Introduction: The Case for Decorating Your Own Home

Originally posted on 8/6/09 on my website: www.carladavisdesigns.com

Welcome to my blog about all things beautiful for your home! My goal here is to encourage, motivate, and inspire with an easy source to share advice, insecurities, and find bargains for you home decorating projects. Please let me know your thoughts and opinions on the various topics. They offer an invaluable resource to help keep me focused on the things you truly want for your home, but above all, your opinions truly matter to me.

There are several reasons that we may choose to hire a professional designer or decorator to make our homes more appealing. As we come to the conclusion that we should hire outside help to create the home of our dreams, we may think, or even utter aloud one of the statements below:

1. My time is worth more than the money that I am willing to pay to get this place into shape.
2. I want it done right!
3. I don't know what I like; therefore,
4. I don't know what I want.
5. I don't want to waste money (because I don't know what I should like.)
6. I want to be the first on my block to hire a designer.

Sadly, all of these statements indicate one thing: We all need to have more confidence in ourselves!

In a time of so much economic uncertainty, and so many things that we cannot control, I challenge everyone to take command of the spaces inside their homes. Lately, there may not be much that we can trust, but we should surely maintain faith in ourselves. We all have a pretty good idea of colors we prefer to paint our walls, we know whether or not we absolutely detest Victorian-style furniture, and we know that if we see another ragged or sponged faux-finished wall...well, you know what I mean. We all have our own valid opinions about such things. So there's absolutely no reason that we should not trust our own instincts.

So now it's settled. We can all trust our instincts. Despite all of our newly boosted self-confidence here, we still need good resources, some advice, and occasionally a bit of encouragement. Every two weeks, I plan to blog about new information and/or new products that I have found to be exceptional in style, value, and utility:"Really Cool" stuff. Things you can use to pull together the look you want. These items will be available for purchase from my web store, as well as from others sources both online, and in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

We all know what we like, as well as what we don't. It's time to exert our self-confidence, save money, save time, and get the job done ourselves. Let's go!

Carla Davis, Principal Designer, IDS Associate
Decor on a Dime, LLC
Ashburn, VA
www.carladavisdesigns.com