How to stand out in a sea of sameness.

What it really takes to push beyond the confines of the ordinary and have the confidence to find your creative voice.

Bathroom designed by Anna Spiro Design.

I know I am not alone in the knowledge that as a creative in business, it can often feel like a lonely place. Making decisions for myself are often fraught with self-doubt, procrastination and a level of perfectionism that is crippling. When I take on a new project I rely heavily on my intuition, both of the person(s) and place; I draw from previous experiences, historical & contemporary references, as well as teachings from design school. My natural ability to ask clients deeply personal questions allows me to tap into their emotional responses to their space and their memories, enabling me to blend their answers with my knowledge of how a space needs to function and flow. Listening to their answers, whilst tapping into the flow of their space and what it needs, enables me to sense what colour, texture and layout a room requires to feel more balanced, more personal, more unique, more like them. Being able to cut through the noise enables me to deliver something beyond what they thought was possible. Yet when it came to some of the spaces within our new home, in it crept, that loud, obnoxious and self-loathing voice. The one that questions my choices and fills me with self-doubt….

Late last year I visited a well-established interior designer for her mentorship. The experience was wonderful, insightful and generous. I felt spurred on to finalise the design details for a bathroom in our new family home (for some reason it was the only space in our home that I did not have a vision for, or rather I was questioning the vision I did have!). As the weeks went by, samples arrived in various shapes and sizes in the material that had been suggested, yet nothing felt right. Weeks turned into months, berating myself for my lack of decision making, my frustration grew and this stuckness feeling set in.

When

GALAH.

magazines, fortnightly newsletter landed in my inbox last week, it was a welcome relief. Annabelle shared an article by Alex Murell titled the Age of Average (I implore you to read the entire article) and it shook me from my creative stuckness. I’ll share his conclusion below as it’s just brilliant and inspiring. Urging us to take up creative arms in the face of stylistic sameness. He states:

“I believe that the age of average is the age of opportunity.

When every supermarket aisle looks like a sea of sameness, when every category abides by the same conventions, when every industry has converged on its own singular style, bold brands and courageous companies have the chance to chart a different course. To be different, distinctive and disruptive.

So, this is your call to arms. Whether you’re in film or fashion, media or marketing, architecture, automotive or advertising, it doesn’t matter. Our visual culture is flatlining and the only cure is creativity.

It’s time to cast aside conformity. It’s time to exorcise the expected. It’s time to decline the indistinguishable.

For years the world has been moving in the same stylistic direction. And it’s time we reintroduced some originality.”

BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT!

Reading Alex’s words, I realised why I had become so stuck with the design decisions for our family bathroom. I had become too concerned about what the “correct” material was to use. I had abandoned by own creative assessment of our space in light of someone I admired. It’s not that their advice was bad but, in my haste to find a solution, I misunderstood their opinion. I realised they had not actually visited our site, nor had they asked about my brief for the rest of our home or taken me through the process that I take my own clients through. I realised I had taken what was meant to be very general advice completely to heart. The samples all felt wrong because resembled all the other bathrooms sprayed across social media and Pinterest. Classic yes, but devastatingly dull. Abiding by the same convictions as the designer-developers who want a fast one design fits-all experience. Easy on the eye, saleable and non-offensive. But it was not me. In that moment I remembered that I want my home to be a place of absolute creative expression. A place that is reassuringly familiar with an atmosphere that is unique to our family.

Bathroom clad in Carrara marble - Pinterest.

I got lost. I forgot who I was and what I needed from my home. But I am going to share with you how I found my way back.

I had to make it personal. Bringing your stylistic decisions back to your emotions, allows you to tell your story through your material choices. It gives meaning, purpose & weight to your selections.

If you are currently renovating or designing your home, ask yourself these questions and be brutally honest with yourself, before you make any firm decisions (replace the room that you are working on as needed):

1. How do you want to feel in your bathroom?

2. What architectural & decorative details do you require in the space to achieve these feelings?

3. What colours & shapes enable you to feel this way?

4. What materials will help you to conjure these feelings into this space?

5. What season does this room relate to and why?

My responses to these questions resulted in the selection of very different materials and colours to what I had planned to use based on the advice I had been given. Below you will find my personal responses. I felt it was an important part of the puzzle to share my answers with you, so that it can give you a clearer understanding of the process. It is a complex and nuanced process, one that may take you a little while to get right, but stick with how a colour, material or texture makes you feel. When you get that warm excited feeling, that’s usually when you’ve hit the jack pot, and cast away conformity!

My responses:

How do I want to feel in my bathroom? Like I have escaped into a different world. I want to feel grounded, calm, peaceful, nurtured. All my worries will float away whilst I soak in salted warm water. I want to indulge in my thoughts. Feel cocooned in the shower. Every drop of hot water & steam to envelope my senses, plunging me into my higher self - healing me. A place that is clean but not sterile. A place that has all you need but is not cluttered.

What architectural & decorative details do you require in the space to achieve these feelings? The shower will need to be enclosed by a stud wall (additional stud work for the builder to add), entry point to the front to be fitted with a linen shower curtain to allow this space to be enclosed in floor to ceiling tiling. I don’t want to be in a glass fishbowl! Instead, I want to be cocooned in a beautiful rich texture or colour. A handmade tile that details imperfections. The bath will need to be inset or back to wall fitted so that there is no need to clean behind anything freestanding. Additional internal insulation will need to be added to dampen the noise. Lights must be on a dimmer! With the extractor fan on a separate switch circuit so does not have to be on when nipping to the toilet at night. Vintage mirror and lighting will help make the space feel more textured and dimensional. Storage is paramount.

What colours & shapes enable you to feel this way? To reduce the hardness of the bathroom surfaces designing a custom-made vanity with curved edges will be necessary, this curved edge will soften the hard edge of the built-in bath. Creamy nickel tapware will make the space feel luxurious and contemporary. My vintage bamboo mirror & Murano wall sconces will add some much-needed patina and unique detail to the space. Creamy whites for the walls and flooring. Colours for the walls may be altered depending on the natural colours found in the stone slab.

What materials will help you to conjure these feelings into this space? Natural materials such as natural marble, brass and nickel that will patina and show the passage of time. Soft roman blind and shower curtain in a natural fabric such as linen to soften the hard finishes in the bathroom and alter & fracture the natural light coming in through the window.

What season does this room relate to and why? It needs to relate to all seasons. The in-slab electrical floor heating (run off the solar) will keep it warm in winter. It needs both depth and lightness, a feeling of cleanliness & cosiness.

So excited to make this space a reality! If you’d like to follow my progress on this project and my client projects, please follow me on Instragram.

I hope this helps you to find your creative voice when designing your home (or any other creative pursuit for that matter). If you are a creative, did the indecisiveness and self-questioning resonate? How do you cast away conformity? How do you give rise to that creative vision and voice within?

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With love,

Lis x