This morning I am so excited to have Emily from Jones Design Company guest posting. I love her work and am amazed at all that she is able to get done with four young children! I have been inspired by her for several projects including some framed vintage baby items in Lorelei’s nursery. I first saw them in her daughter Audrey’s room and fell in love with the idea. She is so talented and her blog contains everything from beautiful photos of her home, to amazing tutorials for all sorts of projects.
So here is Emily:
2011 is my year to let loose. Have a little more fun. Be daring and crazy.
You probably won’t find me sky diving or shaving my head, but I do hope to take life a little less seriously.
Take, for example, decorating my home.
I really love decorating, rearranging furniture, creating displays on our kitchen shelves, changing out pillows – it is a favorite hobby of mine for sure. As far as I can tell, it seems to be a favorite hobby of yours as well.
So maybe you can relate with me on this one.
I get an idea {however unconventional it is} for my walls or cabinets or lighting, but I’m afraid to actually follow through with it out of fear that it will somehow ruin our home. We love where we live, but we don’t feel like it is our ‘forever’ home. So in the back of my mind, the term ‘resale value’ is always lingering when these crazy ideas pop up. And if it isn’t ‘resale value’ it’s the thought that I should just wait until we are in a house that is our dream home and then I can really make it ours.
Anyone?
But here’s the deal. I need to embrace where we are now, fully live in the house we get to call home and enjoy it despite what a future homeowner might think.
{I’m not advising destroying your home or being unwise with what you have … I’m just talking about living in the present and allowing your home to reflect your family – even if you don’t plan on being in it forever}
We learned a bit of this lesson when we remodeled our perfectly fine kitchen to make it look more like ‘us’.
It didn’t cost much and we did most of the work ourselves, but it totally reflects our style and has become a room that I really enjoy being in. Was it necessary? No. When it comes time to sell our house will every prospective buyer love the open shelves? Probably not. Do we love it? Yes. Plus we can now fit lots of little bodies around the table which makes hosting parties that much easier {which we also love}. And that makes it worth it.
So if you are anything like me – stifled in your decorating by the what-ifs of the future sale of your home or waiting for something better to come along – I say let loose. Have fun. Take some risks. Really L I V E where you live.
If that means putting a hole in your wall to hang some artwork – go for it. You can always fill a hole.
It it means using a sharpie to draw the most amazing wallpaper in your bathroom – by all means, go right ahead.
And if it means painting the wood floors in your kitchen with a distressed checkerboard pattern like you’ve been wanting to do for years {honey, are you reading?} – then do it!
Here’s to 2011.
Can’t wait to see what it holds.
. Emily .
j o n e s d e s i g n c o m p a n y
www.jonesdesigncompany.com
And here is just a little preview of some of the gorgeous rooms in her home (all photos are courtesy of Jones Design Company). Head on over to her blog to see more!
My two are my favorite blogs all in one. I love you guys. You both inspire me to do sooo many things to my home and to hopefully some day have a thriving business. Still working on that! Anyway, I love you two fantastic women. Always look forward to seeing more and more of you two. Can't say it enough… LOVE YOU
After finally moving into my dream home, all I can say is, "Where were houses like Emily's when I was house hunting?!?" I think her taste is classic, elegant and functional, which translates well to both living in the moment and for future resale. GREAT stuff!!
I don't even care if it's my forever home, I just want to own a home so I can do something, anything but renting stinks. I have this big beautiful home with so much potential and I can't touch it. 18 more months, just keep swimming =) Thanks for the fantastic ideas, they will go into my forever growing file for the big day!
I really appreciate what she had to say, and I agree with her completely. I am learning to live in the moment and not worry about the "what ifs" of resale value anymore, too.
Her house is gorgeous!!! Amazingly creative this lady!
Hugs, Cindy
I've never been more in LOVE with a home!!! Great advice too!!!
Lovely! A gorgeous transformation.
Timeless and beautiful! Can't wait to hop over and see more….
Thanks for the encouragement to be brave!
Jennifer ~ thank you so much for asking Emily to guest post!
Emily ~ you could have been describing me / us. We 'might' put our house up for sale before long and our some of our renovations are based on "what would a buyer want?" And I really, really want a white and dark brown kitchen. For a year now, I have had a big splash of dark brown paint on my kitchen wall, helping my husband get adjusted to the idea of a dark brown wall above white beadboard with white cabinets. I can now show him your kitchen and he can see for himself how wonderful it will look! Thank you! 🙂
Thank you both for inspiring so many women to think creatively and to live boldly. Following your blog(s) is a delight!
Thank you for the design inspiration! You're so right! Often the most beautiful designs are created when someone takes a chance and does something different than the norm.
Gorgeous!