I told Don yesterday that he would feel hopeful and heartened by the responses to yesterday’s post. I sure do. Thank you. In the midst of the muck and sludge that is the candidacy of Donald Trump, hearing your voices, reading your words, has helped enormously. We are not alone, my friends. There are wise people out there who have had Trump’s number from the beginning. I’m volunteering. I’m going to do whatever I can to help defeat this pathetic, destructive, and evil man.
Okay. Let’s do a 180 and talk about decorating! (Take a moment to catch your breath.)
I was reading Country Home the other day. Yes, I actually bought a magazine. I needed some pretty pictures in magazine form and, when I thumbed through the magazine at B & N, I felt it would be worth the cost. This particular issue was great.
Side note and confession: I cannot remember the last time I went on Pinterest. It just holds no appeal for me. There’s just too much. Too much busyness. And much of it I’ve seen before. I get traffic from Pinterest, mostly due to the photos of the dollhouse, but I almost never go there.
Back to Country Home.
One of the homes featured was that of Kristin Nicholas, who lives in Massachusetts and has long been on my radar as a textile and knitting pattern designer. I’ve seen photos of her home before and it’s wildly colorful and artistic and charming. But this quote is what I especially loved:
“I’ve got my house the way I like it. I don’t go with decorating trends. I fall in love and stay in love.”
Kristin Nicholas
That’s exactly how I feel.
When I was young and had only one room to decorate, and at times it was shared with my two sisters, I often rearranged things because my tastes changed or I was bored. My canvas was limited. I couldn’t do anything with the rest of the house, so my creativity was focused on my bedroom.
And certainly my tastes have changed over my adult years. But at this point in my life, I know who I am. I know what I’m drawn to, what makes my house feel like a home. I don’t care about trends. If I love something, I love it because it speaks to me, not because it’s trendy. In fact, I studiously avoid looking at the ‘trendy’ or reading blog posts about ‘what’s trending in home decor.’
Do not care.
And my canvas has expanded. I have many creative pursuits, not the least of which is my professional work, this blog, my other blog, my garden, my miniatures. You get the picture. This house is not my only outlet for creativity. Thank goodness.
Granted, my style may not be your style. My style (I should say our style) is funky and eclectic. Vintage and cheerfully cluttered. It is a mix of found pieces and recycled pieces, bright colors, as well as the sherbet colors of McCoy Pottery. The only furnishings I ever bought new were the loveseat in the living room – now 25 years old, the sofa in the den, now 21 years old, and the yellow chair in the living room, now 10 years old. Add to that the television, bed and desk in my office (because I didn’t have a desk for the office.) That’s it. Everything else has been found; sometimes on the street, sometimes in an antique shop, sometimes at auction. Or it has been passed down to me, like the piano and the chair in my bedroom.
Now that may not be everyone’s style, in fact, it most assuredly is not everyone’s style, but it’s mine. And it’s been my style for years. I’m comfortable with it. I like the way this house looks. Last week, when my best friend and her husband visited, I was given the chance to see the house through Laural’s eyes. She gasped when she came in the kitchen door and yelled, “I LOVE it!” She wanted to see everything. She got us. She got our style. It isn’t her style, but that didn’t matter. She loved it. (Laural, by the way, is the best cheerleader of a friend you could ever hope to have.)
This doesn’t mean that everything here remains static. You’ve only to look at the funky green chair we recently purchased to see that we add something here and there when we fall in love with it. But we have to fall in love with it. Otherwise, it doesn’t get in the door.
I think there are two kinds of decorators: Those who change things up constantly because their home is their palette and that’s the way they create, and those who slowly put together a home that speaks their name and is the result of a gathering of much loved objects. I totally understand the former. But I am the latter.
I want people to come in the door here and think, “Yes. This is Claudia and Don. This is comfortable and welcoming and funky and quirky and charming.” (At least, I hope we’re charming!) I got that last week from Laural and I got it the other day when I ran into a friend at Lowes. When we couldn’t get home during the day in Scout’s final months, she used to come by to let her out, and every time I see her, she says, “I love your house.” In fact, she said it three times during that chat at Lowes. That makes me smile, because it clearly made a big impression on her and I’m proud of that.
It’s not fancy, but it is us. And we know who we are and what we like and it fits us. Yes, I’d like to replace the sofa and the loveseat some day. Maybe a new slipcover for my chair in the den. But that’s about it. We, like Kristin Nicholas, fall in love and stay in love.
