I’ve known for quite a long time that I’m pretty much just obsessed with interiors. That’s not to say I don’t have other interests in my life – of course, I do. I’m a normal, nuanced, multi-layered person just like you. But when it comes to interiors, there is a sense that it’s mine. That it’s such a part of my person that it feels as though it’s flowing through my veins. And as you are a visitor of my blog, that might be the case for you too.
My other half is pretty used to this by now. He sometimes finds me just standing at the doorway to a room looking in, seemingly lost in thought. He knows now it’s not a sign of old age and that I’ve forgotten why I’ve gone into the room (okay, yeah, sometimes it is that) but most of the time it’s just me planning how I want to change the space, what colours I want to bring in, whether that chair or table or piece of art might be better placed in a different room.
So today, I thought I’d share my little tongue-in-cheek list of things you might do that shows you’re just as addicted to interiors as I am. These are all things I do and I’d love to know how many of the twelve you find yourself doing as well. Ready? Let’s go…
#1 Every surface of your home is meticulously styled
I find it rather hilarious that a bunch of the guys at Wayne’s work (bear in mind he works in a bodyshop/garage) follow my blog or my Instagram. Okay, so they aren’t my target market and I know it’s born simply out of curiosity/voyeurism but they will often ask him if the house really looks the way it does in pictures on an everyday basis. He’ll respond (rather proudly which I find sweet) that the truth of the matter is that yes, yes, it does look like this pretty much all the time. I don’t set up shots or style a corner and then take a picture only to dismantle it a few moments later. I like my spaces to be styled because that’s how I like my home to look. If you do this too, you may just be at the start of your interiors addiction but it’s a damn good start.
#2 Even the most utilitarian items are pretty
I refuse to have ugly soap pumps in my house. Or ugly washing up baskets. Or ugly mugs. If you find yourself spending just a little more for beautiful utilitarian items most people don’t give a second thought to, you’re probably addicted to interiors. You know that a pretty soap pump looks great next to your sink and that when you reach into your cupboard to make a cuppa, you want to be greeted by a sea of beautiful objects. It’s just how we are built, right?
#3 Squashed cushions give you heart palpitations
The last thing I do before heading up to bed is to re-fluff the cushions on my sofa. I can’t bear to come down in the morning and see all the cushions on my sofa mangled within an inch of their lives. No, no, that just won’t do. When it only takes 20 seconds and it means me not getting annoyed with them, it’s worth the extra effort. You’re probably an interiors addict if you are well aware that there’s nothing that will throw off that Insta-vibe more than cushions that are not perfectly fluffed. Not on your watch.
#4 You choose a restaurant, cafe or bar based on its interiors
Yes, I admit to this and embrace it. If I’m going to be spending money on any establishment, then it’s important I feel inspired and excited about how the place is decorated. I don’t know, I just think it makes the food taste better! Ha! So, if you too click on ‘gallery’ before you bother clicking on ‘menu’ when looking at the latest restaurant to open in your area, then you’re probably addicted to interiors too.
#5 You have candles that you save for ‘best’
I have a huge collection of candles but some of them are just too gorgeous to use up on a boring Tuesday night. Oh yes, you know what I’m talking about, right? I have some very expensive candles I hardly ever burn unless it’s some kind of occasion or I’ve got company. Are you the same? Yeah, you are probably just as addicted as I am then. #sorrynotsorry
#6 You have a pair of pretty scissors that you don’t even use
See those gold scissors there? Yeah, I bought them for DIY projects for the blog. Does it mean I use them every day? Nope because there’s a crappy pair of IKEA scissors stuck in a drawer somewhere that is used for opening packets, parcels and for ya know, cutting things. Don’t even get me started on letting anyone else use these ones either. Wayne isn’t allowed to touch these. But but but… don’t they look pretty? If you have a pair of scissors that are more props than actual functional pieces because you like how they look in your Instagram shots, then I hate to break it to you, but you are probably as big an obsessive as I am.
#7 Televisions and tech are the banes of your decorating
You know as well as I do that a big huge black box in the corner of the room is gonna make your living room look like crap. It throws everything off, sucks up the light and is basically the bane of your decorating. Whether it’s the TV, the Skybox or the 42 other game consoles, speakers or just the hanging bunch of wires behind the console that bums you out, you know what I’m on about. Why can’t they just make these things prettier already? Okay, so there are a few out there that look the biz and so you are secretly squirrelling away money to afford The Frame by Samsung. I know it, you know it. Let’s just move on.
