The 7 Dwarfs of Decorating

Happy - This is usually the first step of decorating. Everyone is always happy and eager to start a home decorating project. Maybe a party is coming up and you want the house to look just right. You want to impress all your family and friends with how good your house looks - or will look. Happy, Happy, Happy.

Dopey -  Where do I start? What color paint do I use? How do I measure for window treatments? How much wallpaper do I need? Do I want carpeting or wood floors? Having a ton of questions will make you feel - well, dopey. You don’t know what you need to buy to get the look you want. Very frustrating. Who will help you with all these decisions?

Grumpy - Oh yea, this is a good one. Now you’re getting mad because you feel frustrated. So much to do, so little time and money. You’re probably saying “how hard can it be to make my house look nice”? Guess what? It’s a little more difficult then one thinks it is.

Bashful - Now this one we can all relate to. I can do this. I will go ahead and order my own window treatments. I can pick out my own colors. I know how much wallpaper to use - I think.

Well guess what? You didn’t order your window treatments properly because you didn’t measure the correct way. You thought, how hard can it be to measure a window. Now your stuck with custom order blinds that don’t fit,look right and can’t be returned.

You picked out your own paint colors without a second thought. Somehow that yellow you picked out just doesn’t look right in your dining room. Yellow? Did you mean to pick out a gold? Gold is yellow isn’t it? It’s in the yellow family but you need to pick the right shade of “yellow”.

You just finished wallpapering your living room and you don’t have enough paper. Now you have to order more and guess what? The dye lots aren’t going to match. And now that you think about it, the big pink flowers on the wallpaper looks a bit odd in the living room.

Thought you could do it on your own, with no guidance or research about decorating and color. Feeling a bit embarrassed with the decisions you made? We’ve all been there before. With the ‘I can do it myself’ attitude all we do is make wrong and costly mistakes.

Doc - Headache? Stomach ache? Upset stomach? Mad you made some wrong decisions? What’s done is done. Don’t get yourself sick over something that should be fun and exciting. You’re decorating not getting a root canal.

Luckily there are blogs such as this one to help you with decorating decisions. You will benefit from the experience I have and from the mistakes I made.

Sneezy - Believe it or not, there are products that you can use for your home or office that are hypo-allergenic. Certain types of flooring are better then others. For example, you might want to consider ceramic tile in your house if you have allergies. Carpet seems to collect all kinds of allergens from dust mites to animal dander.

There are even some carpet pads you can get that help prevent mold spore and allergens if you absolutely have to have carpet.

Sleepy -  Whew! There certainly is a lot to take in about decorating. It’s an exhausting process if you don’t go in the right direction. 

I like to make my decorating decisions in the morning (only because I’m a morning person) when I’m most refreshed. Don’t t make major decisions when you are tired or not feeling well. Always start on a good day. Good day - good decisions. Have fun!