Creating Beauty and Making My House a Home

I’ve done a thing, you see, I’ve created beauty in my home. Now, that may not seem like a big deal because that is how women (especially women) have expressed themselves for hundreds of generations. But, it is a big deal for me because it’s for the first time in what feels like a very long time.

(when I think about it, I have done it in other houses, but this time feels different. All the others either belonged to someone else or felt temporary. This is the first home that is truly mine that I chose and that we plan to live in for a very long time – it’s up to me to make it feel like our forever home.)

What have I done?

I’ve created a sightline that brings me joy. And the ripple effects have been pretty tremendous. Let’s dive in and see what’s swimming these days as I lean into, and listen to, my big ‘D’ Desires.

In Part 1 of this series, I shared the importance of listening to our big ‘D’ desires and how I had recently become aware that there was a big ‘D’ that I’d been ignoring for a looooooong time. In Part 2, we chatted about the ‘decor ladies’ and how I’d been inspired by their beautiful Instagram squares to really look at my house and start making it into a home that brings me joy.

Well, let me tell you (!!!) it has been quite a wild ride as I’ve attempted to create my first beautiful ‘sightline’ in our new home. Luckily, I decided to do it right around the Christmas season so I had quite a bit of decor to work with as I put together this first ‘vignette’.

(*ahem* though I may have gone just a teensy bit overboard at Michael’s and HomeSense leading up to Christmas… but, just, like, a super-teensy bit…)

How To Create One Decor Sightline

So, what did I have to do to make ONE successful sightline in my home?

(I started my Beloved, Not Busy Instagram account on November 11, 2018 and by November 16th I’d gotten off my butt to create this sightline. It was mostly complete by December 5th. Of the SAME YEAR! That’s pretty good, right?)

1. Choose My Spot

First, I had to decide where I was going to make my daring debut. I chose the kitchen because it had this one nice corner that was empty. I also thought that since we use the kitchen so frequently, it made sense to make it prettier.

1.5 Pretty Interlude

Okay, the kitchen wasn’t technically the first bit of pretty. That would be this chest in the living room that I moved from under the TV and put where the secretary had been.

(it’s full of our DVDs)

The blue wall is now white and, at the time, it had a few patches of mudding on it. Because EVERY wall had mudding.

But, it was pretty. And it did bring me joy. And I did share it on IG. Yay!

(and all the pretty came from Michael’s – thank goodness for big pre-Christmas discounts!)

2. Change the Colour

The only problem, of course, was that the kitchen wall was peach. This pinkish-peach colour that is ALL OVER my kitchen. I don’t like it. I see what they were trying to do and I can even appreciate the sponged treatment they used around the cabinets (y’know, a little bit) but, I gotta be honest, it makes me cringe every time I think about it. Definite shame factor.

So, I primed the wall. Yup. That’s it. Since I had NO idea what colour I actually wanted to paint the walls and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with this whole idea of ‘making pretty’ and there being 8000 shades of white to choose from (!!!), I figured I’d start with just whiting out all existing colour.

(I am getting better at telling ‘this’ white from ‘that’ white and ‘cool’ white from ‘warm’ white, so there is hope)

(This is where y’all can feel for my very patient hubby. Because this whole process took TWO weeks!)

3. Buy and Paint the Dresser

But then I needed something to anchor that spot in the corner. And I do have a gorgeous old wooden sideboard but, I’ll be honest (always), I just don’t have the gumption to paint that antique heirloom. I know I’ll get there eventually but I’m not there – yet. Plus, it was a little bit too big for that space.

But! Then I found these TWO dressers on kijiji from a lovely man in Richibucto and they became my very first kijiji purchase ever (another first!). The big, yummy man drove with me up to Richibucto to get them … he’s the best.

Then, I made them white, too. I’ll talk about that whole process and how I did it soon.

(I may also have painted two or three sides of our kitchen island, just to see if I could and just because I was absolutely sure that it would look better than the yellow oak we have everywhere in the kitchen… I was right!)

Woot! Achievement One UNLOCKED! I now had a white corner and a dresser to hold ALL THE THINGS! Rock on!

But, there’s so much more…

4. Get a Shelf

Now, one of the decor vignettes I was seeing a lot as I scrolled Instagram was the ‘open shelf’ thing. I’ve had open shelves and I’ve had closed shelves over the years and since they almost always end up crammed with books and definitely not pretty, I usually opt for hiding that stuff behind doors.

Not this time.

This time, I decided I was putting open shelves up over the dresser and I realized that I already had a shelf that I could use. It was upstairs in what is now my office (that is a whole other story!) so I cleared it off, took it off the wall and brought it downstairs. It was even painted off-white already so it totally fit with my vision.

The only problem was that there were only two brackets and I could not find nice wooden brackets at any of the home stores so I settled on one shelf only.

(I’ve since cut two more brackets that I’ll show you soon so there will be another shelf for Valentine’s Day) 🙂

After much dithering, the big, yummy man and I figured out where to hang the shelf and how to get it level on the wall.

(and, yes, I’ve since found a great hack to make that little bit of shelf hanging trickery very easy – I’ll share about that sometime as well)

5. Add the Decor

I have to confess, I really did love playing with the dresser top and shelf to get it looking pretty. I even changed it several times over the holidays.

I know that it’ll be even better next year and I’m still celebrating that this is the very first time I’ve done anything like this and it didn’t look totally terrible.

I made a pretty sightline and it brought me joy every time I walked in the room. It also started a chain reaction that is still continuing and I’ll talk about that in the next post.

Here it is, all the pretty:

And I promise that by next year, I will have figured out this whole light-balance, exposure, ‘how on earth to get a great photo inside my house in that dark little corner’ thing. But, even with my lack of photography know-how (check it out in the next post!), I am having a blast making the pretty happen.

So, there it is, y’all! My story of creating one serene sightline as I change my house into our home. What do you think?