Overdoing and Overthinking it: Can you have too much inspiration?

For those of you who have been around my blog a while will know I’ve been trying to get my living room redecorated and a few things re-done.  Sadly I’ve been waiting for Mr Wheel Chic Home to sort out the builders to do a few things (boxing in pipes and replastering) and he seems to be taking an age to sort it out.  And, as his brother is the builder it’s his job to get that part of the work sorted out.

(Builder is coming this weekend in the end by the way, so this is why I’m writing this post as it’s now left me in a panic!)

I have had frankly too much time to come up with a scheme for the living room and this has got me thinking: IS THERE TOO MUCH INSPIRATION OUT THERE?  (I am screaming that a little loudly because I feel overwhelmed with it all).  My friend told me last week I’m overthinking it.  I abso-bloody-lutely am and even I’m bored with it now!

Basically I’ve had four months to think about what colours, what wallpaper, what mood I want in the room.  And I still haven’t made a decision and now the builder is coming and then the plasterer soon after and then I need to get the decorators in.  I think this is why I’m overthinking it.  It’s not just a case of ‘just paint over it’ – it’s a more expensive business because we tend to get a man in to decorate (what with Mr WCH unable to stand and paint or do ceilings etc – not to mention it’ll end in divorce- we decorated the old dining room in the last house and we weren’t even married and planning the divorce!).  So as we get a man in, we have to book him in, and pay for him.

My Instagram feed is full of beautiful looking rooms in those who love the dark side and who #styleitdark.  Lots of gorgeous navy, black, dark greens and rooms clearly influenced by Abigail Ahern’s signature style (click here for more on Abigail’s masterclass that I recently attended).  Now I love all the rooms by some very talented Interiors Instagrammers such as patirobins, Nicolabroughton38, Bo_Decor and many others.  Their houses and their sense of style all look AH-MAZ-ING.  I love it all!

I initially went and picked a darker colour for my small but very bright (currently white) south facing living room.  Did I pick the colour because I was swayed by the omnipresent dark trend?  Probably.  After a lot of reflection it feels like it’s not for me (at not least all walls, ceilings and woodwork – just the walls maybe) and perhaps I was being swayed by FOMO (which for those old folk like me is apparantly what the kids say – Fear Of Missing Out – check me being all cool and that!).  Is the dark side for me?  Why did I pick that?

I’ve gone from Navy Blue, to Teal, to Green, I’ve bought probably 15 tester pots and ordered about a dozen wallpaper samples.  I’ve tried all combinations.  I’ve found a combination I like but it’s ripped from someone else’s Instagram, and whilst it’s different houses, I don’t want to directly copy someone’s style.  Even though I love it!

It got me thinking, is there too much inspiration out there?  Pinterest and Instagram and all the great blogs out there gives us too much choice and it’s easy to get confused and baffled by what’s right, what’s on trend, what’s going to look the best. How on earth do you narrow it down to get what you want?  I’ve thought long and hard about this.

Do you #styleitdark or #styleitlight?  Are you Scandi, Boho, Rustic, Eclectic? Are you a minimalist or a maximalist? Monochrome or bright colours? Tradition, modern, rockchick?  My head is spinning.  And spinning.

I have read some great blog posts recently that have (after initial confusion) given me some really great pointers on what I should do next.  I encourage you to read them all and see how you get on.  Firstly, from Pheobe at Smart Style Interiors wrote a great post on why you should or shouldn’t do a feature wall, as did Kimberly from SwoonWorthy Blog.  Some people think that a feature wall is too Changing Rooms, but as Kimberly rightly says it’s your house!  However, as Pheobe says, you should have a feature wall for the right reasons, not just because you saw it on Pinterest.  This bothered me because it’s why I was doing it, I saw some great images on Social Media generally, and in magazines and blogs and wanted my room to have the same WOW factor as it’s a bland rectangle with no feature.  Is that the right reason to do it?  I just don’t know.  The blog post by Curious Egg thinks it’s not a feature wall but an accent wall. I like that!

A couple of other really good posts – and where I’m going to go next is how to define my own style.  Having moved from a featureful Victorian Semi where I had kept things fairly traditional with feature fireplaces and coving to a featureless 50’s Bungalow I wanted to change my style and move away from the traditional to the more modern.  Probably Mid-Century to some degree to keep it in style with the house.

So I know I want to change the way my house is dressed (still with the furniture from the last house) and the colours in which I decorate.

I want to be more bold (but I don’t think I can go truly dark!) – and I don’t want to follow the trend for Pale Pink as that’s definitely not for me.  So, how to find your style?  In the past week I’ve read three great articles for advice and I’m going to follow this advice to find what is for me.

First up – Sarah Akwisombe’s recent blog post on ‘Help! My Home Doesn’t Represent my Style’ which is exactly how I’m feeling right now about my current state of mind on my living room.  Also Sarah discusses how to find your style by keeping a diary.  In a similar vein, Anna from Camilla Pearl Blog wrote a great post after being influenced by Kimberly from SwoonWorthy’s post about how to find your style by creating a secret Pinterest board.

I need to do this and do it soon!  Either a Pinterest Board or a Diary.  Sod it, why not both?!  Either way I need to throw away what I’ve done so far and take it back to basics.  What mood do I want in the room, what function does it have, what feel do I want?

I’d better crack on with it soon, builder will be here in 3 days to start the upheaval!  I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

What other ideas have you got for defining your style?  Do you follow a trend, or are you happy in your own skin even though it’s not part of current fashion? (I’m generally not a follower of fashion!)  I’d love to hear your thoughts!