How do you view interior design?
Most of us think of the term “interior design” as meaning something fairly conceptual and highbrow; the type of thing undertaken by designer-clad beanpole fashionistas who are keen to use ten words to describe anything when just one or two would suffice.
Interior design and/or decorating can mean everything from architectural plans and their execution upwards; but simply picking an ornament you like the look of off the shelf of a shop on a whim, or deciding where and how to hang a picture of your kid or dog is all encompassed under the heading of interior design too.
There is not a platform below which you’re not fancy enough or well qualified enough to have an opinion and make a choice about your own interior design.
You can hire a professional if you want to; you can run down design inspiration and feedback from what well-known names and players in interiors think or recommend too. But you can also block out all external feedback and do whatever the heck you want with your own home instead, or take in others’ opinions and then pointedly ignore it, and if this is the way you want to go, you should be able to do so without feeling like you’re doing it “wrong.”
Never be made to feel as if your own choices or preferences are somehow “less than,” or worry that you’re somehow uncool or going renegade (in the bad way) by making an independent choice.
How do you view your home?
The spaces we live in (when we have the inclination and opportunity to shape them to our own tastes) are a natural extension of who we are, whether we realise this or want them to be or not. They can reflect the personality and persona that we are or that we present to the world, or contradict it entirely.
Some people dress very carefully and see their clothes and presentation as an integral part of who they are; others only get dressed at all to avoid arrest. The same principle can be applied to interiors.
Some will only be happy if Better Homes and Gardens have them on speed dial, others think that plastic patio furniture makes for a perfectly good dining set at half the cost and can’t understand why everyone else is so judgemental about it.
Most of us are somewhere in the middle; and the important thing to remember here is that there’s no right or wrong when it comes to what your own feelings on the matter are, or how much you care about the style of your home.
It is fine to want everything spot on, bang up to date with the latest trends, and far more visual than comfortable if that’s what makes you happy; it is also fine to literally not care, and pick pieces that are cheap, or functional, or that fit your ethos in other ways, such as being sustainably produced or second-hand.
So have I got good taste, or nah?
If you are confident in your tastes and/or the loudest voice in the room, and/or everyone is literally scared of you (cultivate this latter, it has so many possible applications) then yes. Remember, “having” good taste just means being part of the majority collective that are in agreement about a thing, or following the views of the received wisdom/recognised experts on a thing like everyone else does. If you’re the received wisdom (squeakiest wheel, loudest voice, most confident opinion…) even if only to yourself, your taste is good. End of.