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If you’re looking to redecorate or update your home and don’t want it to become a talking point because it’s so gauche it makes Trump Towers look classy, this blog post is for you.
So, how do you know if you’ve got good taste or a good eye for things or not? It might seem obvious that if you didn’t have reasonably good taste (or at least have enough about you to know that socks and sandals don’t mix) your friends wouldn’t be backwards in coming forwards.
But, plot twist; how do you know if said friends have good taste? What if you’re actually the classy one and they’re Melania? (Also, just a pro tip, anyone who uses the word “classy” about their tastes or that has this as their working brief for either clothing or interiors tends to come off as anything but.)
Just because someone has a loud or confident opinion or a massive negative overreaction to a questionable fashion or decorating choice doesn’t mean they’re right – because there is no right.
Good taste is a matter of taste. Everyone’s taste is different (unless or until programmed otherwise). So what most people mean when they say “good taste” is less “doesn’t hurt your eyes to look at” and more “garners a reaction of positivity/is inoffensive to the majority of people.
This being the case, do you actually want to have good taste? I mean, obviously you probably don’t want to make people’s eyes bleed if they visit, although that said if you’re visitor-averse, there is merit to considering this approach.
If that was the whole point I was trying to make by means of catfishing you into opening this blog post with the promise of confirming or denying once and for all if your love of paisley is actually ok or nah, I’d be finished right about here.
While I may or may not have misled you to get you this far by my judicious use of a clickbait title though, bear with me for another few minutes and think on a couple of questions I’m going to pose, which will hopefully help you to work out for yourself both what YOU personally consider to be good taste, and how much you care about it.
This in turn might help to inform your next interiors project, whether that means buying the hell out of some of my blinds (yes, do that, mamma needs new Louboutins) or really pushing the boat out and grabbing a 60’s style mirrored cocktail tray for a fiver next time you’re in B&M.
How do you view interior design?
Most of us think of the term “interior design” as meaning something fairly conceptual and highbrow; the type of thing undertaken by designer-clad beanpole fashionistas who are keen to use ten words to describe anything when just one or two would suffice.
Interior design and/or decorating can mean everything from architectural plans and their execution upwards; but simply picking an ornament you like the look of off the shelf of a shop on a whim, or deciding where and how to hang a picture of your kid or dog is all encompassed under the heading of interior design too.
There is not a platform below which you’re not fancy enough or well qualified enough to have an opinion and make a choice about your own interior design.
You can hire a professional if you want to; you can run down design inspiration and feedback from what well-known names and players in interiors think or recommend too. But you can also block out all external feedback and do whatever the heck you want with your own home instead, or take in others’ opinions and then pointedly ignore it, and if this is the way you want to go, you should be able to do so without feeling like you’re doing it “wrong.”
Never be made to feel as if your own choices or preferences are somehow “less than,” or worry that you’re somehow uncool or going renegade (in the bad way) by making an independent choice.
So first and foremost, think about how you view interiors, what’s important to you, and vitally, why; if what you do with your home is first and foremost about wowing people who visit you, that’s perfectly ok. But if what you really want is a space that is objectively yours and designed (or executed in the wilful absence of a design) regardless of what others think, well that, my friend, is perfectly ok too.
How do you view your home?
The spaces we live in (when we have the inclination and opportunity to shape them to our own tastes) are a natural extension of who we are, whether we realise this or want them to be or not. They can reflect the personality and persona that we are or that we present to the world, or contradict it entirely.
Think “dog most like its owner” versus the guy who runs marathons but owns a Staffy that can barely make it to the end of its own driveway without needing CPR.
Some people dress very carefully and see their clothes and presentation as an integral part of who they are; others only get dressed at all to avoid arrest. The same principle can be applied to interiors.
Some will only be happy if Better Homes and Gardens have them on speed dial, others think that plastic patio furniture makes for a perfectly good dining set at half the cost and can’t understand why everyone else is so judgemental about it.
Most of us are somewhere in the middle; and the important thing to remember here is that there’s no right or wrong when it comes to what your own feelings on the matter are, or how much you care about the style of your home.
It is fine to want everything spot on, bang up to date with the latest trends, and far more visual than comfortable if that’s what makes you happy; it is also fine to literally not care, and pick pieces that are cheap, or functional, or that fit your ethos in other ways, such as being sustainably produced or second-hand.
So have I got good taste, or nah?
If you are confident in your tastes and/or the loudest voice in the room, and/or everyone is literally scared of you (cultivate this latter, it has so many possible applications) then yes. Remember, “having” good taste just means being part of the majority collective that are in agreement about a thing, or following the views of the received wisdom/recognised experts on a thing like everyone else does. If you’re the received wisdom (squeakiest wheel, loudest voice, most confident opinion…) even if only to yourself, your taste is good. End of.
Thank you for listening.
