Two question you are dying to ask.  Why is there a picture of shoes on a home interiors blog and how are the New Years resolutions going? To answer the former you will have to read on.  Regarding the latter it is now February 5th and a lot of New Years resolutions have been broken but they will not go by the wayside.  I made it most of the way through January before a trip to friends in Brooklyn on the 20th put the brakes on my drinking pledge.  It didn't help that my friend's husband is a wine importer and really good cook. So time to hike up my yoga pants and carry on. Time to recommit to my vows of abstinence and good health.  Because to make lasting change it's the 'journey' blah blah blah.  I really hate when people say that.

Back to the post at hand.  What is style and where the hell did mine go?  In my dreams I am floating in a clean sea of Scandi with a bright sky above, but my reality is a muddy Irish field  under a low cloud.  How do we find our decorator voice?  I would caution that there are more important and pressing issues in the world, but in the previous vein of our homes as our safe space, 'we are where we are'.  Another overused platitude.

If you are taken with interior design it is likely much of your time is spent on instagram or scouring interiors magazines for ideas and inspiration. I was going to say reading magazines but that would be kidding ourselves and we don't do that, see New Years resolution above.  You quickly realize that colors that look good in a magazine do not always play well together at home.  How do we know our favorite color?  Is it real or something we've read?  We are bombarded with so much imagery from media, web and TV that sometimes it's hard to know our own mind.  Coral is big this year, that means one of us will paint a room orange before 2020 and live to regret it.  

Design tip #3.  To find your style go to your wardrobe, if you wear it chances are you like it.  Unless it's a uniform which is a post for another time.  What is the predominant color of your clothes?  How do you know which colors go together?   Like a pink sweater with a green skirt?  Paint the walls pink and go to town.  Yellow bag and blue dress, a classic combination and works just as well in a room.  Be brave and happy.

Are you a person who only wears jeans?  Well they are blue and they are cotton, so chances are a relaxed comfortable room with natural materials is the look for you.  Use that knowledge next time you have to choose a sofa or a paint color.  It's a starting point and sometimes that is all that is needed.  Don't be distracted by trends.

What if you're like me and have a closet full of black clothes ? It doesn't mean you are some depressed goth throwback, or maybe it does.   Only the dead know Brooklyn or what's inside another persons head.  More likely it means you are a minimalist who appreciates clean lines.  So an over stuffed sofa is not what you want even if your friends try to convince you otherwise.  

Since I wear a lot of black basics I find shoes reflect my style more than any other item in my closet. Which brings us to the photo. The cowboy boots were a gift from my Texan husband 25 years ago and they are well worn and loved, just like him.  The black ankle boots with the 4 inch heels are Lanvin, French and polished.  They are the woman I fantasize I am, tall lean and sophisticated.  The green suede Guccis are decadent but practical and I wear them all the time.

My style reflects those shoes.  We are hanging a light in the sitting room from a Mexican restaurant in the western US (boots) over a Madeline Weinrib wool and silk rug (Lanvin heels) and the kitchen is painted a shade of yellow that looks like butternut squash (Gucci.)

That's what happens when you like all of the above.  Love, Irish Girl in Brooklyn.

Designing a kitchen is probably the most exciting, stressful (even with a good budget) and expensive endeavour you will undertake in the world of home renovation so there is a lot of pressure to get it right.

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