This year my guy went out and hunted us a pine tree for Christmas.

It had beautiful long needles and a wonderful scent, and it was sitting tall when I arrived home from the hospital waiting for decorations.

I had arranged for some friends to come out and decorate and anticipated a fun coffee date and some girl time as they decked my halls. It was a wonderful day.

What I had not anticipated and have never experienced is that the boughs on a pine tree are very flexible and although the tree looks full, it has large hidden spaces and far less branches than a spruce tree.

This meant that many of my (as you can imagine) blinged-out, sparkly decorations could not be used because they were too heavy and overall, we were only able to use about a half of my arsenal.

It was different, the tree looked unusual and imperfect and I had to sadly watch lids being put onto bins still full of decorations but in the end, it was still beautiful and festive and my little 16-month-old grandson toddled in, looked at it and said WOW.

Décor projects, builds and purchases will often put people into a false frenzy of needed perfection. People believe if they build a home that it will be without flaws and will be perfect corner to corner which results in devastating feelings when they find the faults in their project.

In the end, it is all made by human hands and can be subject to error or misjudgment.

I remember working with a client who wanted natural slate in her home. After many conversations I determined that this product was not for her because her expectations were nowhere near what the product could deliver but she insisted on slate.

While we were planning, she kept asking if this color or that colour could be eliminated from the order and I kept trying to explain that is how natural stone works, you get what mother earth delivers.

It was as silly as me expecting a natural tree to perform and be as perfectly symmetrical as a tree that comes in a box.

In the end, I suggested that she order more tile and when the boxes arrived, she could cull out the coloured pieces that she didn’t like.

That satisfied her and when the floor was laid, she asked me to come and look at it and was disappointed that it didn’t have as much ‘personality’ as the tile samples I had shown her!

If I could insert an ‘eye roll emoji’ here, I would.

I believe that the beauty we perceive in nature is very relative to its imperfection and to the nuances and subtle differences that it presents.

This is why we love natural wood and stone compared to manufactured items which try to look like nature’s offerings.

The trick with choosing nature over production is that we must expect and accept the flaws and imperfections that are inherent within these items and to embrace the value in flawed beauty.

Your projects may not be perfect but there can be delight in imperfection if you embrace the flaws and look for the unique.

Kim Wyse is a Central Alberta freelance designer. Find her on facebook at ‘Kim Wyse Associate Royal Lepage Tamarack Trail Realty’.