Even as a designer this condition can strike, it is possible to overload! To be successful, I like to take two steps back and document the main goals before I make any decisions, then EVERYTHING moving forward is based on those goals. The client vision comes first!

YES.

My bedroom table lamp broke in my last move. Looking for its replacement has been the bane of my existence for the past 7 MONTHS. The lamps I really like are all absurdly expensive, and there is a general dearth of beautiful lamps in the marketplace. So I have literally spent a portion of every day of my life for the past 7 months looking for a stupid lamp. It is beyond exhausting.

That's the beauty of buying used. Either you like it or you don't. Problem solved.

Just do it is my motto... if it doesn't work you can always redo it... better than doing nothing at all!!

YES! I've been trying for the past 6 months to decide if I want to paint my cabinets cream or light grey. My husband is SO OVER IT, poor guy.

Short answer: Yes, and not just for decorating.

I'm a prime example of the occasional "act impulsively", and more often, the "do nothing" which becomes infinitely more stressful than actually doing something.

I'm with deidreondesign—even as designers, we can suffer from it (which usually indicates the need for a vacation). The problem, as I see it, is we are searching for perfection. Sure, any design decision can be reconfigured, painted over, flooring pulled up, etc., but the though of doing it over can be daunting, which makes the original decision that much tougher.

"thought," that is.

Jesus in a jetpack, if you're deciding between warm gray and cool gray, it DOESN'T MATTER. Pick one. If you don't like it, do it over. No one else cares if you get it wrong the first time.

Yep have been trying to decide for 1.5 years if I should paint the top portion of the bathroom black. The lease expires in 6 months so now it is too late.

One time bought a retro lamp on E-bay and tried for months to find a lamp shade. Had no idea how difficult it was. Finally a friend picked one out of the trash and I painted it and it was good to go.

totally. i spent ages trying to decide on the right shade of grey for my homes interior. then it occured to me, wait, my homes exterior is grey too! I should find a alternative, but jiminy xmas the possiblities are endless and i knew i'd get tired whatever color i chose in short order. So basic bright white for me.

I have been stuck for 3 months now. I moved into a much larger house and I am confused by all the extra space. I have no idea what to do with the living room from the ceiling to the floors. It has been the same since the day I moved in. A big red sectional and a coffee table, builder white walls and beige carpet. I am so terrified to make a decision on what to do in there that I now avoid the room all together and spend my hours in my office and bedroom.

Yes...I usually get paralyzed and do nothing, and get stuck going over the same options again and again without actually making a decision. My poor husband! He's been schlepping around to all sorts of tile shops with me so I could find just that "right" tile. Repeat for exterior house paint. Repeat for a sofa. Repeat for ceiling lamps. Repeat for nurseries (outdoor plants). I don't know how he does it!

I can relate. I bought a beautiful wing chair that is also a recliner,from Goodwill. It was in mint condition. I sat it in front of my west facing window and the fabric faded out. I bought beautiful tooled reddish vinyl to recover it, then didn't want to mess up that fabric,and I figured it might fade too, so I thought I'd get something cheaper to experiment on. I bought off white canvas (I thought it was denim) then decided I didn't want to mess up that fabric, so i bought brown knit fabric,decided I didn't like it,thought I'd use an old spread that was still in good shape except for a rip down the center.
My problem is, I dont have the patience or skills to "reupholster" this chair, and a slipcover may be dicey since the pillow does not come out of the seat. I think back to the "old" days when you had to "make up" the couch everytime you got up from it, and that will drive me nuts!
I've pretty much arranged everything else in my apartment the way I want it, but the chair is driving me crazy. I so wish I hadn't let it get faded: it was perfect when I brought it home!
(Sigh) :(
I only paid $35 for the chair originally, $15 to bring it home in a taxi (yep!) and about $90 on fabric. Geesh, I wish I had bought it new: no more $$, no drama!

Yes! And since I don't have a car, I often turn to net shopping, which can make it even worse. Whereas in person, I might see immediately what I like, on the net I can end up searching through any amount of stuff for days, trying to figure out what is the best looking, best match, best price, best size, most durable, easy to install, affordable delivery etc. And if I really like one item, maybe another item will be too big/expensive/wrong colour etc, so I go through all the options for that item as well. When I finally do make a decision (usually on a 'who the hell cares anyway' impulse) and order something, I might discover it looks totally different in person and have to send it back. Then I need to wait a few months before having the energy to start the whole process again.

Of course looking through options and picturing what would look nice is often a lot of fun, but making decisions really can be frustrating.

I've been stuck doing nothing for a year and a half now! I'm like the commentor above....I can't even stand to be in my house anymore. I can't make a decision about anything! And when you're renovating a house (installing new floors, architectural updates, etc.), you can't just do it over...it costs several hundred to thousands of dollars to do it in the first place. The bigger, more expensive the project, the more paralyzing it becomes!
I've just decided to spend about $500 and hire an interior designer....small price to pay for getting my life back!!

Yeah that's why shopping is so disproportionately exhausting, because you're having to make decisions constantly. Plus when shopping for clothes or home items, your whole identity gets wrapped up in the decisions.

I'm sure I'm not the only who got home from Ikea with things I didn't really want or need. The place is so big that you end up getting exhausted and make rash decisions. Luckily they have a pretty generous return policy.

I had similar paralysis when I moved from a small city to the DC metro area. I needed a dining table and chairs for my new studio--suddenly there were literally hundreds of places to comparison shop. And that was before the internet!

