After we decided to sell our townhouse (which was fully decorated and styled) we put everything in storage and went to live with my parents until we found, bought and moved into the house we’re in today. Long story short it’s a grey, 1970’s suburban colonial home with great bones on a great lot, in a great neighborhood! Score! Another positive for us was that it was a fixer upper. It had been a rental for 30+years and needed some TLC. The agent who was taking care of the house for the owner had some people come in and blast paint everything cream and hired someone else to come in and carpet the whole place with the cheapest cream carpet you could find on the market. It looked clean in the photos, but it was gross if you looked close.

Fast forward to moving in and realizing we have major renovations in our future. Cue Pinterest and cue my new desire to minimize and change our home…. Enter in all the gorgeous light, bright and airy photos that pop up online and all the boho, minimal, brass interior design bloggers. I was in LOVE but SO confused….My style had always and will always be a bit eclectic. I found myself seeing different styles and liking things about each and getting confused in my mind how ANYONE puts together a room so effortlessly. Frustration set in big time.

So, I’d say I follow more interior designers on Instagram than anything else. I seriously LOVE interior design. I stumbled across  Emily Henderson and bam…. the clouds parted… (If you don’t follow her she’s so fun, relatable and so talented and I watch her Instagram stories on the daily). I quickly ordered her book Styled and blew through in ONE day. She has a quiz you can take to help determine your decorating style. I was skeptical, but when you get to the part where you tally your numbers…it was SPOT ON! Just like a color wheel you contrast whatever style your number gave you with the opposite on the wheel. My style landed on “traditional” and the opposite was “mid-century modern”….ummmmm that’s EXACTLY what I had been attracted to…persian rugs mixed with clean, simple lines. Oil portraits mixed with modern brass. YES. “But you already were attracted to those styles” you might be thinking. YES, true. But I had never noticed it if that makes sense. Just simply knowing that mixing traditional with modern gives me a great starting off point…where before I was kinda like…eh, i like this…and this and THIS! Actually knowing your style, and knowing what OTHER style compliments it gives you a great starting point for sure.

So. Buy her book, take the quiz and take a deep breath. No more buying random things because you like it just to take it home a realize eh, it doesn’t quite work. Figure out the style you LOVE and when you go shopping you can acknowledge that yes, you like that awesome piece of furniture or that bright artwork, but no…it doesn’t keep in line with your style and let it pass it by. For me, this was huge in taking out the frustration that was happening. Having a style jumping off point is key. Hope that helps you in your decorating journey! Id love to hear from you! Leave me a comment below if you can relate to my frustrating journey of finding my style! Have you had the same experience?