When you have a good friend who’s fashionable, funny and talented, it’s a gem! When she’s also a great writer and quite good with a DIY project, you have her post on your blog ASAP! I’m so excited to have one of my besties, Megan Moore, on the blog this week sharing about how to love in and on your home!
You the know saying, “Home is where your heart is”? Well, over the last seven months or so, I’ve really lived/learned/grasped that concept. After moving our family of four 12 hours away from one Music City to another (Nashville, TN to Austin, TX), I began the slow journey of falling in love with our new home, new community, new school and new neighborhood. While we were excited and doing it for the right reasons, we still found moving to be harder than we thought it would be. We were leaving our beautiful home and thriving community of eight-plus years for a brand new house on a brand new street in a community we knew little about or anyone in. Needless to say, it was a long summer!
But you know what? We made the conscious decision to really “love our place”; we began exploring our town, trying new restaurants, visiting new places, playing at parks, meeting our neighbors and making our builder-grade brand new house a HOME! One of the perks of moving is I was going to be able to stay at home for a little while, which for me meant pool days, movie dates, trips to the library, Netflix binging, refining my cooking skills and rekindling my love for a good old-fashioned project.
I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Texas houses, but I was not. I was apprehensive about the textured walls (everyone here has them!), the monochromatic color choice, the smaller yard, lack of fancy woodwork, less storage space; basically, I was focusing on what I saw to be the negatives of our new place.
But you know what? No one cares about that. A soon as I started living in and embracing our new place, I didn’t either because I was sharing it with my family and making it our own. We have been able to do several projects since moving in, but my favorite to date has been the kids’ playroom. I did a few quick searches on Pinterest for inspiration, combined that with my kids’ interests, my small budget and voila! You’ll see in the pictures that the theme I went with is “EXPLORE” (shouldn’t we all be exploring the world we live in?).
The oversized cardboard letters are the focal point of the room and ended up being a fun little painting project for my son and I. I added the old-school map to a custom corkboard and used push pins to show all the places we have visited or lived.
I updated a classic Ikea bookcase with a coat of paint (it actually took about four coats, but who is counting?); found cute and on-trend curtains at Wal-mart (yes, Wal-mart); an inspiring wood sign and made some hanging fabric panels in a vintage pull-down map type of way.
I had so much fun making this drab and plain bonus room into a fun playroom for my kids where they can explore their creativity with Legos, create new fashions for Barbie, and “teach” to their invisible students.
I’ve done several other updates to our place using my creative thinking cap. I used tablecloths for curtains in our kitchen and living areas, made no-sew curtains for the office and dining room, and updated light fixtures. All of this and more has made our house a home, but more than anything it is who you share your space with that makes it a home; after all “home is where the heart is.”
If you are finding yourself in a similar situation or just need some inspiration for that project you have been putting off, I encourage you to make the conscious effort to love where you live (you never know what you will find or who you might meet) and think outside of the box when tackling home projects (tablecloths for curtains?).
Megan Moore is a wife and mom to two in Austin, TX. She loves some IU basketball, Tom Brady, Mexican food and anything related to Chip and Joanna Gaines. When she’s not busy loving her place, you’ll find her in a barre class, reading or buying a new shade of pink lipstick.