I've been reading Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan. It's not just a book about making your home look pretty. It's about creating a home that promotes well-being and doesn't stress you out. What I appreciate most about the book is that the author names the je ne sais quoi factors that make a space work and look beautiful. The author lives (or maybe lived?) in a 265 square foot apartment in New York City. If you're curious as to how he managed to live in such a tiny space with a wife and baby, check it out here. It's very awe-inspiring.
What I find most challenging about decorating our apartment is sticking to just one style. I love so many looks, that it's hard to commit to just one. But I'm going to try. And I'm going to start by sticking to the 80/20 colour rule. Eighty percent neutral colours and 20% strong colours. There's another piece of advice that I'm ambivalent about though and that's not mixing cool and warm colours together. He recommends sticking to either or when choosing strong colours. But I love the combination of red and blue, red and green, orange and gray, yellow and gray, hot pink and gray, which are all warm-cool colour combos. I think I'll follow Dorothy Draper's advice: if it looks good to you, then it's right.
