My parents hired interior designers. Actually it was my father who wanted one because he wanted to buy furniture once when they build a new house and if they were "investing" in furniture he did not want mistakes made. My dad was a physician and he got a part time job at another hospital specifically to pay for the furniture. And he was a specialist, and if he had legal or tax questions he consulted a specialist, and why not hire someone whose job it was to help people decorate a house? And it still suited my parents, they knew what they liked, they just wanted a coordinator/facilitator as well as someone who could interpret what they liked into something cohesive, more or less.

My family still has most of the furniture 50 years later and only got rid of a few things when my parents died (some pieces which people still regret sending to auction).

I would say that they approached it this way because decorating was not a priority for them either. They had other professions, they did not want to do the entire process themselves, they were happy to delegate the mechanics of it to another professional. And a lot of money probably did go into it, at the time, but there were no major mistakes made, and since we still have a lot of the things on which the money was spent, it was not a bad investment.

Funny, I'm the opposite of Pal. My father had absolutely no interest in how anything looked and my mother doesn't have the ability or the patience to put a full look together. One of my grandmothers put together a lovely home for entertaining. I always felt like we were more alike than my own parents.

As a very young kid, I already had opinions about what I wore and how things looked. In jr. high, I took money out of my savings account to buy and paint furniture, make a matching quilt and decorate my room. It was kelly green Marimekko. I loved it.

One of my creative outlets has always been putting things together so they look nice - clothes, decorating, merchandising in my early career. Feels like I'm just wired that way.

Yes, I did.

I think my mother was a talented decorator, she was very into that and fashion, but was diagnosed with MS (the worst progressive type) when I was in elementary school. She became completely disabled and I went to live with my dad, who has always been a big influence regarding my tastes. My grandmother was also an influence, but more so regarding gardening … I loved tagging along to the nurseries and helping her in her yards. She’s been gone over 20 yrs and I still hear her in my ear when I visit nurseries and garden centers now. Or see gorgeous yards. She passed the best family heirlooms to me and I treasure them so much, which is why she made those decisions. She cultivated my love of vintage and antiques, my love of meaningful decor.

Both definitely instilled in me a love and passion for all things home related — decorating and gardening. It was just my dad and I, and I had a say in our house. We had a lot of fun finding things. Still do. We know each other’s tastes like the back of our hands. :) I was around 11 when I started really becoming involved in our house and houses we moved to later. At 15, I completely decorated our last house together (I left to live in Europe at 18). I have a big part in decorating each house he‘s lived in since. I’m currently hunting for lampshades for him.

I worked in the design field, for years, in various capacities. I think I’ve passed along the passion to my DD … she asks advice, and allows some help, but ultimately has strong ideas and opinions of her own, which I love seeing. :)

I wish I had been able to share that (and everything else, of course) with my mother, too.

I think both sides of my family influenced me. Both of my grandparents had comfortable homes, and even though my paternal grandfather owned a furniture store (and at one time a factory - it burned down), they only bought new mattresses or recliners for the men. My father also had furniture stores, so he always went to market and furnished their houses. He always bought nice things, some I am lucky enough to have now. He furnished their first house at market in the late 50s, took most of that to the next house in 1970, and very little of that to their next house in 1985. He went to market twice to furnish it. When they died five years ago, they still had everything they had bought in '85.

Their first two houses had nice draperies, one of his stores did these too. I was allowed to change my bedding at 15yo and picked out a yellow and light orange floral bedspread from the store. I was forever trying to change my room somehow, but that was hard to do with three doors and two window walls. He opened a new store when I was 16yo and I thought I would end up working there, but he found out it could be leased to another furniture store owner and wouldn't have to put on a suit every day or deal with customers that wouldn't listen to him. Later in life, he admitted to me that he couldn't stand customers that wouldn't take his advice.

While Dad made most of the decisions, Mom went with him to market the last (main) house and for four of their second/third homes. They both enjoyed searching for and buying accessories and art for their houses.

My older sister likes her houses to look nice, but she did not inherit the decorating gene. It has always been one of my things. Both of our daughters are pretty good at it too. Our son, he's finally learning in his mid-30s.

My mother was the one who brought home a Vogue magazine, sewed the outfit on the front cover for herself, then made a cute little thing for me. Left over fabric, Barbie got an outfit too. My father was a country club manager. We did have a decorator come over to the house. My mom collected Oriental decor & buddha's.

