You get dressed every day without much thought. You know what colours match, what fits, and what makes you feel good.

You didn’t need a class to learn this. You learned by trying, making mistakes, and noticing what works.

Your home deserves the same attention, but something is preventing you from giving it the same attention. You freeze at paint swatches. You second-guess every furniture choice. You convince yourself that creating a beautiful space requires some mystical talent you don’t possess.

That shouldn’t be the case. In this newsletter, we’ll explore:

Let’s dive in!

In 2012, two psychologists from Northwestern University conducted a study to investigate the impact of clothing on our psychological experience using an ordinary lab coat. They found that participants wearing a white lab coat made almost half as many errors on attention tasks compared to those in street clothes.

But only when they believed it was a doctor’s coat. The same coat described as a painter’s smock had no effect.

They called it “enclothed cognition”. It is the systematic influence our clothing has on our psychological processes.

Think about what this means. Every morning, you practise design psychology. You consider the symbolic meaning, context, and how different clothing pieces make you feel and perform. You choose certain colours depending on your mood. You understand that the right outfit can affect how you move through your day.

These are sophisticated design decisions, made automatically, dozens of times before you leave your house.

Now imagine someone who does this every morning. For example, on this particular morning, they coordinated sage green linen pants with a cream silk blouse, choosing leather sandals in exactly the right shade of tan, and matched her bag to complete the look.

She’s demonstrating colour theory, proportion, texture coordination, and creating visual harmony. She’s designing.

But ask that same person to design their living room, and watch what happens.

Suddenly, she freezes. She tells you she’s “not creative.” That she doesn’t have “an eye for this stuff.” There is a disconnect because the same brain that coordinates her outfit can absolutely coordinate her space.

However, research shows that design is an acquired skill, and not innate talent. Skills that we can develop through practice and intentional effort.

Our example above has been practising design thinking every single day, just in a different context. So what changes between the closet and the living room?

The stakes. A shirt that doesn’t work costs forty dollars and hides in your closet. A sofa that doesn’t work costs two thousand dollars and dominates your space for years. Higher stakes trigger self-doubt, which turns natural design instincts into paralysis.

You already have the cognitive tools to design your space. You’ve been developing them your entire adult life, every time you get dressed. The same thought processes that help you choose what to wear are directly transferable to choosing your interiors.

You don’t lack ability. You lack confidence in a higher-stakes context. And confidence, unlike talent, can be built with the right support.

Every time you buy a new shirt, you’re practising design. You hold it up, imagine it with your favourite jeans, picture where you’d wear it, and consider if the colour flatters your skin tone.

You might put it back, walk around the store, and come back to it. Sometimes you buy it. Sometimes you don’t. Either way, you trust your judgment enough to decide.

Nobody tells you this is design work, so you don’t freeze up. You don’t call an expert to help you choose between the navy sweater and the grey one. You certainly don’t buy design magazines to study sweater trends. You just… choose.

Then you go home and stare at paint swatches for three months.

The difference isn’t your ability. It’s your confidence. With clothes, you’ve practised enough to trust your instincts. With interiors, you’re waiting for certainty that will never come. You’re looking for the “right” answer instead of your answer.

But design doesn’t have the right answers. It has your answers. The same taste that guides you through a clothing store can guide you through a furniture showroom. You already know what you like.

You already understand what works together. You’re just afraid to apply that knowledge on a larger scale.

When you’re unsure about an outfit, you text a photo to a friend. You ask your partner if the shoes work. You gather a little outside perspective, make your decision, and move on. The whole process takes five minutes.

When you’re unsure about a sofa, you spiral. You bookmark seventeen options. You read reviews until your eyes blur. You create Pinterest boards you never look at again. You wait for the perfect choice to reveal itself through sheer force of research.

It doesn’t work because you’re trying to solve an emotional problem with information. More research won’t make you feel more confident. It just gives you more options to second-guess.

You need what you already use for every other decision in your life: a sounding board. This is why people stay stuck. They treat interior design like a technical problem requiring expertise, when it’s actually a creative problem requiring support.

You don’t need someone to tell you what to choose. You need someone to help you trust your choices. Someone who understands your vision, asks the right questions, and helps you trust what you already know.

The style you want already exists in your mind. It’s in the photos you save, the homes you admire, the colours that you choose. You just need help translating that vision from your head into your space.

Think about the last time you rearranged your closet. You probably grouped similar items. You put the things you wear most often in easy reach. You created a system that made sense for your life.

