I’m sitting in my house needing gloves. It’s October 17. Something doesn’t seem right. Something isn’t right! Our thermostat was ripped out of the wall during our kitchen renovation so, needless to say, our heat is nonexistent. It was really great (written sarcastically) to turn on the space heater at night and see that the temperature in the room is a balmy 47 degrees!
Why am I telling you this when I am supposed to be writing about decorating? Well, the chilliness of the house reminds me of our not-yet complete kitchen renovation. This kitchen, friends, was a long time coming. To sum it up: the oven didn’t work properly and no appliance repairman would fix it because it was literally an antique. And the rest of the kitchen was pretty much the same way. How did we know what we wanted to do when it came time (and by “came time” I mean “found out we were pregnant”) to redo the kitchen?
In my spare time you can find me surrounded by magazines and catalogs with a pile of ripped out photos of anything that inspires me. I have a few binders that I have organized over the last six or so years with these photos. Some of the photos are as small as an inch by an inch and others are a full magazine spread. There are photos with a tablescape that I’m in love with and photos of a vaulted ceiling that I would love in our master bedroom one day. Photos of Christmas decorations and Christmas wrappings…
Like anything in life, if you put enough thought and preparation into something it’s going to come out a better project and more like what you’d envisioned in your head than plowing through without prior planning. My husband and I flipped a house nearly a year ago and it was fairly easy for me to make decisions on the aesthetics of the house. I just had to flip through my “books” and look at all the photos that I’d ripped out and decide what would work best in that space.
For our kitchen AJ and I knew exactly where we wanted to splurge (which meant we also needed to figure out how to save). He wanted a 5 burner cooktop with a separate oven and I wanted Bianca Cararra marble countertops. My “book” made it very clear what I wanted to splurge on because photo after photo that I ripped out was the look of the Bianca Cararra marble.
I encourage you to start your own “book” and hone your style… the simplest way to do this is to rip up the catalogs you already get in the mail and start filing away those photos that make you excited to live in the scene they created!
The “book” has been great for me because it has shown me what I naturally gravitate towards, and have gravitated towards for years. If you know your style you’ll make smart decisions, which in the long run will turn out to be frugal because you haven’t changed your mind a million times!
So what does this have to do with sitting in my house needing gloves? Well, if you know what you want and can envision the end result, it makes the process of getting there a little easier… even if you have to sleep with an LL Bean 32 degree sleeping bag over your down comforter (while 7 months pregnant)!
If you are interested in keeping up with the Migonis’ (and watching our house progress!): http://ajandjenmigonis.blogspot.com
