407 // Why You're Stuck Decorating (And 5 Questions To Ask That Will Help You Fix It)

**Dani Watson** (0:00)
Before you know it, kiddos are going to be back in school. Leaves are going to be falling from the trees, and that lovely fall smell is going to be permeating the air on your afternoon walks. Fall is coming, whether we like it or not.
Whether we are ready to throw in our beach towels and our sunscreen and trade it for cozy sweaters, fall is just around the corner. And so I want you, as kiddos are back in school, to save these dates, September 9th, 10th, and 11th, for The Cozy Home Workshop, where I'm going to teach you three steps to creating a home that you can't wait to come home to. Cozy isn't about more stuff, it is about a feeling. And we're going to dive deep in this free three-day workshop. Come and join me so that you can create a home that doesn't require more pumpkins. It doesn't require orange and yellow. It can be cozy in any season. You can come and register for that workshop. Save your seat by going to figandpharmathome.myflowdesk, flodesk.com, forward slash cozy26. And that link will be in the show notes.
We grew up with the phrase, home is where the heart is. But our culture has shifted, and now the message is, home should be Pinterest perfect. I'm calling BS on that message. Home, it's not about the stuff, it's about the story. And whether you know it or not, your home is a reflection of you and is already saying something. So what is it that you want it to say? Hey, I'm Dani, a former first grade teacher turned home decorator, going from a dual income to a single income so I could stay home with my baby's meant budget, like ramen eating, goodwill shopping budget. And I learned a few things along the way, like how to bring big style to your home without breaking the bank. And I'm sharing it all with you. Tips, tricks, decor, and design advice where you can learn to tell your story with your style. Where you can start living free from the Pinterest perfect trap and start living a life of intention. Welcome to Fig and Farm at Home, where we design happy living and where it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. I want you to picture this with me today. If you're driving, keep your eyes open. But I want you to walk into your living room as if you are coming in through your front door. What do you walk past? What do you see?
What are the things that catch your attention? And I want you to think about if your room is how you want it to be. If your room makes you feel a sense of sigh. If it makes you feel a sense of, oh my gosh, I did that. If it makes you feel a sense of calm or a sense of home. And if it doesn't, I want you to picture or think about the adjective that might replace all of the ones I just presented. When you walk into your room, how does it make you feel?
And does it feel half finished?
Half decorated? Like ideas were started but not finished. They were aborted somewhere along the way. And now I want you to picture you sitting down at your computer, looking at your Pinterest boards. And I want you to think about how many pins you have, how many boards you have, how many visual projects you have started in the form of a Pinterest board collecting these ideas. And I want you to think about how many pins you have and how many action items you have in your home that align with the pins that you've pinned. I want you to think about blank walls in your space, the ones that you've stared at time and time again and thought, hmm, something goes here, I just don't know what.
Or a layout in your home that you've sat across from and thought, hmm, this doesn't feel quite right, but I don't exactly know what to do. Does any of this sound familiar? There are reasons why we get stuck in home decorating. And I'm gonna provide a couple for you to think about. Maybe thinking about these and reflecting on which one resonates with you will start the forward motion of getting unstuck. But we're not just staying there. We're not staying in the space where we're stuck. We know we are. We know that when we sit and stare at a blank wall, we are stuck. But what do we do with it afterwards? That's what we're diving into today. But before we get there, these are some of the things that you might be running up against when you stare at your Pinterest board that is full of pins that you have not yet acted on. These are the things that might be getting in your way every time you look at the layout and think something doesn't feel quite right. Or every time you go to the store and you think, hmm, I think I want to make a change, but I just don't know what to do. The first one is decision fatigue. There are frankly too many choices, too many options. And when we scroll and when we look at inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram or even watch HDTV shows, sometimes that inspiration becomes an overload. It becomes too much and it makes everything that we've done, whether it is small action like gaining inspiration, feel impossible. And when we pit one decision against another, one color against another, it can become too overwhelming and too confusing. The second thing keeping you stuck is that maybe you're afraid of commitment. Not the, I'm going to marry it and it's going to stay with me forever kind of commitment. But what if I hate it in a year? That's commitment. Knowing that this decision that you're going to be making, and sometimes they're bigger, like buying the couch, taking out furniture, painting a wall, hanging something. Sometimes that commitment can feel really scary. And if it's anything bold, like adding color, that fear of commitment can make you stop in your tracks. Because that question that lingers on the other side, what if I hate it is there. But let me just ask you this. What if you love it? What if you love it? Now, there's an antidote to all of these, and we're not going to get into it today. But I do want to just ask you these questions. What if you love it? What if decisions were made easier? What if you were able to get off that hamster wheel of stuckness and into a pathway that made it feel easier? Would you do it? All right, the second or the third thing that could be keeping you stuck is perfectionism. That you want to make sure that you do it right, and doing it right means not just stopping at the living room, it's going to carry over into your dining room, maybe the kitchen, maybe the entryway, maybe the outside, and it's all wrapping up into one big ball of perfectionism. You're waiting for the perfect piece or the perfect plan before you're starting anything, and that waiting is keeping you stuck, almost like you were stuck in a pair of cinder blocks. Or maybe you're stuck because there is no clear starting point. You've got the inspiration, you've got the motivation, but there's no clear starting point. You're ready to rock and roll, but you're not entirely sure. Do you decorate the entire room? Do you start with one little piece? How does it domino into another area? What do you do? Or maybe you're stuck because you've copied something you have done on Pinterest, or you have seen on Instagram, and now you're kind of looking at it and thinking, huh, isn't that interesting? It doesn't align with my lifestyle, with the way that I use my house, or even that's not really me, it was someone else and I just copied it.