Cozy Minimalist Home

I first encountered Myquillyn Smith on links from other blogs. I read a few of her posts, but I didn't bookmark her Nester site.

Her family has finally bought a home, rather than renting, and her book Cozy Minimalist Home shares what she learned in the process of moving into a fixer-upper and applies it to her way of looking at decorating.

Cozy minimalism seems like a contradiction of terms. She liked the uncluttered space of minimalism, the ease of care, but she felt they had gone too far so the home feels austere. Personally, I don't dislike the remade rooms of her home, but they seem plain with mostly white and brown and some blue tones. She talks of how she has created interest with texture and different shapes (mostly in accessories and plants). Maybe so, but there is no pop of color anywhere to draw the eye. It seems a little monotonous. 

She does not have a set order of rooms or categories to work through like Marie Kondo, but she has a strict list of steps to take in her order: furniture, drapes, lighting, floor covering, wall surfaces, finally accessories. She wants you to complete your flooring decisions before painting walls which seems counterintuitive when you see that a major step of her process is to "quiet" a room by removing everything but large furnishings. Instead, once you have hung the drapes, laid wall-to-wall carpeting or area rugs, then you protect or remove all of that stuff a second time to do the painting. She gives her reasons for this.

The first step is to decide the purpose(s) of your rooms. It will be different for each household and change over time. Then she suggests that you go to Pinterest (or alternatively use magazines or books) to find 50-100 photos you love of each room. The pictures might have things you dislike along with those you love. It doesn't have to perfectly reflect your tastes. I guess I am way ahead on this step since I have all those pictures in folders that I collected over the past 5-6 years. The task is to look at the pictures (ideally to have some friends also do this for/with you) to find commonalities or similarities to identify your preferences. 

Myquillyn says that no matter how much fun those "quizzes" in newspapers or magazines or on the internet are to identify your style of decorating, they are actually worthless in making decisions for your home. 

Once you have collected and analyzed the pictures, you do "quieting". You remove all of the accessories, area rugs, small furniture, most of the lamps and live in the room for several days (she prefers for a week). This is a minimalist idea I have seen on the internet. Gradually you bring back items but not all of them. While the room is "quieted", you spend time observing the bones of the room and its condition. Are there cracks to repair? Peeling or faded paint? Is the carpeting ratty? Awkward door and window placement? What needs to be different to make this room meet your purposes and aesthetics? In the meantime, the rest of your house may be a mess as you had to put the things you took out of the room somewhere. Her process is disruptive to you and your family.

Also, while the room is mostly empty, she wants you to move your furniture to lots of different placements. No can do. As a senior, I don't have the stamina or strength to be moving furniture all over the room. This is definitely not a step for the elderly or disabled. 

The author is known as a Christian blogger, and she does relate her decorating process to Christian values a bit. I expected more.

I would say the book is best for those starting over in a new home, or those who have been paralyzed with doubt and indecision thus not doing anything to improve their homes. In an indirect way, it does help you see that you have too much stuff, that your things cause you to spend time on them rather than on family and friends. Becoming more "minimal" frees you to spend your energy and time on relationships. The book also discusses how to recognize that you have "enough" and don't need to be constantly shopping or keeping up with the consumerism behavior of our culture. Also, temporary "fixes" are suggested until you have the resources to reach your dream home. Perfection is never the goal, however. Comfort, warmth, ease of living, hospitality opportunities are the priorities.

Over-Stuffed

 

I needed to go to Fort Wayne this week to exchange the ink cartridge I bought for my printer at Best Buy. I bought the wrong one. The only excuse I have is that I was distracted by the happiness for my sister-in-law buying a new laptop computer and when she asked the salesman to get an ink cartridge for her printer, I said get one for me, too. We both have Canon Pixma printers. When I got home I realized I should have checked the notation inside my calendar book; wrong cartridge. Her printer is not like mine.

Since I was in Fort Wayne, I stopped at Ollie’s Bargain Center that I had learned of on my previous trip to Half-Price Books. What joy to find a decorating book for a few dollars. More snipping for my folder.

And God decided to double my pleasure. At Half-Price Books another decorating book with photos I like.

Each book chock-full of lovely photos of the type of decorating I prefer, yet cheaper than buying a current magazine from the newsstand.

Though I do some weeding/discarding when I peruse my folder, I obviously need to find some additional folders. I had taped up the side once, but now the folder is so over-stuffed the only way to fix it is to remove some of the photos.

