Make your home a self-portrait. You can feel it when you walk into a house -- someone cared enough to make you and themselves comfortable. Make deliberate choices and free yourself to have fun with your decorating.
Overcome your fear. Fear of decorating is a bigger inhibitor than budget or conflict. Start with small delights. Be a little silly. If something thrills you, buy it. Work it out later.
Start training your eye. Look at the details in spaces you like. Take pictures. Make a file of things that inspire or excite you. Look at magazines, books, your friends' homes, restaurants and see how they pulled things off. Learn what you like and chase it.
Decorate on a budget. You can find style at any price. Rework what you already own. Spend the most on small splurges of high style instead of trying to spread your budget too thin. Adding a pop of color is a great way to bring life into your design.
Keep going. Feel immobilized? If you aren't in love with your sofa, throw a slipcover on it and concentrate on the pictures on the wall. Keep working with smaller pieces. Add throw pillows. Multiple layers make incredible spaces more incredible.
Search out vintage. You may believe you don't live in the epicenter of design, but you do. Good design is everywhere.
Taste doesn't have to be safe or boring. Take risks. Your spirit will make the house magical.
Summon the courage to not be intimidated by furniture. Rework items, even antiques. (One example from the book: Kemble's mother painted white an old Chinoiserie secretary desk, which was dark mahogany, carved and sort of important-looking. "Most people would have said she wrecked it," Kemble said. "It's now under a portrait of my mother's grandmother. ... She took something and made it ours. Make it yours. Don't let the piece own you.")
