When I was a little girl, I didn't dream about my perfect wedding to my perfect husband, I didn't look in bridal magazines to find my perfect wedding dress (but I did dress up as a bride, when I was pretending to be Madonna and danced to "Like A Virgin").
What I did dream of as a little girl was to have my own home. To have my OWN kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom. I would cut up IKEA magazines and make collages on paper., Cut out my favorite couch, and match it with my favorite chairs and coffee table. They wouldn't all match in sizes, but I would create my perfect home.
I would rearrange my room, maybe once a month and when I was on vacation at my grandparents', I would rearrange my moms old room… borrow pieces from all over my grandparents' house, to make the room my nest for the days I was there. I would even decorate my friends' rooms (with permission of course).
So you may say decorating and interior design, have always been my favorite hobby; my passion.
The happiness I felt when I had my OWN apartment was beaten the day I married my husband.
Then came the time I had to share and create not my OWN house, but OUR HOUSE!
I must admit that one of my biggest nightmares has always been having to live with a person who owned a leather couch, marble coffee table and a huge Monet print… maybe in a plastic frame… (shudders)! Luckily that wasn't the case, but…
The first couple of months of us living together, our place was a disaster. I had moved from Denmark to America, with only a few pieces of furniture and a couple of moving boxes, into my husbands small apartment. He had moved to Los Angeles a few years before, without his furniture, and was living with hand me down and IKEA furniture - the place was over-stuffed and our styles clashed!
I'm stuborn, (ask anyone!) but so is my husband, (he sometimes beats me at that game!) and he is also very interrested in furniture and making a home very cozy, so we both knew, that neither of us could pull any power-trips when it came to decorating our home!
At that time I wanted off-white walls, to brighten up the small space, and he wanted darker/bold color walls to make it cozy cave-ish… So we ended up with pastel walls. That's how we met in the middle, on our first home-making decision as a married couple.
Old color test made in Photoshop.
I think the wall colors are what started our inspiration for what direction we wanted to go with our home: American mid-century. My husband already owned a few pieces, but it was all in storage at his parents' place, so we started out with a few lamps, nic-nacs, etc., but we couldn't fit much more into that apartment.
About a year after I had moved from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, we finally moved into a new place. It was over twice the size and we filled it up with no problem. Finally we had a home that wasn't over-stuffed any longer! It wasn't really until then that we really started to create what was OUR house.
Early stage of our dining room at our old place...We didn't even have dining room chairs at this point.
Years later and 1000s of $ spent on furniture, barkcloth and such… Ohhh and another new home… It looks how we wan't it to look. Of course there are always things that you wanna change, or things you hope to add to your collection. I'm sure if we lived apart, our homes would look slightly different. I think mine would be a little cuter and his a little more modern - I know he would have an orange room…"Can we compromise that to banana yellow maybe?"
Kitchen/Dining room at our current place.
I know I'm lucky. I have a husband, that I first of all love with all my heart, but that also shares my interest in home-making and we share taste in design, etc. I know that there is a special species of humans out there that I don't really get - people, both female and male, who actually don't care about how their home looks!!! I really don't get it!! And I know all of my friends, at one point or another, have lived with a person who has brought awful pieces into our homes - everything from: A big print of a desert to La-Z-Boys, a DJ rig, African masks and soccer memorabilia!! Geez…… But making room for two means you need to meet in the middle and being able to compromise, or else who is truly happy?
When I write in this blog, I call it "my" home, I did, I have, I own, but the truth is its isn't mine, it's "ours", my husband and I. But since he doesn't write on this blog, I go with the "I". Just like I always ask my husband, his ideas for paint,furniture arrangements, and before I spend too much money in an antique store or online - It just take two to tango here in OUR HOUSE!
I'm so house-proud
Nothing ever slows me down
And a mess is not allowed!!
PS. I love you Baby XOXO
