I wanted to take time to document and explain some of my goals for this blog. This is in part so that I can refer back to this when I have a moment of questioning or feel frustrated with my home. Often I find myself not practicing the things that I know I believe about my life and home.
My main goal above all else is to show what an actual home looks like. I want this to be a place to find comfort and inspiration for a home that’s realistic and attainable. One that is in desperate need of attention and repair. One that is used hard and gets messy and holds a lot of memories. I never want to only show or talk about the good things. The reality is that most of us do not have perfect homes, so why are we only sharing perfect homes? Taking time and effort to make a space pretty is not bad, but often times we only share the after photos even if every other room is still a before. Speaking for myself, this just leads to comparison and a feeling of not being good enough.
Like most people, I generally feel a pressure that my home is not good enough. Not clean enough, organized enough, and not decorated perfectly. My goal is to document my progress in improving my home and making it my own space, but not to gloss over the painful and ugly moments. I for one would like more inspiration photos that have a little bit of clutter in them or actually show proof that someone lives there. I want to document the good and the bad, and the stuff in the middle.
This means including the pile of tools in the photo of a half done room or the weeds and unlandscaped yard in the picture of a beautiful sunset. The truth is that those details don’t ruin the space, or the photo. They make it that much better because it shows that it’s real. And real life is beautiful.
And while I work towards redoing my house, I am also trying to remind myself that it’s okay to not follow every trend and have the nicest or most expensive everything. Most things will need to be fixed and redone at some point. Most things will get scuffed and dirty. It’s okay to have rooms that aren’t styled or fully renovated. I want to prioritize having a space that feels like home and is set up to serve me well over fitting into whatever is in style.
Sometimes the wait to get where you want is the best part because it allows you to fully appreciate the end product. I want to take part in normalizing the wait and being thankful for every season of life. The reality is that there are so many things to be thankful for that are easy to forget.
