Decorating

Some people have a talent for decorating, and there are many, many styles of decorating.

Have you ever been in a home store and just marveled at all the displays? I have. My mom's house is like that. She is so good at decorating and creating displays in her house. I've tried to emulate what she does, but it always just ends up looking like clutter to me. I think it's because my mom takes it ALL THE WAY. Every room, every corner, every surface, every wall is a display. She does it really well. (I mean that, mom...I'm not trying to be negative about your style. )

But I've realized in the past couple years that it's just not my style. I'm becoming drawn to clean and clear surfaces. Minimal wall hangings. I don't take it as far as some....some homes with minimal decorations just look cold and uninviting to me. I need a balance.

I learned some lessons about decorating during our year of renting.

1. Wall hangings

I only hung 4 things on the walls in the 4000 square foot home. Why? Well, because I was told I would have to repair and paint all holes...didn't really want to do a lot of that! But in that year I didn't really miss having things on the walls. In our new home we have hung 3 things so far, and one of those was to cover up the wall mount for a phone. I plan to put up more, but I haven't settled on what or where yet. I found a really neat, really large world map at IKEA that I am wanting to put up in our front room. I think it would be a great focal point not only for homeschooling, but also for keeping our minds on our global mission through Compassion.

2. Window treatments

In our rental house we also had no window treatments. The window frames were quite enough decoration and the blinds provided enough privacy. So far, in this new house, we have done without curtains and I like the openness. I'm still unsure about two areas and might end up adding something, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the spaciousness.

3. Unified paint color

Our rental house actually had a varied color palate compared to our previous home. In the first 3 homes I bought, I went crazy with paint and colors. I've had rooms in all of the following colors: yellow (butter), green (mint choc chip), red (dark and bright), salmon, burgandy, army green, purple, gray, american blue, country blue, aqua blue, periwinkle.... In our fourth house I stuck to a neutral color for 80% of the house and I like the unity it provided to the house. Each room flowed into the next, and that's exactly what we've done with this house.

4. No pictures on the refrigerator

I've ALWAYS had magnets and photos displayed on my refrigerator until this past year. The refrigerator at the rental house was stainless steel and not magnetic. It felt cold and impersonal at first, but then I realized how clean the kitchen felt. Yesterday I put up two pictures on our refrigerator (pics of me and the Compassion kids I met in Peru) and it feels weird everytime I see that clean surface "cluttered". I have 12 more pics I want to display and don't know how to do it...

What kind of decorating makes you feel most at home or comfortable in a space?