It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect To Be Beautiful - But I Want Beauty!

5:00:00 AM

Welcome to the deep dark side of a blogger's house. We are not perfect. But that's not what I want.

First of all. The Nesting Place


If you haven't purchased this book, you need to. Guys, I truly love this book. Myquillin (AKA The Nester) doesn't know me from Adam, but since she's local, I feel like we're neighbors! Oh, and by the way, I am not getting paid or in any way compensated for my opinion, and the link isn't an affiliate link. I asked for The Nesting Place for a Mother's Day present.  I love her blog, which is also called The Nesting Place. This book is not about how to decorate your home, or design ideas, but rather how not to be afraid of your home and making it your own. To find inspiration and run with it! "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" is the tagline of the book, and it's a real inspiration for me. I deal with so many design decisions at work as an architect, that recently, I've fallen into a rut in our design. We've allowed the kids' toys to overrun our home, and I have loads of pieces of art that I love that are sitting on the floor, waiting to be hung. We have pieces of furniture that plain don't work for us, and arrangements of furniture that are ridiculous. So over the next couple of months, I resolve that we're going to get this party started. I want our home to feel like a breath of fresh air. I have a couple of projects that I'm going to implement to help organize our home and make it more beautiful to us.

Now, I'm well aware that I am doing the work of Sisyphus if I expect my home to look like a magazine. Instead, the purpose of this exercise is to make it more reasonable to expect my kiddos to pick up after themselves and just de-crapify my house so we can enjoy the beauty in our home. For example, we had a cute hanging net thingy (technical architectural term) for Lil Bit's room to store all her stuffed animals in it. The problem: she couldn't reach it. So we need another system. There's stuff like that all. over. our. house.


These projects I want to do are going to fall into two categories: Kid's Rooms/ Toy Organization and Operation General Beautification. I am limiting myself to small projects (think an afternoon, minus paint drying time). Some of them are super simple—like hang the darn pictures. Some are more complex—like creating a workable organization system for hair accessories. I'm a list girl, so here's my "to do" list:

Kids Rooms/Toy Organization
Create a hair accessory storage system for all three girls.
Move bookcases and other storage areas around to better suit needs (toy boxes, etc)
Create labeled bins for small toys
Create artwork for the twins' room
Create/Find new bedding for the twins
Clean out closets/ Move out any outgrown clothes
Clear out & sell old toys (can I say hooray for consignment sales?)
Modify a couple of existing pieces to be more kid-storage friendly

General Beautification:
Create a summer mantel
Patch walls
Get some furniture that works with how I create/blog
Hang up wall art in master bedroom
Hang up wall art in living room
Decorative pillows in master bedroom
Get rid of junk (decrapify) so that our rooms can breathe!


And now, here's the kicker. I want all of these things done. Like now. But I don't want to overwhelm myself and my dear family. So I'm giving us the end of summer to get all of this done. It should be doable, right? You're going to keep me honest and cheer me on, because we're friends and all, right? Thanks a bunch. I'm sure this list will evolve over time, but I'll just have to keep up with it! And now, here's a collection of before pictures to keep me motivated...and to show that just because you have a blog, you don't have a perfect home. My pictures—the perfect example! And no, I didn't watermark these pictures. I don't think anyone wants these pictures of the junk.




So who here wants to join me in making our homes beautiful by getting rid of the ugly and the non-functioning?

Architecture of a Mom Signature

I love to party! Sometimes I link up my posts to Organizing JunkieTidy Mom and these link parties! You should come party with me and check out some awesome new bloggers!

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