Embraceliving

Finding your personal style. This is important—a leopard can’t change her spots, apparently as far as interior decorating is concerned. The furniture we choose, the rug we fancy, the colors we crave—all have their roots in specific personality traits. To go against the grain of your personal taste creates a lot of psychological strain. We all have said, “I just couldn’t live with that.” We mean it—we really couldn’t live with some things, and we shouldn’t try.
A test I use for deciding if a certain piece looks good or whether I even like it, is to put the piece in an unexpected place—an antique Chinese vase on the kitchen counter, for instance, and then try to forget I put it there. In the middle of the night, coming down for a peanut butter sandwich, I switch on the light, and in that instant of surprise, I see the object truly. In a flash, I react emotionally to the piece rather than intellectually, and I flash instant love or indifference or hate. It is on this level—of the immediate subconscious reaction that you have to like something. It is a reaction so fast, it doesn’t even seem to be connected to thought I call it the “happy eye.” If something doesn’t give you the happy eye, don’t talk yourself into thinking you like it. I bring up the happy eye because I suspect many mother don’t want to clean up the house because they don’t have anything that they feel strongly enough about to if to see clean.

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