Whenever someone gets deeply involved in a particular pursuit, a similar process unfolds. In addition to seeing the intricacies and subtleties of their passion, they also see the more cynical sides. Those of us who love interior design understand this. While we all want to be authentic, choosing our themes and pieces according to what we “truly” love, we learn that a season’s color palette is chosen by paint companies. We learn that even when we’re looking for a statement piece, we always end up choosing from a particular range of possible statements.
There is no getting out of the system completely, no matter how much you might want to. Ultimately, even your most personal preferences have been shaped by what you’ve seen done time and again.
However, there are ways to stay true to yourself when choosing an interior design theme. Go to one or more of the following sources of inspiration.
Your Heritage
The most natural place to start is with your heritage. Ancestry testing has become popular for a reason. We all want a better idea of what makes us who we are. You can find out more about your the best options here. You can learn where your ancestors migrated thousands of years ago, learning about their histories and cultures.
Of course, this will all be seen within the framework of what you learned about yourself from childhood onwards. You know plenty about your heritage already. A heritage-influenced interior design theme can be both personal and striking. Just be sure you keep it subtle and stay far away from cultural appropriation.
Your Travels
Aside from your own heritage, you can design your home based on what you’ve seen of the world on your travels. By this, I do not mean coopting other cultures for your aesthetic theme. Rather, take whatever aesthetic aspects you loved from each place and assess their common factors. Take the aspects that come through over and over again and incorporate them into your interior design.
Ultimately, you’re going to be designing based on both your own experience and the reality of others around the world. The key is synergizing it into a coherent whole. Then you will find it makes a statement without being jarring or offensive.
Your Passions
Finally, what I find is most effective is basing your design theme on your passions. If you love music, for example, don’t be scared to incorporate that into your interior design. This serves a dual purpose. It expresses aspects of who you are while ensuring your home is the best place to pursue those passions. In other words, a home with a music-inspired theme more likely has a place for a grand piano.
As always, there is a fine line between passionate and tacky. A home geared towards your passion for music is wonderful. Musical notes painted on all your walls is going to be tacky. Find the balance while trying to be as authentic as possible.
Even in a cynical world of capitalism there is place for authenticity. Draw on who you are to ensure your interior design dreams reflect what is most personal.
