How I Found My Style Sundays

Have you ever visited Pamela at the blog From My Front Porch To Yours?  Pamela is quite the popular gal, probably because she has quite the popular style sense, so if you have never stopped in to see what she is decorating in the Southern way, you should.

A couple of years ago when she asked me if I would like to share my style on her feature 'How I Found My Style Sundays', my first thought was "me... style"?. 

Then I thought about how it takes all sorts of tastes to make the decorating world go round and that somewhere there is probably someone who thinks this mismatched collage of stuff I've put together in my home, is stylish, and maybe I could inspire them. 

So I agreed to do a post about my style and today for Throw Back Thursday, while the grass is green and the trees start to bloom for Spring, I'm re-posting it here on my own blog.

For me, I'd need to own about a dozen homes, decorated in a dozen different styles to capture all the different looks I like. 

But I only have one place I call home, and as I write this I'm still pondering what my decorating style really is. 

Sometimes I think I will haul anything home from a garage sale or thrift store that I like even a little, and try to make it work. 

My shed full of junk proves that to be true.

Hammered Aluminum Collection

So in that sense my style is probably called "collected", if that's a style.

 Often times I like to use old wood with a history.......

Barn Wood Window Bathroom Cabinet

To me decorating is like music. 

I don't have to enjoy listening to every genre there is to still appreciate that making music requires a certain talent.

The same is true for decorating a home.  What works for some might not work for me, but it doesn't mean I don't appreciate or see the beauty in other design styles.

It's a matter of taste and preference.  And many times of budget.

Decorating at my house takes compromise, and being realistic usually trumps what I would pick if no one ever actually touched the furniture.

Barn Door Coffee Table

The truth about my style is that it has to be easy. 

This is a very lived in home, where not only my style has to fit in, but that of the other people who call this place home.

Sometimes my decorating means making lemonade out of lemons.
 

There are not any priceless artifacts here.

Just the art work of the six kids who have helped carve out the lifestyle that works for our house as well as our yard.

And yes.... to me that kids art is a priceless artifact, but I haven't had any appraisals or museums come calling for their elementary school scribbles.

Kids Wall Art Collage and dog moon

My style has to handle wet feet and soggy swimsuits, whether I like it or not.

So my decorating can be a little bit country.....

The Cedar Porch Furniture Redo

Or a little bit rock & roll, depending on who I'm doing the decorating for.

Rock & Roll Boys Dresser

I've never felt that I'm very good at melding the many things I like into cohesive design, so I'm the last one to give any decorating advice.

But every once in a while something I dream up in my head turns out just like I imagined.....

Faux Grain Sack Drop Cloth Chairs

Fortunately for me, someone else who lives in this house can build things that often pull the style I'm after all together......

Scene's From the Master Bedroom

And it evolves and changes as my mood or the season does........

Flynn & Malone Blanket Chest Project

Natural elements, rock & stone, barn wood, vintage finds, passed down treasures, industrial metals, and things that are relaxed and comfortable.  I like it all.

100 Year Old Barn Wood Bathroom Shelves

Sometimes rustic, sometimes clean and white.

Master Bedroom

Decorating that looks good but can handle anything from a mug of spilled coffee, and tiny sticky fingers, to teenagers big dirty feet.

And of course decorating that can handle the darn dog!

I like the old with the new..... scissors inherited from an early 1900's building we own have a home in a vintage barbers accessory in the master bathroom.

Or a blissful little spot where sometimes I can't even here the word "mom" in the distance.

Often I pass over a decorative item or beautiful piece of furniture that I really like because it just isn't going to work in a sometimes very messy household.

OK, fine.... often messy household!  Usually messy household?  Always?

Every decorating choice I have ever made had to be family friendly, and I don't always get it right while I'm busy focusing on the bigger picture.....

I do what I can, with what I have, so that it works for me and who I live with.

Dresser turned portable patio bar

The way we live - with many minds and busy hands - means we extend our living space outdoors as often as we can.

Outdoors at Bliss Ranch

From playhouses and garden sheds, to 4-wheelers, fire pits, and pools that all have to survive over a cold winter, my decorating has usually been intentional so it's family friendly.... and yet lots of times accidental.

We intentionally and accidentally have created a home where not just our adult friends are welcome, but our kids' friends, the grand kids small fry friends, and the friends of our adult children as well.

But really, there is only one thing that makes a home beautiful, and that's the people inside it.

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