Interior designer Nate Berkus has famously said “your home should tell the story of who you are and be a collection of what you love.” I have always believed this to be true and take it to heart in every sense of the word. My house has come together over time with a combination of new and used pieces, borrowed stuff from my folks and repurposed things from all over. 

The only common thread through it all is that I like it. 

The problem here is that my style is what you might politely call “eclectic” and that it doesn’t have the cohesive look of a put together home. 

Sometimes I envy those people who have embraced farmhouse style or midcentury modern. That limits the scope of what you might bring home, potentially making for a less cluttered space. Yet, I can’t imagine living that way.

When Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home, he was particular about how the home should flow, where a table should sit and the art that hung on the walls. That’s why there were so many built-in pieces of furniture. A built-in desk in the middle of the room might have two lamps attached and the electric was run through the floor to make it look cleaner. Rearranging furniture was impossible. And if you owned one of his homes, he was apt to purchase and send a piece of artwork to you. He would include instructions for hanging along with his bill for this unsolicited addition to your home. 

From where I sit, I can see a stack of vintage suitcases collected from all over, an antique dresser from a garage sale when I was in college and a heavy silver candlestick that sits below a watercolor of pine trees. My kitchen is colorful, filled with Fiesta plates of red and blue and cute little ceramic animals made during the mid-century. Frank preferred uncluttered kitchens so he would hate all this. 

I do notice my tastes changing over time as I’m shying away from those colorful vintage pieces in favor of more natural textures and materials. More dark woods, stones, tarnished silver and brass, even burlap is more prominent now, mixed in with the colors.Those Fiesta plates may someday get stored for another day while I pull out the plain old white dishes that typically are only used on holidays. 

But not today. For now it’s still working fine and that’s all that matters. 

That’s not to say there aren’t projects on my list. Most of the house is carpeted. It’s old, blue and worn out in a very sad way. No matter how much I clean, it never seems clean enough and I’m sure nineteen year old carpet can’t be good for allergies. One of these days I’m going to replace it with hardwood laminate. 

But not today.

Despite that hideous carpet, my home is cozy, warm and inviting – at least to me. As much as I enjoy having holiday decor throughout the house, I’m sort of looking forward packing all that away again and rethinking my surroundings. I don’t like for things to feel stale so I try to move stuff around occasionally. I actually have shelves and totes of things I like to rotate in sometimes. Again, Frank would find me a willful and annoying client.

Does my house look like a magazine home? Nope. Not a chance. But it’s a happy space to come to and one that I’m pleased to call home. I like the story that it tells about me. At the end of the day, when you come in from the cold in search of solace and warmth, isn’t that all that matters?