Yes, you have to commit and go for it. Find a vision and stick to it, even if it's not trendy. Too much hemming and hawing and dilly-dallying means projects don't move forward. Or they take so long they start getting muddled up with things you bring into the picture that aren't relevant to the direction you were going. So then you get confused again and start questioning all your decisions.

After years of home decor successes and fails, I've come to realize the projects that satisfy me most now are ones that involve re-purposing something I already have, or re configuring a space to better suit how it's used.

My style is eclectic, but I've stuck to roughly the same color palette with 3 main colours and two secondary colors throughout my home and even my exterior for the last 15 years. This means you can always switch things up from room to room and everything "goes."

If I'm tempted by a trend or itch for new decor elements, I can pick up an accessory item in my palette to jazz things up a little without throwing everything out of whack.

I used to get very bored with decor and would always be moving my furniture around and buying throw pillows in the latest colors and changing things up. As I get older, I'm more satisfied. I've realized what suits our home and the way we live, and making choices and being confident in those choices is much easier. As a result, projects now are far more successful because I know what I REALLY want.

Fun question.

When I get bored, I just move the furniture around or into another room, or add more fresh flowers which also always perks things up! I love our area rugs and they still work with my colors after more than 20 years. I do have some antique orientals, but except for one in a bedroom, they are in storage after being cleaned. I am not sure I will ever move them in here, but DS may want them at some point.

This is such a great question. I have been noodling a similar one. No time to post, but just wanted to say thank you for the food for thought. I will come back later to discuss.

In a nutshell though, yes, commitment is necessary or there will be no cohesion in the decor.

I think too many people try to make choices to please others/follow trends or think that if they buy a brown, beige or black sofa and stay with neutral choices, it will always go with everything -- that its a better way to make big purchases. That can work, but not likely if you have the same fear in making the smaller choices too.

I have owned one beige sofa and one brown leather sectional (at the same time -- my neutral period in a new house), but my first sofa purchase was a diagonal stripe with a gathered kick pleat. I loved that sofa and later had it recovered in a serape stripe in blue, pink, green and yellow. It was recovered again in a deep raspberry that I wanted to love, but the upholstery job was bad and it killed my love for the sofa. Without a good upholsterer, I bought new -- those were my beige and brown for the new house. They had colorful rugs and art to work with and I liked them both, but I couldn't do brown again when it was time to replace years later, so now I have a blue leather sectional and midnight/ink blue velvet in the LR. Like you -- the things I love all work with them.

I agree that it's easier with a commitment. So are many things, but we live in a commitment phobic society.

With the exception of one terribly made pottery barn over stuffed slipcover sofa set I have every piece of furniture I ever purchased or pulled in off the curb to refinish still in use in my home. I actually get sad if I think about needing to replace something. I have a hard time changing paint colors aswell. And in my landscaping I move plants if looking for change. I am not sure if this is commitment, frugalness or OCD at play but it is a feature of my persona that has saved me money and keeps me from caring too much about being dated.

It's hard to commit to a look when there are so many of them to love! That's my excuse. :)

For example, in the latest issue of Canada's Style at Home, there's a laundry feature where they showcase four looks. Perhaps one elicits a "meh" from me but I'd be hard pressed to choose an absolute fave from the three others. So then, my budget would dictate what I could do. I'd have to shop every look, lusting over the elements I couldn't afford, remind myself that compromise isn't a dirty word, figure out my wants and needs, to finally ditch the look I could afford because I got sidetracked by a random item at HomeSense that's sending me in a fifth direction!

(Of course, this is a random example based on inspiration pictures. In reality, I had my own vision for my laundry nook and thought outside the box to realize it.)

I'm so committed to my furniture, lamps, etc, that I have selectively bought mostly on CL and eBay, along with some of my Karastan rugs, that I haven't bought anything for quite a while. I'm so happy with what I have, which is antique/Traditional, that all the pieces I have collected still make me happy every day!

My3dogs, antique/traditional has the added advantage of never really going out of style. It exists along with every other style and many, many trends, and is never dated assuming it's done in a classic way. You can become attached to your belongings because you know you'll never have to get rid of them. It's a really happy place to be.

It's also much easier to commit when you like really nice things, when you spend on custom upholstery and drapery, and you almost can't really afford the things you like.

But isn't it hell figuring out how those choices in the first place, palimpsest?

My problem is I’m fickle. What I love today I probably won’t love in a year or two. If I do color, I soon tire of it, but if I do neutral, I get bored with it and long for color. It’s a no win situation.

It's easier, yes.

