Homestyle: 3 Home Decor Inspirations From My Childhood.

They say that adulthood is just an attempt to fulfill childhood dreams; I agree.  Among the children I was closest to growing up, boys and girls alike, at some point all of them said something along the lines of "When I grow up, I'm going to have a house like that," or, "In my house, I'm going to have____."  We all had our tastes in style and decoration, even back then.  Personally, I wanted a Victorian home filled to the brim with knick-knacks, oddities, and wonder.  I wanted a home that was a feast for the eyes.  Perhaps that is why I was always drawn to books that featured homes like that.  

I spent hours pouring over all the details in beautifully illustrated books and imagining what it would be like to live there while also determining that I would live in a home like that one day.  I've recently been to the home of a childhood friend, one who had some very grand tastes, in fact was determined to live in a mansion complete with horse stables and in-ground pool when we were little.  Life happened, and her priorities shifted from material gain to financial freedom, but she has managed to perfectly blend her excellent style with a little cabin that she and her husband built themselves.  It's idyllic and I'm so happy for her that she is living out that dream.

As for myself, I too began to realize in my late 30s-early 40s that I would never be able to afford that Victorian mansion, and so purposed to make the home that I am in look as close to that dream as I possibly could without drowning in debt.  There were so many decisions to make about which direction to take our home as we were building and now decorating.  I based my kitchen on the kitchens of my grandmothers and those happy childhood memories as well as a certain cottage coziness that I couldn't put a name to.  As we are building our library, I'm going through old books and realizing how great an influence my childhood picture books had on my current style.  So, today I thought I'd share three of my favorite books that influenced my home's design.

1.  Martha's House. (1982).  By Edith Kunhardt.  Illustrated by Carolyn Bracken.

Not a single inch of of greige sadness or an open floor plan in sight.  Martha's house is really just a pretty picture book that explores each room.  Minimal wording, maximal style.  Each room is filled with colors and character.  There is a richness here that is lacking in every single modern home I've entered.  I truly believe that it's because back then, no one lived their lives in blandness out of the fear of lowering the dreaded resale value.  Homes are meant to be an intimate reflection of life and personal taste.

2. Hilary Knight's The Twelve Days of Christmas. (1981).

I received this book in elementary school as part of the Weekly Reader Book Club and it was an instant favorite that I kept and spent many hours pouring over in my childhood.  Eventually I began reading it to my own children every year at Christmastime.  Every page is filled with colors, prints, and oh so much activity.  Again, no sad beige minimalism or open floor plans here.  Each day of Christmas depicts a different room in the house and each room is its own little world.  My favorites were the bedroom with its floral quilt and rosy wallpaper, and the sewing room with an antique treadle machine and quilt on the wall.  This book always made me feel warm and cozy in the December chill, just as a home should.

3.  The Brambly Hedge.  (1980s).  Jill Barklem.

I hate to be that person, but children's books today are so basic and boring.  The 1980s truly brought us some illustrated works of art.  The Brambly Hedge is a series of books by Jill Barklem about a town of mice living in the countryside.  Every inch of these sweet little homes are covered in meaningful, purposeful items and Ms. Barklem illustrates them in such a way that they feel cozy and inviting rather than cluttered.  I particularly love the decorative use of dishes in so many unexpected rooms including the bathroom and the nursery (shown below).  This is maximalism at its finest.

 

Wild Rose & Sparrow

I spent years obsessing over this idea of a cream lace dress.  Years.  If there's one thing I have loved, it's obsessing, and this was a big one.  A cream lace dress, and cotton preferably; I could never turn one down.  At long last, I have found the perfect cream lace dress.  And it's cotton.  Corset back, plenty of details.  The search is over.  I waited for Black Friday before I finally bought it, but it was worth every penny and the (years long) wait.

 Outfit Info:  Fae Midi Dress from Wild Rose & Sparrow

9 Billion Names; 1 Pretty Dress

"[He] lifted his eyes to heaven.  (There is always a last time for everything.)  Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."  The Nine Billion Names of God.  Arthur C. Clark.

