You don’t know what you’re doing?
I’ll let you in on a little secret: neither do I!
I’ve never been to design school. I have no credentials, except that I love seeing potential in spaces and all things “home.” When people ask what I “do,” I always say mom and if my husband is there he may chime in that I have a blog. And then the questions come:
“Oh, what kind of blog?”
It’s a home decor, kind of design on a dime type blog with some other randomness.
“Oh, is that what your degree is in?”
No, my degree is in elementary ed.
Oh….that’s interesting.
I usually go on to say it began in Texas when we had a really ugly house, blah, blah, blah, but it really makes no sense.
I guess my point here is:
fake it until you make it aka copy, copy, copy!
This is a distinct copy experience I can remember:
It was 2002 and we were living in Logan, Utah with our 2 little girls. My husband was in his last year at Utah State and working as an intern at an accounting firm downtown. We didn’t live far, so I would push Lauren and Hailey in the double stroller down to meet him on some days for a picnic lunch. While I was waiting for him in the lobby, I noticed an arrangement the secretary had made at the front desk. It looked almost identical to this:
and I thought it was the most lovely thing EVER.
And I wanted to copy it…exactly.
So I grabbed a piece of paper and started madly sketching it out and then stuffed it into my purse. I saved up my money I made helping to watch a little baby in the afternoon for a few hours for a couple that went to our church and went down to a store called A Little Something on Main Street in Logan. (Is it still there Logan girls? I loved that shop…) I bought an $8 candlestick and a $10 candlestick and it felt like I was spending sooo much. (I actually was~I knew the wonderfulness of yard sales back then, but I hadn’t discovered spray paint yet…) I completed the ensemble with a couple of dollar tree candles and some yard sale ivy in a dollar tree tin, and a picture in a frame. and I thought it looked like a designer had created that space on our $5 particle board yard sale bookshelf.
It was a spot I loved looking at in that apartment and from there on out, I began copying other spaces that I saw and loved from magazines, in shops, sketches of what others had done in their homes, the parade of homes, etc.
So, don’t be afraid to fake it until you make it. If you see a space, or even a little shelf in a space that you love…don’t be afraid to recreate it in your home with your own personal touch. Of course, give credit where credit is due, but let amazingly creative, professional people do the hard work for you and take it from there.
The crazy part is: you will start really developing a style of your own as you do this. You’ll get a strong sense of what you are attracted to, what you LOVE, and what you want your home to feel like. Now, when I see something I love, I try to analyze what it is exactly that draws me to it.
To recap:
Yesterday we talked about Finding Inspiration.
Now, take your inspiration pics and choose a corner or a shelf, or a dresser top, or even a whole room that you LOVE and copy the look as best you can with what you have or can purchase inexpensively. Remember the power of paint~it can transform most anything!
Go and have fun copying something~see you back here tomorrow.
Are you a copier? Or an independent, think things up on my own type?
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