Early Stages of Decorating series: Part 3 - Straight talk about room function

~All pieces available for sale can be found here~

Welcome to week three of my humble decorating series! If you are new or missed the beginning, you can take a few moments to catch up if you'd like: Intro, Part 1, Part 2

At this point in the series you may have a defined idea of your style. Remember, it doesn't have to fall in one genre. Your style may be a pie chart that incorporates multiple elements. Now it's time to get a bit more specific!

Look around your space, mainly 'public' rooms: entrance/foyer, living room, family room, dining room - the places you would invite guests. Think realistically about how you live and how each room would best accommodate that. To borrow a line from Domino: The Book of Decorating, "You may fantasize about a formal living room where you can hold fancy parties, but if a) you don't entertain all that much, and b) you end up with a set up that doesn't accommodate the things you or your family enjoy, like watching movies, then someone's going to be unhappy." (page 16). This is such a great example of why it's so important to be honest about your lifestyle!

And your lifestyle now could change someday. You may dream of fancy entertaining in your living room, but your current lifestyle may not allow you to do so, (young children, full time student with a full time job, etc). Decorate appropriately for your current lifestyle so you can enjoy this stage of life and save ideas for when things change. An example of this for us was when we were furnishing our newly built deck. We talked about doing an outdoor living room of sorts with love seats, comfy chairs, a coffee table, etc. BUT, we really like eating outside with our kids, and our kids are very young, (well, they were when we had this discussion over a year ago). It's a bit easier for our toddlers to sit still and eat when they're in chairs, so we opted for a large table and a bunch of chairs. We still took the time to find the style and colors we wanted and had a blast mixing and matching our own set, (IKEA Falster table in grey, and Roxo chairs in yellow).

Once you've considered the most ideal function of the room, take a good look around at what you've got and just list each item, (big and small), in a notepad, (Domino recommends photographing each item, which is a great idea, just not realistic for me). Then "sort your pictures, (list of items/pieces), into four groups: keep, change (paint, reupholster), give away and sell." (page 17)

We moved into our home with all hand-me-downs which we were so graciously given from friends and family. When I really narrowed in on our style, I realized that not very much of what we had really fit with that. We have a great Craigslist up here in Northern Virginia and I was able to sell every item that wasn't right for us. We had an empty home for a little while, but it was nice to start from scratch with some extra cash in our pockets.....which brings us to one of next weeks  topics of setting a budget, (along with starting the process of buying).

So, we leave off this week with a few tasks:

1)Think about how you live and the best function for your space

2)Make a list of every item in your room(s) from furniture to art and everything in between

3)Keeping your style, lifestyle and ideal function in mind, place each item into one of the following four groups: Keep, Change/Refinish, Give away, Sell

Thank you for reading! I hope this has been fun for you because it's been a great refresher for me!

~Chelsea

Early Stages of Decorating: Part 2 - You got style, baby!

~All pieces available for sale can be found here~

Last week I began our Early Stages of Decorating series, (following loosely along with my beloved Domino: The Book of Decorating). We discussed the importance of collecting inspiration, (see post here), and I left you with the task of connecting themes between the things that inspire you so that you can begin to identify your unique decorating style.

The thought of defining my style used to intimidate me because I felt like it was too much commitment. If I say my style is bohemian, then I feel there is an expectation to have my home dripping in layers of fabric and colors and collections. If I say it's rustic then I feel the pressure to include obvious rustic elements in every room. If I call it elegant does that mean I can't include anything too whimsical or off beat? I'm none of these completely and a little bit of each.

Who says your style has to be under one umbrella? One of the most refreshing, (and relieving), things I learned from reading Domino was that it's perfectly fine and normal to be a little of this and a little of that. I think of my style as a pie chart; I'm a few parts this, a few parts that, a small part over there, and it's the unique mix of those which make my style 100% me. Like a style mutt!

The reason it's a good exercise to identify your style is so you can start to critique your inspiration collection. You may have tagged/pinned/recorded that super cool, (and trendy), Eames rocker, but is it really you? I, for one, love this chair...but I think I would get tired of it because deep down, I just prefer the soft, cozy feel, (and look), of a fabric covered cushion under my bum. Just being honest. Honest is good.

Ultimately, defining your style may help you save money from impulse buys, (as with this Eames rocker which I am sure my husband would not have minded me dropping over $500 for...). If you are critical about what you bring into your home, you will likely spend only on what is most important and appealing to you. There is nothing worse than making a purchase on something you're unsure about and then overworking, (and overwhelming), yourself trying to like it. I know because I've been there. It confuses things. But, we're not on purchases yet, (and we will get there).

For now, the next step toward decorating your home is simply placing style words to each item in your inspiration collection and seeing what kind of pie chart you come up with.

Any fellow style mutts out there? :)

And a very happy anniversary to my love of 7 years and all my years left. It sure has been an exciting ride so far and I couldn't imagine it with anyone else. God is so good.

~Chelsea

Early Stages of Decorating: Part 1. What inspires you?

~All pieces available for sale can be found here~

As I mentioned last week, I am doing a basic home decorating series over the month of June! My plan is to post for this series every Monday throughout this month. Being that I found Domino: The Book of Decorating so very helpful in my endeavors to decorate our own home, I am loosely following their Getting Started section of the book. 

Today we'll talk about finding inspiration. There is inspiration for decorating everywhere; nature, movies, literature - there's no wrong place to look and it's nearly impossible to avoid. You are wired so uniquely and intricately that very particular things will catch your eye that may not stand out to anyone else.

You are who you are. What turns your head?

Collect these inspirations in one format or another and keep them all together in one place. Pinterest is a wonderful tool as so much is offered online now. I  prefer a more tangible style and have a small red notebook where I've kept clippings and descriptions of things that have grabbed my attention. When something catches my eye I record as much information as I can, (where I saw it, why it attracted me, etc). Whatever your format for collecting, make sure it's one that will be easy, convenient and helpful for you.

You will never stop being inspired so there is really no defined beginning and end to this exercise. But, a great starting point for decorating your own home is taking some time to intentionally notice what inspires you and record it. After taking some time to record start looking for commonalities throughout your collection. Are there particular color schemes, patterns, fabrics, lines? Is there an era that your inspirations seem to derive from? Maybe a specific geographical area, like the Mediterranean or Sweden? Or perhaps a general area, as in coastal or country. Finding these themes throughout your inspirations is a helpful step in beginning to identify and define your style.

Identifying your style will be a useful, (and potentially time and money saving), tool in helping you stay on track while decorating your home. Next week I'll go over the process of tracking down your style. I can't wait!

Part 1 task: Identify, record, and connect what inspires you. Have fun!

~Chelsea