A fun way to get a fresh perspective of your room

You know how the difference between seeing yourself in the mirror and seeing yourself in a photograph can be huge sometimes? Our rooms can be the same way.

Sometimes we need a fresh perspective of our rooms, whether they’ve been arranged the same way for years or we just re-decorated yesterday. And sometimes, all we need to do to get that new view of our space is to take a photograph or two of it.

Pictures of your room will give you a whole new perspective

It’s amazing how things jump out at you in a picture that you’ve never noticed in person. Sometimes there’s a lot of clutter that you have gotten so used to, you never even noticed it. It could be little things like electrical cords that you didn’t realize were visible to something big like the sofa not complimenting the room at all.

So it’s not just clutter that a some pictures will reveal, it can be whether the room is actually reflecting your style, or even whether the whole floorplan makes sense. Once you see a photo, you could notice that you actually don’t like the end tables you thought you loved, or that the headboard you thought wasn’t working is actually perfect and just needs to be played up or tied in more.

One personal example was my doggy gate. I already knew I didn’t like it, but I had no idea just how unflattering it was to the room. As always, you don’t have to make expensive changes to fix things…that doggy gate? I replaced it for $4.

So when you’re feeling stuck, or just want to refresh your room, taking a few pictures of it is the PERFECT place to start. It’s free and takes about 5 minutes.

What to look for in the photos

Now that you know you need to get the pictures, here’s what to look for:

1. Where do your eyes go first? Do you like it? Is that where you want the focal point to be?
2. Anything feel “heavier” or “louder” than you expected?
3. Anything look dated or out-of-place?
4. What looks good to you?
5. Any weird paths or bottlenecks in the flow of the floorplan you didn’t realize you were dealing with every day?

Tips for taking pictures of your room

I’m a borderline-terrible photographer not very good at photography yet.  But there are three things that have started making a big difference in the photos around here:

1. Use natural light whenever possible (and don’t mix any other light with natural light–it will make everything look muddy).
2. Take photographs from hip-height (or waist-height if you’re short like me).
3. Face your subject straight-on.

I always photographed our rooms at an angle (from the corner) so I could fit the whole room in one picture. And that’s another reason my photographs were never pretty. It’s just not flattering, and it really is okay to not get the whole room in one photo. So try facing the wall squarely when taking pictures.

The tips can seem strange and unnatural, but they really make a difference, try it both ways and see!

What to do next

You don’t need to go tearing apart the whole room (but if you’re ADHD like me, you’ll probably be tempted).

Here are some options after you think about what the biggest issues are (if there are any!):

If it’s clutter:

• Put a timer on for 15 minutes and see what you can get rid of.
• Consider putting an official drop zone in if you see an area where you tend to drop stuff.
• If it’s cords/electronics, look into some easy solutions to hide them.
• Sometimes things are put down/stored in certain places just because they don’t have an official home. Think about giving them one somewhere it makes sense.

If it’s the flow of the room:

• Research some good furniture layouts for your unique room. For example, if your front door opens into the corner of your living room, maybe you need to create a hallway there with furniture placement.
• Play with my free Floorplan Planner to map out your space.

If it’s the style of the room:

• Think about which pieces are working and which ones aren’t. Are there ways you can play up the good parts and downplay the not-so-good ones?
• Think about whether you’ve really defined your style yet
• Is there anything that doesn’t fit your style that you aren’t using/don’t need? This could be decorative items, lamps, or even furniture you never use. Consider selling it! Trust me, it won’t feel to bare without it, it will give you some breathing room.

So take a few minutes right now and get some pics! Feel free to share them in the comments if you want to brainstorm together, or even share your progress.