Designing with Your Five Senses – Taste

Last (but not least!) in this series of Designing with Your Five Senses is taste. And since lickable wallpaper isn’t really a thing (darn you, Willy Wonka!!) I’m turning our exploration of taste to your taste in styles…and ice cream. (It relates, I promise!)

Take a second and think about your favorite ice cream dish. Is it a simple bowl of two scoops of vanilla ice cream? A banana split? Maybe a rich, decadent sundae with all the toppings you can imagine. Now, think about what your best friend, your mother-in-law, your husband, or your kids like best. Is it exactly the same thing as you? Probably not. Does it bother you (or them) that you have different tastes? Again, probably not. What if, like me, you have a couple of favorite ice cream options? I love vanilla ice cream because of its versatility—you can have it with fruit, caramel, chocolate, brownies, or whatever else you feel like that day. My other favorite is Talenti’s Sea Salt Caramel Gelato. It’s so creamy and rich with the perfect balance of salty and sweet and pieces of chocolate-covered caramel. (I am really making myself hungry for ice cream here!) Is it bad that I have more than one favorite? Heck, no! And the same goes for you.

So what does this have to do with design? Much like people have different tastes in ice cream, they have different tastes in design styles. I hear clients doubting their taste all the time because it’s not what their best friend or mother-in-law or all the people on HGTV are doing. The thing they need to remember is that they are not the same person as their best friend. They are not their mother-in-law. And quite frankly, the folks on HGTV don’t really care about having the perfect solutions for everyone. Should my clients be worried? At the risk of repeating myself… Heck, no! And the same goes for you.

So, don’t like chevron but you’re seeing it everywhere? Don’t feel pressured into adding some in your own home. The current trendy colors—greys and whites—leave you feeling cold? It’s okay to skip them and stick with what makes you happy. Love having pictures of your family on your walls? Go for it! It’s your home. It should be the perfect place for you to relax and rejuvenate. It should make YOU happy the moment you walk in the door.