We bought a home in this area a year and a half ago and my creative juices have been boiling over ever since. Yes, it is true that as a homeowner I am in a better position to design a house than when I rented - I can paint walls any color I want, or knock one out; I can change the blinds, install new light fixtures, and garden however I want - with my husband's permission, of course (most of the time). But, I can't help but think that my design style has been inspired by this little neighborhood.
I am a decorator by hobby, not by trade. I like to spend weekends exploring new places, driving around town looking at houses for inspiration, and finding fun treasures to add to our home. Sometimes I leave our house for hours in search of cool stuff. My husband just sighs when I come home with something weird, inquires what in the world I am going to do with that, and then shrugs as I scuttle off to "pitsy" around the house, rearranging trinkets, organizing closets, maybe moving furniture. I buy what I love and always make it work.
This apple does not fall far from the tree. I was dragged to antique, fabric, and furniture stores as a child by an energetic and oober-creative mother who taught me some important things:
1. Good, quality curtains should always be lined in white (I broke the rule with my bathroom swag curtain, but you can't really tell);
2. You can never go wrong with quality linens - new or antique - the uses for them are endless;
3. Always look beyond the common use for almost everything. I mean, a couch is a couch, but a buffet does not have to be used in the dining room - it could be your TV stand. I once used my grandmother's old wooden ironing board as a table behind my couch. An antique wardrobe that was in my nursery as a baby is now in our kitchen for extra storage. My mother's old secretary has become the "china closet," storing our crystal glasses and trinkets;
4. Most importantly, buy what you love, not just what is practical. The things that you love will become your stories and somehow there will always be a place for them in every home that you have. The practical, I have found, will inevitably be delivered to Goodwill.
I often flip through decorating magazines and catalogues with big dreams of having the perfectly decorated home - kissed with a deliberate "messy" look that often grace the pages of Pottery Barn or Coastal Living. But, alas, our budget doesn't allow for a $4,000 couch or a $200/hour interior designer. And, I am not sure I would want that even if I could afford it - well, maybe the couch if it was really amazing.
Instead, my style has become like the town where we live - perfectly imperfect. You may not be able to rip a picture of our living room out of a magazine page, but for this amateur decorator, you can tell our house has character. That character is deliberate and all part of the adventure of making our first house a true home.