My mom gave me this advice: you need two big comfortable club chairs, an ottoman and a couch, then decorate around them. Investments: Buy houses and gold.

My mom enjoyed crafts and painting but really wasn't into decor or clothes. My Grandma and I bonded over CNN's Style with Elsa Klensch so I think I got the gene from her.

My grandparents didn't have a lot of money but she did embrace blonde wood and MCM-ish furniture. Which was a stark contrast to my Mom's geese and chunky colonial-style furniture.

This isn't about decorating, but I think my dad wanted nice things because he had grown up relatively poor during the Depression, and when he went to Jr. High he asked to be able to pick out his own clothes. He had two shirts and one pair of school pants for the entire year and washed and ironed the shirts (iron heated on the stove) every day and ironed the pants, and polished his shoes regularly. So when he built his own house I think he wanted it to be all in good taste and very Permanent and he probably was not sure he could (or he and my mom could) pull it off alone. (I actually have and wear 4 or 5 pairs of my dad's 50+ year old shoes because they were always the best he could afford and very well-maintained.)

@palimpsest I can relate to that! My grandparents experienced the depression. As a married couple, they always lived well, didn't have debt, etc. Those times made an impression on people who experienced it. When my grandparents built a new home, they had beautiful wood floors. My grandmother promptly had carpet laid in most rooms! It was not the cost, but what the look/feel of that carpet meant to her. When cleaning out their house (after their deaths), we found in the bottom of my grandfather's vanity a cup of soap slivers. He had grown up learning to use things up, not to waste, etc.

As for the original question, both my mom and my grandmother made beautiful homes. When my parents built the house I grew up in, mom had lavender tile put in their master bath. It was beautiful and she was always able to decorate their bedroom beautifully around it. My grandmother had a gorgeous pale pink guest room. If I spent the night alone, and I was good (LOL), I got to sleep in that bed. :) The bathroom across the hall had pink tile. The master bath had pale blue tile. They both had a talent for decor. My grandfather and my mom both were good at raising flowers and my grandfather and my dad always had beautiful gardens. So I guess my love for these things came from family. I was blessed to inherit a few family pieces. Yes, I do look at decor, and not just things for a purpose. But I don't buy many things just for the purpose of "decor". I use family pieces, old photos, things we have picked up on trips, etc. In other words, things that have meaning. But like right now, I can spend plenty of time looking at fabrics, etc. for pillows, etc. I love changing out pillows and bedding a few times a year. I always get a yearning to lighten up come spring! My husband and I developed a love of antiques early in our marriage and have many pieces in our home. It makes me happy to fill our home with things that have meaning and make us smile.

I swear I was born with furniture genes. I traded my last baby bottle (only used for evening snack because I liked how milk tasted from it) for bedroom furniture that I liked.

Both parents cared about keeping a nice home. In later years when my father was a hospital administrator, he took interior design classes. He didn't think hospitals should look like they did back then and he wanted to be able to communicate his ideas to the interior designers who were remodeling the lobby and examination rooms.

Wow - all your stories are so interesting. It sounds like most of us were significantly influenced by our parents and/or grandparents interests. My family had a lot of interest in antiques. Not sure if that was because they really liked old stuff or because they couldn’t afford new. I still have some antique pieces that belonged to my grandparents that were passed along to my parents and ended up with me as the last man standing. I treasure all of them but have no interest in acquiring more but then I have no interest in acquiring more stuff of any kind.

From my great grandmothers to my grandmother and mother, all share the same taste and interest in decorating. My mother ended up studying interior design, getting a degree and all, but like Allison's father, she had no patience for people's bad choices, so not a great career pick for her. But there is no redecorating in our family per se, though there is updating from time to time (kinda a funny line to draw, hard to explain.)

I still remember looking at Portmeirion's Botanic Garden dishes at the Conran Shop back in the late 70s. They were displayed on a pine table with a Welsh dresser on the side. I was 10 or 11 years old, and my mother said those dishes would be perfect for me when I married. Need I say in 1994, when I married, those dishes and the pine farmhouse table and Welsh dresser became the centerpieces of my kitchen.

though there is updating from time to time (kinda a funny line to draw, hard to explain.

Yes, this. I basically do this too. I do not like to spend time finding or money buying disposible items. We started antiquing when we first married and still have our first purchases. Funny enough, my parents did not start buying antique furniture and accessories before their last main house. They didn't have that many, but what they had were nice pieces. He filled in with things he bought during international travels.

