I happened to land on a beautiful site, bossy color blog created by Annie Elliot, a highly talented designer. Annie just attended a panel at the Washington Design Center, you know for real designers. Here are her observations:
Did you see it?
“Perfection in decorating is generally considered a bad thing…”
Apparently, this is a shift from decorating thinking from years past. They are talking about this in their meetings. They have meetings and are discussing the surprising fact that perfection might not be a goal of everyone. Do you hear me? In their fancy designer meetings of the minds they are recognizing that not everyone wants perfection! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Embracing imperfection does not mean that one has given up or settled for less. Maybe accepting imperfection is a sign of maturity, balance and contentment. I’m a normal, average woman who loves to be surrounded by meaningful beauty, and it has been so freeing to drop that burden of perfection.
Perfection isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Beauty can always be found in the midst of imperfection, not just in spite of it.
Welcome to the revolution.
This post originally aired March 22, 2010 but it’s one of my all time favorites.
Well, I must be ahead of my time. I’ve been practicing imperfection in design for a loooong time! ;)
It’s about time they get in touch with the real people who actually live in the rooms they create. Lead on, Nester, lead on.
It feels nice to be validated. We love that you are our leader to beautifully non-perfect homes!!! Blessings!!!
AMEN! How refreshing to be able to be and do what pleases us and only us.
Wow. What a concept! Thanks for being ahead of your time and letting us know it’s okay to be just as we are. Whew. What a relief!
JoanneB.
I loved the comment about imperfection but also about blogs. I am new to the blog world and it is so wonderful to see real homes and real solutions to challenges. I had rather see blog homes anyday than the “perfect” homes in dream world.
Sooo cool!
I can almost see you leading the parade waving a big flag that reads “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”!
AMEN!! Perfection in a home (to me) says: sterility, plastic, static, dead. Welcome, loveliness!
Amen to that sister friend!!!!!! Once I was showing some of my aprons to a friend and she commented on one of the corners saying I should redo it …it wasn’t perfect. Perfect! I told her I was not going to redo it because I wanted people to know it was created by a real person working in a tiny home studio and it was a thing of crafted beauty, not an assembly line, made in China product. I even have a “non-perfect” disclaimer on my Etsy shop ;-)
Inspiring words! But… you already knew that!
Is that picture a new and improved living area at your nest?
Dee
Nope, old photo.
Hallelujah! Maybe they will finally get on board with the idea that none of us is perfect, and we can’t be, no matter how hard we try. Our homes are an extention of ourselves, so they can’t be perfect either. But we can all be beautiful. Thanks for keeping us all real and leading the “revolution”.
Whew! I was worried for a minute. Thank goodness!
That chair is speaking my language…..
Hoity toity is NOT in. Personally, I feel that it hasn’t been in since 9-11. After 9-11, I remember reading that home improvement stores started seeing increased business as people looked to improve their home and create outdoor spaces. People wanted to spend more time hanging out at home with family and friends. If the regular Joe and Jane are doing their own home improvement, it might not be perfect. Perfection isn’t for us regular people with kids and normal lives. Who wants a room to function as a museum or expensive antiques that serve as trophy rather than functional pieces?
When I found your site and read what you were all about I think I smiled for a whole day! Finally, some validation that everything doesn’t have to be perfectly done to be homey and beautiful!!
Looks like the “professionals” are FINALLY getting it! Good for you, Nester, for leading this revolution!!
Thank God for imperfection. I am so grateful that our decorating doesn’t have to be perfect. I surround myself with what I think is beautiful — I’m not perfect and therefore, neither is my home.
Interesting! The other thing that jumped out at me was that “antique stores are disappearing.” Makes me so sad! Our little town used to have a main street lined with them and I could spend a Saturday shopping there. Now they’re all gone. Every one! I thought it was just a local thing, but apparently not. Thank goodness for Etsy sites that sell fun vintage things, at least. Don’t know what I’d do without them!
