quiz – Page 12 – BoHo Home

Decorist–the website that advertises “bite-size” decorating–has one of the most unique, fun quizzes I’ve found. Rest assured I’ll get to the others–one every Quiz Monday–but so far, this one’s my favorite.

How it works: You build an interactive room online from available elements to arrive at your profile. The quiz begins with sofa choices and guides you through coffee tables, side tables, lamps, mirrors, area rugs, and wall paint colors. There are about 30 of each item to select from (29 rugs was the minimum and around 50 paint colors was max), and it’s easy to go back and change any previous selection without starting over.

Here’s the initial room I created…

…and the style profile the tool generated based on this room:

All these things are true, but…

I decided play with my choices and see how results varied. This time around I chose items most like what I used to own and lived with for 20-plus years. I still love the look of these types of furnishings and admire them whenever I see them, but what I want to live with has changed 180 degrees.

Here’s that room:

…and the accompanying profile:

So the eleclecticism and appreciation of clean lines and luxurious materials held true, regardless of modern or traditional. The roots of my current style were contained within my previous one.

What if…?

Next I decided to purposely choose items that didn’t go together at all (in MY book anyway)–clashing items even–and see what the quiz told me.

Here is that room (ugh!!):

…and the style profile:

So even when I’m choosing ugly, I’m “Modernist at heart.” Hmmm…. I’m wondering if “you like your space to look somewhat dramatic” is code for a hot mess and “rustic or natural but refined” is bargain-furniture-store cliche.

The quiz acknowledged my appreciation for great design and iconic pieces in the first example and sprinkled the adjective “classic” throughout the first two examples, so my ego is appeased. But I guess the software isn’t going to insult me outright, no matter what. No chat window popped up offering emergency advice anyway.

So how valuable is this quiz?

Pluses:

It’s fun!
It allowed me to “try on” a lot of different styles and mix elements, which is easier than buying and returning, over and over, or getting stuck with something that doesn’t work.
When I was honest, it gave me a picture of the look I wanted to achieve–something I could print out and add to my inspiration board or save on my phone to use when shopping brick-and-mortar or online.
It’s free, with no strings attached. I didn’t even need to pony-up my email to use it.
Uber Plus: I could try out paint colors!! Regardless of other decor elements, it’s impossible to realize the impact a color will have on an entire room from just a little chip. This filled that gap for me, and perhaps, over time, I can convince my husband we should be more bold in our paint choices.

Minuses:

The tool doesn’t point out glaring problems with your choices or suggest improvements. But then, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, and this is perhaps expecting too much.
The scale of some items isn’t right. For instance, many of the lamp selectons look way too large on the side-table choices.
It lacks more than bare-basic room items. I would like to see throw pillows, for one, maybe art instead of a mirror, and a chair.
It’s one-dimensional.

If I had my druthers: Add more rooms, please!!

Take the minuses with a grain of salt since there’s much more to this quiz (it’s more tool than quiz) than most of the others out there. I gained more from experimenting with the interactive room than I did from the style summary results. And I’ll continue to tinker with it to try out bolder accessories with my stalwart, charcoal-gray transitional sofa (a close relative of the one in the first example).

Follow the link to test drive the Decorist Create Your Design Profile yourself. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page for the accessory choices. And don’t forget to share your results in the comments, as well as your opinion of the tool.

Check back next Monday for another quiz review.