I think my mother was interested, somewhat, but she did not purchase a home until the time I was moving out. When I was growing up, there were a lot of apartments, some military housing or rental houses. Because it was not ours, there were limits on what we could do. Also, as she was a young, single mother for a while and then later married and divorced, etc., funds were limited and so many purchases were of necessity instead of style. Now, her financial picture is somewhat more stable but she also has the personality trait of getting bored with things and wanting to switch things out.

In many ways I had to start from scratch. It has taken me some time to figure out what I truly like, to educate myself on quality of construction and the various styles that are out there. It has also been a long process of learning to distill my visions and merge them with the reality of finances, children, lifestyle. I am heavily influenced by my environment visually, and thus an interest in design feeds a need. I think that the interest in design also fulfills a creative need within me. I enjoy looking at craigslist and imagining the possibilities. It's an intellectual pursuit of a sort and a challenge that can incorporate many other philosophies. Interior design intersects questions of supporting craftsmen/artist, the local economy, climate change, etc. Design of my garden does much of the same. In that regard, love of plants comes from my grandfather although I am not sure how much design principles came into play for him. With my kids, 2/4 are interested in design and two of the others barely notice anything unless you point it out to them.

My mom thought decorating was frivolous and had a few items she liked that, in today's lingo, "sparked joy" for her, but she was never concerned about how they went together.

My dad was obsessed with decor and antiques. He decorated, IMHO, like a little old lady with lots of frills and doodads. Not my style, but I def did get a love of decor from him. I also gained an appreciation of well built pieces from him. I'm not an antiques expert by any means, but I know a nice piece when I see it and like to have at least one in every room.

My dad was (retired now) a home builder and my mom did the decorating. Our home was always decorated to the hilt. I think I wrote here before, my mom decorated my first dorm room: walls were painted peach (we painted), carpeted (by my dad's carpetlayer) and then decorated by my mom, way before college students did these things like they do now LOL I use to love to decorate, but I am not that much into it anymore and only do it now occasionally.

I LOVE LOVE landscaping-that is what I really should have done professionally.

I worked with a woman who remarried late in life and when they put their house on the market she showed me the listing. It was very frilly high late 1980s Victorian Country Revival.

And I was confused because I thought when she had remarried she had moved into the house her husband bought after his divorce and I said so....

And she said "Yes this is all Robert's taste. He decorated this house top to bottom before we got married."

"This is mine, Robert let me hang this picture in the den". "And this is mine" pointing to a loveseat in the basement that looked mostly unused.

I found the situation odd on a number of levels. They lived in that house for ten years and she was "allowed " to hang one picture and store put her old furniture in the basement.

“I LOVE LOVE landscaping-that is what I really should have done professionally.”

Me, too. If I could go back in time, that’s the direction I’d have gone. As much as I love decorating inside, I love landscaping even more!

My mother lost her mother when she was about 10, so my grandmother was no influence at all. However, my mother and the sister closest to her in age both decorated beautiful homes. There were no family heirlooms, but Mom and Aunt scoured antique shops and estate sales for classic antique pieces. And when they bought new, they bought quality. Once they had a home decorated, not much changed. There would be tweaks but not much more. There would be re-upholstery when fabrics got worn, or new curtains when the old ones faded. Absolutely no fad decorating with either Mom or her sister … no geese, no mauve, no bright colors.

Once, I took a friend with me to visit my aunt. Her comment was that it looked like something out of a magazine. I suppose it did, but I had seen it for so long and it was so familiar that it never struck me as something out of the ordinary.

Mother enjoyed decorating, and she did it well. She hired an interior decorator once. Her one charge to him was ”no sectional sofas.” He brought back plans featuring a sectional sofa. She fired him and would have nothing to do with IDs after that.

I’m one of the ones who helps DD. My DD wants a nicely decorated house but doesn’t want to spend the time it takes (I also think she doesn’t have the confidence needed). In her defense, she has 3 children under 5. They go to 3 different schools (girls’ school, boys’ school, and pre-school). She spends upwards of 2 hours a day in the car taking kids to school. She cannot get a house cleaner (trust me, she’s tried), so she cleans her own house (5000+ SF). And have you ever seen how much laundry 3 small children can generate? She loves gardening and does much work in the yard even though she has a landscaping service for the general maintenance and heavy-lifting. In the summer she has a pool service, but the pool still needs daily care. I have the time to post here asking for help, to source the elements that are needed, and buy and return them. I enjoy it; she doesn’t.

