Details

"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."

-William Morris

I want to talk about details in the home.

My home is not perfectly detailed yet. I'm too young and too new still at this whole homeowning/ homemaking thing.

It's been my observation that the people with the most impressively detailed homes are in their 50's and 60's. It just simply takes that long to collect, edit, decorate and detail a home to perfection.

I'm determined to get there someday.

Little by little.

Piece by piece.

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Last weekend Micah and I drove to Michigan to visit our friends who own this Antique shop.

             

Near the end of our visit I found myself in the basement of the shop with the owner, rummaging through a cardboard box of about 30 to 40 lamp finials. I just kept talking about trying to find the best ones. It was dark, cold and dirty down there. Several cats were pacing back and forth, watching my every move. I had stepped through and around piles of sawdust, pieces of old furniture, drop cloths, cat litter, and paint cans, to get to the back shelf where the treasured finials had been stashed. The thought occurred to me, "This is probably not how most normal people want to spend a beautiful, sunny Saturday. Am I not normal?! Should I maybe be outside on a walk or something? Nah... That's crazy because.... LAMP FINIALS!!!!!"

I emerged from their basement a little dirty but excited about my find. These were heavy, old, brass finials of different shapes and sizes and I could not wait to get them home and try them on my lamps. 

These are the kinds of details that are going to make a difference in a home.

I'll show you...

          

          

I am certainly no expert. I don't believe I have arrived to where I want my home to be, but these small changes excite me and make me feel as though I may be getting closer.

          

Can you see the value in going from this:

         

To this:

       

Be still my heart!

~~~~~~~

The truth is, I have found myself in the above antiquing/ junking/ salvaging situation countless times before. It wasn't my first time (and won't be my last) in someone's shop, garage or dark basement, picking through stuff and getting my hands and jeans dirty. 

It's all a part of the ongoing quest to a polished home.

We came home with several fun things for our upcoming family room renovation. An antique brass light fixture, a wooden desk, reading lamp, and some old books and hardware.

I also found a couple of authentic ironstone pitchers.

             

I've had a mad crush on English Ironstone for years now. They're hard to find. When I do find one at a reasonable price, I bring it home to replace one of my cheaper, newer pieces. 

When I'm shopping for my home with the attitude of wanting to edit my home with an upgrade, the clutter concern is eliminated. What I mean is, I'm not just adding to my home and junking it up with more stuff. I'm slowly collecting pieces so that a cheaper piece (that I maybe don't love as much) can be traded out for something better.

Here is an example:

A HomeGoods pitcher that sat in my living room hutch...

          

Can now be dropped off at Goodwill because of my new replacement:

         

See?! Upgrade!!!

           

This is actually quite exciting for me because my hutch is now all English Ironstone. It took a couple of years. When I first moved this hutch in and decorated it, there were only one or two Ironstone pieces. That's just all I had at the time. Over the years though, I've been switching pieces out for Ironstone that I've been slowly bringing home. I finally got there! Every white piece you see here is authentic Ironstone and has the English "stamp" to validate its authenticity.

Aren't you happy for me, girlfriends?!!!

;)

Again, these are the kinds of details that are going to make a difference in a home.

Decorating and homemaking to me is a journey. An ongoing process to continue to improve my surroundings and take my home to the next level of quality. I'm not there yet, but my home is better today than it was 5 years ago; and I fully expect it to be better 5 years from now than it is today.

This sort of reminds me of the sanctification process of our hearts! Are you a better person now than you were 5 years ago? I think I am!

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Well, my friends, I hope I got you thinking about details and how important they are!

Thank you to those of you who leave comments here. I really love reading what you have to say! 

Until next time,

~Courtney