Why Design Consistency Is Overrated & Plain Boring
After hearing about “flow” and “congruence” and “vibing” when it comes to design, it tends to render down into one solid line of advice: consistency is key.
We hear consistency is key in regards to practically everything in life.
Consistency is how we level up.
It’s the secret ingredient to weight loss, time management, school, de-cluttering, work life balance, and so much more. Right!??!
But what if consistency is just wee bit overrated when it comes to interior decor?
We live in the real world.
The real world is NOT consistent.
The real world won’t be a perfectly coordinated theme or color scheme or “vibe”.
The real world doesn’t have endless rooms of perfect shades of white, that haven’t a care about how they will survive the roving gangs of toddlers pillaging and ransacking until they have demolished everything in sight for ultimate destruction, or just in an effort to find the last goldfish cracker.
The real world has hand-me-downs, garage sale finds, merged families, craft projects by your kids, and that ugly lamp from your mother-in-law that isn’t going anywhere.
In the past few years, we have been inundated with the idea that we can keep things that are useful or “spark joy”, and should toss the rest. Does the spark-joy category need to be consistent? Nah.
I say if it makes you happy then go ahead and keep it. We don’t live in a magazine. We don’t live in one of those BHG network shows where the couples have an inexplicably high budget. We don’t even need ship lap or open concept. After a while all of that becomes incredibly dull and boring.
Consistency is great. It can be helpful when you want flow. But it’s also overrated. And if you live in a house that been blessed with actual walls, you could even choose to be inconsistent and decorate rooms differently. How novel!
If you love having your space tie together well, check out this post: How to Create Consistency In Your Art Collection. As for the rest of you, go ahead and embrace a little disjointed chaos. It’s OK and worth the lack-of-hassle.