Getting Unstuck #001: Selecting (and Deciding Where to Hang) Art at Home

Part One of Our New Summer Series!

I think when people say they’re stuck, what they really want is for someone to take the struggle away. To tell them what to pick. To make it feel easy again. Honestly? Same. Every time I hit resistance, I go looking for the shortcut. The easy button. The thing that’ll make the discomfort disappear so I can just move on already.

At the end of May, I asked this on Instagram:

What’s one part of designing or decorating your home that gives you anxiety or overwhelm right now?

Hundreds of you answered, and across the board, certain themes kept showing up. So this summer, I’m trying something new. Every other week, I’ll dig into one of these common “stuck” zones.

Each miniseries will unfold in two parts:

• A free post that explores why we get stuck in that area.

• A follow-up post for paid subscribers with practical ways to move forward—plus ideas to try and products I love.

The goal is to turn overwhelm into insight and help us all see our homes (and our choices) with more clarity and confidence. My hope is that these topics will serve as conversation starters for the entire House Call community to get involved in. Many of you have offered your advice when I’ve found myself in indecision, and I think we’d all benefit from helping one another! If you have a topic you'd like to discuss, or would like feedback or help, I encourage you to use the comment section to get unstuck.

First up in the Getting Unstuck Series: Artwork. How to find it. How to hang it. And why it so often brings up fear, pressure, or total inertia. Let’s get into it.

Why Selecting Art Overwhelms Us

Based on your responses, our overwhelm about art stems from:

• The difficulty of finding nice, reasonably priced frames

• Not knowing where to source art

• Not having the budget for nice art

• Deciding which art is right for a given space based on scale, color, etc.

• Not knowing what to put on a blank wall

• The amount of time it takes to find art you resonate with

• The overwhelm of hanging and arranging art when nothing feels cohesive

• Worrying you’ll hang art in the wrong place and leave holes in your wall

A common thread in nearly every response I got was one of the following:

“I’m afraid I’ll pick the wrong art.” OR “What if I hang it and hate how it looks?”

I want to start with fear of making the wrong choice because it is at the heart of most indecision.

This fear of getting it wrong, making the “wrong” choice, putting holes in the wall, and wasting money, time, and energy… plays a functional purpose. It’s your brain trying to protect you from regret and inefficiency. And on a deeper (subconcious level) it is protecting you from the vulnerability of being seen, because art is personal, and hanging it is a kind of commitment.

So, if you’re waiting to feel 100% certain before hanging the art, you’ll wait forever.

The reality is the struggle with this fear is part of the process, and it will never go away. There are no rules for personal choices, only you and your relationship with what lights you up. Which can make it tricky for those of us who have lost touch with inner trust in our own instinctual “yes”. So when fear and discomfort show up, shake it off or invite it to sit down for tea. Because…

Indecision Means We Care (And That's a Good Thing)

When people say they’re stuck, what they really want is for someone to take the discomfort of “not knowing” away. However, outsourcing our decisions and critical thinking takes away the growth that comes from acting on calculated risks. We think we need help because we’re struggling when really, the struggle is giving us deeper insight into what is important to us. Moving through the struggle is what gives us confidence in our eye, our skills, and our ability to build a home that’s personal.

But lately I’ve been wondering if the struggle is actually a sign we’re on the right track. That we care. That the outcome matters to us.

And if that’s true, then discomfort is showing up because we’re doing something meaningful. It changes how we can interact with it. It becomes less about fixing it and more about noticing what it means—Oh. I care. That’s why this feels hard. It can feel vulnerable to acknowledge that we have some stake in the game. But it is the key to getting unstuck!

It’s a deceptively simple shift. Just noticing you care deeply about the outcome of your choices can take the edge off the pressure to get it perfect. You make room to focus your energy toward something that matters to you. Not something that fits some arbitrary measure of “good.”

And here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:

When I try to ignore the struggle, or I think it should be easy, or I think I should feel totally clear and confident in my choices, I usually end up avoiding the thing altogether. I spin out and second-guess. I get stuck in indecision.

But if I just let the discomfort be there, and I stop trying to escape it? I can usually find something true to grab on to. It’s usually an inner “knowing” or my intuition calling quietly in a specific direction. Only then, when really sitting in my discomfort, can I actually make a choice.

And the choice might not live up to my expectations. And that’s ok. We’re better off trying things and learning than putting it off. We’ll only stay stuck if we refuse to allow ourselves the chance to mess up. If our bar for making something happen is so high and unachievable based on our skillset, we’ll never get anywhere.

Remember this: in any creative endeavor, good things sit on the other side of discomfort. You’ll find creative flow. You’ll set realistic expectations. You’ll honor your boundaries, like budgets and timelines. Discomfort is how we learn to cultivate self-compassion and offer ourselves support during the complex process of creating spaces. It’s how blocks become containers for unique solutions you hadn’t considered before.

- Kate

Part Two of Getting Unstuck #001: Selecting (and Deciding Where to Hang) Art at Home covers:

• How to start looking for art (and why starting with “style” is often the wrong move)

• The #1 mistake people make with art (and how to avoid it)

• The exact process I use to source pieces I won’t regret (and where I find pieces I can afford)

• 4 prompts I use to get clear on the type of art a space needs

• My go-to tools to take the stress out of hanging (plus a few weird tricks that actually work)