Decor

I used to be really, really country back in the '90s. A red, white and blue living room, with stencils. A red, white and black kitchen, with a checkerboard stencil. A stencil in the bathroom consisting of hydrangeas in pots. A chair rail in the bedroom, with soft pink, cream and green wallpaper above it. I think it became popular leading up to the bicentennial, and stayed quite a while. Remember dusty rose, colonial blue, sage greens? 

Growing up decor was exclusively "colonial." My father loved history and always wanted to buy a 1700s (or earlier) fixer-upper colonial. He was an antiques dealer so we had a spinning wheel in the living room as well as other antiques. My mother braided rugs and "antiqued" furniture. Remember that fad? 

It had been my dream to buy a fixer upper but somewhere along the way I switched to Victorian. Maybe it was the very low ceilings or lack of hallways so bedrooms had two doors. And absolutely no privacy. That didn't seem like a place I wanted to call home. 

But I could never really get into Victorian decor. My style is classic, simple, pretty but wholesome, not frou-frou. The house I ended up buying is a very simple Victorian workingman's cottage. It has the typical two front doors, a double parlor and small rooms. High ceilings (on the first floor; the second floor is normal height), wavy glass windows (some). The ceilings used to be about a foot higher. If I were really ambitious I would remove the lower sheetrock ceilings. The only embellishments are on the porch trim. I've been thinking of adding some decoration in the front gable to break up the plain, boxiness.

High ceilings.

Trim on porch.

Boxy house.