Stop Decorating for Guests

Start small, darling. Stop Decorating for Guests is less about rules than about attention. Walk through your rooms at different hours and notice what you touch, where you sit, what you avoid. The chair nobody uses is telling you something. So is the corner where the mail always lands. Before you buy anything, move what you already own. Swap two lamps, turn the sofa, take one thing off every surface. You will be surprised how much changes. Most rooms do not need more things; they need better decisions about the things already there.

Then trust what you love, even when it does not match. A good room is a conversation, and conversations need different voices. Mix old and new, loud and quiet, cheap and precious. Buy one real piece a year instead of five quick ones. Keep receipts for nothing and memories for everything. If a piece makes you smile every morning, it has earned its place, whatever a magazine says about it. And when in doubt, add a lamp. Nobody has ever regretted a lamp.