The journey to finding my design style

Happy Sunday, sweet friends! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!

You may have noticed that Tara and I didn’t post “French Vintage Friday” this week. Well, something was going on with my blog, and I was unable to create any new posts. After trying to figure it out, and contacting the hosting company, I found out that it was a super simple fix. Yay!! So glad to be posting again!

Today, I’m sharing a little glimpse into my journey, a journey that I am still on, to finding my design style…

Growing up, my mom always had our house decorated so beautifully. Everyone that would visit our home, would go on and on about how beautiful our house was, and how it was decorated so perfectly! So, you can imagine, I started liking beautiful spaces from a young age.

In the corner of my childhood bedroom, I had a little door to access the unfinished attic. Inside the attic there was a little alcove, I would often spend afternoons in there, creating little vignettes using my mom’s unused decor, and little treasures that I had found while thrifting with my mom (yep, I started thrifting long before it was “cool”). My sister and I were talking about this just the other day, and thought about crawling back in the attic to see what treasures are left behind. I did have quite the collection of brass candlesticks in there…maybe they’re still in there!

Fast forward many years later, I got married, and of course was so excited to start decorating our little apartment. Although I had always loved vintage and creating vignettes, I felt like I had no idea of where to start. My husband and I went to a big box furniture store, where we bought very plain, nondescript furniture. It was nice furniture, not really “me”, but at the time decor wasn’t on my mind as fiercely, I was a newlywed and enjoying married life!

A year later, we bought our first house. A two bedroom townhouse, that I LOVED!

As soon as we moved in, I immediately wanted to start making it my own. I was intimidated by the process, so I asked my mom for help. She was so busy being a mom to my twin brothers and little sister (they were all still in elementary school) that she didn’t have a lot of extra time to help me decorate my house. She helped me a little here and a little there, but I wanted it done sooner rather than later, so I decided to rely on myself. It was quite a slow learning process. At the time, this is what I considered “decorated”…

It wasn’t until I had my second baby, stopped working, and became a stay at home mom, that I really started to find joy in decorating. Before then, I wasn’t home a lot, so my space didn’t matter quite as much.

One of the very first projects that I ever did, with the help of my dad, was hang a chandelier that I had painted (it was originally forest green and red) and also hung an empty frame on my wall with some vintage plates inside…

My dad, who was my biggest cheerleader, encouraged me to start a blog, so I did. My blog was Nest.Nesting.Nested. I was still quite young and trying to figure out my style. Blogging motivated me to move beyond my comfort zone and try new things. I used power tools, which I hadn’t ever done before! I built things, painted things, and made a bunch of friends within the blogging community.

It was such a great experience, which I learned a lot from! I had been blogging for just a little more than a year, when my dad, very unexpectedly, passed away. I quit blogging shortly after, and thought I’d never blog again, it was way too emotional.

After a while, I began to decorate again. This time I wasn’t concerned about what the blogging world would think of my decor, or anyone for that matter. I did what made me happy, and that is when my decorating style shifted. I started to really pour my heart into my decor. I wanted to create a place that my young family could call home. Somewhere that felt safe, cozy, and inviting, yet functional and fun!

These pictures are old and the quality isn’t great, but you can definitely see the shift in my decor style here vs the previous pictures, right?!!

A couple years later, I another baby, and our two bedroom townhouse was getting too small for our four growing boys, so we moved. If I could have, I would have stayed in this townhouse forever! I loved it!! Our townhouse sold so fast! It was under contract two days before we ever formally listed it!

We were is a rush to find a new house! Luckily we found a house that was perfect for our little family. It was brand new, a great size, great schools, great location, everything was perfect, but it was soooo plain and boring. I started to put a few things here and there, but no major decorating started, until one day, when I decided to start blogging again!

Here’s an example of the evolution in my home since I started blogging again, this wall started like this…

Then…

And now…

Blogging this time around has been amazing! I am older and wiser, my kids aren’t so young and needy, I have a better idea of what I like and don’t like, I am able to be inspired without loosing sight of what I want my home to look like, and I have surrounded myself with the sweetest friends, both blogging and on Instagram, that encourage me, inspire me, and keep me motivated to keep improving. My style is still evolving, and will continue to evolve, which is what makes decorating for me so much fun and exciting!

If I had just one tip to give y’all about decorating, it would be…Decorate from the heart! If you love it, go with it! Be inspired by others through blogs, Instagram, Pinterest, etc, but don’t get caught up trying to create something that isn’t you! Be true to you!!

Thank you so much to each and every one of you that reads my blog and encourages me! I honestly never thought I’d have the courage to be vulnerable enough to blog again, but y’all make it possible and make this such a happy place for me to be! I appreciate you all more than you know!!! Thank you!!!

💗💗💗

Now, let’s head over to Tara’s blog to read about her journey to finding her design style! Simply click on the picture below…



Thank you for visiting LeCultivateur!!!

So much love to you all!!

Hope y’all have a wonderful start to this new week!

~Emily

Check out where I have linked this project…. Blog link list