When Hensley asked me if I would be a guest writer for her blog, I immediately said yes. I then sat there and kind of laughed at myself because I have felt like my decorating has gone out the window since I became a mom. I remember sitting in my house 2 years ago pre-baby looking around. It was always Better Homes and Garden’s ready, like I was just waiting for them to knock on my door and start shooting for their next magazine. I remember thinking to myself how much anxiety I was going to get letting baby supplies and toys take over my home. It wasn’t bad at first, the baby stays where you put them and you decide how messy your house gets. When my son became mobile it was a different story. Decorations were being ripped off of stuff, nothing was organized, and I had to wait for him to go to bed to get 1 hour of a clean house and to admire my décor.
A few weeks ago Hensley did her blog on coffee table centerpieces. I swooned over the pictures just wishing I could see my coffee table decorated again and loving everything she did. A few days later I was sitting in my living room and looked at my coffee table and laughed so hard at how it looked now compared to what it looked like 2 years ago. My centerpiece was now trucks and sippy cups.
I took a picture and jokingly sent it to Hensley saying here is your next blog entry for coffee tables. My husband came in the room and asked why I was a sending picture of the mess and I joked that this was my décor now. He could tell it kind of bummed me out even though I am super thankful for the mess because it equals a happy, healthy child. He then told me “Kristin you still decorate you just do it different now”. It hit me that it was true. I do still LOVE decorating, but I have had to put my focus in on “decorating up” meaning places a toddler can’t reach. Don’t get me wrong, he still climbs stuff and loves to rip my tablemats off the table, but I consider it my decorating space and I can still focus on making it nice. My favorite decorating focus now is my kitchen. As a mom it’s my space, I found it to be the place I can change up and make mine and for the most part it stays in place. We bought our kitchen table at a flea market and I found the old chairs in our family’s barn and cleaned them up. I love wood accents and this table fits in perfect. Last year we applied shiplap to the wall behind our kitchen table. We originally went into the project planning on doing the whole kitchen, but I loved how it looked with just one simple accent wall done. It is always the first thing most people notice in the house when they walk in and it only cost $250 in supplies. Also I get a lot of compliments on our light fixture over the table. Just a fun fact a lot of fixtures you can purchase as “open box”. Birch Lane has a ton of open box options and it saved us over $100 on this fixture. You do take the risk of some possible scratches, but to me it makes it unique. One down fall to open box is you can’t return it, but it sure is worth it if you’re decorating on a budget.
I love a good classic farmhouse décor, I remember loving it when I was younger way before Pinterest ever existed and obsessing over beautiful white farm houses as we drove by. I have incorporated farm pieces into my kitchen like the little goat salt and peppershakers and my wooden cow above my hutch. The hutch I bought for $50 and it was yellow. I painted it dark gray, knocked the class out of the door and applied chicken wire. For years it sat there closed until one day I opened the doors, turned it where it backed into the corner instead of flat up against the wall. It became the perfect place to add little nik naks I had collected over the years. Another one of my favorite things about my kitchen is the church pew. All it took was simple pillows a blanket and it was instantly cozy. My family’s likes still really matter to me when I am decorating because they have to live in this house too. My son loves tractors and cows, so when I found the old tractor pillow that’s on my bench I knew I had to buy it. He loves looking at and every time he walks by it he says “Hey Tractor”. Another one of my favorite pieces in my kitchen is my little cow picture collage. Most people don’t notice it, but to my family it is on the best things. I was actually going through old pictures with my husband’s grandma and found these original prints from 1968. They are of my husband’s family’s Black Angus cattle farm in Loganville, Georgia. There is now a neighborhood that sits over that piece of land where the cows used to graze. It is such a neat piece of history that most of the family has forgotten about, but now it can live on forever in our home. Of course my son also has to tell the cows in the picture goodnight every night. Going over to your grandma’s house and going through picture’s you will be surprised at the neat pieces of history you can find to decorate with all while spending quality time with family.
It has been such a different mindset for decorating once adding kids to the picture, but don’t let yourself go just because you have wild animals for children running around. Just “decorate up” as I like to call it and still enjoy the unique pieces you can come up with. Your family deep down loves everything you come up with and that is what makes home, home.
Happy Homemaking!
- Kristin
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