The Light That Inspired A Home
They say the best inspiration for your home comes from your own personal closet. Peeking into our closet, between his suits and my work dresses, we live in a sea of neutrals, brown leather, and navy. And yet, we started redoing our home based on a light fixture that seemed to work perfectly into the mix. We were onto something.
The previous owners preferred wood everything and very much a mission style that neither Mr. A or I could get into. But we saw so much in this home, the bones were beyond solid and after living with this house ‘as-is’, our first floor is finally underway, and I cannot wait to show you the difference soon. We started with a simple light fixture in the kitchen, the light in Mr. A’s previous townhome. Mind you, the townhome was decorated that way when he moved in, it was very modern and masculine with glam touches such as the light that I was easily drawn to. But it looked so out of place for months in our new home, such a fancy light against a brown kitchen with wood everywhere. So did our black stools, our black kitchen table, and grey dining chairs. It was modern decor in a not so modern kitchen, and it was slowly driving Mr. A nuts. He has the patience of a saint when it comes to our family, everything else, not so much.
The Kitchen in the listing.
Our kitchen as it looked the day, we first saw it. There was so much to love and hate in this kitchen. The stone backsplash was rustic against a modern countertop, the fridge was small and wouldn’t work for a family of 6, the cabinets were beautiful in size and detail, but the color was too orange, set down on a yellow toned hardwood floor that was in dire need of refinishing. After a few months we were ready to make changes in order to host the holidays here, however by the time we started making calls, no one was available until after January, so we made do with everything except the fridge.
The Perfect Fridge
Fits a family of 6 so much better.
In your twenties, you dream of a glamourous life, filled with designer purses and the champagne life. These days, I dream of Cafe appliances, with the tiny rose gold details. I had saved for that designer purse and the champagne, but it felt so much more fulfilling to walk into Best Buy and buy my first fridge outright and even more so when the guy helping us looked to my husband to pay only to have him say, “she’s the one to talk to, it’s her money.” It may seem odd to some but given all I had gone through over the years in terms of not being able to control my own finances and a draining divorce; it was a moment of pride. I now have this kitchen appliance that not only holds for a family of 6, but stands as a reminder of where I am, far away from where I was and that makes it such a thing of beauty.
And then it began, the spiral everyone speaks of, where you start a project, and it leads to another and another. And because all of the rooms open up to another, the end of one project in one room was the beginning of the other. For example, we changed the backsplash, refinished the cabinets and then the horrid floor really stood out and had to be redone, which now made the trim stand out in not such a good way. So, the trim is currently being painted throughout the first floor which now means the dining room is next on the list of rooms to complete and the minute Mr. A even mentions the upstairs, I have to stop him and remind him that Rome was not built in a day. And I just burnt-out rereading that back to myself imagine living in it.
This wasn’t part of the plan, I was only doing the kitchen but doing the floors and the trim, started the process in every other room and Mr. A doesn’t like things half done. His patience ends with the kids and me. And all because I had him put up a light fixture that he loved in a room he didn’t.