We lived rurally on a small dairy farm and money was always tight. But my mother always made our home functional and pretty. She sewed curtains, painted walls and thoughtfully arranged all of the used and mismatched furniture my dad hauled home.

I caught the bug when we found a bedspread and matching curtains with bumble bees and flowers which had the exact strange color of blue in my tattered bedroom carpet. I've never been very good at decorating but love it and am learning every day, mostly from Houzz.

My father passed away 6 years ago and my mother recently moved into her first rented apartment. She has replaced the vertical blinds with rods and curtains, and painted the white walls with colors of her choice. She has decorated with pictures and accessories she found at the Goodwill. And is currently putting wallpaper in the bathroom. She is 85 and doing all of it herself. Up and down ladders, etc.

I said "Mom, you are not supposed to make those kinds of changes to a rented apartment." She said "Oh, but it looks so much better. They will probably thank me.".

My Mom wasn't terribly interested in decor, but my Dad was. We grew up in a MCM house back when it was just called a split level. My Dad's tastes ran toward colonial and he had some creative ideas that kind of flopped IMHO. For a big bear of a man in tech back when it was called electronics, it was funny how much he liked frou frou. Fresh flowers, toile, collectibles like LLadro, cloisonne, etc. And he had a thing for carousels. He was such a great dad and a sweet man.

I have no idea why but I was always interested in decor and architecture. As a preteen I had subscriptions to AD and Metropolitan Home (remember that one?). As soon as we were 16 and could drive, we started goofing off the way all teens do of course .. we'd pile in the car and go on "house drooling" excursions. This basically meant my BFF and I driving around to gawk at neighborhoods that were not MCM, looking at and learning about houses. I can still remember some of our favorite Philly-area streets from that day. My first apt was with that same BFF in a gorgeous old building with leaded glass bow windows and my own Juliette balcony.

I was allowed to decorate my own bedroom as a kid and my first foray was raspberry carpet and french provincial. My second foray, in junior high, was refinished wood floors, a pineapple bed, gateleg table as a nightstand, my dad's old oak secretary, lots of plants in terracotta pots and a boston fern on a wooden pedestal. I'd still like that room today.

I still remember looking at Portmeirion's Botanic Garden dishes at the Conran Shop back in the late 70s.

I loved Conran's too, and I have three bowls that i use to this day from there. I broke my fave, which was terracotta clay on the outside and white ceramic inside All circa 1980ish and acquired IIRC while i was still living in my childhood bedroom LOL.

In the early 90s I travelled thru England and we stayed overnight in Portmeirion village. Kind of a whacky place! But fun and we had a lovely meal I still recall. I have a an oil and vinegar set in that pattern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion

Jackie, tell your mother if she wants to remain independent and active, no more ladders!

Amen to what Zalco said! But you’re probably swimming upstream to try to change her.

"Oh, but it looks so much better. They will probably thank me.".

I've heard THAT before. 😁

I think what I learned from my mom is that qualtiy is the most important factor. I'd rather have a few pieces of classic, quality furniture, than a house filled with trendy furnishings from Wayfair. My mom has always said I am "to the manor born", it's pretty accurate in describing my tastes, anyway. I think she is the same. My dad is the opposite. Mom loves antiques; Dad loves new, lol. I do love looking on FB marketplace for all the treasures that younger people inherit but do not want. Yes, I'll gladly buy that secretary from you!

Bbstx, that was me in the 80s and 90s. 3 under 5 turned into 3 at different schools. I hated carpooling with others (the waiting on both ends of the school day). Did all the cleaning, cooking and majority of yard work. Although it was his job to cut the grass which he enjoyed. We shared fall leaves collection until the last two years of 20. I was done with leaves. When DD1 was 4yo she had a friend over and when the mom picked her up and found out I did not have anyone come in she said "you need to get some help!" I never even considered it.

Allison, there is no carpooling these days because everyone has to be in a car seat. DD can barely fit 3 car seats in her Suburban. DSIL can only fit 2 in his car (MB wagon). The good news is the youngest will go to the same school as her sister next fall.

