Highlights

Trusting Your Instincts: Why Decorating Your Home Based on What You Love Can Be Better Than Following Professional Advice

19th Century Fine Art Legacy

When it comes to decorating your home, it’s tempting to lean heavily on professional advice. After all, interior decorators are trained experts — they know about balance, flow, symmetry, and color theory. But here's a powerful truth that often gets overlooked: no one knows what makes you feel at home better than you do.

In fact, trusting your instincts — your gut feelings about what colors, textures, and objects you love — can lead to a space that not only looks beautiful but also feels deeply personal, comforting, and entirely yours. Here’s why embracing your own taste can be just as good, if not better, than following professional design trends or rules.


1. Your Home Is Your Sanctuary, Not a Showroom

A professionally designed room can sometimes feel like a magazine spread — flawless, but impersonal. When you decorate based on what you love, you're not curating for compliments or resale value; you’re creating a space that nurtures your spirit.

That quirky lamp you found at a flea market? The wild paint color that makes others raise their eyebrows but makes you smile every morning? Those choices are infused with you. And that emotional resonance — that feeling of rightness — is something no designer, however skilled, can fully replicate without your input.


2. Trends Fade — What You Love Lasts

Design trends come and go: one year it's minimalist beige, the next it's bold maximalism. Following trends can leave you feeling like your home is constantly out of date. But when you trust your gut and decorate with items and colors you’re naturally drawn to, you’re investing in timelessness, not trendiness.

The longevity of a space you truly love will outlive any Pinterest board or designer lookbook. And often, the most iconic and memorable interiors are those that defy the rules entirely.


3. Instincts Come from Experience — Even If It's Unconscious

You may not have formal training, but you’ve spent your life building your tastes through everyday experiences: places you’ve traveled, books you’ve read, the home you grew up in, your favorite café, your personality quirks. All these things inform what makes a space feel "right" to you.

That intuitive pull toward a certain chair, fabric, or arrangement isn't random — it's a lifetime of subtle learning. Trust that. It’s not less valid than a decorator’s design board; it’s just different — and often more meaningful.


4. Authenticity Is Instantly Noticeable

There’s a quiet confidence that radiates from a space that’s been decorated from the heart. Guests can feel it — the authenticity, the warmth, the sense of identity. A room that’s built on instinct feels lived-in and loved, even if it’s unconventional. That kind of energy can't be purchased or staged.

Professional decorators often try to "capture" your essence, but when you lead the way, there's no translation needed. The result is effortless, unforced - real.


5. Creativity Flourishes Without Constraints

Decorating without the pressure to be "correct" or "on trend" unlocks your creativity. You might discover a love for mixing patterns, layering textures, or combining eras in a way no rulebook would recommend — but that works for you.

Freedom from the expectation of perfection often leads to design choices that are bold, personal, and joyful. In short, it makes your home feel like an extension of who you are — not who the design world says you should be.


Finding Balance: Trusting Yourself and Learning from Experts

This doesn’t mean expert advice is useless — quite the opposite. Designers have technical knowledge that can help make a space more functional or aesthetically cohesive. But their input should serve your vision, not replace it.

Think of design rules as tools, not laws. Learn them, use what resonates, and ignore what doesn’t. Let your instincts drive, and let professional insights ride along as helpful passengers — not the ones at the wheel.


Final Thought: If It Feels Right, It Is Right

In the end, the only person who has to love your home is you. Not your guests, not your realtor, and not even the decorator you hired. Your instincts already know what lights you up — all you have to do is listen.

Trusting yourself doesn’t mean rejecting expertise — it means elevating your unique voice to be the center of the design conversation. And in doing so, you just might create a home that’s not just well-decorated, but truly unforgettable.

Back to Highlights