DH and I have lived in our house for six years and I have never decorated with the exception of the nursery and DS1's bedroom. The nursery is animal pirates and DS1's room is Star Wars so nothing too difficult. I've decided that it's high time I actually took an interest in making my house look a little more put together. We have a bunch of hodge podge pieces of furniture that we've inherited so this is not as easy as it would be if I could just go out and get matching furniture sets for each room but I'm going to give it a whirl. We just got hardwoods installed downstairs and it looks too nice to just put whatever in the room. I've always had a difficult time with decorating just to have things look nice and dislike things that aren't functional in some way. I'm trying to get over this a little bit.
So, is your house decorated or is everything mostly functional?
Re: Is your house decorated?
Kind of? I have a collection of artwork that I've been adding to over the years. Nothing is really worth anything, but they're all pieces I love. We have them throughout the house. My MIL bought us a nice sofa for the living room when we moved in and we bought some nice side chairs. We have a hand-me-down mahogany dining room set that I would try to take with me if the house was on fire. Other than that, it's mostly IKEA.
Aside from our bedroom, the house was already painted in colors we liked when we moved in.
I hate nick nacks. Little frou-frou things that just gather dust. Yuck. I never understood the trend with the balls covered in seeds and beans and whatnot just sitting in a bowl.
I am not against some accessories, though. DH and I have some awesome art from the Middle East that his dad brought back when he was on tour so I think we are going to incorporate some Moroccan and Middle Eastern style accessories into the living room to kind of tie everything together. I have no idea what to do with the dining room or our bedroom (frankly, our bedroom is pretty much last on my to do list). I did finally so something with the kids/guest bathroom which has stumped me for a while because it's all blue. Blue floor tile, blue bath tub and tile, blue paint, and even a blue toilet for a while until we had to replace it. I finally decided to just go with an "Under The Sea" theme since it's just for the boys. Theme rooms are easy.
This times 1000. One of DH's lake buddy's house is straight out of PB. He worked there for a short period of time in between jobs and they practically decorated their whole house they have lots of money so they also could afford to
Well, I have what I have, but things are placed deliberately, I can't go without art on the walls, etc.
Our style is eclectic, but there is definitely harmony when it comes to color.
Our bedroom is really the only thing that isn't thought out. It's kind of "overflow" for furniture that doesn't work anywhere else.
Yeah, definitely. I have a friend who shops that catalogue and gets everything to match. Some years ago I had a grad school friend whose wife did the same with Ethan Allan pieces. I had house envy for sure.
I want a bigger decorating budget, dang it! I like our Ikea and Pier 1 mismatched stuff, but I really want to redo a room or two from top to bottom.
When we moved in, I painted every room. I love my colors, they're timeless. I kept the major rooms [living room, family room, master] neural so I can substitute out accessories for a new look every few years. Smaller rooms with less coordinates [dining room, kitchen, bathrooms] are in bolder colors.
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We're finally beginning to decorate now, growing out of our first apartment/hand me down dorm furniture. I'm with you about knick knacks. For the downstairs, I ended up doing a big area rug and colorful lamps and mirrors as my decorating. I also picked three colors and repeated them in different variations for each room.
Not sure if this is what you need, but check out (you can google) the Megan Method. She's a designer who has a book and a website that teaches you to combine form and function.
It's a bit of work, but it definitely worked for us when we recently redid one of our rooms, especially since we didn't have a huge budget. If nothing else, it taught me to avoid the impulse buy and think about how the piece would be used.
I house is decorated, but not really how I want it. It definitely isn't anything fancy either. I would say our most decorated room, other than DS's, is the kitchen and dining room area.
Our living room has some nice shelves with some pictures on it, also some wedding pictures and a few other misc wall d?cor. DS's bathroom is all monkeys and ours is beach theme.
I wish we had more d?cor in our bedroom and the living room. I am hesitant to get too much until we actually buy a house.