She has gotten recommendations for house cleaners from at least 3 different people. She calls and they don’t call back. I called a service that I used there 30 years ago. They are still in business. They would not come give her a quote. They told me that they charge $X per hour for a 3 man crew. They would come clean and then let her know how much she owed them. Really!?!?!?

One bright spot - Gary mows the yard. Gary is a robo mower. He moves so slowly, the children named him after Sponge Bob’s pet snail. HA!

@Zalco/bring back Sophie!, @bbstx, @nicole___ Oh, yes, I've warned her about the ladders and told her that not everyone will think her changes are nice, and that rentals are generic for a reason.

She listened about as well as she did last year when she took off alone in her motorhome driving from Oregon to Minnesota and back through a snow storm in the rockies. Packed her dog and my dad's ashes so that he could come for the ride. Engine blew along the way. She spent a week parked at a remote convenience store and shared frozen pizza every night with a "nice young man with very interesting tattoos".

Her old motorhome is also lovingly decorated with homemade curtains and pillows, coordinated rugs, etc.

Jackie, I love your mom and want to be like her when I grow up. :)

@Jackie Brown it sounds like she is living her best life, and loving it! i know there are things that worry you, but remember, if something happens, she is doing what she loved.

She sounds like an amazing person, Jackie.

My parents weren't interested in decor. I'm a visual person, though, and have always enjoyed interior design and decorating. I wanted to be an architect when I was young, but was talked out of it (I don't recall why).

My love of gardening and landscaping came from my grandparents, who were farmers. Besides crops and animals, they had an acre of vegetables. My grandmother grew flowers everywhere she could, and devoted their formal living room to houseplants. She could grow anything.

Living in the Upper Midwest, I've designed my landscapes around winter interest and visual appeal. I enjoy researching flowers, shrubs and trees, their growing habits and needs, etc.

WOW! What a mom, Jackie!

Feathers, I love that you landscape for winter interest. I've always been drawn to both the drama and solitude of winter. I have a favorite picture of a single tree in the snow which can instantly put me "there".

Thanks all for the comments about my amazing mother. I have learned to let go and let her do her thing. I am lucky to have her.

@bbstx yes, I remember those days. We went shopping for a new vehicle for me once #3 was two weeks old. I needed something to hold three carseats. I did not carpool for preschool either. What I meant was, for me, as they aged it turned into three schools. Hope she is able to find a housekeeper soon.

Love your mom, @Jackie Brown. Great story.

My dad did not have great taste in home furnishings. Maybe a particular item, but his theory was that if he liked it, it went together. My mom and I got a few laughs over that, He did teach me to buy quality and to invest in wood pieces first because they would last the longest and prices went up faster. He was also the one who taught me how to clean and polish furniture, recover chairs. Both parents influenced my ability and willingness to refinish or take on other challenges. They also influenced my buying original art. I remember prints and framed needlework on the walls of my grandmother's house. when things were done for my room and even our bathrooms. My parents grew up with the Great Depression and WWII, so quality and value were deeply ingrained. My father was also Dutch and I'm told that is a Dutch trait also. My mom was no doubt influenced by her mother, who had great taste. My mother did have good taste and I'm grateful she guided my dad. She also let me have a say in decorating my bedroom and the bathroom.

My maternal grandmother was orphaned by the Spanish Flu Pandemic. As soon as she was able, she took her younger siblings out of the orphanage and went to work to support them. All I know of that survived from her parents were a few photos and a sugar bowl that my sister has. As she worked, married and started her own family, it gave her extreme pleasure to have nice things after having nothing. Her decor, her needlework, her crafting and her cooking and entertaining were all done "just so." She wanted the finest and the best. They She leaned very traditional and formal. My mom took after her mother in many ways, but was not quite as formal. I'm not sure if that was her preferences or my dad's influence, but I'm definitely more like my mom with a lot of bits of my grandmother.

My mother has a good eye and i grew up amidst traditional furniture in traditional settings. As she got older her taste skewed toward French furnishings and decor. I did not share her exact taste in all things but I have been the lucky recipient of a lot of nice Baker furniture over the years. My mom ordered pieces for their bedroom in the early 1970s in a custom finish that is still gorgeous. Her current bedroom is too small to contain it all so I now have her writing desk and highboy. I also have the server that Baker made for her with slate insets in the fold out top. It was supposed to be for tea service but she wanted to be able to serve hot hors d’oeuvres on it also. They actually put her modifications into production as an option. She was, and still is, a lady of great taste. If I have any proclivities in that area it is entirely due to her influence.

