Why people’s homes depress me

I have been inside thousands of homes in the last few years and most of them depress me. There are a lot of component parts to that that depress me, but if I’m going to boil it down to a single aspect that connects all of these houses together, it is a lack of curated personalization.

That is a specific phrase. Here’s what I mean. There are some houses that are really personalized, they have 80 family photos on the wall. But there’s a lack of discernment and curation and the overall effect is overwhelm and lack of anything actually being special and celebrated. And then on the flip side there are the houses where you learn absolutely nothing about the inhabitants. You have insane decor choices, I’m talking live laugh love here. Or it’s really sterile. So it’s curated, I guess, but it’s not personal.

Now most people are a gradient in between there. Instead of live laugh love, or family photos they have nothing on their walls, or posters and maps. Or they follow design trends to a T assuming that that gives their home personality. It doesn’t.

Here’s what bothers me about most houses. Curated personalization is within grasp 100% of the time. It’s not about money, it’s not about space, it’s about knowing yourself, understanding the power of storytelling, and aesthetics, and being really clear on who you are and what makes you wonderful.

The reason I have fallen so in love with curating art for people’s homes is it touches on all of this, it addresses each of these concerns, and it is incredibly effective.

Let me prove it really quickly.

It’s not about money, you need $5 to buy good art. It’s not about space, your house can be anywhere, can have any design, can be any size and can still be gorgeous. Your house can be a cookie cutter house, that you make personalized and glorious. You can be renting shitty house with basically cardboard walls, and make that place stunning.

Art is obviously aesthetics. Not all art is beautiful, this is true. But generally speaking, as broad whole, art collectors tend to buy work that is beautiful to them. Some art collectors buy as an investment alone, some buy art that is political or conceptual, but generally speaking, you find a style that you really like, that you think is beautiful, and that’s what’s displayed in your home.

Collecting art is about knowing what you like, what excites you, what draws you in. Art is storytelling. It just is. It’s narrative, and when you collect intentionally it becomes personal narrative. And when you collect and connect you start to tell your story through the art you purchased in a powerful and effective way that communicates to yourself, to your family, to your community, to social channels exactly who you are and what makes you phenomenal.

So what’s happening, why is personalized curation so hard to find? I think it comes back to people not knowing their personal style, but above all I think it comes back to these horrible persistent beliefs about art. The barriers to entry are just not that high people. I have a ton of content that equips you to get over those barriers. Or you can hire me if you don’t want to do it yourself.