For some people it starts small: they fall in love with a pillow in a catalog, they bring home a quirky vase from a trip abroad, they bookmark a great paint color. For others, it comes on like a tidal wave: on Friday their home is Shabby Chic, by Monday, it's a study in minimalism. Others tread a fine line, moving their stuff from one room to another, or they flip flop their furniture arrangement in their own version of musical chairs. Whole blogs are built around the concept.
It feels like a relatively new phenomenon; certainly my parents and the parents of most of my friends rarely changed up their spaces while I was growing up. Even now, the childhood homes of many of my friends remain shrines to times long past. But now, possibly brought about by the rise of the internet, decor blogs (including this one) that make design more accessible, and a more mobile lifestyle, it's become fairly common to change up your interiors every few years.
This is not only limited to decor. Closet purges and changes are another form of design cycling. At least that is what I deduced when I spoke to a couple of clothing stylists: an inner shift prompted outer change, resulting in inner peace of mind, body, soul and home.
C'mon, fess up. Do you constantly re-decorate? How often? When was the last change and what prompted it?
(Images: Emma Reddington of The Marion House Blog who flip flopped her dining room and living room to the benefit of both.)
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wow, I didn't realize there were people like me out there. I'm always redecorating, color schemes change and I pack away things and bring others things out of storage, etc. Happens several times a year.
Guilty. I've re-decorated so many times, I've started to lose count. One night I completely dismantled the living room. The wife went to bed during the commotion. When she woke up the next morning, the room looked exactly the same. She was so puzzled. What happened? I completely rearranged the whole room, saw the finished product and hated it. Took me 2 hours to put it all back the way it was. Because I am crazy, that's why.
Constantly. This is one of the reasons IRL why I have the hardest time using anything with patterns. I get bored of them so easily that I have to change them up.
I thought it was just me.
oh, yeah.. um.. me.. i blame it on a family of 3 living in 600 square feet. im constantly rearranging trying to find get the most out of our space.
Constand re-decorator! I have been since I was strong enough to move around my bedroom as a preteen... I drive my husband bananas, and my 4yr old daughter "Mommy you moved it again?!, you're so silly mommy".
@iamthelab haha, that's too funny!
Yep. And if I'm not doing it IRL, then I'm moving furniture around in my mind. And hanging artwork. And arranging chatchkes.
But unlike most of my peers, I grew up in a house that got redecorated so often I had to look behind me before i sit down to make sure the chair that was there this morning is still there.
My dad got so tired of it, he bought my mom a dollhouse to decorate. What a surprise to him and the budget when it turned out they are MORE expensive to decorate!
Growing up, our house and bedrooms were constantly being rearranged, and my parents still move the furniture around yearly. Now that I'm in my own home, I definitely rearrange - and have totally done the same thing as iamthelab. Yup, yup. Thought it was the norm :)
Yep, that's us. It's one of the reasons we kept our apartment as a white box. There was too much artwork that would end up on other walls every few months to paint the walls with the risk that it wouldn't work later. When we move, we'll finally bite the bullet and paint but it'll be more of a neutral.
Compulsive re-decorator since a child! - I tried to secretly repaint my closet when I was 7 because I was tired of the sunny yellow and wanted pink, hoping the new color would convince my parents I needed new wallpaper, too. As an adult, I spackle holes constantly - new furniture arrangements means new art arrangements, after all.
I'm a piano teacher who works from home, and it's a game among my students to spot the weekly changes to my layout! I'm hoping that they don't see my tendency to experiment with different permutations of furniture as some sign of mental imbalance :P I definitely do feel "off" when the flow isn't right, and I get a major rush of endorphins from the creativity involved in reshaping my surroundings...so I suppose that's why moving furniture for me becomes habit forming. Almost every time I shift things around I feel I am learning more and getting closer to some sort of "ultimate" space, whether that exists or not. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop "chasing the dragon," but I'm having fun, so that's ok with me.
