Home
Home. It brings to mind different things for everyone. For me, it makes me smile. I’ve lived in a few homes during my 57 years. I lived in my childhood home until I graduated from college and moved into my little apartment. I loved my home growing up. Countless memories suddenly appear in my mind of a beautiful red-brick 1960’s rancher with a basement, big front and back yard, swing set, little above-ground pool and front porch swing. It was just the three of us.
I adored my three-story, walk-up, old brick building in downtown Chattanooga, even though it was just a six-month lease. I loved decorating it myself, any way I wished. It was tiny but cozy and had a lovely tree-lined street view from the third floor. In my early twenties, hauling laundry and groceries up three flights of stairs and doing without a dishwasher wasn’t a concern. ;)
My next home was with my husband in a cute one-bedroom, one-bath apartment with a fireplace and balcony looking out at the foot of a mountain. This is where we began our married life and it will always hold a special place in my heart. As with my first apartment, we enjoyed decorating it to our combined tastes.
Our first house would come one year later. It was a dilapidated fixer-upper (before fixer-upper was a thing). A kind man (later called a flipper) bought it to renovate and that’s when we found it. It was around the block from our church on a lovely street. I fell in love with it and managed, somehow, to convince my husband to buy it. It was a 1940 cottage-style bungalow with original windows, glass doorknobs, hardwood floors and a screened-in front porch. It was 1991 and get ready…..we paid a little over $67,000 for it. After months of blood, sweat and tears, assisting our new friend with the renovations, we moved in right before Christmas. We loved our precious, drafty, small, charming, quaint home. We had a big front and back yard, enjoyed planting trees and flowers and decorating our new place. We would bring our first daughter home to this house and spend the next two years making sweet memories here.
In 1997, we moved to a different area of Chattanooga where the public schools were amazing and the natural beauty of the place was gorgeous. The house was very similar in style to our first house, down to the interior color scheme. We raised our two daughters here and almost 27 years later, we still love it. The interiors have changed through the years but the layout remains the same and it is truly home. Our grown daughters still love coming home to this house.
More importantly than any type of physical property, what kind of interior furnishings you have or location where you reside, home is most importantly where you, your family and friends are together, making memories and simply sharing precious time together.
Home to me is, although less importantly, a canvas to express what’s important to you, who you are, what matters to you and how you make people feel who are welcomed there.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
70’s crewelwork wingback chair from my childhood home & newish velvet pillow from Sophie’s Shoppe
Sophiesshoppe.com
I think, combining family heirlooms, new and old pieces, traditional and modern elements, budget-friendly and higher-end items all come together to make an inviting, comfortable, beautiful home. So, I’ll share glimpses of how we’ve decorated our home.
vintage books from antique shops and travels with a ceramic angel which played her violin in a secretary in my childhood home…I love to create a color palate in different shades, mixing objects which have a sentimental meaning or memory of a place, such as Cornwall..I found this book in an old, vintage bookshop in Falmouth
Color Mix Memories
Collections & Facelift
Ballard chandelier from decades ago with new Ballard shades
our pine hutch from our first house circa 1991 with my collection of white ironstone & ceramics gathered over the years from various vintage, antique and gift shops or gifts from friends and family
so glad we never painted this charming English reproduction cabinet and hutch…keep something long enough and it’ll come back in style…usually :)
Inherited & Collected
this charming little cabinet is a family piece with some of my collection of brown transfer ware…I like to think of the brown as chocolate ;) I used to display it only in the autumn or for Thanksgiving but I like them so much they live there year round now. The brown is harder to find than the blue or red so I try to snag one when I find it.