#8 You can’t relax if a picture is crooked
I’m not even sure how they end up moving around but honestly, I can’t sit and relax if there’s a crooked picture on the wall. It drives me out of my head. It’s even worse when I’m sat in a restaurant or a pub or a friend’s home and I see a crooked picture. Yes, I am one of those people who will get up and fix it. You too? Yep, addicted.
#9 You’ve repainted every room at least 3 times
I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to my home. I am constantly changing up spaces because I get bored or I want to try something different. There are rooms in my home that I am SO OVER and if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re moving, they would have been made over long ago. If you find yourself in the paint section of your local DIY store so often that they know you by name, you’re probably just as bad as I am.
#10 You have to restrain yourself from decorating other people’s homes
While you would never out-and-out judge someone else’s home, you just know that with a little tweaking, it could be so much better. If you find yourself gritting your teeth and sitting on your hands for fear you may suggest a change to your friend or family member when you’ve not been asked, then you are probably an interiors addict. It can’t be helped. Best to keep your mouth shut though.
#11 You’ve become a master at storage
Swapping out your interiors with every season requires storage and you have become a master at stashing away decor in every spare inch of your home. Even my Christmas decorations up in my loft are colour-coded and I have a whole bunch of smaller decorative pieces that take up half the space in my sideboard. Well, you need things to keep it fresh right? If you have secret stashes of decor that you consult when it’s time for a refresh, you’re just as obsessed as I am.
#12 Your partner and/or best mate knows words like vignette, colour palette and swatch
You’ve used these words so freely and so often that the people closest to you don’t even bat an eyelid anymore. You forget they aren’t part of any normal person’s lexicon but when your other half or your best mate uses them? Now, that’s love.
So, out of 12, what did you score? Let me know in the comments! I want to know I’m not alone here in my obsession. Is there anything you’d add?
Yep.
#guiltyveryguilty – especially of No. 10. Oh, Lord, give me a glass or two of wine and the next thing you know, I’ve re-arranged my hostess’s living room – and yes, I have actually done that! They invite me back when they need a “refresh”. But, yes, I am an addict and I’m not afraid to admit it!
xo
S
P.S. Thanks for coming clean – now I don’t feel so guilty!
8 out of 12. I’m getting there!
When I’m bored I think about how my things would look in someone else’s home and what colors I’d paint, etc.
Oh my god I am. I just need that scissors to become full 12! Love your newsletters. Xoxo from Argentina!
Just a crooked picture maniac……. on visiting my doctor I’ve been known to get up in the middle of a consultation and straighten the diploma frames on his surgery wall !!! (luckily he’s a good friend also….). At the dentist however, my hands tremble too much…
Hotels as well as restaurants. I can see you’re neat as a pin so I fail the test on all the organizations and cleanliness. But guilty on the score of other people’s homes, too. And standing in the doorway of a room and just staring. Yep.
One more thing – I went out and purchased two Emma Bridgewater mugs for my daily tea at the cost of $38 each and I really don’t have the $$$ for that kind of thing right now but….they had just come in, they wouldn’t be there – you know the drill. And who see me drinking tea? No one!
Its an illness that should be codified and put in the DSM (you know, the big medical book with all the illnesses!)
S
Completely agree. Especially about the every day utilitarian object thing. If I’m spending money on anything, it’s going to be pretty. I also remember the first time my partner heard me talking about window treatments, he thought the phrase was hilarious. Now it’s part of his vocabulary.
Number 12 reminds me of when my husband said to me, “How the hell do I know what a valance is? It’s all your fault!”.
I lost track of how many of those boxes I ticked, but it was quite a few! And at the beginning when you said about staring into a room, I was nodding along to that. I’ve been doing it a lot lately as we’re going to be redecorating the living room next, now that my husband has moved all his consoles (not quite 42, but not far off it as he’s a retro gamer and collector) up to his new games room.
I’d like horizontal surfaces to be styled, but we have far too much clutter, plus 5 cats who think any horizontal surface is somewhere to sleep. I do have the coffee table styled and the cats have been pretty good about not laying on it, and my husband has been warned not to dump anything on there too!
I had no idea I was an addict…..until reading this! I bought a beautiful gold bottle opener from Nkuku, just because, it was beautiful. Plumping cushions before bed…yep, that’s me! Lovely mugs to drink out of plus I have them visible on my shelf all lined up with the handles facing the same way.
