She's done her house in everything I loath...

[whycantIbestylishtoo]

...and yet my heart sank when I saw it all, because it looks AMAZING.

I shouldn't be surprised really. A close friend of mine has moved house and has redecorated from scratch. It's only a small place, but this is the third house I've known her in, and all of them she decorates beautifully in a way I can only envy.

I like to be modern. I like to be up to date. I like fashionable colours and modern furniture. Matt finishes only. I am loving the trend for brushed brass and dark green. My friend, she doesn't. She likes old things, second-hand furniture, pretty much anything that's out of fashion, her only rule is that the colours of the things within a room have to match on a room-by-room basis.

She's had the ceilings in every room papered in woodchip. Prior to this, they were painted and very cracked in places. The walls in several rooms have been covered in tongue & groove, and in the rooms which haven't been done like that it's raised-pattern paint-able paper. She's had an old-fashioned style coving around the top of every room. All the skirting boards and doors have been changed, again for something very old fashioned which I thought would look horrific in a 40ish year old house. The doors, frames, and skirtings have all been painted in white gloss. The walls, ceilings, and coving painted in brilliant white silk emulsion. And then to this she has brought in all her own style with dark carpets, curtains, soft furnishings and throws, plus the dark wood of most of her furniture.

It sounds hideous written down, and it's everything I would never dream of doing. Yet when I leave her house I feel so depressed that I don't have the courage to like what is not fashionable, the skill to search charity shops and facebook market place for inexpensive 'tat' which I wouldn't look twice at, and the vision to bring it all together. There are no words to describe how beautiful her home now looks. How do some people do it?

Re the woodchip paper and why it's generally hated, I think it's because it recalls an era where every cheap landlord used it to cover damp and cracks. Also the texture is incompatible with other styles, e.g. if you like Art Deco or ultramodern or just about anything that isn't nostalgic for a mid-1970s student bedsit, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. It is also an absolute nightmare to get off, especially on a ceiling. You can steam it off with great care (a ceiling makes this particularly difficult) and still spend the rest of your life trying to pick off the tiny bits of chip that have stubbornly clung to the surface. Eventually you give up and paper over it, and then spend the rest of your life glaring at the bits of chip that remained. There are much nicer ways to disguise cracks. (Not mentioning the dreaded Artex here, aaaaaggghhhhhh another disaaaaaaaahster dahling!!!!!)

@whycantIbestylishtoo i agree with friend . Wood down in white gloss (satin wood ) and silk on the walls .

Would love a pic tbh

I am dying to see a picture of this house. It sounds very interesting.

This is it, it's not thrown together, it's well thought out, like your example of her paint colour.

You have to enjoy it, spend time and sadly money making mistakes until you achieve the look you love.

It also evolves, but I've now finally settled on a style after years of trial and error.

So although I can now throw things together, it's been a long time coming.

Some are happy following trends as much as some are happy riding through them.

A friend had grey before it was popular and although it's popularity is now fading, she's kept hers and it still looks great.

Don't be afraid to try and fail OP, you'll get there but it does take patience and planning.

Some people just have that flair- I used to work in a merchandising role and when the manager tweaked what I’d done by literally just moving a few things about, it looked like anything you’d see in a catalog! Some people just have it!!! Enjoy the things you like though op x

She sounds amazing! You could ask her for some tips? I recently saw some good reels on FB although I think she's more on insta - lilswalty. She has some good videos about making your house more weird! Sounds funny but it made sense and she showed examples. Also pinterest can be really helpful. Also remember you can enjoy and be inspired by her home but also go with your style and what works for you for your own home.

Also, woodchip wallpaper is NOT what I assumed it was?! I imagined actual brown woodchips stuck to the ceiling. But Google tells me it's just white paper with bumps? My house has that on some ceilings lol! I've never thought anything of it.

The best way to deal with woodchip wallpaper is to sand it. Just a tip for anyone who might be living with it! A million times quicker and easier than trying to scrape it off.

I agree with something a pp said. Choose one piece you love and use that as your inspiration. I tend to have visions of what I want to create and then I do it. I do think being able to visualise how something will look makes a difference. I don't think everyone can do that. Hence why people have to "dress" their homes for sale. But I also see things online or out and about that inspire me. I don't follow trends, I just go with what I like.

That could be exciting. Wish I had a friend like this.

Is it different or better than masking tape please? I've just stocked up on the latter.

Can you describe the wallpaper she's used a bit more?

To me it sounds like she's done that wonderful trick with neutrals...Keep the palette the same, but mix up textures. It's a great way of adding warmth and interest to a room, while remaining subtle.

Would love to see some pictures, does she have an ig account?

Yes agree with this. You won’t create your own beautiful home that you love by following every trend and knowing what’s “in”, and you won’t achieve it by copying your friend either. It’s about knowing what you like and which things that you like work together and feel right to you. What do you actually like and feel good looking at? Which colours make you feel relaxed or happy? Light or dark wood, traditional furniture, mid-century modern or minimalist? - etc.

