Homes that don’t look like everyone else’s….

It’s the end of February, and I’m feeling hopeful. Spring is close, the days are getting longer and more and more people that I know are getting vaccinated. Work is incredibly busy and is occupying almost my every waking hour. It’s a struggle to break free from that sometimes, but it is necessary. Fortunately, or unfortunately, work is also a distraction to what’s going on in the real world.

I’m still drawn to interiors that are a little different, either with color, pattern or art or furniture choice. Color is one of the easiest design elements to put into a space for a big impact. Pattern is a little more difficult to work with and I’ve noticed a lot of people are bothered by what I call “visual noise” in their home. Entryways, powder or bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms – these are great rooms to play around with pattern in your home if you’re someone who generally likes a soothing environment, but wouldn’t mind going bold somewhere.

We’re in a holding pattern on our addition. The weather here has been all over the place and we need it to be a little warmer and a little dryer to pour the foundation for the addition. Waiting gives me time to change my mind about the interiors again and again, so that’s a little maddening. It’s easy to spin out with my thoughts and I have to continuously reign myself back in.

Here are a few images with pattern and/or color that I’ve been loving the past few weeks:

Break out of your “normal” in at least one room of your home and see what it does for you. A lot of my clients worry that they’ll get tired of the pattern or color they choose, but I think you get used to pattern and color in your home and they start to feel like a part of you and your environment.

My book recommendation for this week is: The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner. We had the pleasure of speaking with Susan about the book and other things on our podcast, The Inside Flap (on iTunes and Spotify) and this was a book I could not put down. It’s set in San Francisco in 1906 – before, during and after the earthquake and the storyline of a young Irish woman, answering an ad for a mail-order bride and what happens after that is captivating.

“It is the nature of the earth to shift. It is the nature of fragile things to break. It is the nature of fire to burn.” 
― Susan Meissner, The Nature of Fragile Things