That is why we smile when we return home from wherever we’ve been, whether it’s running an errand or having to be away for a couple of months due to our work. It’s familiar. It’s full of things we’ve collected over our 22 years together – things we love. It’s full of paintings done by my dad. There’s a piano that my grandmother, mother, uncle, brother, sisters and I played. It takes up too much room but I would never give it up. There’s pottery everywhere. There are books in every corner.
No trends. Just well-loved.
How do you decorate? Are you someone who loves to change it up often? Or are you someone who avoids trends and goes with what you love? Or are you somewhere in the middle – a mixture of both?
(All photos were originally posted on Instagram.)
Happy Thursday.
I’m a collector. I have a dresser that was my Great Grandmothers. A chair my Grandmother’s Uncle made himself. Tables my Step Father made and I too collect pottery – a mix of American pottery which I acquire in my travels – mostly in blue which is my go to color. My style also evolved over the years and I’m comfortable with where I am now. Like you, unless it speaks to me, it won’t be in my home. I love your cottage too!
Those items that are inherited are priceless, aren’t they, Karen?
Love inherited pieces. I have a bureau made by my grandfather, also my grandmother’s sewing chest that he made out of birds-eye maple. Favorite pieces for sure! I also have the piano that was in our home growing up…before that it was in my grandmother’s house. But, that is leaving in a week…going to my son’s home. I’ve been wanting to get back into playing, but I haven’t for the last “X” years that we have had the piano. And the room the piano is in has become, over time, a dumping ground. I’m in a purging mode and removing a lot of things. Keeping those I love, but eliminating those that I just don’t have room for now. Also doing the same with clothes! Hope I can get it all done before the urge to purge leaves me – ha-ha.
I am on the verge of purging, Vera. It will be things in my closets, however – clothes, craft supplies, donating some books to the library, that sort of thing.
I like your decorating style. I love when a piece of furniture or knick knack with a story behind it. To me, your place isn’t cluttered..
Well, it often seems that way to me, Trina, but thank you!
Love this post Claudia. I’m like you in that I decorate to our taste and what we like, vs. what the latest and greatest trends are. Sometimes we keep things they way we like for a long time and other times, we might decide after a while to make a change but again, it’s what we want and like, not the latest and greatest. The walls in our home are painted a light lavender, the trim is white, the floor wood (distressed so we don’t have to worry about dents) and our cabinets? Sage green. Yup, very untraditional and very untrendy. But we love it!!
Thanks for sharing. So refreshing to see someone with a similar view point.
Our floors are naturally distressed by 10 years of dog nails, Chy. Love your decorating style.
I am definitely eclectic and cluttered and have all sorts of styles going on from country to cultural (Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern) — it all fits together because it’s all things I like. Pattern and color reign supreme. Freaks some people out. But for the most part, they love it, though say they couldn’t live with it (mostly because of the dust factor). I love your home. Definitely charming and inviting. It says come on in and sit a spell. :)
I have a lot of pattern and color, too. I think if you love it, it works!
Once again, Claudia, your home is comfy and cozy. I love my virtual visits!
Thank you so much, Carolyn Marie!
You would chuckle if you walked into our house…old wood floors, flea market furniture, framed photos of pets, potted plants, McCoy pottery, Maxfield Parrish prints, paintings by my great-Aunt. I think there is a similar trend amongst all of us fifty-somethings…in a crazy world, we are compelled to surround ourselves with what makes us the happiest!
Sounds very familiar, Lori! Definitely a home I would feel comfortable in!
I love your cottage, too, Claudia, at least the peeks you allow us to see! I don’t have a style. I prefer furnishings that I’ve had for decades, storage cabinets built by my father, and decorations made by my daughters when they were little. My sofas, love seat, and chairs have to be comfortable. My husband and I tried dozens of sofas before we bought the one I have had for over 30 years…the sofa had to be nap-worthy. My decorating is craft-friendly….craft supplies in almost every room, projects on every horizontal surface. I love looking at stylized photos of tidy rooms, but that’s not my style for sure.
Nap worthy is right! And in our house it has to be long – Don is 6′ 4 1/2″ I love the idea of craft supplies and projects in process as part of your home. Don loves that as well. He always says it makes a home look interesting and alive.
