DISCOVERING MY STYLE

So here are the steps I used to begin creating my own style. You can follow the following steps to create your own. Read the other "Discovering My Style" posts to learn more.

 

My home is still a work in progress but these steps have worked for me...

                                   1) Choose 2 main colors that you want your room to have and maybe one accent color

                                        2) Decide if you want a formal or casual look
                                        3) If there is a word that further describes your look, write it down
                                        4) Start a Pinterest board, call it "My Style", and fill it with photos of rooms that you love and that also fit in the categories you listed in 1-3.
                                       5) Discover what elements these photos have in common that you like.
                                       6) Add these elements to the description of your style
                                       7) Use design ideas from the photos on your Pinterest Board for further help

 

You are now ready to create your own look and style in your home spaces. I began replacing things a bit at a time so as not to have to spend a lot of money to make some changes for my new style. I still want to have my furniture recovered  in blues, creams, and whites but they work for now. Now I'm trying to come up with a name for my new style. Something with casual/comfortable/rustic antique in the name... Any thoughts? I'd love to hear any ideas you may have in wanting to change the style of your home to  one that specifically suits you!
                                      
                                      

DISCOVERING MY STYLE

We're still vacationing in Florida but today there is a bit of a chill so we're finding other things to do rather than hanging out on the beach. At least we're not experiencing any snow like they are back home!

I still haven't gotten around to getting photos of the items I purchased at Estate sales on the way down. I'll get around to it one of these days...or I'll wait until I get home.

In the meantime, I still have photos of the changes I made in our living room so I'll share those here for the last segment of "DISCOVERING MY STYLE".

If you are not a "blue person" you might not like this change but I love it! I had purchased this armoire years ago and had it made to look antique with a rust color on it as my colors were blue, rust, and mustard yellow. But now with my new style colors being blues, whites, and creams, I had the armoire painted from this..

To this....

 

Yeah it's a big change!

I also found an old antique window from the Plummer Building. The Plummer Building is the medical building named after Dr Plummer ( he also helped with the design of the building ) whose historical home we live in, named The Plummer House. We thought it would be appropriate to have it in our home. I'm going to put other things under it but wanted to get it high enough to take up some of the space on the 14 foot high wall here.

I also purchase this reproduction surveyors stand lamp online from India. I was looking for an antique tripod surveyors stand that I could make a lamp out of but they were more than I wanted to spend on a lamp. So I finally opted for this one.

Next step is to have these two matching chairs recovered in a blue buffalo check. Not sure if I want to go light blue or navy blue. Any thoughts? Still trying to figure out how to hide all the wires from lamps in this room that has very few outlets.

And one more touch was this antique primitive rake purchased at a garage sale from a lady who had moved from the East Coast and said she paid $100 for it.  I paid her $20.  She was changing her decor and getting rid of her old primitives. She had a lot of really nice antique treasures. I'm kicking myself for not buying more of her pieces!

So it's still a work in progress but it really helped me to have a design plan with colors, a few specific elements, and a certain "feel" I wanted to have. Here are a few more touches...

 

Some hardwood floors would be nice but I'd have to leave our mansion to get them ...Think I'll wait!

DISCOVERING MY STYLE

I'm still sharing about how I discovered a design style I wanted to bring to our home. With a limited budget, no DIY skills, and unable to change some things, I was able to move forward and begin to get the look I've wanted.

The next step I took was to have the room painted. Since we live in a historical mansion that is owned by the city and they pay for the repairs we had to wait quite a while to have this done. Finally there was room in the budget to fix many cracks that had been appearing in the walls over time so they would then have to paint over it. So I had them continue and paint the one wall that hadn't been done before along with the others.

The white wall in the living room above was previously a dark wood color. I'm slowly changing all the colors from blue/rust/mustard yellows to shades of blue/white/creams. The upholstered furniture comes next. The living room ceilings are 14 feet high so it feels even bigger than it is.

What is that notebook and paper doing on that sofa? Guess i didn't see it before because the color fit into the decor. Oh well, the transformation continues...

