My Favorite Mistakes

I loved this post today from Young House Love sharing their decortating mistakes. It inspired me to reflect back on a few of my favorite mistakes over the years and share them with you. Comment below to share yours!

Painting my bedroom screaming hot pink Italiano Rose. Long ago, back when my now ex-husband was young and besotted and wasn't yet totally burned out on painting, I convinced him to paint our bedroom three times in less than two years. Here's how. When we first moved in to the little two-bedroom townhouse, I was quite enamored with the Greek islands and wanted a bedroom to match. So the first color he painted was a royal blue, which I accessorized with breezy white curtains and framed cutouts from the Greek Islands 1999 calendar. It was my first real attempt at decorating, and it was nice, if unremarkable.

But I soon fell in love with a vibrant rose-colored duvet cover from Garnet Hill. Vibrant rose and royal blue? Yeah, not great, so I used my newly purchased Benjamin Moore paint deck to find the perfect wall color to match my new love. Italiano Rose it was. Did I test out the color first? Of course not. And while the color was a perfect match to the duvet, it was very, very bright. I wish I had a photo to share. It was pretty awful. My now-ex declared that I'd have to live it with it for awhile. As you can imagine, it wasn't long before he relented and agreed to repaint in the oh-so-lovely and soothing Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware.

{Note: In the next house, I painted the bedroom Benjamin Moore Olive Branch, which was a gorgeous backdrop to that bright pink duvet! Lesson: Use neutrals to set off brights.}

Not living in a space before decorating. I'm impatient and I hate disorder, so my first instinct when moving into a new house is to get everything done immediately. But that has led to all sorts of mis-steps, from buying furniture that I ended up either not using or not liking to painting rooms without taking lighting into account, to buying rugs that didn't work in the space (more on that below). One ill-fated rug aside, I did much better in the current house. By the time I redid my bedroom, I had lived in it for seven months and had a good sense of how I was using the space and the environment I wanted to create. For example, when I moved in, I placed my desk on the opposite side of the room from the tv and I put a couch in front of the tv. Well, I almost never sat on the couch and got annoyed when working at my desk that I couldn't see the tv! Now I've moved my desk over by the tv and created a cozy reading area next to it with my old chaise and I use both all the time.

Buying rugs. Pretty much any rug. Turns out, I don't like them very much, so anytime I buy one, I end up hating it in short order and off to craigslist it goes. I've wasted a lot of money on rugs over the years. Sigh.

Not buying second-hand/discount. When I bought my first house and starting buying "real" furniture, I was rather tunnel-visioned and shopped almost exclusively at Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, and Crate & Barrel. I liked that style and those stores seemed grown-up and legit ... not like the Ikea of my college and post-college years. I ended up with some nice pieces, for sure, but I also ended up with a heaping helping of guilt and regret when I got tired of them. To be fair, this was before Target started selling designer collections and Craigslist was all the rage. But still. I've learned, thankfully, and am thrilled with my daughter's room full of Shabby Chic by Target furniture, my new Ikea nightstands, and my Craigslist endtables. I'll still pay up when I find something worthwhile (my new Arhaus sofa arrives tomorrow!), but it's easier to justify those splurges when I buy $30 curtains at PBTeen.