Love The Home You Have
Right now, I’m waiting...
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Mr. Redoux is making the kitchen cabinets
and they’re coming out A M A Z I N G.
But, hey, it takes a while to DIY a whole kitchen full of custom cabinets!
So here I am
trying to love the home that I have now
while I’m waiting for the home of my dreams…
Maybe you feel the same way?
Are you finding it a little hard to love the home you have right now?
Well, you’ve come to the right place!
Because I’ve got some ideas on things we can do right now
that will endear us to our homes again.
1. KEEP IT CLEAN AND TIDY
No matter how old or in need of a renovation your home is — it will always look and feel better when it’s clean and tidy.
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Right now, our kitchen sink is really old. It’s scratched and marked up and pretty ugly. Every time I use it, I think, ‘why should I bother to clean this? We’re just going to rip it out soon.’ But then I clean it. And you know what? It looks so much better! And I feel so much better about that old sink.
It’s so much easier to love a comfortable, tidy home than one that’s messy and disorganized. HERE and HERE are some tips for keeping things neat, clean, and organized.
2. DON’T COMPARE
It’s so easy to look at all the beautiful homes in magazines, on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook and feel like your home just doesn't measure up.
Here are some ways to keep from comparing your home to others:
3. TAKE AWAY INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS
I’ll let you in on a little secret — I do this all the time!
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Instead of feeling like your home is ‘less than’, get inspired by what you see in other people’s homes! Try to emulate the overall look or feel of a room that you like. You don’t need to copy everything exactly as you see it but just pick out certain elements that speak to you. Is there a pillow that you admire? Find one (or make one) like it for your own home. Do you love a table that you see? Go on a mission to get a similar one for yourself.
4. FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE
What are some things that you really like about your house right now?
Do you have a beautiful view?
Then you might want to draw attention to it by hanging some fresh new curtains.
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Or maybe you have a really great fireplace. Try re-arranging your furniture around it for a whole new look.
If you focus on the things you like about your house and accentuate those things — who knows — you might just fall in love with your home all over again!
5. REFRESH WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
There are so many ways you can refresh the look of the home you already have —
Replace your mantel, paint your walls, pull up that old carpet and paint the subfloor, add slats to a wall, cover a brick fireplace with stucco or German Schmear, build a window seat, add wainscot molding to a wall — the possibilities are endless!
The same goes for your furniture and accessories — strip your dining room table, paint a lamp with baking soda and paint, give a vase or pot a new look by covering it with thin set (see how to do that HERE)
Put a coat of paint on a table or dresser and you’ll be amazed at what a difference it makes in the room.
This little oak stand was cute…
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But it’s way cuter now!
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With a little paint and liming wax, it has a new life!
(See more painted furniture before and afters HERE)
Put a slipcover on an old chair or sofa so it goes with the rest of your furniture.
This old chair was my mom’s
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I slipcovered it and now it works in the room!
Watch tutorials and read blogs to get ideas and learn how to do things to give your home a fresh new feel.
6. SHOP YOUR HOME
Look around your house and find things that could be used in another room or in a different way. Bring books and family photos out of your office and put them on the living room shelves.
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Bring that throw from the bedroom and put it in a basket in the living room. Re-arrange the furniture. Move a dresser from the guest room into the entry. Get that old chair out of storage and put it at the dining room table.
Create vignettes with things you already have
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Grab some twigs and branches, stick them in an urn, add a few other accessories and you’ve got a vignette!
7. MAKE THE BEST OF WHAT YOU HAVE
Have you ever heard the expression ‘that’s just lipstick on a pig’? Now, I’m not saying that my house is a ‘pig’ but there are things about it that need to be renovated and we won’t be getting to them for a while. But I have to live here in the meantime so, I’m making the best of what I have.
Our fireplace is all torn down to the guts. We’re focusing on the kitchen right now so we won’t be tackling this for a while.
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So I put some candles in it and it helps me to look past the unfinished part and enjoy a nice candlelit niche. See? Lipstick on a pig!
Here’s our living room right after we moved in
There was ugly gray carpet and nothing was renovated in the living room yet. But I made the best of it and made the room as nice as I could with what I had.
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So if you’re not loving your home right now —
don’t give up
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try some of these suggestions
and I bet you’ll be feeling better about it in no time!