419 // Why Budget-First Decorating Can Leave You With a Room You Still Don't Love

Dani Watson (0:07)

We grew up with the phrase home is where the heart is. But our culture has shifted, and now the message is, our home should be Pinterest perfect. But 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 right now is already saying something. So what is it you want your home to say? Hey, I'm Dani, a former first grade teacher and home decorator. Going from a dual income to a single income so I could stay home with my babies 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 here. Tips, tricks, decor, and design advice so you can start telling your story with your style. Welcome to Fig and Farm at Home where it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.

Hey friend, before we get into today's episode, I want to tell you about something. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know my story. I taught myself to decorate on a ramen budget, striping a wall with leftover paint because we couldn't afford to paint the whole thing. I've made the expense of mistakes. I've stood in the store holding something, texting a blurry photo to someone saying, thoughts? I get it. I've been there. Here's the thing nobody tells you about decorating. It's not a taste problem. It's not a Pinterest problem. It's a process problem. You don't need more inspiration, friend. You've got plenty. What you need is a plan and someone in your corner while you figure it out. That's exactly why I built the Cozy Home Reset. It's six months inside the Cozy Home Collective plus a private room reset call with me one-on-one, so you get the community and the personal guidance. Real coaching, real support, a real process, not another list of things to buy. Are you ready? Let's make your home feel like you and especially cozy. Head to figandfarmathome.com/cozyhomereset.

Grab your spot and I'll see you inside, friend.

One of the questions I get asked most often is, where do I start when I want to be really mindful and intentional in home decorating?

And I joke and say, well, you start at the beginning. And that beginning, of course, is learning your personal design style or your aesthetic.

But what happens when you know that? You are just a little bit further along. You understand the design elements that you gravitate to. You have a pretty basic idea of the things that you like, the things that you don't, the colors that you prefer, the metals, the wood tones, all the things. But now you want a reset. Can you just go to the store and buy willy nilly? Well, sure, you can. But there are five things I want you to consider before you do that. These are the same five things I consider. And I'm actually working through this process right now as I'm looking at my own living room wanting just a little bit of a reset. I've mentioned before that I have a girlfriend who is a home decorator as well. And I was over at her house the other day. And of course, from her eyes, she sees her space as tired, as a little stale, as a little, like it needs to pick me up. So I offered my perspective and I said, I totally get that. But what I see is warmth and cozy and comfort and all kinds of beautiful details, attention to detail. But I get it too. I get exactly what you're talking about.

It looks a little tired after a while. Your home is perfectly fine. And then one day you look up and you realize, isn't that interesting? I had that same pillow for 10 years, 8 years, 5 years even, and I'm kind of ready for something to shift a little bit. Well, that shifting doesn't necessarily require a second mortgage. It shouldn't. It doesn't necessarily require multiple trips to the most expensive stores. Sometimes it just requires intentional movement throughout your house in order to gather new things and kind of ruffle some feathers, so to speak. But as I'm doing that in my own home, in my own living room, I've found myself asking myself these five questions before I even spend a dollar. And I'm going to share them with you too, so that when you're ready for a reset and you've done all the back work, you know your aesthetic. These are the questions you should ask too. So yes, put your credit card away. Remember that we want to have three filters. We want to have our aesthetic be one filter, our feeling word be another filter, and then of course our budget. Now, if we just skip to the budget being the only filter we have, can we afford it, can we not, we are going to likely fall flat in our design. We're likely going to choose something that we might regret because we might not have measured it. We might have not really thought about the implication of bringing it into our home. It might be oversized, undersized. It could be the wrong color. It could be just a misfit. And because we spent money on it, and we're tied to it, we're beholden to it, and I don't want that for you.