Dear Fiona,
Help! I’m in the process of decorating and am torn between two different schemes, or rather two different houses, and they could not be more opposite in feel. One is Martin Brudnizki’s Sussex flat; I’ve loved that layering of patterns and trims for a long time, and also admire Alidad’s style, and the Arab Hall at Leighton House – basically, I like ornate maximalism, and chintz. But a year or so ago a friend gave me a copy of Rose Uniacke at Home – and I can’t stop thinking about that creamy, pared-back simplicity, and wondering if there is, in fact, a minimalist side to me that I hadn’t previously allowed for.
I’m currently going through a divorce (a good thing – and there are no children involved), and so am in position to create a home that is unambiguously my own – and keep it tidy! I’m excited about this new beginning, and as a long-term reader of House & Garden I’m quite design-literate, and so am really keen to do this myself. Except that I’m suddenly less certain of my taste than I thought I was. To be clear, I’m not considering a wholescale copy, rather I’ve developed related mood boards. The issue is that I’ve currently got two for every room. I’m starting almost from scratch, and unless I want to move in with no bedroom curtains, it’s becoming increasingly urgent that I commit either to heavy off-white curtains on a plain pole, or to Austrian blinds in a Jean Monro chintz.
Is this the moment for a literal clean slate? Or am I going to get bored of looking at white walls, and regret it? Will I equally regret not trying it? What if I get everything wrong? This paralysis is beginning to make me feel less excited about my future, and rather nervous about it. Please tell me what to do!
With love, Split-Taste XX
Dear Split-Taste,
Thank you for your letter – and please let me offer my sympathy, for this sort of paralysis can be agonising. I know firsthand of its tendency to confound, so let’s find an answer. But please know that getting stuck is a problem encountered more often than you would imagine, even by interior designers.
Moreover, regarding the specifics of your situation, any psychologist will tell you that an appreciation for contrasts (and a tug of war between them) is human nature. It’s in our love of salted and sweet, our alternating of sauna and ice-bath, and our pull towards combinations of colours that sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as pink and green. It’s reflected in the canon of literature; remember Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, caught between the extreme wilderness of the jungle, and the rules of human civilisation – or Lucy Honeychurch in E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View, trying to marry the strict Edwardian respectability of her upbringing with bohemian freedom. In both those cases, an underlying dissonance combined with curiosity led the characters to their discovery of the other world, which shares a parallel with the evolution of taste. Although, when it comes to the schemes that you’ve identified, they are, in fact, less opposing than might be assumed at face-value.
Indeed, when it comes to minimalism and maximalism, ‘the vocabulary is the same,’ says Alidad. And he explains that to do either really well – and you have homed in on exemplary instances – takes both talent and the discipline of knowing when to stop, whether that is adding or taking away. There’s more. Reading your letter – specifically the bit about creating a home that is ‘unambiguously’ yours, and keeping it tidy – I wonder if some of the allure for you is how considered and personal the schemes are? They share covetable materiality in terms of the quality of the textiles and finishes, and an enviable airiness. But minimalism and maximalism do each come with their own properties. It’s worth remembering that even when it comes to decorating, form ideally follows function.
What your letter does not reveal is whether you are furnishing a country cottage with low ceilings and little rooms, or a London mansion flat of open plan and grand proportions. You haven’t specified if you’re a shoes-on on shoes-off person, whether you’re aiming to create a refuge for yourself or hoping to regularly host raucous parties, and – even if you don’t have children yourself – if you have other small children in your life, or indeed dogs, or cats. Because, says Tamsin Saunders of Home & Found, ‘you’re never starting from scratch; remember who you are, what you are interested in, and how you live.’
It can be tempting, particularly when beginning a new chapter, to imagine a new self – forgetting, say, a long-held love of television suppers on the sofa. With that, while some people’s eye can pivot to finding comfort in ‘less’ when previously it had always been ‘more’, it’s not guaranteed. When we moved from our tiny flat to a proper house, I designed a more restrained bedroom for myself, imagining I would find it calming. I did not.
I should probably confess that I can’t be entirely unbiased in this decorating duel – partly on account of the above, but also because I’ve always appreciated pattern and colour for what Henriette von Stockhausen of VSP Interiors describes as their ‘forgiving qualities’. A good wallpaper can so successfully distract the eye as to make a mean staircase feel magnificent. There’s clever trickery that can be achieved with curtain treatments to bring symmetry to a room or make ceilings seem higher, and an antique Persian carpet will be more compassionate towards the odd red wine spill than an off-white equivalent. That said, there can, as you’ve observed, be an appealing serenity to a more pared-back interior, and it can enable the focus to fall on such ephemeral moments as the way the light dapples on the floor, or on the everchanging-ness of what lies beyond a window.
It’s possible that you’ve read this far and are now able to decide on your direction – in which case, wonderful. But, at the risk of further derailing you, I would like to offer a third way. For Rose lives as she does, and Martin as he does, but you could see them as being at different ends of the same continuum – and perhaps your fancy for Rose’s house is indication that this is the moment to find a new place for yourself on that scale. Returning to literature, this was the solution for both Mowgli and Lucy Honeychurch – he learnt to walk the boundary as the mediator between the jungle and civilisation, while she succeeded in negotiating a path between propriety and passion, combining the best of both. And so, in a similar vein, I wonder if you could think about merging your mood boards?
There’s variety to what it could look like. A base of pale floors, walls, and curtains can prove a calming foil to more decorative furniture, textiles and accessories. Conversely, a rich wallpaper and elaborately draped and trimmed curtains become elegantly spare when further layering is controlled (and Rose, if you look at her next book, Rose Uniacke at Work, is not averse to wallpaper or colour.) Alternatively, there can be a little of both, and the balance might vary between rooms. The lack of restriction or commitment that full minimalism or maximalism entails may even help when it comes to creating the highly particular interiors that you aspire to.
Before we finish, there are a couple of things you might find reassuring. Firstly, heavy, off-white curtains can be zhuzhed up with braid and combined with trimmed, patterned blinds. White walls can be papered over – and vice versa. ‘Mistakes’ don’t matter – my attempt at a minimal bedroom taught me something about myself.
Secondly, ‘there is no single right decision,’ says Tamsin. Meanwhile Brandon Schubert alerted me to a TED talk by Dan Gilbert, entitled The Surprising Science of Happiness, in which Dan explains that due to our brain’s ability to synthesise happiness, over time our liking of owned objects increases, while our liking of unowned objects decreases. In other words, provided your decision fulfils the prerequisites of planning, it can’t really be wrong. Though – thirdly – if you find yourself stuck again, know that there exists a service that falls between hiring an interior designer and doing it all yourself, and that’s booking a consultancy appointment with a designer.
I hope that there has been something helpful in this – and that you are once again excited. Good luck!
With love,
Fiona XX
