“I believe in living in a house and letting it give you answers.  You don’t have to put it all together at once.

Warning:  Keep this post out of the hands of husbands who might use it to detain  your progress with the decorating of your home.

When Mr. B and I bought our first house I wanted it furnished with what I thought, at the time, was our style.  I wanted every room to be pretty and furnished.  So, we searched and purchased, as our budget would allow, and had each of the 3 bedrooms and living areas “decorated” for living.  Or so we thought.  As time went by we realized we should have bought a single larger sofa since the two love seats didn’t really work with our family and entertaining needs.  They took up space that could have offered additional seating beyond a two-person sofa.  I settled for stuff I later regretted purchasing.  Some of this was the inexperience of my 23 years and some was trying to blend our newlywed tastes.  Note: Mr. B, a long time ago, decided to leave most of the design decisions to me.  He’s such a wise man!

Anyway, I learned the hard way how to go about furnishing a home, which seems to have been my MO for many years.  Once I figured out that when you move into a home, it’s advisable to let the house give you its clues about what you and the house need to do to create the comfort and livability that we all long for.  It took me a couple of houses to realize that by holding off on purchasing ANYTHING that was a make-do piece, and that by saving my money and waiting for what my heart desired, was so much better.

So, I’m sharing rooms from my home and those that I drew inspiration from in decorating our house.

the foyer:

Our foyer isn’t large but the wall you see here separates it from the long entry hall.

the master bedroom:

The wall color will be changed this summer, should I go with a light color or the darker walls in the first bedroom above?  Our bed is only about 8 years old, when we bought a new mattress and box spring we decided to switch to a queen from a king.  I like the fact that the bed has side rails and doesn’t require a dust ruffle, which when we had a dust ruffle on our old bed,  attracted dust bunnies and doggie hair.  [This is a true confession moment]

the dining room:

The dining room in our home used to be the living room, for that story visit HERE.  The dining room table is the very first dining room table we purchased in 1980.  We had it refinished last year, but I still love the overall design.  the Windsor chairs were bought 25 years ago from an antique store that imported them from Ipswich…I love that story being an Anglophile!

the guest room:

The story of how I finally got my blue and white guest room is HERE.  This picture was taken before the small pillows had been changed to a RL blue and white stripe.  The furnishings in this room have traveled with us for years.  The nightstand on the right is an antique, the nightstand on the left (which I realize isn’t very visible) was from a consignment store.

the family room:

The Carol Glasser room [above our family room image] was the inspiration for the red and cream checked sofa.  Our walls were red when I made this upholstery decision and now I would like a solid fabric sofa…I can be patient, that’s the point of this post.

the reading room:

The loveseat is one of the pair we first purchased.  It’s been recovered and restyled but it’s a well-made sofa and has served us well.  The other one was given to our oldest son for his first apartment, I believe he sold it on craigslist when he married.  So that’s the tour, we haven’t purchased a piece of furniture in years, the decisions we made early on taught us to buy what we love…not an original idea but on that works.

Tell me, did you have a similar experience in furnishing your home or did you know immediately what you wanted/needed and voila!?