Undecorate

In this month’s Canadian House & Home was a Q&A with Christiane Lemieux, the author of Undecorate. To paraphrase, the book talks about the idea of using things that are pretty to you in a way that doesn’t necessarily follow rules but is a personal expression of your aesthetic. Most importantly, it’s an invitation to let your individuality come out and play in your home decor.

I especially like one of the things Christiane Lemieux said: “Follow the rules 60 per cent of the time, then allow yourself some latitude. Make 40 per cent of your design decisions about what you really love, not what’s “right”.

One thing I am being taught in my interior decorating course is that you can always break a rule – if you have good reason for it. Personally, I love learning the rules – about furniture placement, about balance, about what to mix and what not to mix. But I really love breaking them too. So, I plan to practice both, following and breaking the rules of design as appropriate.

Reading about Undecorate also brought me back to my “decorating” I did as a teenager. I had some glass bottles, some green glass and some brown old medicine bottles, grouped on top of a cabinet. It’s funny to think back of it now, because I don’t know where I got the idea from, I just knew that I liked the old feel of the glass bottles and the way the shapes and colors worked together.

I think we all have different levels of comfort with how much structure we like in our lives. The same, I think, is true of our homes. Some of us like things to be a bit more formal than others and I think playing around with that balance is really interesting.

One of the things I like about the idea of undecorating is that it really is about being responsive to what’s in front of you and playing with what you have, and incorporating objects that you love. Even though I do this in my house, I admit that I could do with a bit of guidance in this area and perhaps be more deliberate about it. You know how sometimes you see vignettes or collections that look like they’ve been casually grouped together but somehow manage to look spectacular? And then you wonder how they do it? Well, that’s what I do anyway.

So, for those of us who need a bit of guidance before starting off, I thought of a couple of starting off points:

– A grouping consisting of objects made of the same materials.

{Midwest Living}

Glass bottles, perhaps?

– A grouping around a color or color scheme.

{Cotton Love Home Store}

– A grouping of objects with a similar function.

{Oh Deer Vintage}

Whatever it is, I think the main thing is to include only things you love and that will make you smile when you see them!

Well, I’ll have to give this a go. Will report back!

XO Jadyn