Just thinking out loud here: Excellence in design is more to be desired than is excellence in execution of that design. If you can have both, great… that’s the best. But if you can only have one, make sure the design is spot on.

Someone asked me a question the other day about a paint job. They had some advice that was clearly from a “perfectionist” to the core. They asked what I thought. My answer was “sometimes, I have to weigh the cost in terms of time and effort of doing something perfectly. Is it really worth it?”

The answer depends greatly on the work being done. Sometimes, it really is worth it.

But other times, people don’t do a thing at all because it seems too hard to make it perfect, and it may well be. But who said it needed to be perfect anyway? It doesn’t. A few runs in some paint, or the streak of an imperfectly applied drywall finish, or even a 1/4″ gap in your hardwood floor isn’t going to make your job a disaster.

But a bad design will. A bad idea can’t look good no matter how well it’s done.

Someone else emailed me about a drywall finish. It was totally clear that she wanted a slick finished wall. No texture. But the fact that getting a slick finish “perfect” is a really hard thing to do was causing her to consider a texture. Texture is fine, but it’s not what she wanted. No matter how nicely applied, no matter how perfect that texture is, she won’t ever be totally pleased with it. She might accept it, but never love it.

Why do that with your house?

Wouldn’t it be better to love an imperfect slick finish? So it has a knife mark in it here or there, which it might not anyway! The point is that even though not perfectly executed, the design is perfect for her. That’s more important.

Sometimes, you really do find situations where it makes sense(or cents) to cut corners, just don’t do it in the design!