So in my last post I shared that I was feeling a bit disconnected from my house. I wasn’t sad or down. I promise, I ADORE living in Seattle. I just miss that connection to my home. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive about my environment, but I’m sure many of you can relate. Even though my house has so much potential, it was missing a little something that I need to feel like it’s MINE.

So yesterday I spent a little time pondering how I was going to find that connection. I have had quite a few ideas since we’ve moved here, and I’ve shared my vision posts to show how I’m seeing this house. Those vision posts have been really helpful. But as I mentioned yesterday, I really hadn’t taken the time over the past few weeks of living here to just zero in on what could be done and try some things.

I sat down with my new book yesterday and flipped through the pages, just reflecting back to when I felt kind of lost and stuck with my old house. As I was reading my own words in the book (something that’s kind of scary for me to do after a book is done, by the way, ha!) and remembering that thought process, it hit me.

I needed to follow the same steps as I did in my old house! Sometimes I forget and I wander around trying to reinvent the wheel. No, this house isn’t the same as my old house. No two houses are. But there is so much about the process that is the same, I need to remember that.

I started just puttering around with some decluttering in my living room. A bunch of stools, baskets and random things had ended up there in the move and they for sure didn’t work or contribute anything to the space. Just removing things from a room does wonders for your vision and sense of the space! It’s funny how what IS there can block you from seeing what COULD be there.

Getting rid of the excess that had just landed there in this room helped, but I was still just not sure what to do next. So from there I was in the dining room and tried something I had tried before, but this time something new really clicked. I not only removed a few excess things and slid furniture around to try it in new ways, but my daughter Courtney started marking up the wall with painter’s tape around the kitchen door, so we could get a better visual of an idea that had been brewing since we moved in :).

It is a risky idea because it is not what is normally done. You know, it might not follow “THE RULES.” Who makes those rules anyway?

I haven’t yet shared that full idea here, because we weren’t exactly sure yet if it would all work. This house is different than any I’ve ever lived in, but that’s OK. Every house requires a time of discovery. We didn’t know if it was even OK to do it at all. Yeah, WHAT? OF COURSE IT IS OK TO DO IT! Silly me, it’s my house.

This house has been trying to tell me something. I am listening. She wants exactly what I want! It took about five minutes of seeing the idea mapped out with painters tape on the wall and our rearranged furniture in the space before we just KNEW. This was IT. HOORAY! This house and I are going to get along great, I just know it.

Courtney and I were practically jumping out of our skin.

Once we realized what had made us feel disconnected to our space, we knew exactly what we needed to do to feel connected.

With that one new little vision, and by daring to see our room in a new way, we knew we could:

-give our dining room our own unique look

-give the house more of our own personality

-use what we have in a fresh new way

-make our house feel cozier

-make more sense of the space we have (as limited as it is!)

-feel more connected to our dining room

-make a design statement that would appeal to our taste and freshen up the look of the house

-refresh the space on a budget that seems manageable

-reimagine how to make the dining room flow effortlessly into the kitchen (without gutting the whole house just to get the look we love).

-AND, once we knew all of these things, we started seeing how the rest of the main floor would come together.

RIGHT? That’s a LONG list of developments for only one day, but we are pretty tickled. We actually already love our house so much more EVEN with the tape on the wall than we did without the tape. We think we will just leave the tape there for now, it really has changed everything about how we perceive the space and even if we can’t get to that project immediately, it will help us to stay on course going forward.

We’ll share a photo of our dining room with tape on the wall next week, so you can see what we see :). We might scare some of you with our idea, but hopefully you’ll like it as much as we do. It’s not expected at all, but I think that’s what we love so much about the idea. Gotta shake things up a little, right?

A house is just a structure until layer by layer, you make it a home.

Now I’m extra happy to finally introduce to you the brand new video trailer for my new book, The Inspired Room! It is pretty ironic and quite surreal how in many ways this book reflects RIGHT where I am in this new house. Making any house a home is a grand adventure.

If we don’t live in our ideal house, many of us go through times of feeling uncertain about how to get the look we want for our home, or if it is even possible to ever really LOVE it {nods head.} I still don’t have it all figured out, but I definitely feel like I have a more clear piece of the puzzle. It’s always a slow but fun experience to see a house transform.

This book has lots of photos so you can enjoy just browsing through or even just set it out on your coffee table, but I hope you’ll sit down from time to time and read it, too. I shared lots of ideas and stories about how my other house came together over time, on a budget, using what we had and gathered as we went. I offered a lot of advice on how to use what you have RIGHT NOW (YAY!) and how to gather as you go to create an authentic home you’ll love. There are helpful tips for how you can apply the ideas to your own space, even if you have limitations or challenges.

I want you to feel that same sense of connection to YOUR house that I love feeling in mine.

Here’s the trailer!

You can preorder The Inspired Room here at the new book site so you’ll be one of the first to get it when it releases in just a few days!

Also, I just noticed Love the Home You Have (Kindle Edition) is just $2.99 at Amazon!

I can’t wait to show you our taped up dining room and our furniture all moved around, so you can see how we reimagine it. It’s so fun for me to share with you all, thanks again for letting me ramble on about houses :).