Where Do I Begin...

I was invited recently to give a talk on decorating and how it can nourish your home and your life. Here's a little peek...

I'm often asked where does one begin when they are hoping to embark on their own decorating journey. What I've learnt is that the trick is simply... to begin! To immerse yourself in the process of it. To make it a passion. Look around you for inspiration. See it as a joy rather than be overwhelmed by it. The rest will come in time. Begin a file of your loves and the things that inspire you - and as an editor might cut and paste their ideas together to create a magazine - so too does a budding decorator. I find that breaking down all of the elements of design into bite sized chunks and concentrating on developing one aspect of decorating at a time works best. For me, the ideal place to begin would be with colour. Although colour can be a tricky subject matter to wrangle - once you have your head around which types of colours you like and can live with - and that suit your home home environment - then this will guide many of your other decorating choices. One you have a good sense of the colours you love then your choices of pattering, texture and detail are easier to make.....

pic from rice