Great topic!
oh boy.. we just can't help ourselves. I have to say Apartment Therapy is partly to blame.
I've now color coded all my bookcases, realized I was ahead of my time with monochromatic decorating with a pop of color.. etc.. etc..
Constantly! I am always redecorating, rearranging, you name it... Whenever friends come over it's literally a game of what's new? what's moved? Just last night I completely tore apart my home office, removed everything, and I'll be painting it this week, new furniture was ordered this morning and I can't wait for it to be done. I'm also installing carpet tiles! Can't wait for it to be done...for this week at least. ;)
As a collector *and* constant re-arranger, I had a pretty interesting bedroom during high school... my sister and I had a normal bed, a loft bed, a giant armoire/cabinet deal, three desks, five bookshelves, and some other stuff going on in there. It got to be like doing one of those slide puzzles to move everything around/fit it all in.
I am waiting for my new sofa and it will be game on for me again! I cant wait to bust out my boxes of chotches and art work and move all the furniture. I really need to figure out a way to convince the landlord to pull up the dingy berber and reveal the hardwood floors!
I am CONSTANTLY redecorating. My old roomie always got a kick out of coming home to a new home every week.
So my question is, if you love something but somehow you can't find the room for that piece, what do you do? Do you sell it or do you store it until you find a place or move to a new place? This is my biggest dilemma.
I became a constant re-decorator at home after working at an Anthropologie store - they put A TON of effort into their displays and arrangements, and I felt like every new iteration was the best! A work of art! But within a few weeks they'd dismantle it and start over. At first I was dismayed, but soon started to like the idea of drastic change within the same space. It kept the environment very refreshed.
I am an addicted re-decorator. Honestly, I didn't think there are many "me" out there. =) I get tired of looking at the same stuff easily.. If I had my way, I'd re-decorate every other weekend. But, I usually do it around once a month. Whether it's simply changing decoration pieces, or moving furniture around, I find it therapeutic. It makes me feel like I can control about something else other than work and my life.
Serial redecorator here. Some trends lasted only 2 or 3 years (remember White Haitian cotton and mirrored tables?), others like my former Chinese Chippendale, and current Danish Modern have lasted almost 10 years before I get the urge to change.
I swear my parents have the same furniture (tables, lamps, chairs, etc.) since 1972. How can they stand it?
@monicak, I know what you meant. If I find a certain piece that I absolutely love, I'd absolutely find a reason to get rid of something else so that it would fit. =D
@ monicak
I think that you should get rid of something you don't love to make room for it now.
Love that painting.
Since I was old enough to physically move things, I was redecorating my spaces.
I would ask for furniture for Christmas, repaint walls/furniture, beg my parents for crown moulding, etc.
When I got my first job, I would use my money to buy IKEA stuff. Now I live on my own, and it's a curse. I spend a good part of every weekend shopping for home items. It is a priority over grocery shopping.
It's in my blood. Change is good, and there's nothing more fun than redecorating!
Nope. I plan a room, buy the best options to execute the plan that I can afford, and leave it alone until something needs to be replaced or updated, or swapped out with a new treasure. (This doesn't happen very often.)
I trust my design sense and if I like something I usually like it long term. I'm an advocate of careful planning, and I have a good sense of spatial relations, so I don't need to SEE it to know how it will work out, usually. (When we redecorated the Library where I work this summer, we knew that not everyone has this gift, so we hired a draftsman who put of the floor plan into one of those 3-D rendering programs, for a rough walk-through. This led to a few design changes that might not have been discussed otherwise. I suggest it if you have access to free software before moving anything heavy!)
This reminds me of that Michael Jackson lyric "You are not alone....."
