Part 2: the three golden decorating rules for how to be more creative around the house

January 9, 9:55 AMHome Design ExaminerJay Johnson

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DesigningFairy.com is a great site to help you unlock your design creativity.

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget had 3 golden rules for doing creative work, and you can apply them to your home decorating. Dr. John Laurence Miller tells all in his tip-packed book Mind Magic: How to Develop the 3 Components of Intelligence That Matter Most in Today's World -- and for MY world, that means developing more creativity in home design and decorating.

My Part 1 column this week focused on Dr. Miller's reassurance that you can develop creativity. You're not just born a decorator or a non-decorator. Think of decorating your home like playing a musical instrument or joining a sports activity; the more you practice, the better you'll get.

Dr. Miller's intimate knowledge of brain theory and his past working history with Piaget himself gives him a unique perspective on what you can and can't do, and he assures us that we can definitely nurture our creativity. Apply your new skills to your job, to your love life, and of course to decorating a more beautiful, comfortable, and functional home for you and your family.

On to Piaget's 3 golden rules (I've changed them from Dr. Miller's wording so they specifically pertain to home design):

(1) Ready everything on interior decorating.

(2) Read nothing on interior decorating.

(3) Have a home decorating target you can attack.

Doesn't rule 1 and 2 conflict? Miller explains, "published authors almost always have better ideas than novices do because they have spent years on the subject; you will feel overwhelmed if you read their published works too soon." His advice translates into a warning not to hang on the words of one particular designer too much. Miller cautions that "the experience will probably kill your personal point of view before you start working on it; you first need time to develop your own viewpoint, then you can assimilate the ideas of [experts] into your own framework."

My advice on balancing rules 1 and 2 is to read everything you can in shelter magazines and tear out pages that you love and can relate to. Separate them into files like "Window Treatments," "Kitchen Floor," and "Living Room Furniture." Feel free to read those lovely coffee table books put out by iconic interior designers, but don't find yourself steadfastly latching onto their every word. Piaget would set off warning bells if he felt you were getting too swayed by one expert until you've made up your own mind, set your own course, and come up with your own creative ideas for your space. I like to think of this process as "becoming a bee." Imagine yourself as a bee, going from flower to flower, picking up something sweet from each flower, but then going off to another flower. Don't hang around one source of wisdom or expert advice too much; collect all the golden nuggets of information that resonate with you, store them away, then keep on moving on and gathering more inspiration and ideas. Soon they will gel into some solid, creative ideas that you can turn into definite decorating projects.

Rule 3 is important because you need to have some specific decorating projects around the house to tackle. You can't be creative if you have this vague sense that your entire apartment or house is pathetically decorated. This will turn into a malaise that paralyzes your creativity and sinks you into depression. Hey, that's no way to start out the new year, is it? Bite off a smaller decorating task, like focusing on new paint colors for your living room, or an even a tighter focus on one wall of your living room and thinking of new arrangements for your photos and pictures above the sofa to accommodate some new oil paintings your discovered at the local flea market.

My next column will focus on some great sources for design information and inspiration. These will feed into Piaget's first two golden rules and will help you become more creative around the house when it comes to personal design. As Dr. Miller says in his book, "Creative works open your eyes to new possibilities; that is the source of the creativity mystique." If you see your living space as chock full of new possibilities, then you can creatively remodel, redecorate, and refashion a fresher interior in the coming months. I'm behind you all the way!