Ready for our next guest blogger?!? Of course you are!
Meet Elisa (along with Kevin and their pup Finch). She and I were acquainted through work but found we have home blogs & DIY-ing in common. Kevin and Elisa are on house #2 which means their decorating and renovating is starting all over once again. We're on house #1 still, which makes me wonder "whoa, will we really be doing this all over again?" I bet a lot of you out there are even on house 3 & 4, and perhaps each home was from a different era with a whole different style. Anyway, Elisa is sharing a bit about their experience switching up their style and making house 2 cozy...
Ready? It's GO time Mrs. McBride!
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Hi! I’m Elisa from McBride’s On the Go and I’m super pumped that Carla asked me share a post with you while she’s off gallivanting all over Asia :) Much like Carla, I find a lot of love and fun in turning a house into a cozy home. Trying to fit this in among dealing with my husband’s smelly socks, my pup Finch’s zany hyjinks, and all the unexpected house costs that are more about function vs finding just the right art piece to hang (on our still bare walls) = difficult.
Last year, we decided it was time to get out of our smaller bungalow in Minneapolis and upgrade to a larger home in Minnetonka with larger yard, larger kitchen- well larger everything. Our new home captured our heart with it's layout and flow. Plus we love our humongous trees and new wildlife (wildlife = VERY different from Minneapolis to Minnetonka). It's really a blank canvas of a house, so we can really infuse our own style- which tends to be 'quirky'- that's the only way I can explain it. I like decor with a history, but I also LOVE Ikea, you know?
Since we moved last June, have been up to our eyeballs in house projects – both large and small. We've gutted and completely re-done the kitchen and master bedroom, and now we are remodeling downstairs (to make Kevin's perfect man-area complete with full sized pinball and arcade machines. Yea, we're that cool).
So we've been doing lots of redo's, but I only recently had my ‘House Style Epiphany’ – I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long. I will explain by example, so here’s what I mean:
Since we moved last June, have been up to our eyeballs in house projects – both large and small. We've gutted and completely re-done the kitchen and master bedroom, and now we are remodeling downstairs (to make Kevin's perfect man-area complete with full sized pinball and arcade machines. Yea, we're that cool).
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| Click here to see how the kitchen turned out! |
Recently, off of Craigslist, I purchased a buffet/server/sideboard for our new dining room. Got it home, loaded into the house, set it place, and…. Here’s where I had the ‘House Style Epiphany’
It’s lovely right? Pretty details, drawers AND doors – which was what I wanted – the hardware isn’t my favorite, but that is easily remedied, and cool detailed apron that comes up the back side – it fits PERFECTLY!!..........in a different house. Our old house to be exact.
Stats:
Old House = 1923 charming, quirky Minneapolis bungalow complete with large base trim, a lovely arch separating the living room from dining room, a piano window, hard wood floors… you get the idea.
New House = 1971 flat, straight line, not-as-quirky ranch complete with the same base trim that the developer used in every house in our neighborhood, carpet…+ other non-exciting descriptive words. NOT the style of home to accommodate a large 1930’s ornate buffet.
After promptly re-selling the buffet back on Craigslist (which was another whole ordeal altogether: involving my husband reporting an Internet fraud scam to the FBI)… HERE is the new buffet that we ordered for our space.
Still had drawers AND doors like I wanted, hardware still maybe needs to be swapped out, but clean line, simple details (or lack thereof) JUST like our house.
My ‘House Style Epiphany’ in a nutshell = I need to embrace the Mid-Century Modern style of new home and get over all of the “ornate-ness” of my previous dwelling . It is what it is – but that doesn’t mean that everything inside needs to be ‘blah’ just because my house is. There is a lot of quirkiness to a Mid-Cent Mod design, and there are a lot of ways to blend my old and new little treasures in with the straight-line style. It means I can go simple with my furnishings, and still create a little delight with an unexpected little something in a fun color or from a different era.
I think it shall end up quite cozy!
~Elisa
~Elisa
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I do like mid century designs but it's never been me. My BFF has it scattered through her house, along with quirky and unique farmhouse// shabby chic things, I don't know how she did it but it looks great together! Heading over to your blog to check it out!
ReplyDeleteAnd boo to Internet fraud scams!
We've had a House Style Epiphany, too, and are streamlining our style to be more mid-century / clean-lined. When we first moved in, I was going more Pottery Barn with light walls and more traditional styled furniture and it was nice, but nothing special. Our house was built in 1966 and I have found that it really shines with rich colors and furniture with strong lines and graphic artwork, so we're slowly working in that direction.
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