I think I would be very comfortable visiting you at home. I have a mix too, few new and yet a lot of ” I bought that in 1977 it used to be in the bedroom now in the living room”. I love furniture with stories from who it used to belong to -to I bought that from at -______. I have a couple of small tables that ” belonged to a neighbor’s Aunt” Love the stories. Stay cool.
Amen to stories! Everything in my house has a story connected to it. Love that your house has stories, too!
Most everything in our house we can point to and it has some sort of story. That is what makes me so happy ~~ the stories. We have an embroidered piece that says “Home Sweet Home” that was hung on a wall in this house when my inlaws moved in, after cutting the logs themselves, and building it as they could, back in 1938. Many remodels later, it still hangs in this house. Those are the details that I feel make a house become a home.
Bloggers who re-paint 3 times a year, and change every curtain and valance and floor covering at the same rate are people I can’t identify with at all. When I was working, many of the “young people” who had been married for about 8 years were on their third living room and dining room sets. I couldn’t even comprehend that. I would never wish for everyone to be the same, and decorating styles do tell a lot about a person, but it is always fun when we find others from the same mother-ship!!!!!
I can’t really comprehend it either. Nor do I have the money to do that sort of thing, even if I wanted to! I love the story about your Home, Sweet Home piece. That, my friend, makes that piece priceless.
I also dislike trends. I like it even less when something I’ve been liking or doing for years becomes a trend! If it’s in today, that only means it will be out tomorrow…and a long time before it looks original and bohemian again.
I need color and pattern and I tend to paint everything that is paintable, even floors. Then I like to cover them up with homemade rag rugs. It always tickles me when people are opposed to painting wood (usually men, I find). I like wood as much as the next person, but for me, a little bit of brown goes a loooooong way toward boring me to tears. Painted planks and beadboard walls are always part of my decor. Old furniture finds are always my choice over new ones.
At the lake, we just (well, my husband did) refurbished a 1932 “Beauty Range” in the kitchen. It’s got an original green and pale yellow finish and goes perfectly with the old green farm sink we put in last year. Now I need to get to painting cabinets. Home for us is always a work in progress.
Your interior drew me in immediately. I knew a kindred soul was in residence there.
Oh, I’m the same way about wood. There are a few pieces that are still in their original finish, but I’ve painted a lot of pieces in the past 5 or 6 years. Your home sounds absolutely beautiful, Shanna! It’s the kind of look that I love.
I keep my house the same with things I like. Sometimes I look at old photos of my boys and realize the room looks the same! I am trying new colors around and I find I am liking the new. I tease my husband that’s why I still love him, I don’t change! I think your home is very nice.
Same with my husband, Doris! We’re true blue, you and I!
Wanted you to know that I’m another fan of your last post. I’m a firm believer in standing up for what you truly believe in. I try not to bring politics up to someone I don’t know but if someone brings something up that I know to be stupid & untrue, I will speak up. Thanks for speaking up! Also, I, too, went to B & N and bought the new Country Home because it was wonderful…& it’s something I seldom do anymore. My style is definitely primitive and I have several family pieces. My favorite is a farm table that my great-grandfather built & all these generations have used it. My grandson knows that some day it will be his (& that’s a lot of grands). I love my antiques & collect bread boards, crocks, wooden bowls & various other early primitives. I also have a huge unfinished 3 story dollhouse in my garage that was made by a craftsman in Minneapolis who made a doll house for Jimmy Carter’s daughter the same year he made this one for our daughter. We just never finished it. Love your house, too & your blog.
Thanks for your support. Interestingly, a few readers find my political posts objectionable. That’s certainly their right, but I’m not about to let those readers determine the content of my blog. And that’s why I leave a little warning at the top of the post.
Anyway, your style sounds lovely, and it clearly speaks from your heart, Jan. I must say I’m envious of that dollhouse!
I have followed you faithfully for a long time. I love your home ideas, writings and have loved your choice and reviews of books. But saying all that I regret your choice to bring politics into an otherwise wonderful site I regretfully am unsubscribing to you. It has nothing to do with ones political choices I just feel it has no place in an otherwise wonderful site full of information.
Since this blog is about my life, it follows that I would write about this election process. I’ve always done that, but perhaps even more this year since I believe it is the most important election in my lifetime. I don’t blog to please my readers. I blog to please myself, and if that pleases my readers, all the better. I would never censor myself to make a few readers happy. I determine the content of this blog.
