How I Found My Style- Part 1

I’ve had several questions lately about how I found my style. This is such a heart warming question, and one that was a true journey for me.

But because I have a lot to share on the topic, and my post would be really long if I didn’t, I’m making this into a two part series.

I guess the best place to start, is at the beginning…

As a child I was in love with Barbies. Oh man, I had it all. From the cars to the clothing and accessories, I couldn’t wait to wake up and play with my Barbies. Mainly though, I loved playing with the furniture and adding in decor. At Christmas, I would decorate the Barbie house. I would clip evergreen branches from outside and deck the halls of my Barbie house. I found my first decorating love in that pink two story home.

Once I got a bit older, I began moving around my bedroom furniture. I’d think I had the best possible way for everything to work, only to find that I didn’t really like something about it later. I can remember having several different “themes” for my bedroom, complete with a different bedding set each time. My mom was the absolute best with me. She never once complained about it, until my bedroom furniture was scattered throughout the hallway tripping the rest of my family, then I would hear about it. I can remember shopping our house, always asking my mom if I could take something from another room and re-purpose it in my bedroom. Again, she was always so unbelievably supportive, just like she is today. My journey had only just begun…

Fast forward to college. My first apartment was such a new experience. Suddenly I wasn’t limited to just my bedroom, but I had an entire 2 bed, 2 bath apartment to play with. Luckily my roommate didn’t pay much attention, because I loved rearranging our pantry shelves and cleaning her bedroom. And don’t get me started on having my own private bathroom. Never had I felt so free to organize my linens and toiletries. And because I didn’t have any interest in partying or going out (just call me a home hermit), I had plenty of time to get things just how I wanted them. I cleaned, I baked, and I organized. And I totally rocked all my hand me down furniture. Still, I moved things around, always searching to get the most out of my things. I was DIY’ ing projects. I was making upholstered headboards, searching thrift stores and constantly moving things around.

Here was my college room, right after I finished unpacking all my things from home…

Yet another door opened when I met Anthony. We had dated for a little while before he began house hunting, but imagine my delight when I got to go with him in search of his first home. I was so excited! He must have liked me enough to let me tag along, and I was happy to be on the journey. Even if we were looking at truly rough and neglected homes, I could see the potential. There was always potential. He saw it too.

When he finally ended up buying a bank owned home that needed soo much work, I couldn’t wait to get started. In case you haven’t noticed before now, Anthony is extremely handy and he comes from a really handy family. This neglected house wasn’t even a problem. We ripped down walls, changed the floorplan, added a bathroom and expanded the kitchen. The transformation was amazing. We spent our dates working on the house. It was hard work, but I loved it. And I loved working with him and his family on such a big project. My passion was growing a little bit more…

The kitchen is behind us…

Our kitchen after…

Anthony and I got engaged right before the house was finished and he let me move in until we got married. Once we were married though, the wheels really started turning. Our budget for anything other than bills was really small, but that didn’t mean my need to decorate was gone. Quite the contrary. Never before had I had such a determination to make our home a reflection of us, even though I wasn’t certain what that was yet. We had this beautiful home, but it still didn’t completely reflect the people that lived there.

Our kitchen, while beautiful, was loaded with fruit. Everywhere I looked, I saw fruit. I like fruit, I really do, but looking back, I can see that I was copying what other people were doing because, well, other people were doing it. And if other people were doing it, and it looked good in their home, then I had to be on the right track. I’ve learned so much since then…

Long before I ever read a blog, I was doing the exact same thing that so many others were. We’re all on a mission to create a beautiful home on a budget. I’ll never forget when I first saw our, at the time, neighbor place two perfectly good metal chaise lounge chairs and a bench on the curb with a big FREE sign on them. I begged Anthony to go with me and pick them up. They sat there for a day until I finally couldn’t handle it. I sweet talked my mother in law to sneaking down there one night to roll them up the hill to our house. I was embarrassed to think that our neighbor would see me taking their garbage and running with it. Run with it I did, with my sweet mother in law at my side. I was so proud of them, ugly as the color was, and my pride swelled a bit more when I walked into Home Depot one day and spotted near the exact same chaise lounge chair selling for $160. I spent $10 on black spray paint and had the exact same look, for hundreds less. That was just another piece to the puzzle…

When Anthony and I sold our house to move back to my hometown, I never expected that we would live with my parents for such a long time. We didn’t know what we were going to end up with. We both wanted to build, but knew we couldn’t pass up a great deal on a descent home with some land. Once we finally bought our farm ground and the construction of our home was underway, I went a little goofy. I knew that this home would be a long time home for us. I was so scared of picking out things that I wouldn’t like, then living with them for forever. I started researching, and researching some more. I wanted inspiration. I wanted to see other homes. I wanted to find my style. I was desperate.

It was at that moment I discovered home blogs. My life was forever changed. Here were women sharing their homes, their journey and their style. These women were sharing the exact same things that I loved, things that I had been doing. I was sucked inside this world. And then Pinterest came and my world was rocked again. It was there though, that I was on inspiration overload. I was having the hardest time defining what I really liked, because I was looking at so many different things. I found myself pinning rooms with lots of colors and rooms with neutral colors. I followed several blogs and each person had a different style, but I loved them all. At the time, I was so inspired by color. I even planned on painting our dining room green. Yes, you read that right, green. And not a mellow green. Can you even imagine that? Me, painting not one wall, but three walls green? I still can’t believe it.

Luckily, I didn’t paint the dining room green, but instead found my theme with blues. I loved them. And I really liked the satin nickel hardware. Since our first home was finished with oil rubbed bronze, I really wanted something different. All in all, I went the complete opposite direction from our first home. I was determined that I didn’t really want the same house all over again, so I went on a different path thinking that this had to be what my style was. After all, I was seeing it in all of these other homes, so it had to be right. Sounds a bit like the fruit theme, doesn’t it?

We built our home with satin nickel fixtures and I painted several walls and rooms blue. I didn’t care about rooms flowing from one another, or having consistency, because I didn’t know how I wanted it to flow, or what I wanted to be constant. I still didn’t know my own style, and I knew that, but I tried to make the best decision I could on the bigger items, like our wood flooring and cabinetry. Let me just say, that it’s a bit hard to pick out an entire home when you’re not really sure what your style is. I didn’t want to waste our money on things we’d hate, but I knew we had to start somewhere…

So that’s what I did. I just started doing, and that’s when I really found out what my style was….

You can read Part 2 here!