How To Create a Space You Love | The Gift of Home

Hello Friends!!

Do you have a favorite spot in your home? Or perhaps a favorite piece of furniture or art? Is it that just right throw pillow that holds your favorite pattern or color? Or maybe it’s a view? I think sometimes it’s easier to pick out the things we don’t like in our homes and focus on those, but what if we flipped the narrative and focused on just one thing we loved about our home instead? Whether it’s a room, an architectural detail, or a piece you used to decorate with inside that room, I hope you all have something in your home that you love. I talk a lot about loving the space you live in, and today to celebrate the release of my new book, The Gift of Home, I’ve asked some blogging friends to join me and share something about their own homes that they love. I also thought it would be fun to kick things off by showing you the progression of our dining room in our previous home as I share some tips on how to create a space you love.

Let’s get started.

To kick things off today, my friend Melissa from The Inspired Room is sharing her design philosophy, and the steps she takes to creating a home that she loves. Melissa has always felt like a kindred spirit to me, as her thought process and heart for creating a home is very similar to mine, so it’s fun to see how she goes about creating spaces that she loves throughout her home. Melissas blog is the first stop of four different homes you will see today. You also have a chance to win a copy of my book from each of the bloggers sharing today, which I have included their blogs at the end of my post today. So be sure to stop by and say hello, and Good Luck for all who enter!

Visit Melissas Home Here – The Inspired Room

Do you struggle creating a space that you love. Do you look around your four walls and try to imagine what you can do in that space to make it feel more like home? More like a space that you would love to be in? I too have had my fair share of dealing with spaces that were less than desirable, and felt miles away from being a space that actually felt like me.

When we first moved into our previous home our dining room was this space for me. It was a room you had to walk through to get from one end of the house to the other, but it felt cold, disconnected, and filled with inherited furniture that didn’t very much feel like our own at all.

At first I didn’t think the way our dining room looked mattered. After all it was only a room we spent a brief amount of time in. But as the rest of our home began to look and feel more and more like us, our dining room began to stick our like sore thumb. Even though we didn’t spend as much time in there, we walked through that room multiple times a day. And it flowed openly into the living room – where much of our time was spent. I began to ask myself the question “What could I do in the dining room that would make this a room I would like to be in?”, and “how I could make our dining room feel more like a space I loved, instead of just a room we had in our house?”.

I started by thinking about how I wanted our dining room to feel. The colors and textures I wanted in the space. I knew I wanted it to feel as welcoming as we had made the other rooms in our home, so I started by thinking of what could be done in the space to make it feel more inviting, and less like the stereotypical formal dining rooms that were popular when I was a kid, that always felt a little too formal for my liking.

I started by writing a list of the things in our dining room that didn’t go with the design aesthetic I was after. Doing this gave me a clear vision of where to start. I started by replacing the little things that I could. Replacing smaller knick knacks, painting picture frames and candlesticks white, and adding in accessories that felt more light and airy to the space – which is what I was craving. I had always loved the look of a farmhouse style dining table. The weathered wood felt warm and inviting, and went with the more relaxed feeling I was longing for in that space.

I slowly began swapping out furniture, thankfully it didn’t take much convincing for my husband to try his hand at making me a new dining table that looked like the farmhouse tables I admired. I refinished the inherited dresser the we were using as a buffet to a lighter wood tone so that it resembled more of the look I was after.

I knew I wanted sitting around the table to feel cozy. Comfortable enough that you want to linger long after dessert had been served. I love the look of chairs mixed with a bench, it reflected the “less” formal feel I was after.

Progression

After

Our dining room wasn’t complete over night. Not even in the same year, but slowly over time by tweaking things as our budget allowed, adding a wainscotting treatment to the walls, and eventually a new chandelier, I was finally able to create a space that I loved to be in. A space I actually grew to want to spend more time in. A space that felt more like us and our style. And when you create a space you love, that’s when your space feels like home.

THE GIFT OF HOME BOOK TOUR: SCHEDULE AND LINKS:

Wednesday 1/19

• Melissa from –  The Inspired Room
• KariAnne from – Thistlewood Farms
• Claire from – Claire Lynn Home
• Sarah from – Dreaming of Homemaking

Friday 1/21 

• Bre (that’s me!) – Rooms for Rent blog
• Traci from – Beneath my Heart
• Beth from – Homestories A-Z
• Courtney from – A Thoughtful Place
• Andrea from – Pine and Prospect Home

Be sure to visit their blogs for as well for additional chances to WIN a copy of my New book – The Gift of Home!!!