I always find it interesting that someone has to ‘inform’ me of the fact that he or she wants to move on. I wonder why that is? To teach me a lesson? You’re welcome to move on simply by not reading the blog anymore.
I decorate similar to you.
Everything in our home has meaning or a story attached.
I’m not set on a color scheme or a certain style. But I do
love a homey feeling. I like comfortable and feel good
surroundings, Pret!ty much anything goes if we like it.
And actually when it’s all said and done it all goes together
quite well. One thing for sure our home looks like our home
and no one else. There’s no place like home!
monica
p.s. I didn’t reply to yesterdays post but I was very proud at
how you put it all together. We are with you & Don.
You did good Claudia!
I love stories and I love to tour someone’s home and have them tell me those stories. It’s so powerful! I think if you choose things you love for your home, somehow it all ends up working together.
And thanks for your support on yesterday’s post, Monica.
My journey was very much like yours, Claudia. I was always changing, fussing, fixing things when I was younger. Shared a room with 2 little sisters until I was 10, when I finallt got my own space. Always rearranging & changing things there. Same thing to a lesser extent during college. I think this is because we truly don’t know what we like and want when we’re younger. How can we – really? We’re just starting out. After college I lived at home for a few years while loans were paid off, a car purchased etc. Since that time I’ve only lived in 2 other homes, and in both of them it took a couple of years for me to find its final look. Apparently I need quite a lot of time to experiment and organize, but eventually I land on exactly what I want for me. I don’t care for trends either. In fact I think I usually push back against the latest thing. I’ve slowly noticed over the years that anytime I hear “Oh everyone’s doing X…” or “Absolutely everyone LOVES this…” it puts my back up. I must be inherently ornery, but I rarely if ever rave about something trendy, or wildly-popular. I prefer time-honored classics over upstart newbies. Anyway, I feel the same when I walk in my front door too. Every time, I feel a complete wave of comfort wash over me. My shoulders let down, literally. I’ve returned from the larger, bustling, uncertain world to the much more secure & familiar nest where I belong. 🏡
I am the same way! If everyone is doing it, I dig in my heels and shout “No!” I understand. If you feel a wave of comfort when you walk in your door, you’ve done good!
I’m not a trendy person…never have been. My home shows that as well. It is a combination of well-loved, some new 12 years ago or so, found items, and quite a few inherited pieces. And plants…..can’t forget my plants! Ever the collector, I have quite a few pieces that tell a story. We have a collection of carved wooden plates for each member of our family, including my parents and in-laws, that have date of birth, weddings, etc. My father hung them in a family tree arrangement, 33 years ago. They’ve never been moved! Quite frankly, I couldn’t afford, nor would I want to, change my decor every season. I may rotate things occasionally, but generally things don’t change too much around here….and that’s the way we like it! ;)
The wooden plates hung as a family tree sounds beautiful, Donna!
I love your home. It is interesting and charming. I’m a collector and love my vintage pieces, pottery collections, books and family treasures. I would not like a styled home…mine says Linda lives here.
And that’s exactly what it should say, Linda!
Well, sigh, in two houses, back-to-back over 10 years, I’ve been in an environment of remodeling (the kind that never ends) so it’s a stressful decade of not having my things around me but instead stored in boxes and offsite storage, which is disturbing and not familiar…nor is it comforting…unlike anywhere else I’ve ever hung my hat, where I’ve always speedily made a place ‘home’ instead of feeling so displaced. It’s a HUGE discussion point between myself and the DIY-er husband; ad nauseum. He seems to be able to easily live with ladders, sawhorses, cans of paint, scattered tools and drop cloths; he’s, to his credit, very patient, whereas I am the opposite. And he does beautiful, painstaking work; a perfectionist. So, I’m ultimately appreciative and, coincidentally, we are making another big push in these next two weeks to finish working on the kitchen and living room, although I’m cautiously guarded, since everything always takes longer than it should…and costs more money than we anticipate…but this is sometimes what you get when you can’t always hire out the work and instead do what you can WHEN you can… and wind up with two OLD houses that need a lot of improvement in order to be safe and functional; however, I’m ALWAYS grateful I have a roof over my head and tremendously thankful at this stage in my life that I’m no longer in rentals where I had a landlord/slumlord in charge (20 years of it for me, in my adult years).
