I live in a cookie cutter home in a cookie cutter neighborhood. Of course, there are differences: varying layouts, different use of colors, changes in landscaping. However, were you not paying attention, it would be a blur of beige against a blue sky.
I wasn’t particularly keen on buying a cookie cutter house when my husband and I began looking for our first home eight years ago. However, it was a limited market at the time and, much like many couples on house hunting shows, I was more open to projects than he was. In the end, there were compromises made on both sides, and one such compromise was that we bought the most beige house of them all. (NOTE: The house is literally brown and beige; I’m not being completely negative.)
Since we purchased our home the outside may still look like our neighbors, but the inside does not. We began early on to make the cookie cutter home into our very own – from the colors to the works of art on the walls. Things have changed throughout the course of those eight years as items were acquired and others were put aside. My home is nowhere close to HGTV or Pinterest worthy, but it is mine. My gallery wall makes me smile every time I see my family. I have two decorative pigs in my kitchen because, well, I like the idea of having (and being) a pig in my kitchen. The liquor cabinet in my living room was a wedding gift from my parents: an antique buffet from my father’s own antique furniture collection, which my mother refinished for my husband and I. Finally, because I am a book nerd, I have a framed Steinbeck quote in my laundry room to remind me there is more to life than just laundry (even when it seems never-ending). This is but a small list of items and objects I have in my home that make me smile. They genuinely make me happy when I see them. While they may seem silly and may definitely be non-trendy, they make my home – MY home.
So often we try to move with the current, keep up with the trends, make pace with the Joneses, but at the end of the day, there should be things in your home that make you happy simply to see them. That is what this post is about. Home decor trends be damned. If a yellow wall makes you feel bright and cheerful, paint the wall yellow. If a silly sign in your bathroom makes you laugh while you do your business, make it your business to see that the sign stays up. If having a series of mice holding lightbulbs as your office lamp makes work seem a little less stressful, buy the lamp.
Let your home reflect you and your family. Because while there may always be another project to finish, while your house may not be “perfect”, you should still walk through the door each day, be able to look around and say: “It’s good to be home.”