Been doing it since my first tiny one-bedroom apartment...I always re-arrange with the seasons. In winter the configuration is cozy around the fireplace. In summer main pieces face the french doors peeking into the back yard. And spring/fall are somewhere in between. Collections get rotated in and out and rugs warm the floors or get rolled up to feel the cool hardwood in warm weather. On occasion it makes the hubby crazy - but he usually goes along with it and most often has the best ideas! Can't imagine living with the same layout - ad infinitum!
bwahahahahahaha!
This post TOTALLY made my day!! I am like the majority hear...I absolutely LOVE to rearrange my furniture and or things and always have. It keep it "fresh". My mom use to rearrange every few months or so, probably where I got it from.
I often have times where I wake in the middle of the night with an idea and get up and try it...much to the dismay of my teenager LOL! She just doesn't get it...
Ahem...I usuallly do a major change once or twice a month and refresh more than I care to admit...LOL!
My great-aunt re-decorated with the seasons - pictures came down and new ones went up, she changed out the wool rugs for jute in summer, velvet upholstery was covered with linen slipcovers, heavy drapes went to the cleaners in favor of gauzy sheers. She also went whole-hog for holiday decor, and I swear she had a different tablecloth for each month. Very glam.
Basically, she left most of the furniture where it was, but so many small cosmetic changes really did make the place feel rather different. Although my limited storage limits my flexibility for such overhauls, she was inspirational.
I’ve been rearranging my room/house since i had my first bedroom. I still do it today, now its more because I just wanted a little change of scenery. I can’t always afford to go out and buy a whole new room. But, if I move this table over here, take a lamp from this room, add a few up-cycled Goodwill finds I’ve created a new space with things I already own.
Guilty!! At least a few times a year. I kinda hate it. It's too expensive to change things up so often.My husband curses my accent pillow collection. I will say though that I do have certain pieces that will never change. My obsession with white slipcovers and framed photography will always be part of my vibe.
I consider moving furniture my best form of exercise and try to schedule it at least 2-3 times a week. ;)
I always blame AT. Every time I see a photo of an apt that I like, it makes me want to incorporate that look in my apt decor... and before anyone sees it, I change it again and again and again... I must confess I even have a blog to keep record of this constant change.. One time a fortune teller told me "Your furnitures have a headache because you keep arranging them".. :-))
Growing up, my parents knew that if they left me home alone, they'd almost surely come back to a re-arranged living room or den. They were generally happy with the results...except for that one time they came home tipsy and fell over a sofa that wasn't where they left it. I do love a continuous process of making things beautiful...then MORE beautiful!
So glad I am in good company. I am constantly doodling redecorations on graph paper. I feel so sorry for my boyfriend. Often I get the urge to do all the furniture tetris at one in the morning, so he often wakes up in a completely different world. I think he is just secretly waiting for it all to go in the exact same place it was when we moved in.
I've become a constant redecorator in the past three years. I used to move apartments every year or two since I was eleven, which of course necessitated redecorating. However, we are about to renew our lease on the current apartment for a third year, and I am definitely getting that itch to change things up (which I have been doing constantly over the past year anyway).
Mom: "What are you DOING in there?" Me: "Re-arranging my room!" Mom: "Oh, okay." I learned it from her. I used to do it all the time, long after I was on my own. But I've lived in my current place 15 years, and about 10 years ago, I figured out how to make the furniture arrangement fit my lifestyle, really well. I pretty much locked it into place and decorated around it. About 4 years ago, my lifestyle changed dramatically, and after 2 months juggling furniture, that arrangement locked into place. I DO still do new things - usually involving paint or accessories, or occasionally, a new/different piece of furniture - but the basic configuration is pretty set. It suits me and fits the way I like to live. Funny, it works so well for me, I can't imagine wanting to change it! But who knows what the next lifestyle shake-up will bring?
It's OK, you're not alone. It's just great fun to bring out the artist in you.
I'd rather clear and refresh furnishings than let them accumulate as stagnant layers of detritus over time. I no longer care about growing knickknack collections, and instead emphasize keeping my home comfortable and bright. Changing furnishings to enhance enjoyment of current activities and interests always has been more a hobby than a chore to be finished.