So, I look forward to the winter/cooler months ahead when I can unearth my treasured things out of sheds, units, attic, garage, car trunks and storerooms…and surround myself with all my lifelong finds and gifts handed down from the ancestors. I follow no pattern; I have never followed trends (although I know people who have/do, and it gets very expensive to keep changing things!). My tastes have somewhat changed from when I was in my 20s, when everything was very ‘natural’ with woods, plants, macrame (we all touched on this, I think, in a previous post of yours). In the 80s & 90s, I found myself leaning toward the pale pinks, soft greens and other pastels of shabby chic/beach chic, which can be calming, particularly in a bedroom. But the other side of me loves bold, saturated color. Upcoming, I’m having my aunt’s l.o.n.g sofa and overstuffed chair (from the late 1940s; incredibly well constructed, which is why they’ve held up) reupholstered/refurbished and, kid you not, I’ve considered some luxe purples…although I just read that, for one’s core furniture pieces (not the accents), neutrals can be less overwhelming in a room but, of course, I’ve read that before. I’ve been living for the past three years with more of my parents’ furnishings than my own and everything in their house was brown-brown-beige-brown-brown and these are not tones that make me feel good (everybody’s different!) which is why I’m thinking more wildly of purples, oranges, lime (lions and tigers and bears, oh my). Anyway, opening long-packed storage boxes is going to be a delight; rediscoveries. I’ve felt the day will never come!
I can’t wait until you can get to those beloved items that are in storage, Vicki. My parents were also the brown, tan, beige type of decorators, well, actually my mom was, and I love color. I say go for whatever you want. If you want purple, then purple it should be!
I love your cottage, Claudia. It reminds me of my own home which is filled with things I love and collected over many years time. I am definitely not trendy. Everything in my own little cottage has a story to tell and I like that….
I am all for things that have stories to tell, Lily. That’s what makes a house a home – in my humble opinion!
I avoid trends like the plague, like you I buy things that I love, they may not be to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t matter because they don’t live here. I love your little cottage too, it’s the kind of home that I could very easily call my own.
Thank you, Jan. We use what we love!
Your house is lovely ,it’s comfy so you can be comfy because it’s your home. It’s my style too,especially the things with stories. I treasure an old chest my mother got during the war when she married and in the U.K. then you were only allowed to buy “utility” furniture which was rationed and had to be plain but solid, so solid I am still using it (only been painted four times in forty years!) and will pass it on.Before I opened your blog I was spending the evening cutting up seat pads-what a chore-from a beautiful dining set I bought in 1980 and which over the years slowly gave out from over-use but the material of the pads is so nice I will find something to use them as, just don’t know what yet.When I got fed up with the chore and started reading your blog it was almost prophetic and I agree with it all.Best thing to do in your home is enjoy it. Megan.
I love that you have that old chest, Megan!
I will always love old things better than new…A fun day to me is browsing through an antique mall…something I know you and Don also love to do…A new trend means nothing to me…This is why I love seeing your home and your treasures so much Claudia…I don’t believe there has ever been anything that you and Don have bought that I didn’t like myself…The only new furniture I have ever bought is mattresses and box springs…
Always good to buy a new mattress/box springs, Nancy. Thank you!
I so love the home that you and Don have created.
It’s really hard for me to follow trends, because if I love something (which are many things in my house!), then I want them out to use and enjoy FOREVER! :) That makes it hard to have room to display the latest trend! I’ve had two art prints, in three different living rooms, for over 30 years. I actually think I enjoy them as much now as I ever had. I’ve collected, and displayed, my Schilling tin/box/bottle collection for longer than that. Same with vintage kitchen utensils, and wooden textile bobbins, and vintage cookbooks, AND the list goes on! Whether I’m on trend, or not, I really don’t care either way … I just love what I love :)
Me too! And seeing the things that we love all around us makes us happy!
I always love catching glimpses of your beautiful McCoy!
You are so correct about Donald Trump, I can not believe some people can continue to support him. It was a joke last year about moving to Canada……but I think HE is the one that needs to leave the good ole USA we love, honor and respect that he does not.
I wish he would! I wish he’d move to one of the countries where he, no doubt, has a tax shelter!
No trendy stuff here too. We are like you. You’v spoken from my heart. :-) Have a nice day
Thank you, Regula. You, too!