3 Tips To Make Tough Interior Design Decisions Painless

Have you ever gotten into an argument over a home improvement or interior design decision?

Are your interior design efforts for a room floating in the “what do I do next stage?”

Decision making either comes easy or it doesn’t.  Add to this a spouse or significant other which likely has the opposite decision making mechanism.   This electrically charged force field is often the culprit in the valley of yet-to-be tackled interior design projects which can lead to a do-nothing stalemate.

Here are some tips we use to make decision making easier:

1. Prioritize – List all projects or pieces of a current project on a piece of paper and rate them in order of importance.  Do individually then combine lists.  Often just the act of placing a number on an item shifts the perspective.  This is the Ultimate Argument Eliminator.
2. Involve ONLY decision makers in the decision. These are the people who are going to live with the decision and only they know all the parts and pieces.  Outside people can’t help but bring in their personal preferences which are not relevant in your home.
3. Evaluate need vs. want. Is a $6,000 airbath/whirlpool tub going to be used on a weekly basis or not really?  If sit down dinner entertaining is not your lifestyle, forgo the fancy dining room and furniture (china cabinet, table for eight, and buffet) and re-purpose the room for your family’s needs (homework zone).

These methods are what I really use with clients or in my own house.  They allow the perspective to shift from “me” to “us.”

A home is personal and there often is no right or wrong.  Everyone comes to the decision making table with their own suitcase of issues, though likely irrelevant to the decision on the table, they can awaken very strong emotions.  These three tactics remove the uncomfortable part of the process and allow it to become easy. When it comes to fixtures and repair you need to know when it’s time to fix your gutters and call experts.

I encourage you to take a look at your valley yet-to-be tackled interior design projects.  If you apply these tips I promise you will be amazed at results you’ll get.