Anyway, what helped me was to first decide <where> I would shop, based on my own sense of style, my budget, etc. I checked out Crate & Barrel, a local "bare wood" type store for something I could finish myself, and a second's sale at Conran's, where I finally nabbed the round maple table and chairs I wanted.

I do the same thing with other kinds of purchases. It saves time and keeps me on budget and happy with my choices.

Ah. Nope. Never have.

My house is the one place where I can make decisions with my husband. It's low cost, low implication (you can paint over a bad design decision) and actually a lot of fun.

It takes both patience and quickness; patience to wait for the right thing (I've been hunting the perfect coffee table for over a year now) and quickness once you find it. I love that ! Pleasure of the hunt, pleasure of the find. Our house is still undergoing severe renovation, and all those decisions make it fun for us in the middle of chaos.

My only tip would be: have a very precise idea of what you want before exploring all the options. I love wood, so when it came to flooring, hardwood was a natural choice, and I didn't loose time over the other types of flooring. We just had fun picking the wood shade.

When I bought my house I was lucky enough to be able to start furnishing and decorating pretty much from scratch - but with a small budget and a tight timeframe. I had so many decisions to make about it all I really did hit my quota, my brain just felt completely full with all the options, I couldn't fit one more. I couldn't even decide what to have for lunch, I had to get someone else to decide for me and then I ate that every day for weeks.

I can totally relate. I'm in the 'decision paralysis' camp. I'm living with colors on the walls in several rooms that I hate because I hate the mess of painting more and it has to be the PERFECT color in order to put up with the disruption. I just need to get over it and pick a color and DO the work.

Break it down into separate steps, and don't be in a hurry. First, pick the flooring. If you have flooring you like, pick the rug to go on it. How? Pick what you like, what you fall in love with. That's what you won't ever need to change for something else, you'll continue to love it. If you need something in a hurry, and don't have time to find something you love, go cheap instead and change it when you do love something. Either new cheap, or craigslist. You can then craigslist it, give it to a friend or family member, or donate it, without regret, when you find something you like better.

Next, pick the couch. Or chairs if you are going with chairs instead. Make it go with the rug (that limits your choices right here.) Also make it go with the style of your home - limits your choices even further. If you like your home, chances are that when you move, you will pick a similar style and stuff will still go with your new home, too.

Then, slowly pick the rest of the stuff that you want in the room over time, making sure it goes with what you already have. Pick upholstery and paint and curtain/blind colors from the colors in your rug and couch or chairs. If you like them, and you do because you were drawn to them, you will like using the minor colors in them for picking your other choices.

For a bedroom, start with the bed, then get the rest of the stuff to go with that. For a dining room, start with the table. If you see a move in your future, get some furniture that could have multiple uses in different rooms.

Don't just look for new stuff. Look at antiques and vintage (in stores and online) stuff you like, and mix it up.

Three rules for every purchase: 1. Will it look OK with what I already have bought? 2. Will it fit well (actually and visually) in the space where I envision it? Measure everything carefully and use paper and box mock-ups for the actual. Pull up a picture online with pictures of stuff you already have and reduce the windows so you can see them side by side with what you are considering purchasing for the visual check. And 3. Do I love it, am I drawn to it? If not, don't buy it. Wait for something you are drawn to if you can wait; if not, do the cheap temporary thing.

Like the bedside lamp person, I haven't found the one I want. Bedside lamps are a challenge! So I'm using a cheap, boring one that does the job while not being offensive, while keeping my eyes out for the one I love. When I find it, I'll have no doubt and will snap it up. Until then, I have light, and since I have not put time pressure on myself, I can enjoy the looking, doing it when I feel moved to. Don't feel pressured to "get it done." See your home as something you will add to over decades, likely with house moves and an upgrade or two in quality over time, all while enjoying the process.

If you move before ever deciding on a color for your walls, or finding curtains, it isn't a big deal. Take what you have that you've bought that you love, use what of it fits in your new place, and you're that much further ahead and can think about wall paint and curtains from the start in the new place.

I do know people who get it all done at once and don't give furnishing a second thought after that. I don't, however, think that people with that personailty type have any need for, or interest in, websites like this one.

Go to the bookstore and flip through design mags. See what draws you. This will give you an idea of what colors and styles you are drawn to.

This is what I've learned works for me, anyway, over the decades. And it works for all budget levels.

I usually work from my (mental) plan. If I need an area rug, for instance, I consider why. (To tie the living room together and be warm underfoot.) OK, if it's to tie the room together, what does that imply? It needs to be a certain size, it needs to be kind of dark, it needs to go with certain colors, it can't have a strongly contrasting pattern ... Already a lot of options are eliminated. We live on a tight budget, so nothing expensive can be bought -- so go to Home Goods, scan the racks for a while, see what might work, and try a couple of things out. If I find something inexpensive enough, it can function until I find something I love more for which I need to save up. (Then the temporary solution can go to Craigslist.)

If I am solving a problem I find a resolution (temporary or permenent) for the problem as fast as I can. I am very "closure" oriented -- I may not paint a table for a year, but I will HAVE the table if I need it for something.

I often have a spontaneous clear vision of the total completed room, so planning and then finding the specific items I want is easy, unless my partner doesn't buy in -- then we compromise.

But I'm getting burned out on the project of redesigning the main floor of the library where I work. (Decision by committee can definately complicate every tiny decision, especially if others are paranoid about spending a single cent more than is unavoidable!)

This post ended up making me really happy! After reading about six comments from people who've taken sometimes YEARS to decide on furnishings, I realized OMG, I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!! And then there were a bunch more after that! Mwah, mwah, I love you all.

Living room rug...enough said!