@ postagenotes - I absolutely put home decorating before groceries. Much to the dismay of my husband ( he LOVES to cook) but half the reason we have such a cute place now is because all I ate for years was the cheapest stuff I could find.
I daily redesign our place and have usually have a coherent new vision by Friday. How do you all deal with redesigning so often vs. budgeting?? That's my biggest struggle.
Oh! Me too. I'm having company over tonight, and I hope I have time to rearrange the living room before they arrive. Nothing major tonight. A bookcase, a chair, my desk, the shoe rack, my sewing table....
And all because I find the little table my husband is using to keep his computer tower off the floor awkward.
Constantly. And I also learned it from my mother. At a very young age I was decorating and re-decoring my rooms (I grew up in a house with a ton of rooms, I had 5 different bedrooms growing up), and then my friends bedrooms. And I'm still doing it, much to my husband's dismay; he does not share this affliction.
Really, the question confuses me. Compulsive? I thought this was NORMAL. Although, my husband has always said it's a good thing he's not a drinker who keeps late hours. Otherwise, he'd break his neck stumbling in the door in the dark as the furniture nevers remains in the same place long :)
I am 2nd generation OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Decorator). The mind reels at what my mother would have done with AT and Craigslist...
I get so attached to my furniture, bedding, linens, accessories, etc. and keep them forever, but I'm constantly rearranging everything. Sometimes I'll spend all day rearranging only to put it all right back where it was. It's exhausting but somehow satisfying.
WOW, I thought I was the only one. I am constantly rearranging furniture, putting up paintings, even painting the walls. I never seem to be happy seeing the same layout for more than a month! But yes, it gives a lot of inner peace and joy when I rearrange. My husband though wouldn't share the same feelings!!!
This post cracked me up (b/c I thought maybe I was just crazy!). I don't necessarily redecorate, but I am always swapping things out- curtains, pillows, moving things around. My home is 450 sq. feet, so I am always trying to move or remove things to make our home more efficient for how we use it. I thought this just might be b/c our home is so small since I didn't really do that in any of my other homes which were all larger. I also used to move every few years, and that kept my decorating in check, but now that I have settled down, I feel more nested. Apt Therapy has helped me define my style too- I always knew what I liked, but I never really had a style, until I started looking at other homes, and realized the things I am attracted to. I have spent the last year trying to create it in my own home. I am guilty of repainting a wall after only a few months and I change the curtains in my living room about 4 times in the last year!
you made up a name for me - genius !
I redecorate like once a week! HAHA! I get paid on Fridays and almost always buy something new and/or I'm always making new stuff myself so things have to be moved around. My boyfriend thinks I'm insane. And then After a couple weeks of buying stuff and making things I look around and foam at the mouth because it's too cluttered! I just need a big house.
LOL as a teenager my mantra was always "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission" when it came to redecorating my room. Until then it was always, Mom, Dad, can I repaint? Move my bed? Hang some art? And they'd say no just because they didn't want to do it. So I started doing it myself, and I've been entertaining them with it ever since--even inspired my Mom to start redecorating their house constantly (don't think Dad is pleased with me about that). Move a queen sized bed, mattress and box spring all by myself? Sure thing! Luckily for my three roommates, I'm constantly reorganizing our belongings instead (a necessity for booklovers in NYC) so the furniture is safe... mostly... and I've discovered a love affair for flower arrangements, which HAVE to be changed often! :)
3 nods for the article and im proud being a compulsive decorator!
Hi, my name is d-zine.guy and I'm a compulsive re-decorator.
I can't help it.
When I look for furniture/art/whatever, I'm always seeing it in more than one place in my house.
Love to move things around. sometimes I plan it out in my head, and then find out my muscles just don't measure up to my ideas LOL Hard then to find someone willing ...