Decorating Skills- Instinct or Learnt

Julie-Ann · #1 02-02-2011, 08:21 PM

Do you think decorating/design skills are something that some are born with or do you think you can learn them?
I thought this was an interesting question.
Personally I think it is an advantage if you have a natural talent in this area. But I do think most people can learn many of the skills if they are interested in doing so. If they are not interested then they can always hire an Interior Designer - I know a few

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Lanne · #2 02-02-2011, 09:17 PM

what a great question.. I think you can learn the rules of design.. you can learn about design.. but you have to have some natural personality traits and a way of seeing the world that you blend with those skills and knowledge

I am fairly creative. I however SUCK at many of the arts.. I am a minimalist and really struggle to do layered complex designs be it a vignette or a layered bed linen/fabric look etc.. (but i can work with 90 layers in PS.. go figure)..

so I think it is a lil of both

rosierose · #3 03-02-2011, 04:18 AM

Definitely both.................

I have always loved art, houses & design since a child....... but have never been very good at drawing (which makes me sad).....

I loved it enough to want to read many books on design, architecture etc........and have found since the internet has been accessable I have expanded my knowledge greatly.....

I think I know enough now to be able to put my house together but would love to imorove my skills in the area of styling...you know those last few touches that give the wow factor.

So my point being that I have always had a passion for it but not necessary a great skill.......thus why I have studied lots and lots. I am actually excited to try out my knowledge on the new place to see if my study has improved my skills....if that makes sense.....

So I think you must have a passion for design and the rest can be learnt through practice and trial and error and most of all courage to try things out and not feel that your house must be "home beautiful" or "vogue" worthy, but a place you love......

LDH · #4 03-02-2011, 05:27 AM

I think you hit the nail on the head with the comments about being interested. Once you make it your interest you can start to enjoy putting the time towards paying attention to what works. My bf has said to me a few times now "you really have an eye for that sort of detail dont you?" and he doesnt mean making things look nice (well that wasnt the context of the comments). Eg. I will say "do you like these chairs" and he will say "no, too much going on with the legs" and I'll say "do you recognise them as the chairs you sat in at x restaurant we went to recently? remember how much we both liked the interior and how nice the new renovation was?" ...

I havent studied any type of design and dont think Im especially creative, but what i do is save pictures of rooms i love and then look at them and break down the common themes and colours and styles to figure out the components of what makes up what I like. ... I guess thats a bit more structured than people who just have an eye for what they like straight up and can visualise what will work.

rosierose · #5 03-02-2011, 05:46 AM

There you go LDH your passion/interest has directed you to want to learn and there is no better way to learn that to watch what others have done and deconstruct it to understand why it works....

I think many people work like this but the really arty people I reckon don't have to think about it..... Its that old question...is the whole just a sum of the parts or is it the whole that is the key? POnder that one...

LDH · #6 03-02-2011, 06:07 AM

nice one.

I'll give that a thought over my coffee now.

Urban Girl · #7 03-02-2011, 07:42 AM

Definately an interesting question.

I think alot of people can appreciate good design, and look at a room and say "OMG I love that" then go home and do a decent job at recreating something similar and get away it. And that may be a natural eye for design that they have. They probably have some idea of how to tweek things to suit them and their home.

While others may do the same thing, and go home an try to recreate that room they saw but make a real disaster of it and wonder why it didn't work for them and be really disappointed. In essence they are just copying what they saw without knowing why it worked.

I've always loved interior design, but struggled at times (and still do now at times) at figuring out why certain things don't look right. And this is definately something I've become better at figuring out since I did my design course and studied the prin****ls of design. It's an on-going learning process for sure.

Interesting what others have said about being arty/creative and not needing to "learn skills". I've always considered myself quite arty, I drew from an early age, have had a decent go as being an artist, I make and build things, and think I have somewhat of an eye for detail and things, but the other part of my personality thrives on structured learning too, so I've felt alot better after doing my design course.

Julie-Ann · #8 03-02-2011, 09:34 AM

Great answers. I'm still pondering Rosie's whole question

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One other point I think maybe it is helped if you can visualise rooms in your head. So you can picture what the end result will look like by adding all the parts together. I find this is the major difference between DH & I. He is very creative but can't visualise. Whereas by being able to visualise I usually design a clients room whilst driving home from meeting them. I think this is a big advantage. What do you think?

Urban Girl · #9 03-02-2011, 09:43 AM

I agree with visualising being a big advantage! My DH is the same, I have to draw pics for him even then it's hard to get him to see what I'm talking about. I can even find photos in magazines and show him, but he's like ....

"oh, I don't like that colour"
...and I'm like "can't you imagine that couch in red instead of white"...
...he's like "ummm no".
"It'd look so different in red"....
"but I don't like white couches"

Sigh. lol

Julie-Ann · #10 03-02-2011, 10:19 AM

Lol Urban Girl I often say DH is my most difficult customer

. I do all of the things you do but I also use props. So when I wanted a white lamp on the hall table. I found a black lamp we had around and put a white pillowslip over the black shade so he could see what I mean. It usually works - as in he usually will then agree with me