I love solid light wood furniture and birch ply, white walls, and warm colours and prints for textiles and decor. That’s what any home of mine ends up with because it’s what I like and always buy/choose. I can’t imagine being influenced by a friend’s very different taste or by the latest on-trend colour. I might see something I love in someone else’s house or in a magazine but not be told I have to like something that’s just not me. Why would I when I just want to surround myself with the colours and textures that make me happy?

Just spend some time looking at Pinterest etc and seeing what really appeals to you and feels right, ignoring everything you know about trends and styles.

Good for her! Why do you have to follow trends, OP? My house has never been "in fashion", but it's how I like it. I don't care what other people think - it doesn't matter.

Sounds as if she couldn’t give a toss about what’s latest, or ‘trends’ - which will all be old hat in a few years anyway.

She’s furnishing in her own style, with what she likes. Good on her.👏

That’s her skill and I get envying it, I envy musicians but you have to work with your own skills or work at developing the ones you’d like.
I have an eye for my own interior design but couldn’t design anyone else’s. I know what I like but it’s taken a while to build that confidence.
I have an instagram account for it but I also only follow people with style I like, it helps to get inspiration and try combinations you might not realise would work.
It’s easy to be bold with paint, because if you hate it you can start over.
We do all our own renovation except the structural stuff so everything is on a budget and most from Facebook. Some things have been real hits, but I’ve resold the misses.

Because it’s cheaper than replastering.

OP I'd be interested to see what kind of thing you mean. Obviously, you cant share pics but ideas wondering if you can find some similar pictures on Pinterest maybe?

Absolutely, but would you woodchip over cracked plaster and spend the money saved on changing the skirting boards throughout the house? I understand changing the doors, but changing the skirting boards and adding ‘old-fashioned’ coving to each room seems like odd prioritisation to me.

I think I understand. I love my home but it's by no means magazine ready! I had a vision for our bedroom and saved lots of pinterest pictures. I used the same paint colours, furnished it similarly but it just doesn't look right.

We're due to replace our kitchen soon and knock two rooms together. I have a vision in my head (and in my pinterest account) but I can guarantee I'll somehow end up making it look like a poorly designed version of the same thing!

Some people just have an innate ability to make things look nice and display things nicely. I do not share this skill!

A lot of people describe me like this,an awful lot of people copying me..I'm more like your friend, I like individual, unusual bits. Many years ago I bought "Ideal Home" and some home style magazine, cannot remember the name, I didn't copy, have never followed "fashion" for colours with either home or clothes. Our last house was 1930s, we put back the "features", that had been "Bucknelled", folk under a certain age, and not interested in DIY won't know the expression. We did the downsize bungalow near the sea thing. It's 1960s open plan, huge picture Windows. We went to town straight away,there was a big folding door between the living room and kitchen at the end.we threw it away, I wish to God I had kept it! Funny because now open plan is the big thing,so it was done before. I wanted white walls everywhere,scandi chicken,DH didn't,so everywhere stayed white,apart from the beige living room, which I hated,10 years ago it became light grey,as a compromise,no one was "into" grey then. I've gone all "William Morris", curtains second hand on e bay or vinted. I have a few expensive "pieces", mostly table lamps and lamp shades,which I love, sometimes they are used in different rooms, sometimes put away. I have a friend with an original art deco apartment, I go there,an come back home and think my house looks, shabby, we have dogs it's not immaculate. When folk say it's "lived in", I think,",0h,dear is it tatty".

You don't have to follow fashion. I hate grey and don't have a single bit of grey in my house.

My first house, in 1999, I painted every room a different colour. The kitchen was bright yellow and bright blue, the living room was blue, the bedrooms were terracotta and the bathroom was pale green. I loved it.

When I moved in 2006, I went for an off white colour, rose white. That does now need repainting, but it was 18 years ago when it was last done.

As a single parent now, I spend money on essential maintenance, and not decor. But I never follow fashion, I buy things that I like, no matter what colour or design.

I didn't type "chicken"!!! That was the phone.

Would your friend mind letting you post pics ?
I'm hopeless at visualising stuff from a written description and it sounds intriguing.

Well, I suppose ‘Scandi Chicken’ could be a white paint. No odder than F and B Dead Salmon, which we have in one room.

I think you are underestimating the amount of thought that goes into her style and decor. She doesn’t just throw it together randomly.

Everywhere she goes whether that’s other people’s home, cafes, restaurants, scrolling on the phone, flicking through magazines at the doctors surgery waiting room, she will be noticing things. Things she likes, things that work well together, things that don’t. People who have a natural interest in design do this as second nature. Hours and hours and hours of time will have been spent mulling over what she’d like to use for her own home and what would work well. She’s then just put it all into action over a small space of time and she has the confidence it will work and come together because of the thinking time she has done.