How I came up with Naming my blog “Rooms For Rent”

You might be surprised by this, but I get asked quite a bit on how I came up with the name “Rooms For Rent” for my blog. And yes, every once in awhile I will get inquiries if I have “rooms for rent”, lol. Yes, at one point we did rent out a room, more than once actually, to help out a local friend, but to clarify – no we don’t have rooms for rent. But I wanted to share with you the story behind how I came up with this name for my blog, and what it means to me – and hopefully now you too!

This idea stemmed from the last 2 interviews I’ve done, they’ve both asked me this very question. And while I shared a short abbreviated answer there, sometimes it’s nice to have a little more details, or insight perhaps, as to how I came up with the name, and why I chose to stick with it. I guess I should start off first by telling you that I hate naming things! Or having to come up with a name. Seriously, I’d rather do the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner than to come up with a catchy, yet descriptive and very permanent name for something! Talk about pressure. And second, at the time I started blogging, circa late 2011, people were still avoiding using their “real” names on the internet for privacy sake, or fear of identity theft. So the thought of using my real name just seemed like a major “no-no” at the time.

If you’ve been around from the beginning, you may remember the days when my blog displayed a photo (shown above) at the top instead of a logo. I think that photo made it a bit easier for people to grasp the name. When the idea of starting a blog first started swirling around in my head, we had recently moved into our first home. I had all sorts of ideas for what projects I was going to share on how we were making our mark on our new home, but struggled for awhile on coming up with a name.

After about a 2 months of going back and forth I took the plunge, and hit publish on my first blog post. Which can I just tell you, it was nothing really. I didn’t post a project right away, it was more of a glorified paragraph of me saying hello to the world wide web of bloggers, and nothing more. Here’s the thing though. If I hadn’t of done that silly little paragraph, who knows when I would have started. Hitting the publish button put a little fire under my butt to get things in motion. It gave me a reason to come back and publish something else because I couldn’t just let that be my only post. 

So here is how I came up with my name. I was sitting in my living room, brainstorming and pondering on names, and putting words together. But no matter how many times I re-worded the words “cottage”, “market”, “farmhouse”, “barn”,”living”, “design”, “white”, “simple”, “country”, “something flower” it just wasn’t flowing, because I felt like there were already so many of those combinations of those names. I began to look around my living room for inspiration. Pieces I decorated with, anything that I found inspiring or could make a name from. I started thinking about why I wanted to blog in the first place. I wanted to show others that anyone can have a pretty space, that it doesn’t matter what your budget looks like. That re-purposing items, the thrill of hunting clearance items, and mixing and matching pieces can give you a space you love. My eyes landed on this sign (which now hangs in our bedroom) I found hunting through the clearance section of Pottery Barn a few year before. I remember when I first saw this wood sign in the catalogue I loved it. The old general store feeling, and planked wood, with painted lettering. Then one day, I found it in clearance marked down from $149 to $39.99! HELLO! I could afford that, and this sign was everything I loved about wooden signs. I never thought I would ever be able to afford anything from PotteryBarn for my home, but finding that sign gave me a empowered me to know that with a little bit of thriftiness, anyone can find nice things for their home. The sign says “Rooms For Rent”, and the feeling I got receiving that PotteryBarn box in the mail for the first time, for a fraction of the cost, was what I wanted to empower my readers with. I wanted to show them pretty “Rooms” that they could “Rent” ideas from to create their own beautiful spaces. And in that a name was born. 

The funny thing is, even though I came up with the name before my first profile was ever taken, or the cover photo I used for all those years in the beginning happened, my dream was to share spaces I created so others could “rent” those ideas and implement them in their own “rooms”. That day I made my husband carry out our white slip-covered chair to the side of our barn, and I carried armfuls of my favorite accessories to style and stage the area, that my sweet friend would later photograph for me; was giving life, and a face to the dream I had inside my heart.

It made it real and tangible for me. It confirmed something deep inside me, that I longed to help others Love the space they Live in, whether it’s here on the blog or through real life acquaintances, and that was something I was created to do.

Looking for more encouragement? Be sure to check out my Inspiration tab above and choose “Dreams & Goals” for more inspiring posts!