That’s space planning.

You’ve coordinated a scarf with a jacket, ensuring the patterns don’t clash but still create visual interest. That’s layering textures and prints. You’ve chosen statement jewellery for a special occasion, knowing it would elevate a simple outfit. That’s understanding focal points.

Every principle that makes a room work - balance, proportion, colour theory, creating flow - you already apply to yourself. The canvas will change, but the thinking stays the same.

The reason you doubt yourself with interiors is the lack of practice, combined with higher stakes. That shirt that didn’t work out only cost you forty dollars and hides in your closet. If a sofa that costs $2000 doesn’t work out, there’s nowhere to hide it. It’s going to dominate your living room for years.

Those stakes make you hesitate, which makes you overthink and freeze. But stakes don’t change your taste or your eye. They make you scared to use them.

What if you approached your home the same way you approach getting dressed? Not overthinking, just choosing what feels right, adjusting as you go, trusting that you know yourself better than any magazine spread or Instagram post ever could.

The studies above also revealed that our choices are not random effects. They’re based on decisions we make consciously and unconsciously about what works, what feels right, and what creates the outcome we want.

You do this every single day.

When you’re getting dressed, and something feels off, you don’t spiral into research paralysis. You don’t bookmark seventeen different outfit combinations and wait three months to decide.

You adjust.

You try the blue sweater instead of the grey one. You swap the shoes. You ask a friend’s opinion, make your call, and move on.

The process takes about 10 minutes because you trust yourself enough to experiment.

But when it comes to your home, that self-trust disappears. You treat interior design like it requires specialised knowledge you couldn’t possibly possess, when really it just requires the same instincts you use every morning.

Design is personal. It’s about what makes you think clearly, feel comfortable, and act like yourself in your own space; the same outcomes those clothing studies measured.

What if you had someone who helped you translate those daily design instincts to your living room? Someone who asks the questions that unlock yours.

“Does this sofa make you feel relaxed or restless?”

“Which of these colours makes you want to spend time in this room?”

“If you could only keep three things in this space, what would they be?”

You have answers to all of it. You always have. The same way you know which outfit makes you feel confident, you know which space makes you feel at home. You just need someone to guide you in making those decisions, to confirm that your instincts are valid, that trusting your taste isn’t risky.

This is what tailored design support does. It helps you see that the same cognitive processes that guide your clothing choices can absolutely guide your design choices.

You just need support in making decisions that create the experience you actually want.

You can keep waiting for confidence to arrive before you start. You can keep researching, bookmarking, and second-guessing. You can keep telling yourself you don’t have the eye for this, even though you prove yourself wrong every time you get dressed.

Or you can acknowledge what you already know: you have taste. You have vision. You just need support bringing it to life.

That’s exactly what we offer. A design transformation experience tailored to your specific vision, your lifestyle, and your identity. Not a template approach that treats every home the same, but genuine support that helps you trust your instincts and create a space that actually reflects who you are.

For $850, you get a complete design transformation and support in turning your vision into reality. Long-term confidence in evolving your space as you grow and a home that finally feels like you.

The same skills that help you choose your clothes can help you choose your interiors. You just need someone in your corner while you do it.

Ready to trust yourself? Let’s start.

▶ Enclothed cognition brushes up well: British Psychological Society

▶ Your choice of outfit speaks before you do: Harper’s Bazaar

▶ Outdated living room trends 2026: Homes & Gardens

The 2026 trends in both fashion and design are clear. People are shifting away from generic trends towards creating spaces (and wardrobes) that reflect their authentic selves.

Hard, ultra-modern aesthetics are softening. All-white walls and sterile environments are taking a back seat, and designs created for social media are on their way out.

Designer Brad Ramsey puts it perfectly: "If a room is designed solely to photograph well, it usually doesn't hold up in real life."

Instead, we're seeing a shift toward spaces that reflect the people who inhabit them. Less chasing a specific look, more trusting your own taste. Less following what's trending, more creating what feels authentic.

Tokyo architect Keiji Ashizawa notes that memorable interiors aren't necessarily those with the strongest statements, but the ones where people naturally want to stay longer.

The same shift is happening in fashion. Shoppers are focusing on pieces that speak to their unique tastes rather than fleeting trends.

The message is clear: your instincts matter more than what's popular. Your comfort matters more than what photographs well. Your authentic taste matters more than following someone else's rules.