SHOPPING YOUR OWN HOUSE

Have you ever ‘shopped your own house’ by using what you already own? Do you enjoy being in your home, for the most part? How do you make it feel like a place you want to be, without spending a lot of money buying everything new? I tend to focus on the way a room makes me feel. Being visual clutter bothers me (I wish I could say the same thing for my family) so I tend to keep the large pieces simple and change out the accessories. It’s easy to keep your home fresh and a place you want to be by surrounding yourself with things you love.

Then just move them around.

The big pieces of furniture in our house are pretty neutral. Our first big purchase after we got married was a large-scale floral couch in a 1990s style. If you’ve been around here long, you might remember that I mentioned it before. I was so proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone. Remind me next time to wait until I’m buying pillows to step out of my comfort zone. It wasn’t a good idea to do that when buying a sofa I was going to keep for 20 years. I learned my lesson.

We eventually recovered it, and it is neutral now. I change pillows and rugs and artwork, often seasonally. You may not need that. My mother hasn’t changed her house since she decorated it when she moved in. But I love moving things around. I also love the idea of decorating with lots of color, but I just get tired of things too quickly so I just shop my own house and use what I have. I don’t have an unlimited budget, and frankly, I’d rather travel than buy new stuff. And I enjoy being surrounded by things I love or have a story behind them, whether a personal memory or something that has a history.

You can start to ‘shop your own house’ by taking almost everything out – art, accessories, pillows, and knick-knacks and putting them in one place, like the dining room table. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, just take a Saturday afternoon and ‘play house’ by experimenting with color.

Now, shop your own house.

Will this vase go with this piece of art? How about this pillow from the bedroom? Will it work in the living room? Or start with a rug. We have some oriental rugs in our family, which makes it easy because I can pull colors from the rug. If you have a neutral carpet, then start with a pattern on a pillow. Or a piece of art you love. You’ll be surprised how you can move an accessory near a work of art, rug, or even a pillow, and it picks up a color you might not have noticed.

Here are a few tips on living with what you love and shopping your own house.

• Buy what you love and then find a place for it.
• Change things seasonally. I have green pillows in the family room now but often use burnt orange in the fall or deep green during the holidays. I buy pillow covers and use the same inserts.
• Get rid of what you don’t love.
• If you love it but don’t know where to put it, don’t throw it away. Just store it under a bed or in a closet. You’ll eventually find a place for it.
• Rotate the accessories and the art. I move art around all the time. No surprise there.
• Think of a new use for items. My mother-in-law was great at this. Use a pretty bowl or a seashell for a soap dish, a basket to hold a finger towel, an urn for pencils, or a trunk for a side table.
• Use the things you love. My great-grandmother had boxes of unopened household items in her basement. She was ‘saving’ them for a special occasion that never happened. Maybe they were wedding gifts or birthday presents, I’m not sure. But I’ll never forget her basement. Unopened toasters and coffee pots. She should have shopped her own house! Pull out your wedding china and have dinner on it. We use silverplate utensils for weeknight dinners. It’s not fancy or expensive; I think I bought it in bulk at a flea market. It makes a meal feel special. My favorite is to use our wedding crystal for everyday cocktails or just orange juice.

A little LaCroix with a lime in a pretty crystal glass and I feel like the queen.

Want to read about decorating a room around the art? Or see the art I move around my own house?