My house was built in the mid 90s, bought by us in the early 00s, and looked really well when we moved in. Now it’s looking dated and mismatched and I just don’t know how I can make it look good.
Everytime I change or update something I seem to throw off the balance of the room in ways I wasn’t expecting. I can’t really afford to make over an entire room because there’s always something else that needs attention.
Right now it’s the couch, I say “now” but I’ve been dragging my heels about this for 3 years now and it’s properly scruffy. When I change the couch, the armchairs will probably look awkward, the colour will almost but not quite tone in, or the balance of textures in the room will be off, or the curtains that seemed absolutely fine will suddenly look a bit shabby.
It doesn’t help that I’m not very good decor - I have aphantasia and can’t visualise what something will look like, or how colours will go together. I try taking photos on my phone but the colours don’t come out right. I’m not even good at imagining how a swatch will look in a bigger space. The impact of a change often takes me completely by surprise. We changed our downstairs carpets to wooden floors and in one room I hadn’t noticed how some of the small accessories (light fittings and fireplace tiles) had been the same colour as the carpet and now didn’t go with anything anymore. Another room seemed much colder and was begging for rugs and throws.
We updated the kitchen, but while it looks good, it’s a bit of a jarring contrast with the rest of the house. It feels like crossing over from East to West Berlin!
All the decor blogs talk about accepting that you’ll make mistakes, but irl there isn’t actually spare money to change things because something more important needs attention.
Does anyone manage to update their house in stages without getting that mismatched, dated feeling? I think there must be some tricks I’m missing. Maybe to replace a group of things instead of one at a time? Or just paint everything white!! I don’t want to stay in a 90s time capsule either.