Who Lives Here?

I found this post, which I wrote over a year ago, hiding in my blog that I never published. I don't know why, maybe I am a little embarrassed to admit I was like this. As two close family members begin new chapters of their lives with their own home purchases, I found this post timely and perhaps some of you out there can relate as well.

For almost a decade I lived in my house which someone else decorated. No, nobody broke in one night and hung up pictures and I certainly did not hire an interior decorator to come and do it for me. I decorated my house based on the opinions and perceptions of what other people thought looked good. We built our house 12 years ago and for the first year or two I was scared to death to put a nail in the wall, let alone splash a little color here and there. But when I finally decided it was time to make this house a home, I was terrified to do what really wanted to do. I mean what if no body like it? So instead, I decorated my house based on what was “in” at the time. I had adopted this ‘theme’ that everyone was doing and because it looked so nice and homey in their homes, why not try it in my own. So I gave it a try. I would pick up a few things here and there, items I loved individually, but all together... not so much. I always felt like something was missing, I would often look around and wonder 'who lives here'? To make a long story short, I eventually gave up and did nothing inside my house for years.

About a year ago I decided to put on my big girl coveralls and reclaim my house. Instead of waiting to win the mega bucks so I could mirror every room printed in a Pottery Barn magazine, I decided to start a little bit at a time. First I replaced my boring shower curtain with a flashy one and bought a few matching towels. Whoola! For under $100 I had a new bathroom. For the playroom, I bought two rolls of funky wall paper and created an accent wall and POOF a new room was born. In my kitchen, I steamed off my border and painted over the antique white walls with a bold gray, printed and framed printables I found on Pinterest, found a bunch of funky frames which I love, love, love, actually put pictures in them and wouldn’t you know I LOVE MY KITCHEN!! Is there a theme; not really. Does everything match/coordinate accordingly; errr, sort of. Would the Pottery Barn want to include a picture of my kitchen in their magazine; he-lll NO! But you know what, I don’t care because, as my three year old would say, "I lub it"!

Maybe it’s because I am more confident at 30, ah hem 31, than I was at 20 and I really don’t care what people think of me or my house, or maybe because I realize striving for perfection was smothering my creativity and taking away my individuality (I am getting deep, I know), but now when I come home from work or maybe when you come over to visit, you can look around and know exacly who lives in this house!

It was love at first sight between this fabric and I. Not knowing what to do with it, I sat on it for close to a year. Than I took that term literal and covered my dining room chairs with it! HA!

LOVE IT! 



Happy Sunday!