. Cover it fully and wholeheartedly in a very cute bin or bucket that looks wonderful on the inside. You can deal with it later, and because you have given yourself permission for the clutter corner, you will not hate yourself for having a mess.

• Don’t be afraid to use one thing for multiple things. We keep buying things, but we don’t actually need them.

• If you live with others, please have conversations about how you negotiate territory, shared versus private areas, and respecting others’ organization systems versus your own.

• You can always work with constraints. Sometimes there is no blank space or canvas, or the space itself comes with several restrictions that we cannot get rid of. Work with them because the best creativity often comes out under constraints.

What sparks joy?

• Make art, get art made, use artists you know, or even bills from a restaurant. All of them can be wall decor. The artists you know, the memories you made, and the little things that matter are things you would want to see daily in the spaces you inhabit anyway.

• Warm lighting all the way. The harsh white light, even though I am guilty of using it sometimes, is not doing anybody any favours. Diffused lighting is kinder on the eyes and makes spaces feel more inviting.

• No matter how long or how short you are going to inhabit a space, it can be helpful to add small touches that make the space feel your own.

• The smallest changes make the biggest difference. If you can replace the knobs, paint over a wall, wallpaper a cupboard, or add a small rainbow catcher nearby, do it.

• If you are trying to build a habit, keep those items accessible to you. If you are learning the piano and it is hidden under your bed, it will not matter. My art supplies are in a small cupboard right next to my art table, and I end up painting more. But if they are hidden in a storage closet, I will never get to them. This might mean putting things in spaces that they might not traditionally belong. For example, keeping your art supplies in the kitchen because you want to doodle while you are cooking. I do not make the rules, you do.

• You can try to hide your cables as much as you want, but sometimes they are visible and sometimes they are ugly. My personal opinion is that you become friends with dangly wires. Make sure you are not tripping on them. Interventions can be made to ensure everyone is safe, but I do not make any beyond that.

• You are not too childish to have any toys or tchotchkes or trinkets that represent your personality. There is no need to hide things that bring you joy because they are not “mature.” You can find a place for them without having to forego aesthetic or style.

Happy decorating. Remember, home is where the heart is. And please, send me pictures of your spaces. I want to see them.