My Secret Weapon to Decorating My House



Things around my house have been unpacked for months now. Furniture is in place, dishes are organized in the cupboards, clothes placed in a row on hangers.

But then there’s that whole aspect of decorating, which takes a lot more effort than just taking something from a box and finding a home for it. Decorating takes time and thinking about arrangements and tweaking each one until you get it right. It takes effort.

And too often—when there are dishes that need to be done and laundry to be folded and shoes to be put away—the last thing I want to do is try to figure out what I want to put into frames to fill that empty hole on the wall.

Of course, no one says you have to decorate. But, for me, it’s those little touches that make a house feel like a home. So I love decorating—when it’s complete and not necessarily the long, drawn-out process it takes to get there. Sometimes that can be so overwhelming that I just ignore it, put it off until later because there are other things that need to be done.

But I’ve found that one of the surest ways to conquer the apathy toward decorating is pretty simple: Invite people over. Invite people over before everything’s done, even before everything’s out of boxes or organized or looking presentable. Invite folks over, and I’ve discovered that out of nowhere, a desire to unpack and unfurl and hang and hem pops up out of nowhere.

And in just a couple of hours or days, so much more gets accomplished.

That’s what’s happening right now around my house. In a month, we’ll have family down for a week to visit. So the paint cans—which have sat untouched for a couple of months now, since we did our last bout of painting in the bedroom—came out and curtains are getting hung and artwork being made.

It’s not that there’s an expectation that we have to impress them—no, that’s not it at all. Everyone we’ve invited over have been true-blue kindred spirits who could care less whether anything matches.

Instead, I think it has to do with what I mentioned earlier, that decorating makes a house feel like a home to me. And so when those folks come over, I want it to feel like home to them, too.

And so, here I am, painting again…

Related Posts
The Process of Turning a House into a Home
Playing With Paint Colors: Choosing A Palette for Our Entire House

3 comments:

  1. I agree. Decorating makes a space home for me too. Inviting people over would be a great way to motivate.

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  2. Sarah (Proverbs 31:30)May 24, 2012 at 2:44 PM

    Hi Carmen! I'm a new reader (came via MoneySavingMom's blog)and I love your passion for being a godly woman! You are a HUGE inspiration to me. I'm still a teen but I fing myself pondering my future- my husband, college everything. Reading your story reminded me to put my trust in Him for all things. God bless!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, that's so kind of you to say, Sarah! I'm so glad you're enjoying my blog. And let me commend you on your passion to use this time in your life even as a teenager as one of preparation for what the Lord has in store for you in the years to come! I really think that spirit will serve you so well and you'll be so glad you heeded it!

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