I usually commit without problem. I just need to love it very much. Lol.

Then we move or something.

The only things I'm often able to take with me are books and art. So I'm more impulsive with these, as I am with everything smaller. Big stuff, I can hunt for months, maybe years, very patiently, Like a cat that waits for a mouse.

Sometimes I need to put things together fast because it's not for me, and it's against my nature. Not because I'm not a fast person since I am; it just takes pleasure from the process.

I also got into this mode of trying to buy bigger items not new(because I like new things I can't afford really), and now every time I make exception and buy new I have this vague feeling of dissatisfaction. Even if was a good decision.

I arrived to a conclusion though that whatever one does, well at least in decor- he's commiting. At a bare minimum, he's commiting to not commit. So it's two sides of the same coin, really. I'd rather commit; I get attached to things. I rarely stop loving something, I can only add something new to love. I kinda embroider it all in.

I can get weird about art..say all my portraits remind me of somebody. and I had sort of falling-out with a close friend that (in this case a very abstract) painting reminds me of. It's kinda painful..we're on speaking terms, but it was long painful thing for me to go through. So I put the painting in the guest room now, even though beforehand it was very central. I never had these mood swings with art before, so I surprized myself with this reaction.

I think I get gloomier too, in general. In decor. I think the house should reflect life..and love..and they're not formulas. I'll be still me; yet "me" will get slightly different as life goes.

One's age also influences things; I think people know themselves but this knowledge takes time. Self acceptance might take time too. My gloominess, I see it as something I want to go with, and be more daring, because to me, it's my self acceptance.

I don't go for look per se, I go for feel. I think with all the tiny changes it's pretty consistent. It just grows sprouts..or roots..or sprouts and roots..:)

There's limitation in that too; however I feel it'd still be me and not somebody else; my family will still be mine; my life will still be mine; but what's freedom? Freedom is but us being able to claim our limitations. To commit. More or less proudly..

But isn't it hell figuring out how those choices in the first place, palimpsest?

Since I only have a limited amount of space/number of rooms to work with, yes. But I am starting with a number of pieces of furniture so they are a given.

And then, I may look online for hours at fabrics and wallcoverings and then order samples and pore over them.

And then at some point I commit to something. And then after that it's not difficult in the way that many have. It's not difficult narrowing down. It becomes more difficult to select things to work with what you've committed to because your options become more and more limited.

And once you start committing to things like this, or deciding between looks like this, there's no real turning back.

I've been horribly consistent in my tastes since my late teens : ) probably greatly influenced by my parents' fairly classic taste -- good quality furniture, some of it reproduction, and oriental rugs, etc. In NYC in the sixties and seventies the prices were decent and the choice terrific; this was back when ABC Carpet & Home was just ABC Carpet and not at all hip and trendy. I also learned early that I don't care much for what's trendy at the moment, especially because that moment of popularity is both fickle and fleeting.

I'm not sure, though, if I made the commitment and had the vision, or if the vision found me. I just know that I fell in love with English country (now probably more English country eclectic) in the pages of House & Garden and the UK magazine Home & Garden, reinforced no doubt by the Merchant-Ivory movies of the time, and there has been precious little wavering since. My budget over the years, and now long, long distance from custom upholstery, drapery, lampshades etc have been my main limitations : ) .

Echoing what others have said above, so much of what I have (bought or given or inherited), I have because I love and serves a purpose, not because it's on trend or was on sale at TJ Maxx or was needed to fill the space. I've hauled the same things around over the years to Washington, DC, around NYC, and then to western Canada. Just about everything is going to go into the new house. It's the first new house I've ever had, and I've been fascinated by how many people have assumed we'd get rid of all our current furnishings and buy new for the the new house. We actually planned the new house in part around what we already have and like.

A recent Home & Garden feature on English designer and architect Ben Pentreath included this quote from him, with which I agree, "Timelessness interests me; it's important in both architecture and decoration. I think about longevity and am interested in looking outside what is completely current. ... my favourite approach is to mix things that will endure."

I like the idea with timelessness, but I have a little trouble with what it's called.

None of these are really timeless because you can pretty much tell exactly what period they are from. They are super-specific, actually. But they are timeless in the sense that they are appropriate and tasteful expressions of what they are from when they are (whether we actually like them right now, or not):

One of the things that strikes me when I read people discussing interiors here is that praise is often signaled with words like peaceful and restful, for spaces outside of bedrooms. Personally I get peaceful and restful vibes from a room when it is neat and tidy. The color scheme and decorating choices do not affect my perception of peaceful in a house (normally, of course there are odd ball exceptions where choices are garish or jarring, but that is far from the norm.) And most often these rooms are decorated in a contemporary/transitional way with lots of neutrals and few accessories. And yet, these are the kind of rooms people are most likely to "redecorate" after a dozen years. So does the desire for peaceful rooms lead to boredom at some point?

