In the Middle of it All – The Design Process

Happy Monday friends, I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend. Lately, I have been caught up in the why of my blog and I wanted to share my heart with you a bit today. I really love being able to talk with you here and I truly mean that. I have an opportunity to share my thoughts, my passions and a little bit of my life with you. And just like my journey in home decor =), there has been a bigger journey in my path of life generally speaking.

Today I wanted to share a little bit about both as I feel they go hand in hand. More so, in the last year I have had the chance to show our home and how it looks today. I have the opportunity to work with some wonderful and talented individuals/companies whom I love to be able to collaborate with and in part that has added some beautiful decor to our home.

But our home didn’t get here without a story. It didn’t always look like this, nor did I. It has taken some effort and it is still a work in progress. Most importantly, it is my desire that you know whatever I share here with you on Zevy Joy it be an encouragement.  An encouragement to try hard, to live dreams and to do it with whatever you may have big or small.

So today I bring you our sweet little home (throughout the past 9 years) in the middle of finding myself and finding my style. I am giving you a tour of a place where our family made many memories, joined in lots of  laughs and tears occasionally too. A place that looked just as it should at the time and has since then received some updates/upgrades.

Things like tile, butcher block and an open kitchen were all I knew I wanted when working on our kitchen when we very first moved in. It made me happy and I felt accomplished knowing we did most of it ourselves. The best part were the little mouths we fed around this island, the smudged surfaces from little fingers and the conversations that circled this lovely space. I didn’t know what I wanted more for our decor than what was there at the time and it was “just right”.

As time went on, I had an eye for industrial pieces and I was gifted these stools from my dad after we had invested in some metal dining chairs. Both of those pieces began a style I continued to “build on” for our home. We started small with our decor ideas and went from there.

This sectional engulfed our room. It made it a place we could sit/relax after both myself and my hubby worked full hours as teachers and had our sweet babes to tend to at the end of a long day. It provided us a spot to chat and catch up, to make plans for the future and decide what we wanted to be. Toys filled the room and made many fun messes.

Knowing the sectional was comfy and important to us, I worked with a budget and sewed our slipcover as seen above (you can read about the process here also). I was set on a lighter and brighter space after having earth tones take the stage for so long in our home. A crisp white sofa would do the trick and much like the industrial chairs, it began to evolve into a style I was striving for.

This sweet table was purchased on Craigslist and is still with us in our home now (only here). There have been many meals, talks and holidays at this table…

Our bedroom was plain, over time it got simple upgrades such as a rug, more pillows, paint, etc…

Our front room has seen so many changes. It serves as a variety of things, a guest room, a living room and an office. It has been a good space for our family in a smaller home. Friends and loved ones have occupied this space making visiting possible. We really appreciate it’s versatility.

(Weathered Wood Wall – Stikwood, Art by Wellbrock Art)

And today it looks like this. It didn’t happen over night and still has a ways to go. Like mentioned above, my industrial stools, dining chairs and white sofa were the decor that paved the way for the style of our home now.

Many pieces have been repurposed, thrifted and budgeted (as seen here). The flexibility of neutrals and second hand furniture made my style simple and attainable.

I was able to take this small space and transform it over nearly a decade. White, creams and linen became the cohesive element found throughout each of our rooms. Those three things (chairs and sofa) that started my design are still a fixture in our home today.

(Rug from Rugs USA)

Some new favorites have been added alongside them such as these wicker chairs and chandelier that give our home the farmhouse/cottage style I longed for.

They have helped decorate our home, they have made it pretty and they have defined my style. What I hope most is that you will leave here today remembering that these things did not make it a home. I did and those whom I love do (my hubby, my kiddos and our family/friends). The pictures sharing our home before and throughout the process show a home where a mom and a dad both worked full time, working hard to provide a house for their family and making it work. A family taking risks, living what they believed in and having faith. A place where a mom quit her job to stay home and live her dream to care for her babes and live off less. But with that risk came huge reward. An opportunity to dream big, honor her God and be here sharing with you today. Sure, I would like to think our home and decor have come a long way and I would like to say it looks pretty (at least in my eyes ;). No matter what our home looked like before, in the middle and after… it was ALWAYS home. We loved each other, we made mistakes, we lived, we learned, we are better for it and we are doing it all over again every day. Our style of home/decor took some years to tweak with a few favorite pieces that led the way.

I hope this encourages you that it can take time to decorate and to find your style. When you are in the process of doing that you still have home no matter what it may look like and even if it is only a few pieces in your desired style.

Since I just shared how I came to find my design favorites, I am so excited to be joining some wonderful ladies as we talk about how we find, define, represent and/or refine our styles. We will use this as an opportunity to show our spaces/decor that makes us happy and feel at home, because isn’t that really what decor should be all about?!  In turn we want to share yours too! Starting each Monday – Thursday (6:00 EST) you can post a photo to Instagram of how you find your style in your home using #FindingMyStyle. Get creative and let us hear about you – we would love to see how you put your signature on your style.  Then each Friday we will pick one person’s photo to feature on each of our accounts.

I am joining each of these talented friends…

Cami from Tidbits

Alicia from A Burst of Beautiful

Nina from Nina Hendrick Design

Lauren from Blesser House

Norma from Paint Me Pink

Rachel from Maison de Pax

Ashley from Cherished Bliss

Make sure to go and say hello and thank you so much for stopping by!