Why the pursuit of perfectionism is ruining your home

Seeking to create the perfect interior can leave you so paralysed by indecision that you end up doing nothing. It’s time to get real and enjoy your home.

Perfectionism is a curse. I know this because my husband is an ex-perfectionist. And had he not recovered he might have become an ex-husband. Fortunately, after renovating six period properties together - all with wonky walls, gaps in the floorboards and sloping ceilings, he has been forced to let go of his ideals. Well, that and a row with a kitchen fitter over a worktop that was – and I’m not exaggerating here – 1mm higher than the range cooker. He has learned to embrace the windows that aren’t quite straight, the doors that don’t shut properly and the sundry quirks and foibles of old houses. And he is genuinely much happier for it. Because crucially, the houses were all finished (as finished as a house can ever be) and happily lived in.

He has learnt to move on from the analysis paralysis of looking at 50 taps and ending up with the second one he considered (because he took so long that the first went out of stock); from being wracked with indecision over a choice of two mattresses …