Surroundings V. Belongings

My surroundings match me. It's a blend of different stuff: my grandmother's furniture (china cabinet, stuff my grandfather had made), a bit of southwestern (sofas), some ranchlike western (windmills, pictures, frames), and country (cute little whimsy things from craft fairs, dining table and entertainment center). Also some rustic with 60ish flare (the brick of the fireplace that spans one whole wall in the living room). The walls are paneling, which I hate but DH loves, so I will live with it. Either til I wear him down or until he goes deer hunting for a week and I do it behind his back and risk divorce. LOL!

No, it doesn't all go together. But until I win the lottery (or we have a REALLY good crop with good prices some year, chances are probably the same), that's just the way it will be. Sure, I would love for it to match more. It's just not reality for us.

But it's us. Me and my family. We are making memories with what we got. Besides, it's just becoming MY style. I don't know anything about styles and periods. LOL!

Your grandmother's stuff and your western and country stuff, is it in the right sort of building; or is it in a structure that is more mediterraining or colonial or ecological...see what I am getting at. Do the items in the rooms match the actual archetecture of the room?

My stuff needs a much more old world archetectural redoing to be a match...I have a very plain and simple structure with more rustic and elegant pieces in it.

Shawna
Mother to seven
Author of Intimate Reflections
www.Xlibris.com/IntimateReflections

Yall are makin' my brain hurt!

Seriously, looking forward to reading this thread.

Almost all of our furniture has either been given to us, bought secondhand because it was cheap, or was in my husband's half of a duplex when I met him. I can't think of any of it I'm attached to (with the possible exception of our foyer table). We moved into our first house about two years ago and have been working on painting the rooms the way we want them. Eventually (when finances allow), I hope to buy new furniture that I really like and that will look good in the rooms we've painted.

"But until I win the lottery (or we have a REALLY good crop with good prices some year, chances are probably the same), that's just the way it will be."

I completely hear what you are saying and am very much inthe same boat LOL I might be able to pull off some painting this summer, but that is still a maybe ans only a room or two at most. And the memories are the important things...you are so right.

What kind of crops do you grow and where do you grow them (where are you from LOL)???

Shawna
Mother to seven
Author of Intimate Reflections
www.Xlibris.com/IntimateReflections

The architecture of my home is a 1960 ranch style that the guy (an old farmer/rancher that has no experience in architecture or design) designed himself. But it's better than the adobe house that they lived in first, right next door (that is vacant and deteriorating).

Nope, it's just a mix of everything, from the architecture to the furnishings and knick-knacks.

My husband would love it...he likes ranch style homes a lot! I am more of a cape cod cottage or english tudor type myself; really love the rustic appeal of some of the tuscany farm houses and such...but what we have is really just a modern, typical structure with no real archetectual design on the inside or outside.

Shawna
Mother to seven
Author of Intimate Reflections
www.Xlibris.com/IntimateReflections

Older houses have so much more "interest" to me. I would like little nooks or telephone holes (what are they called?)

Anyway my house is a hodge-podge too. We have some heirlooms and some "no one elses wants them so you can have them". Our dining room table is antique but was picked out and bought by us. Our first major purchase.

I am much more of an antique, shabby chic (but not all white & pink) weathered, lived in look and my house is just a regular cookie cutter house. But is fits for now.

I would love to find and older house or custom build an "older" house!

Jana

We built the house out of white cedar and it is a pretty typical log home look. It is, however the very essence of compromise. DH wanted a log cabin, very woodsey and rustic. I wanted a nice traditional, but modern "stick" home.

The inside walls here are sheetrock so I can paint them and change the colors on a whim. And the main decoratining theme is...color. Many times people have remarked that it doesn't look anything like they expected inside.

I have a large great room with a 17 foot ceiling. Three of the walls are exterior which are, of course, cedar. The fourth wall is really huge, 35 feet long and 17 tall. It is sage moss green. The curtains are a grapevine print, the upholstered furniture darker green. There are 6 large windows, icluding a 6 foot bay window (without a curtain) that has a collection of colored glass on the sill. There is a large black player piano (which unfortunately doesn't work) and two floor-to-ceiling bookcases. I have 10 big houseplants in there right now. The end tables are mission style oak. The only thing on the walls are a huge collection of family pictures, mostly candids, in a hodgepodge on frames, and a large oil portrait of my mom at age 5 which is quite casual considering.

The adjacent kitchen is egg-yolk yellow with bright blue Tuscan print curtains and an Italian tile backsplash. The floors in this part of the house are maple, but we still havn't sanded or sealed them, and they are looking pretty nasty. The appliances are white and cupboards oak.

The hallway is a light purpley-brownish called sea urchin, and it is empty right now.

The shower bathroom paint's name is water bubble, the floor is fake stone looking tile, the shower black and white tile. There is a watercolory tropical fish shower curtain.

My room is moss green and dusty blue with white accents and it is kinda Asian with some bamboo leaf lampshades and Indian sari inspired curtains. Master bath has a clawfoot tub, more fake stone tile, and the walls are the same color as the hallway. There is a really cool print curtain in there and the accents are brass.

The kids rooms are ticking blue with a map theme (DS13) purple-blue with a fairy there (DD4) and white, denim blue, and black (DS14).

There is no rhyme, reason, or style in here other than comfort (DH's ratty old recliner), practicality (bookshelves), or cheapness ($10 clawfoot tub that was a cattle watering tank in its former life). Actually all of it was cheap, but it still all comes together pretty well, is inviting, and I would not be too upset if most of it got broken, stained, whatever. We can really live in here.

If I won the lottery I would finish the floor, change all the carpeting in the bedrooms, get a funky big rug for the LR, put an island in the kitchen, and build a linen closet at the end of the hallway. I would also have a professional landscaper come and put in a couple more flower beds, a raised veggie garden, and some nice, big, trees.

Wow, I just read back over what I wrote, and did I ramble! Sorry!
-Jo

I loved reading what your wrote...and I would love to see it. Where does your rustic loking log cabin sit--on property near a lake, forest, beach? near a housing track? in the city? I need a whole picture now LOL

Shawna
Mother to seven
Author of Intimate Reflections
www.Xlibris.com/IntimateReflections

Jo, I knew you lived in the country, but now I have a much better picture of your home. I didn't realize it was a log home. It sounds so nice!! You are so lucky! I loved your description.

Jo-sounds lovely

Our home is a 1960's split level on 2 acres with lots of trees and 1/4 acre pond filled with frogs.

We live in the suburbs but kind of country since all the homes in our area sit on 2 acre minimum plots and have lots of big old treees.

I am in Ohio,near Lake Erie

Heidi

The desc was just so inviting!

I have seen Sea Urchin!!!! I love it! When I saw that was you hall color I jumped up and down because that is one of my choices I have recently been looking at!

Jana