Home Tour -A 900 sq. ft. Beach Cottage
Have you ever heard how it takes a year to paint the Golden Gate Bridge and when it's done the painters just go back to the beginning and start all over again because by then it's already fading? That's what I think it's like organizing and maintaining a home. You start cleaning out one closet, then another, then the bathroom drawers and the kitchen cabinets, updating the living room, and by the time you're done going through every last necklace and folding the throw blankets it's time to start over again because just like the bridge, and like you, your home needs constant care.
With all the clearing out and making room we've been doing lately, I figured it was time to update the tour of our house. As we always joke when people visit and ask for a tour, "It won't take long". This is a tiny house and I'm honestly really proud of that. I remember a revelation Danielle and I had one morning after Christmas that the house I had pinned on my "Dream Homes" board on Pinterest was in fact, the guest house to her dream home. I love a good tidy, tiny space. I always have. Our house is just a version of my childhood forts, 20 years later. I'm sure things about it will change. Soon enough, I'll go back to the beginning, re-painting this bridge of a home, but this is the state of our house right now. Three people, two bathrooms, one bedroom and another that used to be a one-car garage that is now home to a toddler who loves long naps and dismantling bookshelves.
I'm not going to pretend that I know what I'm doing when it comes to design. One thing I did that really helped me identify what I wanted was to take note of patterns I noticed over and over again in the photos I pinned on
. I've been repeatedly attracted to natural fibers, neutral colors with pops of brighter ones, open white wall space, a few sentimental things over tchotchkes and keeping nature as present as possible. Photos I started taking of the house actually helped me notice what things were making a room look unbalanced or cluttered.
You know how when you're on vacation and you feel kind of like you could drop everything and go almost anywhere since you have basically everything you need with you? That's the feeling I wanted at home. To be unburdened from the mental weight of my belongings. Did it happen? Not totally, this is the mind of a former "pack-rat", but that's the goal.
Another thing that's important to note is that I really spent almost no money with this most recent update. I just got rid of stuff or moved things around. I like how Erin Boyle, author of
, puts it "Brainstorm, don't buy. You probably don’t need new stuff. You just need a minute to think," which actually made re-designing our space more creative and fun. I also took her tip of "slow growth" to heart. I'm still in search of a kitchen table that will fit us all, but the right one hasn't found us yet. Lastly, it helped me to think that the things I was giving away were going to have a better life being used by someone who needed them more. Then I sent them off with a hug and a whispered “thank you”.