The Fear Of Making The Wrong Decorating Choices

The fear of making the wrong decorating choices is real. Below, I’m breaking down several popular fears we all have and how you can overcome them.

If you’re an email subscriber, you know a few months back I did a recent survey asking all kinds of questions about future interests in the blog and what you’d like to see more of. I received so many great, thoughtful answers and it got me taking a deep dive into several different thought processes we have and go through with our homes. And whether you believe it or not, what we think about ourselves, and our homes, plays a huge role into the environment we create. 

With that said, a common theme many of us share (myself included), is the fear of making the wrong decorating choices. 

I strongly believe everyone experiences this fear at some point in their homemaking journey. Whether you’re a first time homemaker looking for new, budget friendly ways to make your house into a home, or if you’re a seasoned decorator confident in your style, we all go through the same journey as we personalize our homes and create spaces we love spending time in. 

The Fear Of Making The Wrong Decorating Choices

Many of us may not associate fear with decorating, or making decorating decisions, but it’s there all the same. Most of the time we think of fear when it comes to larger, life changing decisions, but the reality is, there is a level of fear when we decorate our homes too. 

Below are a few different ways fear holds us back when we decorate our homes:

See More: Art In Our Entryway

1. The fear of failure. 

The fear of failure is such a big thing for many of us. Most of us don’t take any action at all because of the overwhelming worry that we might fail at _(fill in the blank)_. 

When it comes to decorating our homes, we worry about failing to make the right decisions. Decisions that ultimately lead to us spending money… money we’ve worked hard for. 

We have thoughts like: Is this the right furniture piece? Should I paint my walls this color? Is this the rug to invest in? How high should I hang my wall art? Will adding this accessory create clutter? How do I choose flooring?

I could keep listing out the different scenarios, but when we don’t feel confident in our decision, fear sets in and we freeze. Not making a decision feels safer than spending hard earned money on something we might hate later. In our mind, not putting something into motion will save us from the fear of failure… of not being good enough to step out into any direction. 

The thing is though, that by not making any decision, we’re choosing to stay in neutral. We’re choosing to keep our homes in a place we don’t love. Essentially, we’re choosing to stay stuck. We’re choosing fear.

See More: Our Kitchen Backsplash & Open Shelves

2. I don’t know what I like. I’m saving my hard earned money. 

I won’t ever tell you that saving money is a bad thing, but I also believe in enjoying what money can bring. Often though, it’s hard to choose something, even if you really want it, when you aren’t confident in the item you’re selecting. Nobody wants to spend their hard earned money on decorating items, only to end up hating the purchase once you get it home.

But if you’re afraid to pull the trigger because of indecisiveness, that feeling won’t ever change until you take action. It just won’t. Ask me how I know. I’ve been there… sometimes I still find myself there… afraid to make a step, any step, because “what if it’s the wrong step”? I second guess myself too… way more than I’d like to admit, but I’m also human! Taking action is the only way to get past this.

Just know, we’re not bound to our decision and choice forever. We have the ability to change directions at any point, and while fear may stop you from choosing until you’re certain, not making a decision won’t help you either. 

See More: Our Summer Home Tour

3. I’m not confident in my decorating ability. 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We all start at the bottom and work our way up.  Also, ask me how I know. Decorating, and pulling it all together is hard at first, but it’s basically “practice makes perfect”, just broken down into awkward steps of growth until we’re finally comfortable with making decisions and knowing our style. It’s trial and error, and more trial and error until things start changing and feeling right. 

And oftentimes, as soon as we get things to a place where it all feels right, we’ll be ready for a new change and then the process starts all over again. If you’re not confident in your decorating ability, it’s crucial to have patience with yourself. Getting frustrating and talking negatively to yourself won’t solve your problem.

If you hate your home, there’s nothing worse than inaction. Nothing will change if you don’t. 

See More: Our Dining Room

4. I don’t know where to start.

Decorating overwhelm is also a real thing. When we have so many things we’d like to do, we often don’t do anything because we don’t know where to start. All the choices feel overwhelming and it’s hard to know where to put our time, energy and money. This is where it’s crucial to put together a plan and a budget. In this case, don’t think of a budget as constraining. You get to spend money. You get to make improvements and you get to choose which order they happen in. That’s exciting! 

Prioritize the different spaces in your home you’d like to change, make a plan to solve the issues you have and then get going! Oftentimes, your initial plan may change as you start taking action, but that’s the fun of it! Sometimes you don’t see exactly what a space needs until you’re in the thick of it

See More: Master Bathroom Design Plan

5. These Decisions Are Permanent

I mostly have this feeling when we’re remodeling or choosing something big, like flooring or cabinets. Those decisions feel big and heavy… and permanent. And admittedly, we feel the weight of these decisions because they’re not as easy to change. I mean, what if we do end up hating it?

When it comes to these decisions, I always fall into the “over think it” category and I research options and choices until I finally have to make a decision. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s good to know your options, but sometimes knowing your options gives you too many options. Know what I mean? It leads to design paralysis and confusion.

In most cases, I find it helpful to create a mood board with different elements I love. It narrows down the search and helps keep me on a certain path. Then, it’s just finding the best option for our budget. 

See More: Our Fall Home Tour

6. Comparison ruins my day.

Me too, friend… me too. If we let it, comparison will always steal our home joy. In such a digital, social media filled world, it’s understandable that you’ll find comparison on every corner, for every different thing. And it hits hard, doesn’t it? We let those ugly thoughts fill our head, making us feel self conscious and lacking in basically every way.

In this case, you probably have thoughts like: “I don’t have a pretty enough home because it doesn’t look like _(fill in the blank)_.”.  But is that really a true statement? I say no. There’s beauty to be found everywhere and just because our home doesn’t look exactly like the magazine we’re comparing it to, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love our home just as much. 

In a world where what we have doesn’t feel good enough, I challenge you to look around and count all the things you have to be grateful for instead. Your list will be long friend, just like mine. Don’t let comparison steal your home joy. 

Friend, don’t let the fear of making the wrong decorating choices hold you back. Don’t let fear win the day. When it comes to decorating, inaction will never get you the results you want. Your home won’t change and you’ll have the same frustrations day in, day out until you make the decision to move past your uncertainties and start trying. Your home will thank you.  

Which one of these speaks to you the most?