So often in life we can miss out on the best moments, the best seasons by longing for what is next, or what may (honestly) never be. Learning to live in and love the moments and seasons we have now is a learned skill and a blessing!
What season are you in?
Take a moment, friend, and think about where you are. Where are you in life…recently graduated, newly married, starting a family, moving to your “forever home,” or enjoying your grandchildren. This is where you live now. In each of these seasons there are highlights that bring us pure joy. These blessings are often accompanied by challenges and difficult times. Our views and responses to these circumstances shape our identity. I know these are big ideas about life, but they affect the way we live in our homes, and the way we live in our homes affects the future.
Prepare for the future, live today.
One way to prepare for the future and live today is to create a home that is simple, easy to use, and works well. How practical or functional is your home? Once you have a great job done in your home, think about the look or appeal of your home. Let’s discuss the function/practical application first.
Practicality: British interior designer Nina Campbell touches on the practical side of her course with Create Academy. Referring to purchasing furniture, she says: “Always buy something with the idea that you can move it later when you decide you want to upgrade a table or chair for your own room, and then that table or chair can move into a family room or kids room.” You always want to buy something with the intention of knowing what you can do with it later. Otherwise, you just buy it without having any idea what to do with it. Every piece of furniture you buy should have a full life ahead of it.”
“Don’t buy long term.” Nina Campbell
This is excellent advice and fits in with her daughter Rita’s motto, “Buy well, buy slowly.” If you’re buying a bed or a table, for example, these are things you need now, but if purchased with quality and function in mind, they will serve you and your family for years, or perhaps generations to come.
For our home, I evaluated a French sofa that I’ve had for over 15 years. This was not helpful and clogged the passage in the guest bedroom. Besides not being practical, it was also not an essential part of my design style. The curly French legs were too frilly for my English country house aesthetic. Because it didn’t fit the way we lived or our style, I sold it on Marketplace.
This high quality, custom designed bench (from Marketplace) with feather seat cushion has excellent lines and is a more practical piece for us that is used daily. The fabric can eventually be replaced to be more consistent with the home color palette. By researching and purchasing the pieces we actually need, we can live more comfortably in our home today.
Another example of creating a more functional home was in the evaluation of this hutch. It was a beautiful, well-built piece, but size-wise, it was too big for our house. With it in the dining room, we couldn’t entertain without the back door hitting the guests at the other end of the table. Instead, we now have a mini buffet from Matt’s family. He remembers having this piece in his house all the time growing up.
The buffet fits the space perfectly, looking “right” as if it has always been there. It is used every day and all our guests can eat with ease. If I had stuck with those two pieces that were impractical for the way we live, there wouldn’t be the space or budget for these pieces that serve us much better. For those interested, there is a blog post and video about functional homemaking.
Form: After creating practical function in your home, take a look at the form or appeal of the pieces in your space. Sometimes, as in the examples above, the two come at once. Other times, we housewives have to make things work before they can be beautiful. And that’s good.
In the split photo above you see the evolution of one of the corners of the living room. The function is the same in both arrangements. Both corners contain a comfortable chair, a comfortable pillow and blanket, a reading light, and a place to put tea. The difference here is aesthetic. The picture on the left is an example of doing the best I could with what I had. We had (or were provided with) almost everything at that point. In the photo on the right, we updated the bookcase, reading lamp, artwork, and even the pillow and blanket. Many of the items in this photo were gifts (or savings) as well, but some were purchased to be more in keeping with my design style. The brass lamp is a timeless, high-quality lamp, and I imagine it will be a part of our home for years to come. Knowing this, I was willing to invest the time and effort to create a hand pleated lampshade. This lamp was $50 well spent!
As I move forward with making our home more functional and prettier, I’ve put the buying on hold…I rarely save. Often times, I prefer to save my family/decorating business money to buy things that will serve us well and complement our style. Sometimes I find these pieces in antique stores or on Marketplace. Yes, I see things, usually furniture, that are great and at a great price, but if the piece doesn’t meet our needs, or fit our home (or our budget), then it’s not meant for us. This takes time, and in the end, the pieces I choose are a clearer reflection of the life we live in that house.
This year I’ve been slowly working on remodeling our master bedroom. This means reevaluating the function of the room first, then colors, lighting, specific furniture pieces, artwork, etc. I enjoyed the unhurried process and the feeling that I could take my time to get it right and make wise decisions. I’ve documented the process every step of the way and once I’m done, I look forward to sharing it with you. Until then remember…
Buy well, buy slowly.
Decorating isn’t a marathon to the end and then you’re done. Telling a story takes time.
take care,
Rachel
