You saved the picture. You brought it to your designer or your builder and said, this. This is what I want.
And then somewhere between that conversation and the finished room, it stopped looking like the picture. It looks fine. It’s just not what you saw. And you probably decided it was a budget problem, or that you should have hired someone better.
It’s neither.
I’ve been trying to explain this to homeowners for twenty years and I could never actually show it. This week I can. I took four inspiration photos, this one (above), a warm rustic kitchen, a cozy neutral living room, and a creamy bathroom and watered them down on screen, one decision at a time, exactly the way it happens in a real project.
You will recognize your own house in at least one of them.
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This was such a good illustration of what goes wrong.
Would you consider providing some instruction on how to choose an inspiration photo, and make it work for the space?
I think this is actually the bigger lesson here. We look at an inspiration photo and respond to the whole look and feel of the room — the architecture, yes, but also the colour, furniture, art, lighting, styling and all the details working together.
But most homeowners don’t yet know which of those details are actually creating the look they love. So they pull out the fireplace, the tile, the hood or the countertop and try to recreate that one piece in their own house. Then budget, availability and the existing architecture water it down even further.
And now they’ve spent a lot of money — but they still didn’t get the feeling they were chasing in the first place.
That is exactly what I’m trying to save you from.
It’s also what I’m teaching in my free Decorate or Renovate? webinar: how to look at the house you already have, understand what’s actually wrong, and decide what needs renovating versus what needs decorating before you start spending money.
If this video had you thinking, Okay, but how DO I know what my room needs? — come to the webinar. That’s exactly where I’d start. The link is above.
This was one of my favorite videos! I watched it more than once. Maria made so many good points with super helpful visuals. This is a great reality check for many homeowners, including me!