Life’s Too Short for Ugly Furniture – Create Cool Rooms You Love to Live In
It’s difficult to create cool rooms you love to live in if you have ugly furniture. Wait on, who lives with ugly furniture on purpose? You’d be surprised. Maybe you’ve been living with your furniture too long and don’t realize how shabby, outdated or plain ugly it looks.
Maybe you were gifted or inherited furniture from the family and feel like a caretaker for something you would normally never buy. Maybe it was all you could afford and since it’s not broken you couldn’t possibly get rid of it.
Get rid of it!
Cool Rooms Need Beautiful Furniture
How can you create outrageously beautiful rooms? Remove everything that doesn’t inspire you and doesn’t make you feel like a gazillion dollars. Cool rooms are all about space. They breathe and have room for more. They feel comfortable and expansive. They’re light, dramatic and fluid. 42 Interior Design Secrets has high impact decorating ideas to create beautiful rooms. You can get free access from our Newsletter here.
Truth is, ugly rooms aren’t inspiring, let alone peaceful. I give you permission to live only in rejuvenating, creative and very cool rooms. Stop swimming against the tide co-habiting with things you don’t love and surround yourself with things that simply make you happy. Things you’ve outgrown, even those with good memories, keep you in a holding pattern.
Throwing Out Ugly Stuff is So Exhilarating
Most people get nervous when they have to move, sell their homes or consider downsizing. Homes often become dumping grounds; collections from three parallel universes – who we were, who we are and who we want to be.
Problem is ‘who we were’ and ‘who we are’ take up so much space there’s little left for the new person to come out. It’s not about more or clever storage, although that isn’t a bad thing either.
It’s about removing what you don’t need or love anymore. You wouldn’t walk around in your school uniform just because you can fit into it. Once it’s done, once the memories, books, kitchen plates, old bed linen and furniture have been removed, gifted, donated, sold or dumped a strange freedom is released. Hitting the reset button is amazing. You feel light, wondering why you didn’t do it before. Then we forget to keep doing it until we have to and we struggle all over again. So, where to begin?
Your Home is a Construct
Most people don’t realize that ‘home’ is just a construct. You make it as real. That means you can change it. And that’s incredibly freeing. Expat experts Megan Fitzgerald from Career By Choice and Marie Teather from Worldette understand this. Each time they move they re-create ‘home’ all over again, a sort of metamorphosis, tweaking the space they live in and how it feels and feeds them. The number of rooms, ceiling height, lighting and room size are things you learn to live with. Sometimes highlighting them, sometimes minimizing them.
Your ‘home’ construct is up to you. It is up to you how you experience the space, and within your control how you share it, with family and friends. Home should be the place you refuel, rejuvenate, restore and reconnect with your vision of yourself and your future can be.
But you can’t create magic if you’re putting up with odd bits of furniture you no longer love.
Decluttering gets rid of more than ugly furniture, boxes of clothes or books you haven’t used in a while. It makes space for who ever you decide to be in the future. And creating cool rooms with beautiful furniture. Skip this step and you saddle yourself with more baggage making the new you harder to live amongst the clutter. It’s totally worth it!
Get ruthless! Ugly Furniture Vs Beautiful Furniture
Cool rooms need space. They also need style. Style is personal, but you know you’re on the right track when you smile as you walk through the front door. Never confuse ugly furniture with furniture with character. Ugly furniture has no character. It merely exists.
It might even function but most of the time these pieces don’t speak, they groan. They can be dull, boring and even creepy. Most of the time ugly furniture is in disguise – pretending to be beautiful furniture. Beautiful furniture resonates with you.
When I talk about beautiful furniture I don’t necessarily mean designer picture perfect pieces that cost a fortune. To me beautiful rooms make you feel amazing. They speak to you on some totally different level and are perfect for you right now.
How to Create Cool Rooms
To create space and style start by culling everything that doesn’t make you feel a billion bucks. Go as far as cleaning house, decluttering your wardrobe and deleting toxic memories from your life. You know what I mean; a book from someone you can’t stand, a plate that reminds you of the day you were let go at work, a painting you bought with someone who broke your heart.
Declutter everything that is slowing you down on your journey. Dump unwanted distractions that tie you to an out dated version of yourself. Create your amazing life starting on the inside of your home and soak it up. Add things slowly, asking yourself if they add or take away from your perfect, beautiful room. The smallest things can make a huge difference. A wall stencil or one amazing piece of painted furniture using wonderful techniques from Miss Mustard Seed, rustic Italian decor or decorated white walls can make your rooms come to life.
Decluttering gives your eyes visual space to work out what they love and want more of in a room.
13 Rules to Create Cool Rooms
Imagine you are moving to a new country, with a new passport, identity and personality. What does this feel like? Who will you be? What will you keep? Do you like the new you? Now read the following to help you create cool rooms for the Rockstar life you deserve to live.
- Upgrade your life. Stop waiting for a special occasion to use your special linen or best crystal. Live like a Rockstar now! Move your furniture into different rooms, use paint to make furniture interesting or playful. Re-purpose what you have. Be creative!
- Balance minimalism with layers of texture to create warmth, depth and interest.
- Use contrast and surprise to create drama and theater.
- Use the Catherine Just Rule. Catherine from CatherineJust.com uses her camera, yes, even her phone camera to get a new perspective on things around her. It’s a great tip for decorating.
- Place ordinary items where they are least expected. This creative step wakes your brain and your senses.
- Imagine you’re moving to a smaller place, keeping only things you use regularly. Get rid of your ‘just in case’ stuff if you don’t need, want, or love them. If you’re hesitant about some items, box them until you get clear, then sell, keep or donate.
- Use the Kat Kim Rule. Kat from BeautyUprising.com investigates every room, asking, ‘Does this making my life efficient?‘
- Highlight things you love using spot lighting or position them as points of interest.
- Don’t keep things because they’re sentimental but not useful. Things at the bottom of a drawer or the back of a closet take up space. Put them on show, turn them into art, use them or get rid of them. Create a donate box. Sell things you don’t need. The cash will help you buy things you love. Simplify your life.
- Don’t go shopping until you’re done decluttering. When you’ve made space and can see the new you more clearly – go for it!
- Follow the ‘One thing in, one thing out’ rule. Become intentional about removing something from your home every time you bring something new into it. This discipline controls the flow of items so you don’t create the same situation in 12 months or 2 years.
- Ask a trusted friend for help. There are paid professionals who do this for a living; walk from room to room and point out things you should get rid of. Ask someone who knows you and your taste to help you. As I said earlier, it’s easy to get so used to ugly furniture that they become invisible to you. If it doesn’t add value to your life you know what to do; donate, gift or sell it.
- Get a new perspective. We shop in stores over-crowded with goods and think that’s how our homes should look. Visit an art gallery, notice how far apart paintings and sculptures are placed so the eye can take them in. Use the same approach for maximum value.
Be grateful for what you’ve had, who you can help with your things and for the new experiences awaiting you.
Remember, if you’d like to create high impact decorating with in no time and little effort join our Newsletter here and get access to 42 Interior Design Secrets. These 42 Secrets will guide you to create cool rooms to live in.
Remember, life’s too short for ugly furniture when beautiful furniture is just a decision away.