Things in our home I wouldn’t have chosen (but now love)….

When I think about how I used to decorate, it was very much my taste.

Not necessarily in a selfish way, more in a “this is my house and I know what I like” kind of way. I liked things to match, I liked everything to feel calm and coordinated and I generally knew exactly how I wanted a room to look before I’d even started decorating it.

Actually, now I’ve written that down, maybe I was a little bit selfish. 😂

My old house was very much like that. White walls, pale grey carpets and everything coordinated. If you’ve been around here for a long time then you might even remember my photo wall on the stairs with all the wing shots perfectly lined up in matching white frames and labelled underneath.

That was definitely my vibe back then and you know what? I loved it. It felt exactly how I wanted my home to feel at that point in my life.

This house feels completely different.

As much as part of me would love to plaster all the walls, paint everything a lovely neutral colour and insist that the whole house is kept tidy at all times, that’s just not going to happen. And I’m OK with that now. Just! 😁

This house is still very much a work in progress, but based on the rooms we’ve decorated so far, I think it’s going to end up being a combination of what suits the house itself and a mix of both of our styles.

I actually had the idea for this post when a friend came round recently and we were laughing about how different this house is to my old one. She could instantly pick out the things I’d added because I loved them, but she could also clearly spot the things that were more my partner’s passions.

The funny thing is, some of those things are there because I put them there.

Cars are a big thing for him and, if I’m honest, they’re not something I’d ever been particularly interested in before we met. In a past life, I think I would have kept anything car-related completely separate from the main rooms because it wouldn’t have fitted with how I wanted the house to look.

There’s now a row of cars sitting on top of some shelves in our living room which, a few years ago, I definitely wouldn’t have agreed to. 😂

I actually unpacked them from one of the many boxes he has filled with cars while he was at work one day and put them there myself. I wanted him to come home and see that this wasn’t going to be a house where everything had to fit with my idea of what looked good.

Then there are a few photos of cars that have meant a lot to him over the years. I thought they’d be nice on the walls in our hall where he’d see them every day, but rather than putting the original photos up, I had them turned into sketch-style prints so they’re all the same style and size.

That’s probably the perfect example of how we’re decorating this house. The pictures mean exactly the same thing to him, but the way we’ve displayed them makes them feel a bit more me too.

Even the main focal point on our fireplace is a car. I unpacked it when we moved and knew how much he’d enjoy seeing it every day, so I put it there to see how I felt about it. Now it just feels completely natural sitting there between a plant and some candles.

It’s not just cars though – I can’t even explain our dining room table journey. 😁

I did love the table when he pointed it out, but I wasn’t convinced we needed a table quite that big. He was absolutely set on having a huge table to fill the room properly and, although I wasn’t convinced at the time, I have to admit he was right. The room definitely needs a big table even though we rarely use more than five of the seats at once.

We then had numerous discussions about whether the table should be set up at its shortest or longest length. I wanted short. He wanted long.

So we made a deal.

If the table was staying fully extended, I was getting the curtains I wanted.

Which is how we ended up with the curtains we have now… and I am about 99% certain he doesn’t like them. 😂

To be fair, he says he does. But when someone’s response is “if you like them then I like them”, that’s never a particularly good sign, is it?

Anyway, that table then had an incident with our plasterer and we decided to replace it and, you guessed it, he wanted an even bigger table! 😂

I actually like the new one so much more though. It’s nowhere near as fancy as the old one and it feels much more suited to normal day-to-day family life. A scratch or knock on this one will just become part of the table, whereas it would have been a disaster on the old one.

There are things in this house that I wouldn’t have chosen myself and there are things I would never have expected to love as much as I do.

And actually, I think I prefer it that way.

My old house looked exactly how I wanted it to look and I loved it, but this one is becoming a reflection of both of us rather than just one person’s idea of what a home should look like.

There’ll be cars on shelves I wouldn’t have chosen, curtains he probably wouldn’t have chosen and an unnecessarily enormous dining table that I’m now prepared to admit looks absolutely right in the room.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, it’s becoming our home. ❤️

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