I Stress-Rearranged My House
My garden is thriving, weddings are rolling along, and home is a never-ending canvas.
Listen, did I cry this weekend? Yes. Did I work out my frustrations by doing a lot of rearranging of furniture ? Also yes.
Nothing is really wrong - you know when you’ve just been doing life parkour (meaning, zipping and jumping and swatting mosquitoes away while alternating between balancing an oat milk latte or a pisco sour in your hand) for maybe one week too long, and the pressure builds up inside your body, and before you know it, you just need a cry, and a complete whole-house rearrange?
No? Just me?
My daughter suggested that I flip-flop my living room and dining room. She was right, the former living room was big, but kind of a long space for a living room and there was no way to really center seating around the fireplace and have a place to chill and watch TV because I do not love a TV above a mantel.
But the space is perfect for a dining room. After moving everything around, the new dining space felt so grand, like a space I didn’t even know I had always wanted: a big dining space with a fireplace that can seat 20 people for a dinner party. Who can be mad at that?
The former living room was “the cowboy room” where I gathered items that had a decidedly Western feel - and listen, we basically moved in, put stuff places, and now I’m starting really think through the best use for spaces, how I want things to look and feel, and I have a whole new rooms to design.
There’s a lot to do, but I’m determined to make this place feel like home over the next year - so consider these photos the “before” images!
The fireplace has a beautiful green marble instead of tile at the base and I’m obsessed. Obviously, I’ll end up designing the room around that, and since green marble is currently trending, I know the vibe I’m ready for.
I’m going to take some time to think through how I can get more of the below vibe into my current dining space:
I moved my sofas both into what is now the living room, and it feels so cozy. It’s a smaller room, and truly, my furniture is a little oversized for the space, but I kind of don’t care. I’ve reached a point with design where I think I might enjoy a little imperfection, and want more of a comfortable, lived-in feel than I did a couple years ago. Homes are for living in, and at the moment, I’m prioritizing the feeling of home over the perfection of home (which is convenient because I probably needed to spend the weekend cleaning, but instead I just moved everything around and now it’s a little crazier than it was before).
BUT! I like it. And that’s what matters to me.
Of course there will be mood boards to come and painting and art rearranging and all of that. But I have a cool/fun year ahead of making things feel designed, not just lived-in. I don’t know if the proverbial “they” say this, but I feel, it pretty much takes a year to settle in somewhere and understand how you really use the space, then another year to bring any kind of design together in a meaningful way, and then, you get to shift and change spaces as you feel the need. Home is an ever-evolving canvas.
I have wrapped the first two weddings of my season, and they were lovely! We’re working on submission to wedding publications and I’m booking for next year and the clients are so sweet and design focused and I am loving every minute.
I’m planning an artsy/moody styled shoot at Bull Valley Roadhouse that will be so much fun! The vision is a sort of artful opulence with an unexpected decor angle that will work beautifully with the moody-antique vibes of the space.
Despite deer eating the tops of my ‘maters, the garden is coming right along, and I’m figuring out what to plant now for later harvests - potatoes, winter squash, etc.
I’m working a lot these days (like, a lot!) but I am really happy with how everything is coming along. I just want a real life surrounded by interesting and beautiful design, good food, good people, and lots of laughter.
Till next week,
Jen