Often in life we can miss the best moments, the best seasons by yearning for what is next, or what (truthfully) may never be. Learning to live in and love the moments and seasons we are in now is a learned skill and a blessing!
What season are you in?
Take a moment friend, and think of where you are. Where you are in life… freshly graduated, newly married, starting a family, moving to your “forever home”, or enjoying your grandkids. This is where you live now. In every one of those seasons there are highlights that bring us pure joy. These blessings usually run alongside challenges and hard times. Our perspectives and responses to these circumstances shape who we are. I know these are big thoughts about life, but they affect how we live in our homes, and how 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 and easy to use ~ it functions well. How practical or functional is your home? Once you’ve implemented great function in your home then consider the form or attractiveness of your home. Let’s discuss function/practicality first.
Practicality: British interior designer Nina Campbell touches on practicality in her course with Create Academy. In reference to buying furniture, she says: “Always buy something with the idea that you can move it on later when you decide you want to upgrade a table or chair for your own room, then that table or chair can go into a family room, or children’s room. You always want to buy something with a view of what you can do with it later on. Otherwise, you’re just buying it without any idea what to do with it. Every piece of furniture you buy should have a whole life ahead of it.”
“Do buy for the long term”. Nina Campbell
This is excellent advice and aligns with her daughter, Rita’s mantra of “buy well, buy slowly”. If you are buying a bed or table, for example, these are things that you need now, but if purchased with quality and function in mind they will serve you and your family for years, or possibly generations to come.
For our home, I assessed the French settee that I’d had for over 15 years. It wasn’t useful and clogged up the walkway in the guest bedroom. Besides not being practical, it also wasn’t core to my design style. The curvy French legs were too frilly for my English country house aesthetic. Because it didn’t fit with the way we live or our style I sold it on Marketplace.
This quality, custom-made high-back loveseat (from Marketplace) with a feather bench cushion has excellent lines and is a much more practical piece for us and is used daily. The fabric can eventually be replaced to be more cohesive with our home color palette. By hunting for and buying pieces that we actually need we can live more comfortably in our home today.
Another example of creating a more functional home was in evaluating this hutch. It was a lovely well-built piece, but in scale, too large for our home. With it in the dining room, we could not entertain without the guests at the other end of the table getting hit by the back door. In its place, we now have a small buffet from Matt’s family. He remembers having this piece in his home all growing up.
The buffet fits the space perfectly, it looks “right” as if it has always been in this spot. It is used every day and all our guests can dine with ease. If I had held onto these two pieces that were impractical for the way we live there would not have been space, or budget for these pieces that serve us so much better. For those who are interested, there is a blog post and video on functional homemaking.
Form: After establishing practical function in your home you can look at the form, or attractiveness of pieces in your space. Sometimes, as in the examples above the two come simultaneously. Other times, we as homemakers must get things working before they can be pretty. And this is okay.
In the split photo above you see the evolution of one corner of the living room. Function is the same in both arrangements. Both corners have a comfy chair, cozy pillow and blanket, a light to read by, and somewhere to put your tea. The difference here is the aesthetic. The photo on the left is an example of doing the best I could with what I had. We were given (or thrifted) most everything at that stage. In the photo on the right, we upgraded the bookcase, the reading lamp, the art, and even the pillow and blanket. Many things in this photo were gifts (or thrifted) as well, but some were purchased to be more in line with my design style. The brass lamp is a timeless, quality lamp and, I imagine will be a part of our home for years to come. Knowing this, I was willing to invest the time and effort to create the hand-pleated lampshade. This lamp was a well-spent $50!
As I move forward in making our home more practical and prettier I have put the brakes on buying… I rarely go thrifting. More often than not I’d rather save my household/decorating money for things that will serve us well and complement our style. Sometimes I find these pieces at antique shops, or on Marketplace. Yes, I do see things, furniture usually, that is gorgeous and a fabulous price, but if the piece doesn’t meet a need, or fit in our home (or budget) it isn’t meant for us. This takes time and in the end, the pieces I choose are a clearer reflection of the lives lived in that home.
This year I’ve been sloooowly working on a remodel of our master bedroom. This has meant re-evaluating the function of the room first, then the colors, lighting, specific furniture pieces, art, etc. I’ve enjoyed the no-rush process and the feeling that I can take my time to get it right and make wise decisions. I’ve been recording the process every step of the way and once it’s done I look forward to sharing it with you. Until then remember…
Buy Well, Buy Slowly.
Decorating is not a marathon to the finish and then you’re done. Telling a story takes time.
Take care,
Rachel