It drives me mad when family come to stay and they muddle up my shelves. I find myself hovering behind them, swooping in to re-adjust. Ah, pictures….don’t get me started. I cannot help myself from straightening pictures wherever I go.
Fortunately, our best friends are interior designers, so their house is just lovely and I usually spend most of my visits coveting their bits and bobs. But there is nothing worse than going to a house that you know could look soooo much better…if only you could get your hands on it!!
I think I’ve found my spirit animal. LOL. I just wrote a blog post about how my husband will ask me why I’m staring into a room and it’s because I’m trying to figure out what to change. I agree with all of these but ESPECIALLY painting a room at least 3x, which I have done. Multiple times. I love love love your blog.
http://www.aglassofbovino.com
I read this earlier on and thought, ‘nah, not me, I’m no addict’. …. now I have just caught myself arranging all my cookery books in colour order so that my dinner guests tonight can enjoy looking at them whilst eating at my (soon to be seriously stylised) kitchen table.
Oh my word I don’t do some of these. I should hang my head in shame and resign my post as an interiors blogger. Shame on me. 😀 I will get back in the game, thanks for the prompt !
Only 6 out of 12. But I do rearrange hotel rooms, cos i’m going to be staying there for a few days and it’s MY space for that period.
Haha, this post is pure genius. I mean, I knew I was obsessed before even reading… but I was laughing and nodding all the way through. And yes of course I only pick restaurants that are pretty (with marble, brass accents and a fancy bathroom as non-negotiables)! And my friends/family know there’s going to be at least 5mins taking pictures of the space and faffing with the table before they can relax and look at the menu. And when I used to be an events manager and go on site visits I’d straighten up pictures in front of the manager ALL the time. And the cushion plumping? Every. Night. Thank you for making me feel less weird xx
Ha ha yes totally obsessed!! I cannot resist cushions and I’m always chasing after the kids plumping them up. Utilitarian items – totally! I’ve got empty bottles and jars that I love just because they’re so normal. Also totally associate with just staring into a room thinking about what to faff 😂 I can think of worse obsessions!!
A 9 here. You’re intro made me laugh. There have been countless times my children or husband have asked “what are you stareing at?” Then I try to explain that I’m deciding about painting/rearranging etc. I don’t think they’ll ever totally understood my love of design.
Oh, another thing I’ve just thought of, I started my love affair with design at a young age. Habitat used to do a catalogue every year, and as soon as my dad bought one home (he also loved design, one of his favourites was the Le Corbusier chaiselongue) I’d take it to my bedroom and spend hours flicking through it, deciding how I was going to decorate my home when I grew up.
My first home after I moved out, had Habitat wallpaper in the living room and bedroom, and a Habitat sofa, side tables and lamps.- –
You crack me up, I totally agree!!
xo
Kate
Every word is true! I have one to add: watching television/movie and looking beyond the actors to focus on the interiors! Most of the time I have no idea what a commercial is even selling due to this distraction. This was a fun blog post! Thanks for sharing, Kimberly!
I love this list. I got 12 out of 12! Guilty of being addicted to interiors.
I just thought I was crazy with a little bit of OCD thrown in! Now I know I’m part of a wonderful group of crazy cushion faffing, everything in its place gang 😍 Oh and the staring in to space/standing back to look at the recently styled space I save for when my husband works weekends and I have the whole weekend to ‘play’ with the house. i still need the gold scissors though and spied a lovely pair of Kate Spade ones but at £45 They were out of my budget…..I still think about them though 😍
My score is 9
No comment lol Xxx
Love this! no #10 became such a problem I had to finally accept it was time to start my own interior business so I wouldn’t annoy my family or friends with my unrequested advice! My website https://www.interiors.family if you are interested. Love your blog.
Oh no, I’m obsessed! :-)
Such a fentastic blog, i love it very much…
I scored a 9 out of 10. I don’t have the gold scissors. :) I loved the post. It’s like you read my mind. It’s good to know I’m not alone.
I’m new to your blog as of today, and if appears that I’m joining a group of like-minded women who have a problem. A wonderful problem. Can’t wait to catch up on what I’ve missed. It appears we’re all the same regardless of which side of the “pond” we’re on.
Hahaha! I never knew this about myself! I scored an eight out of twelve! So, maybe I am a blossoming addict. Or maybe, I just don’t have enough time. (I chase a two year old grandson 5 days a week!) After he starts school, I go all in!
New to your blog. So far, I’m loving it!