Since we’re still getting to know each other, here’s a little background on me in bullet form:

• I grew up with a contractor dad and a mom who was a naturally gifted interior decorator. Our house was a constant project in the best way possible.
• As a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a fashion designer (til multiple outside influences persuaded me in a different direction). I’d stay up late sketching fashions whenever I was anxious.
• I was voted best-dressed in high school.
• Some of my happiest memories are watching old-school HGTV with my mom.
• In my late twenties, I started a business as a fashion stylist and taught everyday women how to build a wardrobe they loved. It was successfully snowballing before I had my first daughter and after she was born, I gave up the business.

Design and fashion have basically ruled my life. Style was something I became known for, and I’ve been called on many times over the years to help people with their clothing and home choices. While these things came somewhat naturally to me, later in life I became very interested in figuring out WHY certain combinations worked. As a personal stylist for the clients I helped in my former business, it was always my aim to “put myself out of business” by teaching them how to dress themselves well for the rest of their lives. So I set out to break down my intuitive styling approach into an easy-to-replicate formula that I eventually taught.

Throughout my young adulthood, my love of fashion was slowly becoming overshadowed by a passion for interior design and decorating. As I shared above, I’d been surrounded by it in childhood with endless renovations and redecorating happening in my home seemingly at all times. Even if there wasn’t a big project going on, my mom was commissioning my dad to trim out a room with some millwork, or was simply moving decorative objects from one room to another.

In the first home my husband and I purchased, I acted as the creative director. I had a vision for what I wanted, but I carried out those visions fairly successfully. There were a few rooms though that always stumped me. I was never quite happy with them and wasted my fair share of money buying pillows from Homegoods that I ended up despising a couple months later. Looking back, some of those early decorating choices were actually pretty cringe.

It was those instances of struggle with decorating our first home that made me dive deep into the world of learning interior design and decorating rules, since I hadn’t quite cracked the code like I was naturally able to do with fashion. I became more and more adept at understanding what I could tweak to take a room from “okay” to “amazing” and because I can be a bit delulu, I decided to hang out a shingle and call myself an interior decorator.

I worked almost exclusively in a virtual context, creating digital design concepts of rooms for my clients that they could shop on their own and install at their convenience. While clients were always happy and often rehired me for future projects, the gig wasn’t all I thought it would be. I found it disheartening when I couldn’t push people to make the risky design choice that would have made the ultimate impact, and due to my business model, I never got to see the finished projects in person.

It was time to focus on my own creative endeavors. And what perfect timing since we’d just bought a new home! I once again gave up my service-business.

This was about a year and a half ago.

Ever since, I’ve been verrrrry slowly attempting to plan the vision for our new home and come up with design concepts for all the rooms at once. Why all at once you may ask? Because I recognize that my biggest shortcoming is cohesion. I want my home to feel cohesive, but I love every design style imaginable. So I am fully aware that if I were to design each room in a vacuum, we might end up with a coastal foyer, Ralph Lauren family room, moody-contemporary dining room, and European cottage kitchen.

When I was doing client work, I could immediately envision the big picture that would make them happy based on the answers they gave me to the questions I asked. When I try the same thing with myself, I freeze. I guess you could say I’m a commitment-phobe with decor.

So that’s what this story is all about…how we take a girl who loves every design style and can’t make a decision to save her life (hey, fellow Libra’s) and turn her into someone who can confidently complete a project that expresses her highest self in a reasonable amount of time.

I’m constantly citing my love of too many design styles as my tragic flaw, but this week I’m pondering…could it actually be my superpower?