My Visualization Trick to Figure Out What You Want

Don't you love it when you accidentally discover something? That's how I figured out my trick for determining what I really want.

The hardest thing about making changes is there are just soooo many options.

Most changes aren't as simple to undo as returning an outfit to the store (there's a fair amount of clothes in my closet that are still there because I didn't want to go through the effort of returning them).

You thought you liked it while you were in the store. The sales person was telling you how great you looked. You were surrounded by other shoppers that could pass for store models and you talked yourself into it.

Then you get home and you're not so sure anymore. You put it on and you don't feel that "store confidence", maybe you realize it feels scratchy. Or worse, you don't know exactly what it is, but there's something about it that you don't like.

What if you choose wrong? You can change it, but wouldn't you prefer to get it right the first time?

I've been using screen savers to figure it out. Or more accurately, to figure why I like what I like.

I told you I started doing this by accident. I just wanted pretty stuff to look at.

I hopped on pinterest (I may be a Pinterest addict) and went crazy. I've always loved design and I've been thinking about my future so I chose a bunch of house interiors that I liked.

I took all those pictures and set them up as a screensaver slide show. After about a week I started to realize that I didn’t like some of the pictures. I would get annoyed when they popped up.

I began removing the pictures that bugged me and I started to see trends in what was left. I was seeing what I liked and WHY I liked it.

I always knew I wanted high ceilings with beams. I've figured out I don't want the big wooden beams, I prefer metal beams and to have the wood on the actual ceiling. Can you imaging if I redid a house and spent all that money, just to walk into the living room every day and have it bug me?

My newest project is gallery walls. They're beautiful. When done right they tell a story.

It started with a framed painting a friend gave me (you can see the picture that started it all above).

It's beautiful, but I hadn't hung it because you can't hang 1 smallish frame on a wall. That and I have plaster walls so I was a little freaked out about hanging anything after hearing horror stories of walls crumbling when they were drilled into wrong.

I had just seen an HGTV episode where they did this beautiful gallery wall of different mirrors. I thought that's exactly what I need to go with my painting!

Next thing you know I've filled my Amazon cart about 3 times. I would order then get another idea of things my wall needed. I started with frames, votive holders (that I ended up not using), & floating air-plant terrariums (didn't make it on the gallery wall, but looks amazing hanging in my kitchen).

I searched mirrors (I wasn't going to spend $80 a mirror) and found a set of 24 for $24 at the Dollar Store. I thought a little paint and these will be perfect (Amazon cart #2). I got on Etsy and bought these fabulous flowers made of wire. I bought some metal prints from Displate.

Now I've bought entirely too much stuff for 1 wall. But I like options and maybe I'll do a couple more (turns out I did 3 walls).

I rarely do things in the order you would expect. Only after buying a ton of stuff for my gallery wall(s), did I begin to think about layout. To me you can't consider the layout until you know what you're working with.

Onto Pinterest. I pulled a bunch of gallery wall photos. I created phone wallpaper collages with the images. Then I would remove the images I didn't like or I was just unsure of. I kept doing this until I had it down to 4 images.

Once you have your final pictures it's time to do some digging.

What they have in common? What do you like about them? What bugs you? Where do your eyes go first? What is repeated? Is it a feeling, a color, a texture, a layout? Find your connections.

Keep going back and looking at your choices. You won't see everything all at once. Ask a friend what they notice when they look at your final pics.

What did I learn about gallery walls?

I like the frame colors to be mostly the same (2 colors at most). There’s 1 attention piece that draws your eye because it's different from all the rest (size and shape), and the rest work together to complete the story. I like the spacing to be similar. A mix of sizes. Pops of color. Drops of unexpected.

You can use this process with hairstyles, outfits, interior design, Branding photos, dishes, layouts, art, tattoos, or anything visual.