I thought I was hopeless at interior design. Picking a paint color for my daughter's room gave me the creative spark I needed.

The author has learned that anchoring a room's design around a color helps make things feel more put-together. Courtesy of Jillian Pretzel I've never had an eye for design. My own spaces have been a hodgepodge, but I wanted my daughter's room to feel special. Starting out by picking a color helped anchor my other choices. When I was expecting my first baby, I spent untold hours trying to decorate her nursery . Every time I sat down at the computer to pick out furniture and decor, I'd start strong: I'd find a crib I liked, then try to match it to a wallpaper that seemed to have the same "vibe." It would always spiral from there. Maybe I couldn't find a bookshelf that exactly matched the crib, so I'd scroll through hundreds of shelves searching for one that popped out. Usually, none did.