For those of us who commit to a style, and as Ingrid has pointed out, traditional decorating is tremendously flexible, we can indulge fad and passing styles through the judicious use of accessories.

I am coming back later to comment more, but first, thank you for all of the fantastic and insightful replies!

One of the conflicts I see here is the idea that one has to commit “forever.” And while that may be easier/desirable/necessary for some of us, it isn’t applicable to all. However, I still think that commitment to a certain look (or feel, as April pointed out) for x amount of time is far easier than this idea that the decor of the room should have almost unlimited possibilities... because it just doesn’t work this way.

Any time we pick (or are stuck with!) one element of a room, it becomes a piece of the puzzle. And while a puzzle might be varied and complex, every piece brings with it certain limitations. But this isn’t a bad thing, if we like the piece we are working with— and that’s why it’s so important to know thyself. Again, this doesn’t mean tastes and needs won’t evolve and change, but honoring your taste and space in the present time makes the whole process infinitely easier, on many levels.

In the examples given of rooms above... those rooms wouldn’t have happened without a commitment!

I have my own, kinda gloomy, opinion on peaceful and restful..:)

The most peaceful place I remember to see was Bora Bora..and I started crying. It was almost too beautiful to handle.

I think it's very personal so I get a bit wary with assumptions everyone wants same thing from his space, or feels the same being surrounded by certain colors, or patterns.

Right there are commonalities of course, but our reactions are still personal. They might be cultural too. after all some wear black when in grief, some, wear white. For some red plus gold is tacky, for others, it's lucky. One can't just jumble it all into one big catalog with instructions. "Do this if you want to feel that". It doesn't work that way.

Surroundings do influence us..I firmly believe it, and actually my deeper interest in decorating spaces started with my observation of humans..:) It just won't be a rule..It'll be pretty wondeful variety depending on so much

Say there's sea, and there's forest. Sea is majectic and beautiful. Forest is too. And both can be happy and shining. And both can be deadly, mysterious, full of dangers.

Yet to me, sea signals more danger, more despair than the forest. There is something cozy in a forest. something to hold on to.

So all the postcards in the world, they won't change my desire for my place to be more like forest, than like sea.

I might admire it deeply in other places. But it won't be really peaceful. And if it will be indeed-I'll cry.

anele I totally agree with you..it just doesn't work this way.

Whatever you choose-you choose. You didn't choose something else. It's a part of a whole. It can seem easy to change-yet it won't be. I have pretty straigthforward kitchen, bath..the moment somebody comes and wants just to repaint-that's it, it won't be straightforward at all, all the balance will change. It will need to be considered just like everything else.

I like versatile furniture pieces-but I realize they're versatile to me, because i know what I love and how it all might converse together if I'm lucky to take them with me, use in different places, regroup. . Maybe to somebody else they won't seem versatile at all. I can get away with putting them together, because they share some mood I'm looking for, some character I love. So as much as they can seem versatile to me and I don't want to change them at all, with exception of very few things bought for function mostly-they won't signal same thing to somebody else.

Perhaps we should make clear that commitment does not mean or imply a life-long adherence to one particular style, although some of us do that, albeit with the understanding that the style will slowly evolve and change to keep us interested, and to make our homes fresh and vital. It really only means committing to a certain style in whatever room or house you're decorating at a particular time. You may move to another part of the country and embrace a totally different style, and you will now commit to that style wholeheartedly so that the new decoration makes sense and is not a mishmash. Even then, it doesn't mean you jettison everything you've ever owned. Many styles lend themselves to an interesting blend which still manages to look cohesive. It also doesn't mean that you turn up your nose at every other style because it isn't "yours". I completely admire modern design that is well done, and eclectic, and MCM, and anything else that's beautifully and thoughtfully put together. I have folders from the days when I bought magazines and tore out any pictures that I admired, and one fat folder is labeled "Modern". I think you can get bored with your own style if you never look at anything different, and it's so limiting to ignore other beautiful ways of putting a room together. Life is about growth and change and letting new ideas and images into your life.

This "in your face" rug and sleek loveseat are quite a departure from what had come before. I'm still not completely comfortable with it, but had decided that I needed a change before I sank into a dusty old lady look. Do I dare confess that I still want to cling to what I had before? (The two pictures are taken from opposite angles.)