How To Overcome Your Fear Of Decorating

Do you suffer from the fear of decorating? So much so that it paralyzes you into doing nothing? Today we are going to dive in and determine why these fears are present and how to overcome your fear of decorating.

Sometimes we become so afraid of making a mistake that we completely let fear take over and convince us that we could never do something because we aren’t good enough and that honestly could not be further from the truth.

When I post a room reveal I always get several people who email me sharing their opinion which I absolutely love by the way and several of the emails will go a little something like this, “It looks beautiful but I could never do that” or ” It’s amazing what the difference between a regular person and a professional looks like”or ” I’m sure your team helped you”.

This usually ends with me explaining how much of a regular person that I actually am and that my “team” consists of my husband, does one person count as a team?

What I am getting at here is it’s not the fact that I’m some crazy talented person that has been decorating since I could walk and I am not a professional by any means.

It is as if the moment someone spots a beautiful space they immediately begin creating reasons as to why they could never do that and how different the person that created the space must be from them. Even I am guilty of this and it took a long time for me to realize that it has nothing to do with them being better or more qualified or even the fact that they have more money!

The only difference is that these people have found a way to overcome their fear of making a mistake that has such a tight hold on them that it causes them to freeze and do nothing. For so many years I lived this way only allowing my mom to decorate our home because in my mind I could never do it and I would tell myself she had something special that I just didn’t have.

These statements are not the truth and now that I have stepped away from my fear and stopped allowing it to leave me in a constant state of “stuck” I actually enjoy my home and the way it looks so much more than I ever did before. Why? Because my home is MY home and no one else’s and how can I expect to feel like my complete self in a space that is full of things someone else loves?

Now you may be saying but people hire designers all the time and yes they do but those designers start every project by figuring out what their client loves and how they want to feel in their space. Because at the end of the day that designer doesn’t have to live in the home day in day out, you do!

What it all comes down to is how bad do you want your home to reflect the person that you truly are?

How much effort are you willing to put into having a beautiful home? Are you willing to learn new things?  Are you willing to pass on that new dress and instead put that money into bettering your home?

If your answer to these questions is yes then there are certain steps you can take to overcome your fear of decorating and get out of the “stuck” position and into a home that you love!

• The first thing to do before you even attempt anything else is to figure out what it is you want from your home. What I mean by that is how do you want your home to feel? When you walk in the front door what feelings do you want to have? Do you want it to be calming and serene or do you want it to be more funky and fun? What functions does it need to perform? Are there things that you could change to make it work better for you and your family.

• Stop telling yourself you can’t and start believing that you can! Trust me if this girl from a tiny town in Oklahoma that never even thought about decorating until the age of 28 can do it so can you!

• Get the budget completely out of your head. No, you may not have the money to create your dream home in one fail swoop but you can definitely turn your home into something you can be extremely proud of on any budget. There are DIY tutorials for almost anything you could even think of and there is no reason budget should stand in the way of you being happy in your home unless it is something that a professional should be dealing with like busting down walls, electrical, plumbing etc.

• Start slow! We typically like to get things finished as fast as possible but I encourage you to take it slow as you go through each step, really dig deep and think about the end result. What does it look like to you? If you have never done any DIY or decorating it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to try to speed through it, take things slowly and know that nothing happens overnight. It takes time to create a home you love and it won’t always be easy but you can have fun with the process and you will love the end result if you take your time.

•  The number one thing that sets all of those beautiful homes you see apart from the rest is the fact that whoever created it had a PLAN. This is something that I cannot stress enough and this is what makes our home come together instead of feeling unintentional and messy. If you do nothing else, do this one thing and I promise you it will make a huge difference in the results you end up with.

• Without a plan, you are simply flying by the seat of your pants buying items aimlessly hoping like hell it works out. What you usually end up with is a room filled with things that don’t match your personal style, things that mean nothing to you and a space that doesn’t look put together. This is where 90% of the people who think they can’t decorate have gone wrong and of course, the space doesn’t look right because there was no deep thought put into it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with your skills, education or budget it is simply the fact that nothing was planned out. Before a designer begins a space they know the feel their client is going for and what colors and style they love then a plan is made for the entire space down to the very last detail. This step will never be skipped by professionals and shouldn’t be skipped by you.

Yes, sometimes things will happen and a mistake will be made but it is always easier to fix one mistake than an entire room full of mistakes. There is not one project I have worked on where I didn’t make at least one mistake but I fixed it then the show went on and things still came together in the end because the details were planned out before I even began.

The thing that I hope you take away from this is that there is nothing stopping you from being a good decorator but fear!

Don’t allow the fear of making a mistake to take hold so much so that you never take a chance, there is no reason you should continue living your life unhappy with the state of your home. During this process, you are going to learn things about yourself you never knew and you will continue to get better and better each time.

At the end of the day, I started this blog to encourage others who may be in the same place I was several years ago. To let them know they aren’t alone and with a little effort and the willingness to take a chance the home you have always wanted can totally be achieved.

To think that anyone looks at our home and thinks that they cannot do what we have done honestly makes me sad and is not the reason I started this. I started this because I was totally lost when it came to decorating and now due to my mistakes, you don’t have to be!

If you would like more decorating tips and even some decorating mistakes you can check out my post How to decorate any room in your home and top design mistakes and how to avoid them.  If you enjoyed this post please pin the image below to help share with others!