I'm the same way as you...I research for hours when I need to make a large purchase. Mainly due to the expense...I dont want to make a costly mistake, but also, it takes time to find just the right thing to fit my decor in my budget.

I'm in the Chicago area too, way to cold!

It could be a year....maybe longer. I'm never in a hurry to make a purchase, especially if I don't love it, instantly. I'm not one to say 'maybe it will grow on me'. It's gotta be love at first sight~i've been very fortunate in finding things I needed for this home.

I research everything to death. It's what I do. I love information and knowledge. People will ask me how I know something. I tell them the internet is free and Google is their friend. I don't understand how people can sit in darkness when the answers are at their fingertips.

I hear you all! BUT - there's that part of me that just wants to be done. Don't want to be hasty - but just want to have a "finished" house.

I haven't done much in my DR since we moved in 10 years ago except for paint and window treatments - but did update paint, rug and chandy in the adjacent LR - as well as some updating to the FR. My DR needs to catch up to the other rooms…. and then there's the kitchen, which is in the process of a major update. I'm trying to take care to keep within certain design parameters so the kitchen doesn't throw the rest of the house into yet another re-design. UGH.

I tend to be a quick, but not impulsive, decision maker based on what's available in my time frame and budget. As an example, I needed to re-upholster my living room furniture. I spent two hours looking at fabrics at my favorite out-of-state bricks and mortar fabric resource. I chose all the fabrics and placed my order. It turned out that the key fabric for my sofas was no longer available, so I dumped that whole scheme, visited two local discount places and chose new fabrics. That took me most of a day because the two places weren't close to one another and I had to visit each one twice to pull together the selection. The new choices weren't nearly as interesting from a design perspective, but they were much, much, much cheaper. Total time spent was about eight hours including the time spent meeting with the upholsterer.

On the other hand, we have my mother who coincidentally is also reupholstering her living room furniture. After seven months, she has chosen one fabric and she's not that happy with that choice. Thankfully, I am not her designer.

I think the key is to be open to what's available while at the same time being respectful of your budget.

Probably not a fair question to ask on a decorating forum! Since most of us are here because we are interested in design, there is a very good chance that we spend more time than the average person doing the research for our projects.

Having a larger budget doesn't make it any easier, if anything it is harder, as it opens up even more products to choose from. We are fortunate to be at a point in life where we have much more financial flexibility and I have been able to have some of my choices custom made. I find that doing something custom can be pretty stressful because you can design it any shape, size or color -- the options are endless -- which makes it even harder to pick "the one" and the final design, after waiting months and months, is never exactly as you pictured it in your head.

It depends on the project or item that I'm wanting. When we were in the very early stages of planning our total kitchen gut and remodel, I spent many, many, many hours looking online at different layouts and researching appliances, drawer and door hardware, light fixtures, tile, sinks, faucets, etc. It paid off hugely, as Gardenweb's Kitchen Forum not only saved me a lot of money, but a lot of time, a lot of headaches, and helped me decide on the best of all of the above for our own needs.

Our coffeemaker just died a week ago and I spent about an hour on Amazon.com comparing new ones before I ordered. Again, I wanted to find the best fit for us, and for the best price.

These days, researching online is so easy and convenient that I can't imagine purchasing anything without doing some online comparisons and looking at customer reviews first.

"Having a larger budget doesn't make it any easier, if anything it is harder, as it opens up even more products to choose from. We are fortunate to be at a point in life where we have much more financial flexibility and I have been able to have some of my choices custom made."

This is so true. When I moved into this house in 2012, I said I could have anything I wanted. No budget. Just get what I wanted for once in my life. Well, that has proven hard to do. I still feel the need to get a good price.

Now regarding the length of time to make a decision, I have overanalyzed, spreadsheeted (if this is even a word), every decision to the point of either not making a decision after years of researching or finally saying, forget it and just picking something, anything.

Still not happy with the results.