It makes perfect sense to me since our homes should be a reflection of the people living there. Our families aren’t likely perfect, but we love them anyway. Nature is messy, but beautiful nonetheless. I think perfection would be pretty sterile and certainly not cozy.
it was created by a real person working in a tiny home studio and it was a thing of crafted beauty, not an assembly line, made in China product. I even have a “non-perfect” disclaimer on my Etsy shop
That chair is great and thank goodness for imperfection! About time we celebrated and embraced it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
I am way ahead of the game then! :)
here here! perfect is just so … so perfectly boring ;)
Your post has positively made me feel all warm and fuzzie inside, glowy and happy. Yeah, I’m so in agreement. Your comment, “meaningful beauty” I love it. They, you, us, so get it. Meaningful beauty is almost four dimensional; visually appealing, tells a story, loves you right back and keeps your memories right there in plain site. Tatty pillows tell me my house is cozy, Stained dish cloths speak of many home cooked meals, dents in my dinner table remind me of the great crafts and friends who made them with me. The drift wood I got that one time when or the fraying throw blanket that was gift by a good friend.
Meaningful beauty.
So much better than name brand beauty.
This is the point at which I yell “Amen!” from my pew. Or my kitchen barstool. Whatever.
But oh, can you ever get an “amen” here. Thank God we can be free from the goal of perfection. God has always loved us despite our imperfections, and I think He intends for us to find beauty right where we are.
Keep talking, sister.
I think “people” place WAY too much importance on perfection….in most areas of life, not just decorating! What’s perfect for me isn’t going to be perfect for you and visa versa….and I’m totally ok w/that! Your blog has helped me realize that I can create my own “perfect” by simply surrounding myself and adorning my home w/the things that I love, not w/the things that are popular, trendy or “correct”. Thank you!
Exactly why you strike such a cord – that and your witty writing and fabulous posts! Love coming here…keep up the great work! Maybe the pros will catch up with you some day. (;
I’ve perfected this look – imperfection.
-FringeGIrl
Well, it about time the designers caught up with the real people.
Isn’t the beauty of imperfection perfect in our own minds eye.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder…and all that jazz!
I LOVE Annie’s Blog!!! When we painted our bedroom several months ago I googled Wedgewood Gray (Benj. Moore) and her blog came up. It was love at first sight!
Love your bird pillow, if it’s not the Pottery Barn one it is sure close! Too cute. Hope you have a gggrrrreat week Nester.
Woo-hoo!!
Here’s the problem. I went to her blog. Stephen Drucker made that statement, but it sounded like it very much was begrudgingly heard. Those designer types do not like this fact that their clients are requesting. There is a disconnect. I hired a designer for my last home, right before the recession hit. She suggested $800 a piece dining room chairs. They were lovely, but uh, I have kids. Four of them, as a matter of fact. (She has none and frankly, I don’t think she can fathom why anyone would want them!) Needless to say, I didn’t take any of her furniture suggestions. (But she did hit the nail on the head with the paint colors.) I just think they don’t get it. They don’t want the desire for not so perfect homes to be true, but if it must, they hope it trends out stat.
Thank goodness! Love seeing it in print. That means the fingerprints on my wall are not a priority. The nail holes that you can barely see can stay. The crack in my kitchen table (the blond-wood Sunday school table my father-in-law scored for $10) is not to be fretted over.
-Trish
Basking in imperfect beauty has been the single most important lesson I have learned on you blog.
It’s a beautiful thing!
that really does make perfect sense! Perfection is only seen in magazines after they have a crew of people arranging things and cleaning things and adding fresh flowers for the shoot! IMPERFECTION is just life. It is everyday, messy, lovely life. And I think that you inspire us all to believe that our homes are perfect just as they are….dried babyfood stuck to the table and all. You have helped me look at my home in a very different way and learn to love those imperfections because that is what makes it sooo perfect!! :)
xoxo,
Jessica
I too read Annie’s blog and I have decided that I feel sorry for so many of those designers. How out of touch they are with real people and real budgets! I also think that many designers have some resentment towards all of the great design blogs out there, giving away their “secrets.” How cool that this forum exists and that people like you Nester are wanting and willing to share your beautifully imperfect home with us. BRAVO!!!
Oh then that makes me in the “highly chic” category!!! All right then!!! :D
Suzanne
LOVE your blog. reading your blog has actually changed my life.
it has inspired me to do so many things in my home that i didn’t do before because i was imprisoned by perfection.
but now i am free.
this past weekend, i laid down a new kitchen floor. it is not perfect, but it is beautiful.
keep it up!!!
love,
erika
theurthmama.com
Right on! You need to have t-shirts made. ;)
Well, I am just SO far ahead of my time! : ) Just never was into perfection, know what I mean? ; )
I was trying to tell my mother this! She thought I was crazy when I kept telling her “Mom! It doesn’t have to be perfect!” when describing my latest project.
