Happyfull, that peaceful place between wanting more and having too much.







Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Transformation underway

We moved into our current home four years ago.  I'm not a overnight decorator but I did have an initial vision...I called it "Santa Barbara Casual".  Where I came up with that name I'm really not sure, especially since I've never been to Santa Barbara.  I envisioned warm wood tones, terra cotta tile, copper accents, and a lot of black distressed wood furniture.   Kind of like this...
or this..
I didn't get that far in four years...I painted a few rooms, bought a few pieces of furniture, changed out some light fixtures, hung some curtains.  Just the basics.  But I haven't LOVED it the way I had hoped.
A week or so ago I had a pow-wow with Corey about my unhappiness with the way things were or weren't coming together.  We talked about what I liked and didn't like and then tried to remember homes and rooms from our past that we liked more.  We both agreed that the home we liked the best, the one that had felt the most "us" was our first little house in Minneapolis that we rented while I was pregnant with Soleil.  It was just barely 900 square feet and we consciously tried to enlarge it by keeping everything bright and light.  The whole house had a bit of a whitewashed feel to it.  It screamed for shabby chic decor and I happily obliged.

The two houses that we've lived in since that little house in Minneapolis have both been newer, more traditional homes...and they've been bigger.  But what I realized in talking with Corey is that they haven't necessarily felt bigger...and my Santa Barbara decorating was actually making me a little claustrophobic.  

So...I'm heading back to my shabby chic/whitewashed roots and making some changes around here.  Don't expect an overnight extreme makeover, but it's happening nonetheless.  I've decided that I've got to lighten things up and embrace what I really like, not what I think I'm suppose to like for this house. 

It's hard to admit when you've made mistakes.  
Thank goodness I never actually painted the kitchen cabinets black...eek.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so excited to see some before pictures and then the progress pictures and then the after pictures. No pressure, ha! Seriously, though, our house is--for the most part-- undecorated and it really bums me out. Cal's room is the cutest and actually feels decorated, but the rest of the place is a real drag. :(

    Maybe your transformation will inspire me/us. I was chuckling the other day about how our living room looks exactly the same way it did when we bought our first real furniture 12 years ago. Ahhh, yeah, maybe time to breathe some new life into the place...

    Here's hoping....

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  2. If I wish long enough that we were neighbors, do you think it might actually happen?!?!

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  3. I would do nearly anything to be your neighbor...

    I'd help you decorate if you'd help me clean :)

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  4. Stay tuned...I've been painting!

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  5. OH... what JOY! I can't wait to see it Ruth, none the less it will be a spectacle of creative genius with your magic touch. Take pictures, can't wait to see you Tuesday, we are still on right?!!!!

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