A Few Small Ways to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Today I am talking about how to fall in love with your home by getting out of your comfort zone. Making design decisions can feel scary, but it doesn’t always have to be something as forward as painting a room a bold color. Start with something small, like patterned curtains or a bright colored lamp. Wallpaper is one of my favorite ways to incorporate a fun element into a space. It can help showcase your personality in your home.
Trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone can be such a bonding experience and can spark a new-found love and appreciation for yourself and your home than you had before.
Let’s be real though. Sometimes you try something new and it’s a flop. Many years ago I painted the living room in our first home dark hunter green, and even though we painted over it eventually, I needed to get it out of my system so that I could find out what I don’t like. Knowing what you don’t like is an essential part to figuring out what you DO like, and there’s no shame in re-routing and changing course once you know better.
Decide already and get moving.
I never worry about action, but only inaction.
-Winston Churchill
Making design decisions for your home can sometimes feel scary and intimidating, especially when there’s a lot of money on the line. Or only a little bit of money dedicated to the task. The human in us wants to get it exactly right the first time, and sometimes that can lead to decision paralysis. You can spend all the time in the world researching, weighing all the options, trying to get the clarity you need to move forward, but more often than not, the clarity doesn’t come until you kick into action. Paint is such an easy way to do that. Paint is such an easy way to do that–to go against the grain at little out of pocket cost.
Get out of your comfort zone by putting the “you” in your home.
Our sense of design and taste are often influenced by those we surround ourselves with. This can for sure include who we follow on Instagram, and what we’re pinning on Instagram and in no way is this a bad thing! It’s incredible, but sometimes I wonder if we’re sometimes afraid to paint the room purple because we haven’t seen it done before. Deep down, we have our own unique style, and I think the more we push ourselves out of the boundaries of comfort, the closer and closer we get to what truly represents us. What would happen if we ignored the trends, the “in-style” patterns, and safe colors we’ve seen done before? Something magical I would hope. Listen to what you love and have always loved, pay attention to how your family interacts with your home, and carve out spaces uniquely qualified to make your home custom to you.
Another way to put “you in your home” is by getting out of your comfort zone and doing the work! Hang the painting yourself. Change the light fixture. Figure out how to finally lay that tile. Physically inserting ourselves into our homes through DIY connects us and is my favorite way to give back to the home that protects our family day in and day out.
Let’s hear it for the risk takers.
Trying something new can be so empowering, and more-often-than-not, can roll into other spaces in your home. The more risks you take, the more “you” you’ll start to see in your home. Not just in the paint colors, and patterns, and textures, but in the memories and the lessons learned. Every time I walk around our home I see the little things that make it ours, my love of clocks, pictures of my family, artwork that brings me joy when I look at it and memories of times gone by. I see future glimpses of changes yet to come and family and friends hanging out on the patio sharing stories. It’s these unique moments that are already the most “us” about our home. And who knows, maybe we’ll paint a room a shade of purple that we don’t like, and we’ll probably paint over it, but it’s in the time spent, and the memories made that make it unique and lovable and ours.
This week, we are going to fall more in love with our homes by getting out of our comfort zone. By finally making a decision, by doing the project once and for all, by making sure our home reflects what we truly love and our passions–separate from anyone else’s opinion. It’s going to be a big week, so start thinking about what this means for you!