Today has had rain, snow, sleet, wind, brief sunshine, but has fallen from 39 degrees to 36 degrees since noon. A perfect day to sit in the recliner and go through my new books. I am itching to wear spring clothes, so tired of winter things, but that isn’t going to happen for at least another week.

A lot of the blogs I read regularly have slowed down. A few posts per month. Hibernating like me? Or maybe really busy, which also is true for me through the 17th. There is a public library sale coming up on the 15th. Maybe I better get busy buying folders; no telling what I might find at that sale.

Captivated by Leaves

When I started collecting pictures a few years ago to ascertain my design preferences, I discovered that I liked botanical motifs. Since moving to my condo and doing some decorating, I have gravitated to a leaf motif. The primary leaf addition has been the area rug.

When my husband requested that we add something to the sheers on the sidelight windows so someone standing at the front door could not peer in, I wasn’t thinking “leaves”. I had seen some velcro strips at Walmart that had adhesive. I could attach that to the window frame above the sheers and sew the accompanying non-adhesive strip to some fabric. That would mean no holes in the frame and honor the retirement village’s request not to make holes in any woodwork. (As it turned out, the frame is not wood but metal thus we ended up using magnetic rods for the sheers, but we didn’t know that at the time I made the overhanging curtain. It looked like painted wood.) Since I don’t have a sewing machine, I decided cutting a table runner in half and ironing a hem  on the cut edge using stitch witchery tape, then hand sewing the velcro to the hem would work.
I found no runners in the stores that appealed to me. Headed to ebay and saw several possibilities. The one that grabbed my attention was based on the Pfaltzgraf Yorktowne pattern. I had seen the dishes in the past and liked them. I bought two small fruit bowls in this pattern in an antique mall in Richmond, Indiana the previous year even though I had no other pieces. This pattern is similar to leaves, don’t you think? And it had my favorite color combination of blue and white.

                        I recently added a pitcher with this pattern to display in my kitchen, too. Purchased that at Alley Cats Antiques in Leesburg. 

From an earlier post, you know about my lamp with metal leaves and its newly-covered lampshade with leafy fabric.

 I have been captivated by leaves. Even the copper teapot I bought this spring at a garage sale fits in.

And several years ago God saw how much I liked the Lenox Poppies on Blue pattern and made it affordable to me in a special way. The china was out of my budget range and I had looked at it longingly for years as I passed the store displays, but the company came out with a barnyard accessories line that used this pattern. Not only that, it went on sale plus I could use the department store’s additional 20 per cent off coupon. While some might think it silly not to buy what I loved when I first saw it, I had determined in my heart not to get caught up in material consumption that might lead to debt accrual. The Lenox brand of china is definitely not in my financial budget. Has God given you the desire of your heart even in superficial objects by providing it in an affordable way?

Treasure Hunt

As I set out towards North Webster after lunch, I noticed the sky’s split personality. Towering puffy white clouds against a pale blue for the most part, but low-hanging glowering gray clouds to the northeast where I was headed. A few splotches of rain on the windshield were all I experienced. The farm fields are still brown, but the pastures where the horses graze sport bright green. 55 mph increased the mpg of the Prius and I didn’t even use up one pip on the fuel gauge. I enjoyed the drive thru the countryside, but have mixed feelings about the results.
The new shop where I stopped that advertised fabric for pillows, etc. was a bust. Heart of the Lakes Antique Mall where I never expected to find a fabric remnant had a suitable option for the lampshade I want to cover. I bought it, but now that I am home I can’t decide if I like the fabric enough to invest the work of covering the shade. The print is a little busy maybe. What do you think?

The lamp to be covered. Shade is in good shape but yellowed.

I’ve never tried covering a shade. The internet has instructions, though. 
I looked last week at several places in Fort Wayne. Didn’t really see anything I loved. Don’t really love this, but better than what I have seen so far.

I guess I should go to Lowery’s Sewing Store here in Warsaw before doing anything. This remnant is 2 1/2 yards (I only need 1 yard) and I could use it as a table cloth on my small table if I don’t use it to cover the shade. I had looked at a few fabric-by-the-yard offerings on Etsy, but so hard to judge by a photo the true colors and texture. The one I liked best would be shipped from Hong Kong and the shipping cost is almost what I paid for the remnant today. I only paid $10 for the lamp so I don’t want to spend a lot for the shade redo. Decisions, decisions.