I study every day. Every single day, I pull out one of my bazillion design books or click on a website to check out a prolific designer’s portfolio. It takes time and multiple visits to study even a single room, because I’m looking for something different every time. Sometimes it’s the furniture layout. Sometimes it’s the furniture itself. Sometimes it’s the paint colors. (Why did they put a mirror there? How does the layout enhance the natural views? Why does this color combination work when it seems like it shouldn’t?)

I recommend, if you are serious about design or just serious about designing your own home, that you do the same. There are a thousand large and small decisions that go into decorating a room, and the more you ask yourself why a particular decision was made, the better you train yourself to “see” and problem-solve.

Look at this room by the late Mark Hampton. It was probably done in the late 1990s, but I’m not certain.

There are a lot of things to unpack here, but the thing that struck me immediately was: Imagine if, instead of a sisal rug, he had used a traditional Persian rug. It wouldn’t feel as casual, light and airy. It would feel more serious and formal. Sisal knocks down the formality a lot. Does your space feel too formal or stuffy? Maybe a sisal or jute rug is the answer.

Here’s a library Corey Damen Jenkins did for a showhouse.

What’s great about this is that libraries tend to be very masculine. Why did he paint it pink and wallpaper the ceiling with a floral? To turn the concept of a library on its head, to shake free of the stereotypical library’s masculine vibe. Why can’t a library be feminine? Of course it can. Do you have a space that you’d to give an unexpected vibe? Paint it an unexpected color, perhaps.

If you ask “why,” you might see a solution to your own design problems.