Inappropriate Comment = New Leaf Turned

It was several months ago when one of my husband's employees had flown into town and my hubby brought him by the house before dinner.  He gave him a quick tour while they were here.  A few days later Lou (my other half) mentioned that said employee told him that he thought our house was cold.  What?  Really?  Wow!  (Ummm, yes, he still has his job.)


Now, to give us a little bit of a break... we had just moved from a two bedroom unit in Sydney into a house four times that size in Texas (yes, everything really is bigger here!).  So, even though we had furnished it we were still buying a lot of decor.  Also, he had only seen the first floor which is definitely more formal.  (Lesson learned for me!  Sometimes guests only see a couple of rooms...do they reflect your style accurately?)

A much more 'minimalist' time in Oz.

Move-in day!  A little more space to decorate now ;)

Why did we moved again?  Oh how I miss this view from bed!

I had always been very satisfied with the look of our home - if I do say so myself ;) - until this ill-mannered comment shattered the 'decorator' inside of me.  My hubby and I have very different tastes which seemed to harmonize well when combined.

He is early-twentieth century New York.  The essence of vintage leather, brass lamps and a general library-esque feel similar to this restoration hardware photo:

I am more ornate and opulent - creme leathers, silk drapes, minimal color and lots of crystal - all mixed with the clean lines of modern Italian.  I used to gaze for hours at all of the beauty in photos like this one from Schonbek.  Aside from the obvious masterpiece in this room, there is also such beauty in the staircase - a rich contrast between the espresso handrails and the creamy white base highlight the ultra-clean lines of this well-designed structure.  

Anyhoo... this comment really got me thinking.  Was our home really uninviting and cold?  So I started seeking design info and inspiration from all sorts of places and there I found it... a fun new love.  I've realized a lot so far in this process (but let's save most of those details for another post... gotta let the newbie have some ideas up her sleeve for those 'blank' days ;)

What a cool piece to organize my design books from designer Josephin Hellstrom-Olsson.

Mainly what I realized was that we had been 'decorating' and not 'designing'.  Our rooms hadn't been thought out well enough and they were missing the element of comfort.  More importantly, I realized that we can add the element of comfort and still keep our style!  (Too bad we already spent all of the 'design' money 'decorating'...oops!)


So now I have the fun job of redesigning many recently 'decorated' rooms!  Stay tuned for lots of before-and-after pics and our crazy lead up to Christmas.  Here's a little preview of what's in store for us this season...