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.