The Four Decorating Personality Types - Signature Decorating Style Series

Over the years working with students and clients I found that there were four Decorating Personality Types (DPT). The DPT basically defines how each individual approached the task of decorating. Learning which type best describes you will make it easier for you to adopt a confident approach to decorating. Keep in mind that these types are solely related to your approach to decorating they have nothing to do with your own personality or social attitudes. You could be a confident executive who gets butterflies in your tummy when deciding to pick a wall color for your master bedroom.

The Experimental Decorator likes to change her décor and home on a constant basis. She likes to experiment with a variety of decorating styles and themes. She embraces change and is usually not afraid to try new decorating ideas. One season she may decide that uber-modern décor is for her and then swiftly changes her find the next season and tries an English Cottage look. Fear and regret are not part of her decorating vocabulary. She isn’t afraid to paint her walls a bright red color. She just does it and if she likes it great, if not she paints a new color over it.

The Guided Decorator wants to decorate and make changes in her home décor. Unfortunately she trusts everybody’s opinions about what to do except her own. She lacks the confidence with regards to her decorating skills and is easily swayed into making decorating decisions she may not always be happy with. She doesn’t feel that she really has a decorating style so when presented with various opinions from others; she feels that they know better, so she puts her own feelings and desires aside, and lets them decorate their way.

The Poised Decorator knows what she likes and dislikes when it comes to home décor. She has a clear vision of what she wants to accomplish with respect to her home’s décor. She will listen to the advice of others and if she thinks the advice is valid she will take it and perhaps act on it. She will not take or act on advice she believes does not fit the vision she has for her home. She can accept that change will be needed to transform her current interior to the interior of her vision. She will research and study the changes that will be made to her home. She won’t paint the walls with the new fad color Seascape Green and then decide if she likes it. She knows the color she wants before it is even brushed onto the wall.

The Shy Decorator is known for being timid or cautious about making any change to her home’s decorating status quo. She may feel that some change is needed but finds it hard to take the next big step. She is concerned that she may make bad decisions regarding her décor and that that will make her unhappier than she is now. She is not averse to decorating only to decorating her own home. She may actually enjoy watching decorating shows and reading decorating magazines but she is not yet ready to take the decorating plunge in her own home.

I know there is another type, the “I Don’t Care about Decorating” type, but none of us are her or we wouldn’t be reading this article. If you feel that you may be a combination of two types determine which type you lean stronger toward. After determining your Decorating Personality Type, write it down in your Decorating Style Discovery Journal.

Okay, so now you know your DPT, why is it important? Quite simply, so that you can understand how you think, feel and behave toward decorating. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses are all-important in developing the confidence required to create a personal decorating style.

Understanding your underlying decorating personality type will greatly increase the odds of you finding a decorating style you will love and one that will work for you. So If you find that you are the Guided Decorator then you know that you need to develop your inner confidence and know that when you are working in your Decorating Style Discovery Journal that the answers should be YOURS not your co-worker, not your mother’s, and not the UPS delivery guy’s!

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