Piles of books, piles of collections, ripped upholstery, cat scratched, disarranged furniture, crooked lampshades, too big, too small, just leave the plumbing and heating pipes. It's all fine.

Thanks. Now I don't feel so bad about my rooms, esp. the library. It's my comfort zone. I tend toward minimalism elsewhere with still some crooked lampshades. But you forgot dust.

Not a lot of "less is more" in this world it seems..........

You got THAT right! Collection, upon collection....and it's organized chaos. :0)

The first sofa looks so uncomfortable.

Yes, it is organized chaos to me. I don't mind "things,", but do not want what I consider clutter or busy to my eyes in my own home.

I am not sure that I would be comfortable in any of those rooms for very long. I don't mind lots of stuff, but I make my bed when I get out of it, the carpet in the bedroom gets vacuumed twice a day, usually, and while I usually sit in a hard upright chair or the floor most of the time, I really don't like sitting in a lounge chair or sofa that is disarranged in any way: no lumps or wrinkles or anything like that. I can have 75 things on a table but they all have to be clean and orderly.

Well that home is too sparse for me, even just to look at and be interesting. But this is not the case for all. When I see rooms like these, I wonder if people actually use them. They do not look comfortable or inviting.

I like the inside/outside in the second photo.

Q: How do I know if this fabric/art/sofa/rug/pillow works in my room?

A: If you love it it will work.

My assessment: Not always. Not even if you're a muckety-muck designer.

pal...If YOU ever want to post more photos of YOUR rooms....I'd be thrilled. I still think about the teal grass cloth walls and the inset baseboards you've shown. Amazing.....and interesting....and expensive. Jilly has super nice reno furniture that's inspiring. Mtn has gardens, a pool ....Allison....well....such is perfection. I think what ya all have is honestly more interesting than the clutter these experts own....but....in a way....it's a "what-not-to-aim-for" lesson. :0)

I think there is often quite a difference between what a designer will do for themselves and what they do for a client. I've been in designer's houses where they have stuff that was mis ordered or cast off from a client. I had an instructor that did really high end neoclassical type interiors for people who was basically a horder and had Sears ribcord bedspreads because they were practical.

I'm not a minimalist by any definition, but as I've aged, I've found I need tidier, clearer surfaces. I love looking at pictures of those comfortable, cluttered, imaginative rooms, but I know I cannot live in one.

I need a LOL button for Pal's "Less is More" visual.

I happen to be one of those people who detests clutter. But I do love looking at a room with a variety of patterns that are thoughtful and well curated. I admire the ability to do that.

Ahem…. there is NOTHING better than a Sears ribcord bedspread for a child’s bed, period. They used to come in every color of the rainbow. i bought the twin size and had them made smaller so they hung just long enough to cover the mattress. The box spring was covered by a fitted sheet. The child could easily make the bed to a very good standard with that arrangement. We used those in NY and FL with duvets folded at the foot of their beds.

”Bookshelves …..are meant for 1/3 books, 1/3 decorative objects and 1/3 empty space.”

I’d like to know who came up with this preposterous and presumptuous notion!

Also, DLM is spot on about the popular idea that ”if you love it, it will work.” IMO when someone says that they are actually saying ”it doesn’t work, you know it and I know it, but let’s pretend it does because you either like it or can’t be bothered to keep looking for something that does work!”

I have two ribcord bedspreads set aside right now. Sears no longer sells them, I found them online at a place that seems to sell to "institutions"- halfway houses, detention centers, rehab facilities, and so forth.

"I’d like to know who came up with this preposterous and presumptuous notion"

I first heard this on shows like "Designed to Sell" or "Sell this House"--staging shows--and other design television in the early 2000s.

Particularly as a staging device, it's probably valid.

When you stage, I am not sure that you want potential buyers to be focused on Personal things in the house, and particularly in this day and age, lots of books is something many people are likely to notice, because people don't buy books anymore. I will sometimes walk into a house that is Not staged, but lived in and not see a single book. Years ago that meant they probably didn't read, now it means that they may have other methods of "reading". But lots of people have been trained by various cultural influences that books are now part of "clutter" and that is bad. "Lots of clutter" is inferred to mean that there is "neglect" somewhere. (Same with older, but well preserved decor. On the Buying and Selling forum, someone posted a beautifully preserved time capsule being sold by their elderly grandparents or something, and someone sniffed "I would turn around and walk right out the door. If someone can't be bothered to keep updated even a little to keep up with current trends, I can only assume that they have neglected everything about this house and that the plumbing, heating, roof and everything else is on it's last legs"--But that's a different topic.

Anyway, every single thing I said in that post is verbatim advice given in the Design Dilemma or Home Decorating forums, and it all originally seems to have come primarily from staging or updating shows.

Pal, is it InnStyle, by any chance? I get pillows, duvets and, occasionally, duvet covers from that online store.

I haven’t been inside a Sears store in decades. In the 1980’s I ordered their bedspreads from a catalog and am not surprised to hear they no longer carry them. The store has had multiple identity crises since the 1970’s.

I would be thrilled if someone who is willing to vacuum twice daily would move in with me.

There are a lot of cleaning and maintenance kinds of things that we do every single day or every time something is used. But if you do it at time of use, regularly, nothing gets very dirty and it's very quick. We both have jobs, we both have time to do things. I have time to post on here for example. We don't sit and watch TV, which I think it a big time sucker lots of people don't think about.

The vacuuming of the bedrooms is a less than 10 minute thing.

I vacuum my family room and kitchen at least once every day bc those are the two rooms my sheddy dog is allowed to make herself at home in. I can’t bear to see hair on my floors so…

I thought I read somewhere that designers spend so much of their time with color and pattern that they like to live in neutral, minimal environments? Maybe I made that up! 🤣

This says to me designers are like the avearage person. They design 'the perfect' room in their home once in their lives and them move on. Rooms evolve over time as we travel, make memories we want to enshrine, become more and more a reflection of the owner. HGTV gave it's audiences the false impression that one needs to/ought to /SHOULD redo all their rooms every few years. Make them devoid of anything personal or without a purpose. Even designers settle in when they get a room the way they like it. The exception would be kid's rooms. They get done more than most because their inhabitants are growing and change their likes/dislikes with each new year as more and more brain cells kick in. NOTHING a kid 'HAS TO HAVE' is still top of the list a year later, except ponies. The dream of a pony seems to be deeply imbedded. Those that have the discretionary spending money to "Refresh" i.e. follow the latest fads in home design every season are FEW and far between when it comes down to it.

My ex-boss practiced what she preached (minimalism), and her house looked much more like the Mies van der Rohe, which I also much prefer to the cluttered interiors.

I'm perfectly comfortable with clutter, but stacks of books in my home mean someone didn't put them away (or someone is doing a project).

A stack of books on an ottoman or with a hat on it suggests the "mess" is staged which is a big turnoff for me. It just doesn't look legit. It's fake clutter which is silly--the real thing is so easy!