DISCOVERING MY STYLE

In my last post I began sharing how I was discovering a new decor style that I loved! Now I'll share the next step I took in this process...

After beginning my Pinterest board of the photos that spoke to me that also included the colors blue/white/naturals or creams, and were casual and/or rustic in style, I looked at the photos again to see what else  it was that I loved about the photos. This gave me an idea of the elements that I wanted to include. These were: ironstone, ticking fabric, pottery with blue and white stripes, vintage wood pieces, and grain sack material.

Can you see things coming together with these pieces? I'm loving them all! But I will be selling this last large pot at our sale. I purchased it at an antique shop along with the sled in a trade. I decided I could keep just one of the items in the trade and it was the sled above. It was a hard decision. OK now that I see the pot here again maybe I'll keep the pot and sell the sled. ; (   I can't decide!! Which would you keep?

All these treasures were found either at our own Hob Nobber sale or on the hunt while looking for pieces to sell. The large wooden scoop is an authentic rice scoop from China. I have lavender buds in it with a little antique spoon. You can sniff a scoop and feel instantly relaxed. There's more yet to come so stay tuned for the next step!

DISCOVERING MY STYLE

Have you heard the phrase,"buy what you love and you will find a place for it"? Yeah, I heard that often and thought it sounded like a good plan. Not that I spent a lot of of money following that plan. But I found I loved a lot of differing styles and treasures so I ended up with things that didn't always go together. I like the eclectic style but this still wasn't working for me.

And while I love decorating, that is not my first priority. But I do enjoy making our home a lovely place to relax and make everyone feel welcome and at home.

Now buying what I love might not have been a "bad plan" but I was just not getting the "look" I wanted and couldn't figure  out why. After all, I was following the suggestion of those who loved   treasures so I thought that advice would work for me. I kept buying things that were more formal looking but that "look" didn't really fit our casual lifestyle. And while I've always loved the color blue, I stayed away from making that a predominant color because I thought it might look too cold. And our living situation didn't help either. Since we live in a historical mansion that we don't own, there are many things we can't change. 

But then I had an "aha" moment. I came across some photos on Pinterest  that had the "look" I was going for. It gave me the feeling, "I want to live there!".Have you ever had that feeling? So I went to work trying to figure out how to replicate that look. But for way less money, and taking into consideration our housing limitations. You  are all probably way ahead of me in figuring this for your own homes. 

Here are some hints of my new look.

Anyway, I'm going to share with you how I'm working my new plan to make our home fit our lives, lifestyle, budget, and "the look" I've been wanting! It's still a work in progress but I'm excited how it is working out! And the amazing thing is that I'm making the changes on a much cheaper budget than I originally spent on furnishings! Wish I had known about this before! First of all, here are some "limitations" I had to keep in mind:

1) I am not a DIYer ( not very handy )
2) I am on a limited budget
3) We don't own the home we live in ( historical mansion where some things can't be changed )

       While we've been tempted to move out of the mansion (well, my husband not so much) and live in our own home, this place is too amazing to leave! Read all about our lives here on the " Plummer House " page. Guess we'll make it "work".

So with all this in mind, in a couple of future posts  I will be sharing how I discovered "my style"  and implemented it on a budget, with no DIY experience, and some limitations. Anyone can do what I'm doing so if you are interested, follow along.

So here we go....The first thing I did was to start a Pinterest Board called, "My Style". I wrote down some things that I knew for sure I wanted my style to have. I knew I wanted a casual, farmhouse, and natural look, and blues and whites/naturals for colors. This helped me to narrow some things down a bit. Then I went hunting for photos that fit into those colors and style. Go to my Pinterest Board/ "My Style" ( red button on right side ) to see what things I came up with.

I'll talk about step #2 in another post. In the meantime if you are interested in finding your style, start a board with first defining your colors and whatever else you know for sure you want your style to have. Keep it to just a couple of style descriptions at first. Even if you like things mixed and eclectic like I usually do there are still some key "looks" that help you narrow things down.

Have fun creating!