Avoid vagueness in your interiors

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Resolutions to actualize a wow space within an office or a home setting should always be broken down measureable results; writes Robert Yawe stressing the need for taking baby steps that leads to a celebration of an eventual complete space makeover.

On the weekend of the 1st of December I was in Nanyuki. This was a business trip I have been making quarterly for the past three years and has since become part of me.

While on the way back to Nairobi, I chose to find a retreat spot that I’d use frequently. I shared this with the people I was travelling with. One of them said that the problem with my idea was that I will over use the place and soon it will cease to have the same therapeutic effect.

Your resolutions

That statement brought back those New Year resolutions that we keep making and the constant rate of their failure.

It is proven that the reason for our inability to meet our New Year resolutions is trying to make too many of them and being vague at the same time. We hardly give ourselves the opportunity to celebrate the small wins made during a particular year

For example, one of your resolutions might be to loose weight; this is too vague and needs to be more detailed such as; “my new year resolution is to reduce my weight from the current 85 kg to 75 kg in increments of 1 Kg every month by reducing my consumption of sugary foods such as refined sugar, cakes, and fizzy drinks”. This turns out to be a celebratory resolution.

Before and after … pill solution

I feel that many a times we write articles that are over whelming to the reader as they give you a before and after in the span of 10 minutes.  The side-by-side images do not help much either as they give the impression of a pill solution.

Our homes, offices and cars are a sanctuary; a place of refuge, warts and all, which makes it so much more difficult to make drastic changes.  We therefore tend to adapt to the issues as they are instead of changing or resolving.

Your chair in the office is slightly tilted so you adjust your posture to compensate and you end up with a persistent back pain whose source you know about but refuse to acknowledge because it means making a change.

Dull lighting

The light bulb in your bedroom is a little dull forcing you to bring the newspaper a little closer to your noose to read, which then strains your eyes causing ocular strain but you refuse to change the bulb.

My car has had a problem with the drivers side window winder for over a year know and has been temporarily sorted out by jabbing a piece of plastic at a 33.6 degree angle which keeps getting dislodged whenever someone else drives the car.

Fine, there it is I have confessed that even I am not perfect; but by the time you are reading this I will have implemented a permanent solution to that little nagging issue with my car window.

For your New Year resolutions for your office or house I suggest that to prevent inertia you breakdown the changes into small doses.  If you have read my previous articles I suggest that you break them down into smaller and easier achievable tasks.

Bettering the walls

Your initial activity should be to paint the walls whose first task is to get a colour chart from your preferred paint manufacturer, for most men who only know the primary colours I suggest you look for an interior designer to help you or for the sake of harmony in the home consult your spouse who may even think of a unique wallpaper.

In case the preference is on painting a section of the house; make the colour selection process into a family activity, discuss the effects the colours liked by each one of you.

It is unfortunate that the paint companies stopped producing sample paint bottles because the next step would then have been to paint a small part of the wall with the chosen colour that gives a better feel and appreciation of the colour.

Once the colour selection is over we can either get a professional painter to come and do the work but instead of taking off, leaving then to do the work I recommend that the family hangs around and assists in the painting.

Therapeutic exercise

It can be a very therapeutic exercise even if all you will be doing is applying masking tape around the sockets, holding the ladder steady or washing the brushes.  This also allows you to get a sense of ownership.

When buying the paints I suggest that you get a roller and tray for yourself just in case you get the urge to jump in and assist in the painting. The roller is a much easier tool to use than a paintbrush especially for the weekend painter.

If the bug bites and you take up the roller chances are that the professional painter will only be doing the sitting room and maybe the kitchen after which you will have the confidence to do the rest yourselves.

Please do not try to paint the entire house at once unless you have not yet moved in, the strain of moving around the furniture will break any family or spousal bonds.  Take the baby steps and by the next resolution period the house will have had a complete makeover.