Decorating your home is above all about telling a story. Once the basics of interior creation are mastered, here is how to take the plunge: identify your personal story, translate it into a concept, then make a concrete start.
Discover your story
Like all creative activities, decorating a place is an opportunity to tell a story, to express an idea, to give substance to a vision. The most successful interiors are those that have captured the heart and the essence of the people who live in them: they echo their lives, their memories, their experiences, with no need to adopt a particular style.
A home decorated with its inhabitants' personalities in mind becomes a happy centre — somewhere you can relax and truly enjoy. Decorating to trends alone turns the interior into the replica of a shop window rather than the reflection of a personality — innovation and change remain welcome, as long as you don't follow them blindly.
When you begin arranging a room, think first of the story you want to tell, and of the impression the space is to convey, without forgetting the people who will occupy it. Combine each inhabitant's personal story, and together they write a collective one: in the living spaces (living room, kitchen, sitting room), you find what the occupants have in common, while each bedroom lets its own personality come through.
From story to design
Once the story to be put in place is well understood, it is a matter of assembling the small pieces of the puzzle and creating your picture: combining this colour with that state of mind, this texture with that shape.
Memories
Go through your family albums and your photographs. Identify the memories that resonate pleasantly within you: expeditions, journeys, outings with friends, places you have loved.
Emotions
Identify the feelings you experience; find again what you love.
The common thread
Identify what the different emotions and energies you live through have in common: a colour, a season, an occasion, a texture, a smell. Once this common thread has been found, you will be able to sketch out the living setting and identify the objects that will come to furnish the space.
A practical exercise
Understanding what you love and how you live is an essential step in decorating. The aim is a space that matches your way of life and reflects your personality: take the time to identify your own wishes and those of the people you live with.
Reconnect with what you love
Get yourself a journal and note down the places you love to go, the people who are dear to you, the books you love to read, the experiences that have shaped you, the jewellery, fabrics, sensations and smells that please you. The list can be as long as you wish: there are no right or wrong answers, only your story.
Find themes and work out what they have in common
Once the list is finished, look for the recurring themes: a colour that recalls the house of your childhood, an activity that draws you (such as photography), a collection you have built up, an eye for detail or, on the contrary, a taste for minimalism. These notes will make up the manifesto of your creativity, the backbone of your decorating.
Do some research
Once the dominant themes are defined, draw inspiration from what has been done elsewhere: magazines, décor, fabric or furniture shops, the internet. Take photographs of what you like, pin them on a cork board or file them away. The task can take months, or a single afternoon — there's no deadline.
