Is Less Really More?
When scrolling the big, beautiful world of Instagram and Pinterest I often catch myself wanting to add more as far as home decor! I’m a simple decorator! My mom cleaned houses for a living and helped to teach us how to maintain a clean home. (a skill I’m so grateful for but will never match her skill for entirely). Mom told my sisters and I often, “Girls! Don’t have ten tons of Knick knacks just sitting around your houses when you grow up because remember…. you’ll have to dust them.” Hahahaha!!!! Life lessons man, life lessons!!!!! I helped her clean one summer when I wasn’t able to have a regular summer job and boy did I learn the truth about knick knacks REAL FAST!!!!! I also learned what kind of vacuums I loved and even more so the ones I HATED!! There are these water vacuums, super nifty, and great at cleaning but scrawny 17-year-old me could hardly carry that bad boy up the stairs! It is a big NO for me to this day!
When I got married and started to decorate my own home, I realize now, I really had no taste…. come to think of it, my honeymoon house decor is quite funny….eeeeeeeek! A wine themed kitchen, a tree themed living room, a hunting/fishing themed guest room (notice I said guest room…ahem…I don’t want ducks and deer in my bedroom, that was an early marital discussion!) Clearly I thought themes were where it was at! But looking back at my decorating style then, compared to now, let’s just thank Jesus we all get better with age, right? My style now I would describe as “Shabby Chic” I love to mix old with new, mostly old and chippy and full of character! I have an “old lady” settee in my living room that I just adore but I’m sure all other people who come into my house think it’s hideous!!! (My hubby will read this and think, ‘she means the bench’. It’s an ongoing spat of me calling it a settee and him calling it a bench. But I have googled, and it is in fact….a SETTEE!!) But isn’t that the glory of individuality and adulthood? We can all just decorate how we want; themes, old lady stuff….it’s yours, style it how you please! I love getting older because with it comes a “who cares” awareness that is so freeing!!! I have come across those articles with headlines that pull you in anout Top 10 or Top 20 home decor mistakes, etc. They love to tell you what is now no longer in style or what not to do and I almost always find myself guilty of multiple style choices on that top 10 list! Hahahaha!!!
The infamous Settee!! Hahahaha!!!!!
Back to Instagram and Pinterest…. I know the pretty, perfect pictures are what make us drool! They inspire us and make us want to try new things but I have to catch myself…. that’s not me! I’m never going to have an old hutch completely jam packed with things! They look GORGEOUS but that would stress me out, because remember, I’d have to dust that!! I have to catch myself from wanting to buy more just to have more just to post more, but why? And then Instagram figures me out and floods me with all the ads to buy the pretty things I just admired (JUST SAY NO). So… I will look at them as art to be admired and I will be inspired to style those things in my own minimal way; my less is more, with a bit of an old lady flare, sort of way… and it will be my own! I will admire those photos and be in awe of how on earth they keep it clean and then just do my own thing, because I really do think less, is in fact, more!