I agree with everything said above.

i think it depends on what is being researched. A kitchen remodel deserves every moment of research due to its cost and its need for functionality. But, I remember someone here many years ago stating she was such a perfectionist (this is usually said with a high degree of satisfaction) she had been looking unsuccessfully for seven years for a sofa. That's indecision, not perfectionism.

Well, I took 2 years to find my dining room table, but it had nothing to do with perfectionism. I had a "vision" in my mind, of a table made with reclaimed wood but in a slightly more formal style than a farm table. I finally found it at a smaller local furniture store that carried lines of furniture from smaller/unique manufacturers. I still love that table 16 years later. It made no sense to waste money on a temporary table while I was looking for the perfect table. We did have a small table in the kitchen and the kids were little and mostly using high chairs at that time.

I don't have as much patience as I would like, but also have a pretty good idea of what will work for me and what won't. If I present my husband with too many choices his eyes glaze over and he shuts down to where he is literally unable to see anything more. I think I've adapted to his needs, and also don't believe that there is one perfect choice. I bought an area rug that was heavily discounted but of very good quality, and it looked okay until I got it home and hated it. It was basically red and a strong gold. I bought acrylic paints and added blues, greens, pinks and purples and now I love it.

Maybe not five hours a day -- but yes, I have been spending a lot of time deciding on things for my new house build. I've been wanting samples of just about everything -- seeing something on line is totally different than holding that slab of tile in your own hands, and checking paint swatches is helping. (And I won't decide on the exact tone of color for each paint color until I can actually swab samples on walls in my build!)

I like to say my kitchen is set, in that I've already bought the floor tile, and know what quartz countertops I want to order, and what I'm doing about the major appliances and what paint color (essentially) and log stain, and that my backsplash will be paint, not tile -- but I still haven't picked out faucets or cabinet/drawer pulls other than knowing they'll be ORB. My builder is going to custom build my cabinet/drawer/shelves, and he's not ready to discuss them yet although I have concepts that I know he's done in the past.

in other words, it has indeed taken a lot of time to get to where I am in decisions, but there are still a LOT to go - the kitchen is just one room. Now I am focusing on bathrooms, actually...

And I'm not even going to think about rugs until the very end.

Things that depend on texture and color: I like samples.

Things that depend on function: (major appliances). I check Consumer Reports and other venues of rating, and talk to people who have them.

I think researching for our projects is actually the fun part and yes, I do a ton before I ever make a final decision. It does pay off in the end though. Not only am I more confident about our choices, but we're always really happy with the finished product when it's done. Usually, I'm not near as happy with the things I've put less effort into.

I not only research my own projects, I research my friend's projects, and projects of people I don't even know IRL (sound familiar?).

The thing about research. Who can stay focused on one item? How many times have you gone looking for new door hardware and decided what you need instead is a new door and then figure out what color to paint it? One thing leads to another. But I believe learning isn't a linear thing, it goes out in all directions and we're better in the end for it.

I'm the queen of "analysis paralysis"...WAY too much time. What did we all do before the world and all it had to offer (products, advice, how to videos, etc) was within reach while laying in bed or sitting at a desk drinking coffee? Remember department stores? I vaguely do ;)

Google is my friend. I research all of my projects. Don't even get me started on taking a vacation! That research could take weeks or months. I like what I like, want it at the best price possible and am willing to put in the time and effort to make it happen.

As others have noted here, it depends on the reno project! When we put in our new kitchen in 8 years ago, I had 8 months to pore over kitchen mags, talk to people, and research online (Garden Web Kitchen forum was an amazing resource for us!) Appliances, light switch placements, the positioning of kitchen knobs and handles...EVERYTHING was researched beforehand. For any reno project in our 100 year old home, we spend weeks, if not months, researching and talking to people before making the decision. Consequently, we've always been very happy with out how things have turned out.

Babs -- too funny. My vacation planning is an entirely different discussion! But I find vacation planning a lot less stressful than home decorating.

