Saturday 1 March 2008

Finding Myself.....

Over the past few weeks while reading all your lovely blogs, a dawning realisation has slowly come over me. I have looked around my home and realised that I am not being true to myself. I have tried to create a home in which all the family (until recently I was outnumbered male:female by 3:1) feel at home - but what I have ended up with is a home that doesn't really reflect any of us. My lightbulb moment, I suppose you could call it, came when even my husband said that our house lacked 'touches' and that none of it looked 'finished off'. I think in the past, I have been swayed by 'showhome' type rooms in glossy house magazines, but I have neglected to think about what I really like, and what reflects me. So I passed my hubby a copy of Rachel Ashwells 'Shabby Chic' and waited for the inevitable 'you're not doing that to our house' - 10 minutes later when he emerged from the toilet with the book under his arm, you could have knocked me over with a feather when he said that 'it wasn't what he was expecting' and then told me to 'set my stall out, and decide how I want our home to look'. So I now feel like I have been set free, and I'm off now to dig out some gorgeous mother of pearl teacups that were given to me by my Gran, so I can put them on display and appreciate them every day. Sorry for the long post, but I hope you will keep popping by my blog to see how I'm doing and catch up with my progress as I transform our house into a home x 

10 comments:

julia said...

Hi Natalie
Thanks for popping by. Keep hold of that hubby! Mine has resigned himself to my decorating style and merely raises an eyebrow when I return laden down with car boot goodies!
Looking forward to seeing the transformation of your home.
Julia x

Just Original said...

What a man! Good to see he has a feminine side, thats not meant in a funny way but a good way! Add finishing touches to your hearts delight!

Claire said...

Thank goodness for wonderful husbands, he sounds just like mine!! He's always let me have free reign in the house, I asked him the other day something about the new house and he said he was leaving it all up to me, think he feels sorry for the fact I'm completely dominated by males in our household and he can quite happily live with butterfly wallpaper in our bedroom...lol. Hope you had a lovely mothers day.
Claire x

Joanne said...

That is brilliant news :) It is great when you suddenly find what you have been missing!

I have to say that I am only 30 but have been homemaking for sometime now and love to be surrounded by things I love and that reflect me and my family.

I think it is what makes a house a home!

And as for getting anything nice.......

I got cards that sing and home made paper flowers, what more could any mother want :)

Anonymous said...

Just to say hi and to say I loved browsing through your bookshelf.

Sharon J said...

It really is so important to create a home rather than a show house, and the great thing about a shabby chic home is that it doesn't have to cost the earth. My house follows the same style and most of what I have has been dug out at boot markets, charity shops, antique outlets (not the posh shops, obviously) and from ebay. You can also make a lot of stuff yourself out of vintage pillow cases, sheets and other fabric. Frugal but beautiful :)

Anonymous said...

yayy natalie thats what im doing too - due to a string of unfortunate circumstance we are going to be moving very shortly to goodness knows where and this house we have now has never felt like 'home' so i cant wait to find somewhere to finally put my stamp on! Thanks for popping by my blog and i hope we have a chance to exchange pics of how things go :)

Kristy said...

The best tip I have ever had is to only buy things that you really love.Don't worry so much about whether it will go.Your own taste and style will soon develop.There have been very few things I've bought that I love that haven't found a home but plenty of things I wasn't sure about have long gone!

PattieJ said...

I think your bunny is adorable and the geese too! I'll have to go to Amazon and look up those books.

Pattie

prettyshabby said...

I can absolutely understand what you mean..I did the same with my last house which was brand new 'mock victorian', it looked like a showhome rather than a home.We sold all the furniture from our first house to buy bits for the next and in turn have sold all of those for this one! I still found myself decorating some of the rooms how I thought they should look to be in keeping with the age of the house. Maybe one day it will all just fall into place and totally be 'me'!
I look forward to seeing your new decorating style on your blog..those mother of pearl teacups sound divine!