How to find your style is a common question I receive here on the blog and in emails – I’m sharing how I found my own style and one of my biggest mistakes. One specific question I get asked pretty often is “I’m moving into a new house and want to find my style, do you have any tips?” and my answer is always this –
Live in your house for about 6 months or even a year with your basic furniture (if applicable) before you start trying to fill and decorate every room.
Before our house was even finished being built, I was already buying furniture, curtains, accessories, etc. and when we moved in I started this little blog and my Instagram account. For that reason, I felt the need to “hurry up and get it done” for each room of our house. If a piece of furniture was on sale, I bought it. If I saw something cute at Home Goods or Marshall’s, I bought it. It was MY BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.
This led to rooms that were “done” but I didn’t love them or even like them for that matter. Like our dining room – I had to be completely honest with myself and realize that the room wasn’t working for us. The table was too small, it felt too dark, and the shelving was too cluttered. I kept the shelving for a long time because other people (on Instagram) liked them. Yes, I was letting other people make decisions for our home!
This summer my style has changed a lot. I finally started being honest with myself about what I really liked and not just because it was popular or would look great in a photo. If an item in my home doesn’t bring me joy or serve a purpose, I get rid of it.
My biggest goal is making our home work for us, instead of us always working to keep up with our home. Everything has it’s place and is organized as such. This is crucial in our home because it lacks storage space. Our home doesn’t have room for the things we don’t love.
I will be writing a full blog series on cleaning out our home in the future. Update: 10 Days to an Organized Clutter Free Home. But, some questions to ask yourself if you are wanting to declutter your home is – would you buy it today? will you miss it? is it beautiful? does it serve a purpose?
Inspiration can come from many places, but I’ve always loved a more modern design. That can be difficult in today’s world of Chip & Jojo – while I still love my shiplap, I’ve never been a fan of antiques or chippy furniture. I browse Pinterest late into the night looking at spaces that I truly do love and how to incorporate those into our home. You can follow me here to see my latest inspiration.
I have many more plans for our little home that I can’t wait to share! With the holidays coming up, major projects will get put on the to-do list but it will give me more time to figure out exactly what I want. Learning from my mistakes the first year we lived in our home, I now don’t rush my designs and really give them some thought.
