My name is Jordanne. I’m twenty-four years old and work for Debbie Perez at Tweak Your Space. Every day I see beautiful spaces being created. I hear the stories from the people that are touched by having their spaces Tweaked and the positive difference that makes in their lives. I get to see firsthand how important it is that your spaces make you happy. This inspired me to think about my space. So, I would ask myself – what’s my design style?

Recently, I moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend, an upgrade from our previous teeny-tiny apartment. This new apartment had double the space. We barely had any furniture. I was finding it difficult to fill up all the new space. The pressure was on, I needed to get this right! After all, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend and couldn’t afford to get it wrong. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out how to make it all work.

Why can’t I pick things that work? I was getting tired of buying things just to return them a few days later. I found myself being afraid to shop! ME. Someone who works for an interior decorator and is confronted with design issues every day, did not want to shop. How could this happen?

What am I missing? To say I was confronted is an understatement. I thought I always knew what I wanted and had been dreaming about it since I was a little girl. What’s different?

Working with Debbie, I saw how she would interview her clients to find out what made them happy. Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother and even the pets. She makes it her job to find out from her clients what it is they can’t do for themselves so that she can create beautiful spaces that makes them happy.

Things changed when I realized the apartment wasn’t just mine anymore. It wasn’t just about me. It was about us. I had to figure out a design concept that looked like us. But what do we “look” like?

I had seen plenty of homes while working at TYS that alienated the people that lived there. The client wasn’t represented anywhere until we Tweaked their spaces with the things that made them happy.

I really needed to figure out what his style was. Worried that if I didnt, he would feel disconnected and not welcome in his own space.

My boyfriend really hadn’t been too vocal about what he wanted in the space. And every time I would walk into work and see a newly Tweaked space, it would convince me that I needed to completely start from scratch and try out a new style. I would get more and more confused about what our design style is.

I tried out so many different styles. I would purchase items in warm tones with a global edge, but for some reason, it just always looked too girly. I would pick up really intricate pieces that didn’t vibe with my boyfriend’s love of clean lines. I would always stay away from blue, because I didn’t see myself as a cool-toned person (I am a fire sign and proud of it😉.) So, I would try out all these different warmer pieces that I thought I wanted, and when I got them into my space, they never made me happy.

I learned we weren’t Mod, or Cottage, or Bohemian, or even Traditional. So our home was never going to speak to just one thing.

I learned what we weren’t.

But… what style were we?

So, this past weekend a light bulb went off! I haven’t been asking myself the right question. Instead of asking what my design style is I should be asking “What makes us happy?”

What I realized:

I’m not any one thing. And he’s not any one thing. It’s our décor recipe that’s unique to our home that makes us happy. A bit of him, and a bit of me. It needed to be a demonstration of who we are, and where we’ve been. And our future spaces will keep telling our story. Most importantly, it’s a design that makes us feel comfortable.

What makes a space truly “your” space are the things you put it in THAT YOU TRULY LOVE. It’s not about whether this piece matches that. It’s about combining things you love in a way that makes you happy. It’s amazing. Becoming more aware of myself and my partner made the design come together.

Oh! It also came as a shock to learn how comfortable I was with the color blue!

The best part about our unique design, is it’s buildable. Now that we’re picking pieces we actually love and that represent us, we found that these pieces can be used in so many different ways. Our tastes are going to continue to evolve. Our living situation will change as well. And as long as we stay true to who we are, our space will naturally fill itself.

And this, makes me happy!