Custom Design In OUR Home: How It All Started For Us.

It’s my trade mark  that with Every Design project in every room that I design or am apart of, it’s very important to me that a customized piece is in place almost in every room. Even small ones.   It is my biggest  believe that when you strip a room of all the lamps, sofas, paintings, vases, etc.  you should be left with a quiet, yet beautiful space that stands on its own.  Otherwise your  home  I feel looks just like everyone elses.  I know that’s pretty blunt, but it’s the hard truth.  Everyone’s homes are so unique and it is my approach to bring that out in each individual home.

Take for instance…

•  Some homes have high ceilings so I feel they should be highlighed with super chunky custom trim. If your trim and base boards are not scale to your space, it’s a missed opportunity in my opinion.  There’s really nothing like Great Trim and Moldings, even when kept simple depending on the style of your home,  when they are painted out in the right white.  That’s a post for another day I guess.  I wrote a post about crowm molding the other day, check it out if you like!

• Other homes have large open windows so they need to be either showcased architecturally through moldings/new casings, or off the shelf drapes, or in some cases where budget allows custom drapery. Sometimes leaving the windows clear without drapery is the answer!  This all depends on your space and the feeling you want to create!

  

• Some homes have very small kitchens which are still awesome by the way, they just require different adjustments  to make them work.  By the way there are always solutions to smaller spaces, they sometimes need you to look at your space through a different lens or a new set of eyes.

This concept of “custom” was developed in my own home when Darryl and I  began our journey of renovation  and building in our home 9 years ago. I’m always challenging Design, what that looks like for our family, and how we can make our home work better for us.

You can start to develop this idea through hiring someone who can build you a custom piece such as a window bench, a mudroom/office/a headquarter for all your family’s everyday stuff (custom to what your family needs), or taking on a project all on your own.  I have many custom ideas if you ever need any, and honeslty if you are willing to try to do some work yourself, you will be very proud of yourself.

 You know what the best part of this is?  After you step out and are willing to be the person that is responsible for how your home works, you won’t be disappointed.  Custom work that you do for yourself isn’t always easy, trust me!   We’ve had a lot of  headaches, late nights, dust everywhere, paint in my hair, grout in my rings,  and the list goes on and on.

The final pretty photo in the end that you see in most magazines really doesn’t fully give the exact idea of what it took the designer, photographer, home owner, tradesman, editors, on the job to get there.  All the minor details that go un noticed by most will be noticed by you, and that’s what truly matters.

image by Claire Bock

When we purchased our home almost 10 years ago,  at that time in our lives both of us hadn’t even picked up a paint brush. We learned our trade that we know today because we’ve tried new things, messed up along the way, and  figured out how to build and do  things with our hands because we wanted a very customized home for our family. I’ve never wanted the things that others had and something more unique to our family.

I’m telling you this because you too can create a customized home for your family, and it can only happen if you want it to. Now when I say custom I’m not always referring to all the bells and whistles. There is a time for  all custom, but custom can mean different things.  This concept can start by making yourself your own shelf, or Learning how you can use some big box stores to create a really customized piece like we did with these Ikea pieces.   I can’t explain how much I appreciate these bookshelves that Darryl built and helped make my design a reality. I will never tire of them. I constantly change things around in them, restyle them and then the whole wall feels like a new look all over again.  I call this decor therapy.  In fact, I’ve restyled them the other night, and in my opinion it was such a wonderful way to spend an evening if your me.

 Baby steps will get you there, hard work, and working with in a smart budget will make it happen. Most of all you need to make some mistakes along the way to learn. We have learned so many lessons in the first few years which was really hard, but it only made us better at what we do.

I hope you feel challenged.

January seems to be the month that everyone likes to see change in their homes the most. My decor shop that I’ve started in my office is in full swing so let me know if you want to come by.  I have  lots of big, medum and small items.  Contact me for a viewing.

If you want to live intentionally in your home and come home to a place where your Home just works! Drop us an email.

We’d love to see your space!

Jodi