When you walk in to your home after a hard day at work, do you feel instant relaxation? Entering in to a place that you really love being, A place that fills you with calm and ease? A place you hate leaving and can't wait to get back to?

If not, you owe it to yourself to make it so. Why? Because you deserve it! You deserve a place of beauty that truly appeals to your emotional sense of well being. A place that you feel proud of, a place that shows off who you are.

Many times we feel restricted in our decorating. People who rent homes or apartments, spousal disapproval, lack of funds, fear of trying something new or just being lost in what should be done to accomplish that goal.

But there is always a solution if you just look for it. Apartment and rental home dwellers can decorate with removable decor, spouses can be compromised with, budgets can be adjusted to acquire the necessary instruments needed to design your dream home (other than expensive furnishings, most decorating can be done on a very limited budget) and as to where to start to improve your surroundings, look within yourself and ask yourself: "What do I dislike about my current decorating?" and "What type of decorating do I love?" Look to magazines for help and clip photos of styles that appeal to you for guidance.

Change the things you dislike by adopting the things you love.

Our home in Seattle, Washington is quite lovely and it was surely a labor of love. You would never tell that I did it all on a shoestring with paint, plaster, fabric and color choices. Even much of the framing for art came from thrift stores and was re-gilded or repaired. Many of my treasured furniture pieces were yard sale items that I will keep forever.

But I made a mistake with the Seattle house and that was to hold the reins on some of the decorating I would have loved to do. Why? Because I knew at some point we would sell that pretty place and move in to our dream home, recently purchased in the mountains of Idaho. My thought at the time was that if I decorated in too much ornate plaster, if I painted murals on the walls and ceilings or if I used a little too much "gold" accent , that the house would somehow be less appealing to potential buyers.

As I've spent the past few years making the Idaho house a true extension of my personality and my art with cast columns, wall and sky murals and gold decor items in nearly every room, I've realized that I shorted myself in not doing the same in our Seattle home.

I've found that though I decorated that house to please myself and my husband, I was also decorating it for potential buyers from the moment I moved in. By doing that, I kept myself from enjoying things I am now creating in Idaho. Things that make me happy, things that I have loved in other homes but didn't feel I could do to my own because it might displease a future owner.

My whole point is that your home really is your "castle". No matter how long you are meant to be there. Decorate for YOU. Decorate to please and comfort YOU and your family. Don't worry about what the future might hold.

The most important thing is to make your home a special place that is meant to be enjoyed "today". So if you want brilliant red walls, go for it... If you want to decorate in high style, have a ball! If you want to paint your walls black and carpet in white shag, then that's what must be done! In closing, I want to quote Eleanore Roosevelt: "Life has just got to be lived ~ Thats all there is to it".

© Victoria Larsen 2006