Find a Fresh Perspective: 4 Ways to Look at Any Room As If It’s For the First Time
Getting your home to look its best means an occasional decor shake up, furniture rearrangement or new color palette. But sometimes it’s hard to see your space for exactly what it is. We’re all tied up emotionally to our homes, which is great, but it also limits the change we can visualize. We’re so used to the way things are! If you want to stop glossing over your home and really get a fresh perspective, try these things.
Take a photo
The number one (and also easiest) way to see your home how others see it. Something about looking at your rooms on a screen instead of in person, makes it easier to step out of your everyday reality and see what’s working and what could be improved. You might be surprised by just what jumps out at you from a photo that you never noticed before.
Remove all your personal belongings
This is especially helpful when working on a new furniture layout or thinking about proportion in your room. Take all the extras away so you can really see the form and function of your things without getting distracted by knick knacks, textiles or clutter. Bonus: it also makes your furniture much easier to move around.
Change your perspective
We are creatures of habit and thus, see our homes from a surprisingly small number of angles and views. Do you always sit at the same place at the table every night for dinner? Try sliding over a few. Sit on those rarely-used occasional chairs in your living room to see what it looks like from the point of view of your guests.
Enlist your most diplomatic friend
Finally, get some actual different eyes! If you can, find an honest but kind friend who hasn’t spent a ton of time chez toi. It’s always easier to see the shortcomings of someone else’s space because you’re not emotionally attached or accustomed to seeing the same old, same old every day. He or she might be hesitant to give general thoughts, so make sure to ask specific questions to get the type of information you’re looking for.
How else do you gain a fresh perspective on your longtime spaces?