The first time I read a vintage Sci-Fi novel I was sixteen, working as the manager of the book department in a quirky little fandom shop, and the genre came at the recommendation of boy I was desperate to impress.  I began with Dandelion Wine and The Illustrated Man both by Ray Bradbury and followed those up with Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  The boy was never impressed with me and that relationship went no where, but my love affair with classic science fiction endures to this day.  

I've just started watching a show called Pluribus (from the creator of Breaking Bad) and am truly enjoying this modern alien invasion show, but it has stirred up a hankering to return to some of my favorites from the past.  So, I have borrowed a quote from science-fiction legend, Arthur C. Clark for today's post.  It's a short story, like many of the sci-fi greats, but it conveys so much in its few words.  The outfit and the theme for the post don't really go together, but why do they have to anyway?

Outfit Info:  Dress is thrifted Dear Creatures, Heels are from B.A.I.T.

Lampshade Creations

Temperatures have plummeted into the single digits and all our work on the house has ground to halt.  Our plan was to save all the inside work for the cold weather and the outside work for the warm weather.  It's a good plan, we just didn't count on how hard it is to get motivated when the house is chilly and the fire is warm.  I also didn't want to sacrifice being able to be generous and give freely during the holidays, so we stopped allocating funds to construction and focused on Christmas instead, so our construction fund depleted and we have to spend some time rebuilding it before we move on.  We've had a dusting of snow, nothing awe-inspiring, and definitely not enough to make me feel like going out for photos, so I'm all out of outfit pics for the time being.  To be perfectly honest, I'm not much interested in outfit photos in any weather at the moment.  I'm completely wrapped up in getting my house finished, but I know that construction = house; decoration = home.  The love and care you put into how you decorate your home is where the love and personality shine forth.  To that end, on days when we can't rally ourselves to be too far from the fireside, I have a special project that I began a few months ago and has been perfect for keeping me feeling accomplished during the worst of winter.

In the late spring, my 90-year-old great-aunt passed away.  Our family spent weeks going through her things and as it turns out the woman was an avid collector of lamps.  Walking into the house for the first time, I commented that I would take the green lamps because I thought they would match my decor.  I was duly given every. single. green. lamp.  I have at least a dozen now, plus several antique floor lamps that needed rewiring.  Many of them had shades that were crumbling to the touch; some had no shades at all.  I started researching options for buying Victorian style shades or simply recovering the ones that came with the lamps.  Somewhere in all that searching, I came across The Lampshade Lady.  Ms. Mary has been running this small business for decades.  She provides the lampshade frames which are reproductions of Victorian styles, and the supplies as well.  You can also buy kits and a tutorial video to get you started, which is exactly what I did.  There are plenty of tutorials out there, and Ace of Shades is a great source of inspiration, but Mary's seemed like the whole package, plus you get personal customer service from her if you need help.  

I finished the first shade and put it on this Art Nouveau style white floor lamp.  So pleased with the results, I contacted Ms. Mary and ordered three more frames and some replenishing supplies and have now covered all three of those plus an additional three that came with lamps.  I haven't started applying the fabric and trim yet.  I'm sort of waiting to see how the construction goes so that I can try to match the shades to the vibe of the rooms as they are completed, but I have enjoyed working at this task, keeping my hands busy on these long days indoors.

OxKnit Sweaters

Sooooo, I rarely do negative reviews, preferring instead to hit the highlights of a brand, but when I purchased some OxKnit sweaters, I had issues with them and decided to do a very honest review, still trying to be kind.  I got a multi-paragraph response from OxKnit in the comments section of my YouTube video in which they basically couldn't deny anything I said, but mostly just said, "we're working on it."  Fair enough.  As a sign of good faith, they recently commented that they have now added size XS to their line and that gives me even more reason to hope things improve.  In the meantime, I had to take this sweater in several inches at the sides to get a nice fit, but I do like the finished product well enough that I ended up keeping most of my purchase.  And of the pieces I kept, I have washed and worn them all once or twice and so far they look just as nice and have held up well.  Check out my video below for the full review.