I wonder if it is a care of the idle. I wonder if it's an interest of those with and abundance of discretionary spending. I wonder if it's a compulsion of the envious. I wonder if it's a hobby of the bored. Perhaps the crowd that entertains a lot would be more interested than those whose homes are family use only dwellings. The crowd that loves a challenge of getting the look for less feeds off paying attention to styles. I think it's a hobby/interest equal to any other people busy themselves with. To each their own. My mom was not at all interested. Maybe that is why I was? Attending gatherings in other people's homes gave me a view of what could be and I liked it? Wanted it so became interested in the process. The same way a kid likes sports so begins to find out about that world.

My mom had a natural eye for decorating and she grew up in an orphanage. I inherited her love for decor except I don't have the eye she had. We never talked about decorating either. When we moved to an older home she decorated it in Early American.

I'll never forget the day (neither would my dad and brother) she brought home a large antique wood dining room table that had scratches on it. She took a large steel chain, the heavy kind, and beat that table repeatedly until it was full of large dents in the top. Then she painted it red and went over it in a black glaze. It took our breath away.

And then she bought a glorious chandelier to hang above the table. :)

Funny, Oakley, my mother was an ID, and grew up in an orphanage….I have a small armoir that she painted red, then glazed.

My father called her the ”Interior Dessicrater”. When we came home, we never knew wher the furniture would be. Sometimes rearranged, sometimes gone to the upholsterer.

This is a great topic; I’m really enjoying reading everyone’s decorating backgrounds.

Jinx, my mother started her ID degree at the prestigious El Centro ;-)

Aww! :)

My mom would say about herself that she had no idea what she liked and was not talented at decorating- I completely disagree. She really had excellent taste and I’m fortunate to have inherited many of my parents’ things- many beautiful pieces from Gump’s in San Francisco, chairs and rugs purchased at antique store, MCM pieces from Design Research from when they lived in Lexington, Massachusetts and purchased ( with me present as a 15 year old) in Copenhagen, and original art. She taught me to buy the best quality I could afford, and had a wonderful eye for color. I don’t know why she didn’t have more confidence in herself!
My parents 1920s home in the Berkeley Hills was decorated in an eclectic style, mixing MCM and antique furniture. Mine is similar- not surprising, since I have so many of their things.
I’ve always preferred vintage to new- almost everything I own is preowned. I’ve always been interested in style and design, and have a clear memory of thinking when I first had my own apartment,”I want it to be beautiful everywhere I look.”

You had me at ”My parents 1920s home in the Berkeley Hills was decorated … ”.

I so wish I could see it! 😍

Dad was an architect, mother was his interior advisor. She was also a distributor for decorating fabrics. All Knoll, very modern. Dad retired to the golf course in 1971, so it's been a while. I was deeply imprinted.

My mom has great traditional taste, but she didn’t have a creative eye. She used interior designers to help her pull together the look she wanted. We had a lot of family antiques. Dad had absolutely no interest in any of it, lol lol.

We built a custom home when I was 10, and I vividly remember CRYING bc mom and the designer were choosing the same bland wool carpeting for the entire upstairs, and the same style of draperies for all of the rooms that faced the front of the house. I wanted yellow carpet and frilly, flouncy curtains. (this was 1979, mind you😂) She decided to let me have what I wanted, which I always appreciated. (After I grew up and moved out…she recarpeted and re-draped my room.) 😂

I remained picky. I decorated my room in the sorority house full-on Laura Ashley….very into that English country house look. Loved decorating all of the homes dh & I have lived in. I absolutely ADORED the custom home design and build process…if I didn’t love this house so much I would do it all over just to experience it again! I really don’t think my mom loved the process like I do…but she was always so proud of what I did with my decorating.

Did you get an interest in decorating because you grew up with a parent (presumably mother) who was also into decor?

100% yes, it was both my mom and dad, and they are very good at it. They let me trail them in their respective workshops and hobby rooms, helped me when I wanted to do my own projects, and supported me when I wanted to study art in college. My mom started involving me in design decisions for my room by the time I was 10, and we redecorated that room together three times before I moved out. Because of my parents many talents, I am a jack of all trades, master of none. Decorating, DIY and home improvement are my favorite hobbies.