Hi Homies,
In this blog, we’ve often talked about trends, like color or interior design trends. However, we have been consistent about one thing, and that is each of us should follow our style instead of trying to make a home that fits a trend. Let’s face it, following interior design trends would be so impractical and wasteful.
Fashion trends change annually, even per season with their winter, summer, spring, and fall fashions. Since the worlds of fashion and interior design influence each other, it is not surprising that parallels happen. However, following styles slavishly is not sustainable, whether it be in fashion or interior design.
At the height of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, influential fashion and design trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort said that we will experience a “quarantine of consumption” where we will buy and own fewer things, cut down on travel, and become more self-sufficient and mindful.
For several years we have understood that in order to survive as a species and to keep the planet going we need to make draconian changes to the way we live, travel, consume and entertain.
…
But somehow the human psyche is resistant and wants to test if things will just dissipate by themselves, waiting and biding our time while we are doing business as usual. Therefore the sudden stop on all of this by the virus takes decisionmaking out of our hands and will just slow things down to another, frightful pace in the beginning. We are no longer used to doing things without rushing, waiting for answers, searching for solutions nor producing in our backyards. Improvisation skills and creativity will become the highest assets. (Dezeen, 9 March 2020)
Fast forward three years, and I see that we have not made draconian changes at all…not in any significant way…because we seem to be doing business as usual.
Check around you and we seem to be doing the same old same old. Headlines trumpet things like:
- The Three Best…
- The Five Perfect…
- Top Five Ways to…
- Top Trends in…
These content tout supposed wisdom from “oracles” and if we are not critical thinkers, we follow like sheeple.
We have bullet points because that seems to be the fastest way to get a message across. Memes could do that too, which is why these are popular. Everything is fast. Short cuts are preferred. Most social media content provider knows that the average attention span for a video is 2 seconds. That’s even shorter than reading one sentence in this post.
2023 is almost over. It seems like time really does fly by so fast. That’s why I love the lifestyle of slow living, where each moment counts, where quality is better than quantity, and where living with intention and purpose is embraced. Mindfulness and self-knowledge provide the anchor that grounds us.
Find Your Personal Style
The process of finding your personal style is to look within instead of without. Knowing yourself is a prerequisite. At the start, you may not be certain about what your personal style is all about. But the way you have lived your life up to this particular moment in time—what you like, what you consider beautiful, what you consider important, what your priorities are for your home—will give you clear indications on how to create your personal style.
Open your eyes and observe what appeals to you (as to paint color, textures, furniture and home accessories, interior styles, etc.). Use this blog to learn more about color and interior style trends.
Make a vision board to help you visualize what kind of home and lifestyle appeals to you. Using Pinterest has always been very helpful to me. Give it a try if you haven’t done so yet. If you don’t want people to know what your dream home looks like, just make it a secret board. But if you want others, like a family member, to contribute to your vision board of what home should be like, then you can always add collaborators.
In the end, you will be confident enough to ditch trends, and embrace your own personal style.
There’s a word I just learned…KALOPSIA. It means “the state in which everything, and everyone, looks beautiful.”
I wish that you will always have that for your home. That you will always have KALOPSIA for your sanctuary, and that the beauty you see and feel will permeate your life.
Happy December,