I really appreciate your phrase “meaningful beauty”. In the midst of a really rough day, I think this will be my goal for the week. To surround myself with meaningful beauty in every way I can.
I truly believe that if an item or an element in your home is just there to fill the space, thats when your home is “decorated” but it is lived in and loved when the objects of beauty you surround yourself with have meaning to you on a personal and even emotional level. That is how I strive to design. And maybe now that is how I can strive to live even outside my home. Thanks for the inspirations!
Nester,
Last week I picked up House Beautiful and read Stephen Drucker’s Letter from the Editor. It moved me.
I wrote to him.
For years I worked in the design field. For many of the designers that I rubbed elbows with, it was more about an “arrogance in perfection” – you could smell it a mile away. Not that everyone was this way, mind you. Perfection is subjective, of course. My perfect may not be some one else’s. However, following trends, remaining traditional or mixing everything up a bit is a personal choice. Since I started blogging and following design type blogs I am learning to step out of the box (in my own home & how I dress even), appreciate the difference styles and tastes of these amazing women on these blogs (YOU) and actually put my creative worth to use – instead of just collecting ideas for sometime down the road. Some time is today!
I think perfection is the room that no one can sit it or the home that no one can live in. I want to live and sit and giggle and guffaw and be kind to my family even when my husband spills his glass of cabernet ALL OVER our living room -I found wine, months later 8 feet on the other side of the room. No lie. (He turned the lights off, remembered his glass was next to the sofa, reached for it, got it at the wrong angle and the thing went flying through the air!) Nice. We all survived. Well, he did. And I’m happy to say, that I am so not perfect. But I am perfectly happy!
Thanks for the insight above!
OH I So want to read this–he is BEYOND talented!
It’s in the April issue. He steps out a bit and writes about the “mean streak” that has “crept into the design world” to paraphrase.
Btw, the cover is to die for! Let me know if you want more info.
My design mentor Alexandra Stoddard was preaching this shift decades ago so it is about time people embrace this!
However, I am curious about the statement where Stephen says people are not collecting things anymore because that in itself could be a form of perfectionism. I think if you stop treasuring real things of beauty and meaning around you, you end up with a shell of a home with fake stuff that looks like everyone else’s of the day! I always want more meaning in my home, less fake perfect stuff.
Maybe he means collecting fancy stuff, but I hope people are still collecting memories and treasures and keeping things of meaning that are handed down?? They might not look PERFECT in a picture but they mean something to the people who live there! I hope we aren’t exchanging one form of perfection for another, but I do see that a lot. People have less things of meaning and more stuff for show. I always write blog posts for comments. Gah, what is wrong with me.
Yay though for no more stuff designs!
stuffy. not stuff designs. :-)
As a professional designer, I have never embraced the “perfectionism theory”… believing instead that real, thoughtful design is about embracing the uniqueness of our homes and families, and incorporating good design to create livable, inviting interiors.
There will always be those who decorate for others, and those are the ones who need “perfect”. The confident homeowner designs for their family and themselves, and recognizes perfect is relative.
I love your blog because you share that belief and message with a wide audience, and give so many women “permission” to love their homes without the approval of professionals or others. It not only “doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”, it never can be perfect, and that is just fine:-)
Keep preachin’ your IDHTBPTBB mantra, girl. Perfection in most aspects of life is unattainable, exhausting and meaningless! Just crazy talk!
Amen!
I adore antiques. I’m 26 and I can’t get enough of anything antique, vintage, retro, historical – whatever label you put on it, I love it. It just makes me so sad to think that in the future, antique stores may be gone! Hurray for the loss of perfection. Something that is too perfect makes me feel so bad about my imperfections. When I look at something beautifully imperfect it makes me feel like I have potential, too. Thanks for such an awesome blog!
Woohoo! Someone heard us. Don’t they know that perfection is boring? Perfection is the enemy of progress? Sounds like they finally get it.
I passed on a Blogger Award to you today! Just wanted to let you know!
http://littlebignest.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogger-awards.html
i LOVE this! :)