Hello and Welcome to Decoding decor!
My name is Cindy Bergersen. I am a professional design consultant turned full time writer, covering all aspects of the best home design.
I’ll tell you how, step by step, to use universal design principals logically, to create the home you love to come home to.
My Mission, with the Design Reference Library, is to help you, help yourself to a more beautiful, comfortable home, without feeling confusion or overwhelm about where to start and how to proceed.
Is this you?
You want to paint…BUT you aren’t sure how to select colors you will love that are also fool-proof.
You’re happy with your furnishing…BUT you want to know how to arrange what you have into a better lay-out that’s both efficient and attractive.
You need a new sofa…BUT you aren’t sure “reasonably priced high quality ” isn’t an outdated oxymoron. How does one shop for good quality upholstery.
You know your home could have better lighting…BUT you don’t know how to assess various areas for the best lighting solutions.
You know your rooms don’t look great or function well…BUT you don’t know where to begin.
You have thought about hiring a designer…BUT you don’t want to invite a bigger project than you want or need with someone who might not quite get “You”.
Etc…
Oh, and you would like fast, smart and easy-to-execute answers to any of the above and so many other assorted questions, please.
You have come to the right place: Decoding Decor has the answers you are looking for!
Design means so much more than decorating. It’s a matter of your well being, well lived.
There is a reason why we say, “It’s so good to be home.”
The best home design creates rooms that speak, in a beautifully personal way, to those who live in them…
It’s an art form that feeds the soul in a practical every day kind of way.
Yet the process of designing and styling a home specific to one’s taste and needs is so baffling to most people, that it often keeps them from considering much beyond a sofa, a flat screen TV and a bed.
This makes me sad, really.
While home means different things to different people, at the beginning and end of each day, it’s our own private oasis…and who doesn’t need one of those?
I have been in the home design business, one way or another since last century and have helped hundreds of clients to real home design satisfaction.
I’ve discovered first hand that most people have better taste and more intuitive know-how than they think.
In other words, you can do this in a wonderful way and well, though you may not know it yet.
This is how and why Decoding Decor came into being in 2009.
The principals of good design hold true regardless of the style and provenance of your home furnishings or the size of your budget.
these principals are universal…
Who is Decoding Decor for?
Decoding Decor is for anyone who wants their home pulled together to look great, be comfortable, and perfectly tailored to meet their needs and budget.
Decoding Decor is for anyone who isn’t in the market for a “Designer Look” but want their look clarified and their homes to reflect the best of their own version of “Designer Vision.”
Here’s the good news
Once armed with actionable information, which is found here, at Decoding Decor, anyone will be able to proceed to design and style their homes, assured that their choices are the smartest and best solutions to make the most of every room and every situation.
This is you, isn’t it?
The Home Design Professor by default
An accidentally well designed resume prepared me to be here, fully educated, with decades of experience to offer as your best home design resource.
I have interior design degree from one of the US’s top interior design schools and years of hands-on design experience working with truly gifted designers in the field.
I’ve been a design consultant for private clients for decades and I spent several years consulting for clients in high end furniture sales for well known retailers.
I started writing about home design for various publications around the same time I began developing Decoding Decor in 2009.
In 2010, Decoding Decor won a $1000 cash prize as one of four editors top pick for best content from Demand Media, the largest media content aggregate in the country, with access to over 45 million articles.
Through years of practice, talking one-on-one to hundreds of retail and private clients, I came to understand that the key to helping them create wonderful rooms was to show them how to approach their project as they would do to construct a home from the ground up.
As without, so within…
the best home design is logical. It’s grounded by necessity in practicality.
What’s the foundation of your design scheme?
In other words, there is a logical way to hack the otherwise mysterious Home Design Code down to understandable building blocks using the Elements of Decor archive and tuning the finer points with help from the Design and Style archive to create and define a home that is truly just for you.
This is the magic in the logic of design
PROFESSIONAL BIO
Cindy Bergersen is a professional design consultant turned full time writer about Home Design: What is it, how it works and how to make it work for anyone. Nearly 30 years experience as a design consultant to private clients, in addition to consulting with clients for well known, high end furniture retailers, proved to be invaluable training. In 2010, Decoding Decor won a $1000 cash prize as one of four editors top pick for best content from Demand Media, the largest media content aggregate in the country. She is both passionate and committed to sharing her experience and knowledge to help anyone, to help themselves to a beautiful, comfortable home, without feeling confusion or overwhelm. She lives in New York with Olivia, The Cat. When not writing for the Library, she can be found cycling though Central, Riverside and Hudson River Parks, watching a lot of film, or curled up on the sofa with a good book.
