Loving Your Home {2}

Hello there! Welcome to part two! Thank you for your comments, I am so glad that you all are enjoying this series so much! It does my heart good to hear that you all love to work in your home as well!

Step two may be my most favorite part :)

"Use what you have"

When we were first married I rearranged on a daily basis. I would get one room looking complete and the realized I had robbed one room bare to complete the other one. There were a lot of "flops" as in things I tried that absolutely did not work. Like trying to line up little pots of fake flowers on our window sil in the kitchen; they were filled with real dirt and blew over almost immediately and Cameron knocked a few over and I came home from work to find them on the front porch in a box :) Cameron referred to them as "traps"

This has happened a lot. Now it is just memories and we laugh, but at the time I was learning to be creative. We had no budget for decorating and were a newly married couple with not a lot of furniture so I was using what I had :)

Now, five years into marriage I am learning more about my style and have accumulated a few pieces over the years which helps a lot in rearranging.

Yesterday, I shared that you have to start with clean. The benefits from cleaning are usually pretty obvious, it gets clean :) But there is also something that comes with it that you may not think about.

When I am cleaning and organizing a room I often get inspired to change it up a bit.

You know, hang some pictures, bring in a lamp or maybe swap out some furniture.

I am a visual learner so I thought I would use my desk as an example again.

While I was cleaning I began thinking about how nice it would be if I had a pretty little place to write and journal. My wheels began turning and the first thing I did was the inspiration board and then I get creative and looked around my house for a piece that would be be a little bit more appealing.

So, I did a bit of "swapping around" just using furniture I had and I was so excited when I finished my new little writing corner.

I just love my new little space :) It is perfect for me!

I brought in my little drop leaf table from the sun room that had a bunch of frames on it.

So, in pictures here is what I started with all the way up to the finished product:

     

                              **Mess**                        **Just clean**                    **Rearranged**

Another example I have of a time when I just used what I had around our house is from Ally's room.

Her room doubles as our guest room and I like to NEVER get it arranged in a functional way, but I finally did and now it is just a matter of pulling all the details together. I wanted a bedside table to get next to the chair I feed her in and to double as a place for guest to charge their phones and things like that.

I was using a little table I had and it was working fine, but it wasnt big enough and I didn't care for the way it looked in her room.

So, I took my little metal IKEA table from the front porch cleaned it up and made a cover for it out of an old sheet.

Here is the before:

(complete with cheetos :) just keepin it real:)

And here is the after:

It still isn't quite finished, I want to add a few little mementos to the table and I need to finish making the wheels, but we will talk accessories tomorrow :)

I have about a million examples of things like this in our home, but these are the most recent.

If you are reading this and thinking "Well, that is great, but I would never think to do something like that" than I encourage you to recruit someone who does have that gift.

If you are wanting to rearrange a room in your home, but have no idea where to start I bet you know someone who does.

I love it when my friends ask me to help them in their home!

I bet you have a bunch of things laying around your home that just need a new coat of paint or a little change up and you will be amazed with the results!

Here is a little example of using something I had for a new purpose! I have limited cabinet space in this house and my utensils were over flowing out of the drawer. So, I took one of my canisters and filled it with my wooden spoons and stainless utensils and have it right next to my oven. 

I love how it looks and it didn't cost me a thing and it serves a great purpose.

I think we are all tempted when we look around our home to make a list of all the things we "need" or want to make it feel complete or look good, but I think there is more truth and purpose if we use what we have first. There is nothing wrong with buying a few things for your home, but I find that there is much more peace in my heart if I use what I have first and don't run and buy something all the time.

I love to treat myself when we are home to a few things at my friend Katy's Store. Tomorrow is all about accessorizing and I will show you a few of my favorite things including a few things from her store!

.....................................And this picture is my friend Katy! She and Andrew were married yesterday at the beach in Florida! I would love to have been there! She has been sending me pictures on my phone and I had to share! Isn't the most gorgeous scene?!?!

They are having a reception back home next weekend and Cameron, the kids and I are driving all night Friday to make it! We were supposed to leave this weekend, but the Cameron's job wont be finished!

Congrats Katy and Andrew SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS!!!

Be back tomorrow and we will talk accessories :) Love ya'all!