Took us 7 years working with an architect to design our house, so I guess you could say we did a lot of planning.

I walk that fine line between perfectionism and indecision as Dee notes above. In my case research can be both enlightening and informative, and yet still very crippling.

But it's not in my nature to make hasty decisions. A few years ago a friend completely redecorated her dining room in 3 days on the Internet. It looks OK but I can't get it out of my mind that she just chose what was available at the time from just 2 or 3 online stores with discount codes.

Another friend spent a lot of money remodeling her kitchen and I cringe when I walk in there because I know way more than the average person about kitchen design and functionality, thanks to the GW kitchen forum. I have to bite my tongue.

I generally spend a lot of time on research. I can generally justify it by saying I am waiting for me to have enough money to catch up with my ideas. The other side of the coin is that I do not have enough money to hire a designer/decorator so if I am going to do it myself, I am going to have to invest a lot of time training my eye to distinguish between what will and will not work. There really is no substitute for spending time analyzing things.

I am a researcher, so I spent a lot of time researching my kitchen to make sure it was functional, felt cohesive to our open floorplan home and reflected our personality. It took years before I was ready to start and once I started it went well, on schedule and few deviations.

I was fully aware of the concept of 'the paradox of choice' and I think that helped my a lot from getting bogged down in choice overload. I still do reading on that topic because it is one I can easily be waylaid by.

Maybe I go overboard, but not only do I draw up floor plans, but I build 3-d models of the room and furniture. Then I look for the items to fit the plan. I learned this from my mother, who would paint elevations of each side of a room, then cut and fold the resulting elevations into the room shape.

Endless. And sometimes I wait so long that I don't like my original ideas anymore. That's why I live though others here on this board. :)

I spend hours a day. Sounds like I am not alone. I love the "analysis paralysis" comment. I have said that about myself many times. Funny thing is, about 15 years ago, I got new granite counter tops for my house at the time. I chose the granite from a piece that was about 2x2. Then, I built a house! Everything changed. I also find it amusing that my sister just redid a kitchen. She chose cabinets at Home Depot and then chose counters from a swatch from there and just chose the backsplash from HD's offerings. She did ask for my opinion on some stuff and I find it easy to give my thoughts on her kitchen in mere minutes. I had fun helping her design it!

I think that's it, Kelleg. Some people can make decisions because they limit themselves to what's available, My family has a local auto dealership, and they purchase cars based on what's available on the lot at the time. Overall, they're happy with their decisions. But I'm one to research the death out of it because I wouldn't want my decision to be based on such limited options. Neither is the better option--it just depends on the decision-maker.

My DH says I take WAY too much time making the decisions I have to make with our house projects. I'm the sole researcher, designer, planner and a co-hands-on executor (with DH) of our DIY building projects.

It took us 5 years to do this last house. Plan, design, and contract the build. I designed and had a draftsman draw prints. I was the chick with the clipboard until the rockers left. From drywall on it has primarily been just the two of us. He has a full time job that is not building. We have made a good team, in that he has the expertise- I have the vision. We have put in countless hours making the decisions that go into these projects.

Thankfully I found GW early on with researching windows. Google has led me to GW on numerous topics, which answered most of the trying technical issues. I usually only post when I get really stuck and need outside input and opinions. Mostly on decorating questions...;)

IDK -- is 5 years too long to come up with a house from scratch? DIY? I have no idea; I do know my DH thought I belabored the process. As in it was a huge issue- how long I would take. But it was lots of design as you go stuff. However he is happy with the result.

The weird thing is that sometimes I know EXACTLY what I want, and despite the huge range of choices, once you look at it, it's all pretty much the same that's out there. We've been trying for ages to find a very firm sofa that provides back support but doesn't look too formal or old fashioned. They exist in Europe but haven't found one here yet. Ditto with my dining table. I know what I want but don't want to pay 8K.

However, I'm really good with making decisions for other people :)