Learning to Use Your Home

Although I'm probably one of the most naturally impatient people I know, I've learned a lot about the process of design and my own style by being forced to work ever so slowly on our house.
Plumbing, waterproofing, and minor landscaping issues consumed most of our resources during our first year here, which left me no choice but to be patient about turning my attention to the fun details of decorating. In the process of waiting and saving up, we've learned how we actually use our home. When we first moved in I had a mile long list of things we needed, and while some of them still remain on our wishlist, a lot has changed because we have a better idea of how our home's layout works for our family, which rooms we use the most and how we use them, as well as the styles that suit them because of the way the light hits them throughout the day, etc.
Taking our time has also allowed us to accumulate a lot of inspiration (all of these beautiful pictures) and research each piece of furniture more instead of springing for a filler piece.


Right now we're still focusing on our living room. I love incorporating lots of rich, durable textures and easy natural tones into the mix. Our most recent find was this great leather arm chair.
It's like a plush, indoor version of an Adirondack chair--so comfortable!

Rich doesn't usually make a lot of design demands, but he put in a special request for one of these masculine leather beasts. However, leather is very tricky to get right. Cheap leather is the worst, and even decent leather can look like the worst if its too pristine. We both had it in out heads that we'd need a vintage one that was already well loved and perfectly worn, but our treasure hunts didn't yield any good results. Every good quality leather chair was either way too big or way too expensive...except one I found in the UK...but shipping was more than it's modest price tag...bummer! After searching high and low, we totally lucked out and found this one at a very deep discount at the Restoration Hardware outlet in Leesburg--the same outlets we happened to find our very first favorite piece of furniture, a glass door teak bookcase which we use as our sideboard and china cabinet., which came from the not extinct storehouse, sniff :(

The chair is very low, which we love, but the rest of the room needs to be rounded out before it really fits in. The following are pieces I'm considering...

over the leather chair

in the corner behind the leather chair

next to the leather chair

for the coffee table

a lamps for the side tables flanking the sofafor a chair on the other side of the fireplace

However, living rooms are not our only focus these days. We're making some sweet waves in the fashion world as well......

(Images: 1: Lonny, 2: Helen Norman, 3: Domino, 4: B-Metro, 5: Real Simple, all the rest are products or my own)