If you follow me on Instagram or know anything about my apartment, you probably assume my weekends are spent calmly arranging vintage ceramics, fluffing linen pillows, and sipping artisanal coffee in a sun-drenched Princeton living room.
Let me shatter that illusion right now: Last Sunday, I accidentally baked a loaf of bread that could have doubled as a cinderblock.
It was dense, lopsided, pale, and smelled faintly of existential dread. I had rushed the rise time, ignored the temperature check on my yeast, and tried to speed-run a three-hour baking process into forty-five minutes because I was impatient. The result was a culinary disaster.
As I stared at my weaponized sourdough, it hit me: This is exactly why so many people hate decorating their homes.
We want instant gratification. We want to move into an apartment, buy everything off a single Pinterest board in one afternoon, and have the entire space look like a magazine shoot by dinnertime. But just like baking, interior design refuses to be rushed.
Here is what the kitchen taught me about building a home that actually feels good to live in.
1. You Can't Rush the "Rise" (The Layering Phase)
In baking, if you don't let the dough proof, your bread won't have air, texture, or soul. It will just be flat and heavy.
Decorating works the exact same way. When you rush a room, you buy everything at once—matching furniture sets, generic mass-market decor, and instant fillers. A room needs time to "breathe" and proof.
Bring in a vintage side table this month.
Wait three weeks before you find the right lamp.
Let your home evolve organically through estate sales, thrift scores, and gradual layering.
A well-decorated room isn’t assembled; it is fermented over time.
2. The Ugly Middle Phase is Mandatory
Ask any baker about the moment they have to knead wet, sticky, formless dough all over their counter. For the first ten minutes, it looks like a disaster zone. Your hands are covered in paste, your apron is ruined, and you wonder why you didn't just buy a $3 baguette from the grocery store.
Every room makeover has an "ugly middle phase."
It’s the Tuesday night when your living room is half-painted, the books are stacked in cardboard boxes, and you’re sitting on the floor eating takeout surrounded by chaos. People panic here. They think, "I've ruined my apartment." No, you haven't. You're just in the messy middle. Trust the process, keep going, and don't judge the room until the paint has dried and the styling is complete.
3. Perfection is Soulless
Have you ever seen a loaf of bread that looks so mechanically uniform, shiny, and plastic-wrapped that it looks like a prop? It usually tastes like cardboard. Real bread has a blistered, uneven crust, slight asymmetry, and character.
The same goes for your home. Stop trying to make every corner look like a sterile showroom floor. Let the wood have a scuff, let the vintage frame have a tiny scratch of patina, and let your home reflect your actual, messy, beautiful life.
Baking taught me that mistakes aren't failures—they're just data. Decorating is no different. Give yourself permission to slow down, make mistakes, and let your home rise at its own pace.
"Start with what you love. The rest finds its place."
