Friday, January 24, 2014

Is Rustic-Classy-Warm-Eclectic a Style?

I guess it's confession time: I'm having a home-decorating-style identity crisis. I've always thought I loved really warm feeling with lots of neutrals. Cozy, comfy, and unpretentious. The decor equivalent to a Golden Retriever. So far, this is what I've been going for.

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I'm clearly not there yet. Turns out it's really hard to make neutral areas feel not-boring.

Luckily I have two other "preferred' styles I can try and incorporate. Both could be layered on top of the current progress in our home. Not-so-luckily, they don't mesh well together. At all. Those two styles are: kinda rustic arts and crafts (probably from growing up in the mountains) and slightly vintage, unique details, and colors on a neutral background (very Anthropologie meets Lauren Conrad). I feel like I need to pick one to run through the whole house or risk looking like a misguided yuppie city-girl gone camping. And we all know how well that always turns out.

Come to think of it, the two Lindsay Lohans from Parent Trap kind of personify the two different styles I love.

Rustic (Cali LiLo):

So cozy and warm, like living in a vacation home.  I love that this style adapts well to all seasons and seems relatively timeless. Our house is far from a cabin, so finding the right degree of rustic influence would be key. I don't want anything to feel out of place; the people who picked the traditional exterior right outside of the city are the same people who live inside it, so the experience needs to be seamless from inside to out.

Anthropologie (London LiLo):

Classy, elegant, and some whimsy. I know it wouldn't feel like me if I went full blown, but I love incorporating a bit of it. I hate saying this style is described by a store. Don't get me wrong, I love Anthropologie, but it seems very cookie-cutter to say I admire it as a trend. Seems like every twenty-something girl is on-board this bandwagon right now. I could describe this style 1,000 other ways, and you'd be kind of like "what is she talking about?" But as soon as I say Anthropologie, I know we're all on the same page.

I'm taking my time and thinking this over. I keep trying to tell myself I don't need to pick a "style" and I should let our home evolve naturally. Likely our home will end up with elements of both, but with two very different inspirations I need to set some ground rules so it doesn't end up a hot mess like post-Parent Trap Lindsay Lohan. Here's hoping.

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