SJ’s Disclaimers –
I’d like to put forth a few disclaimers before you begin the tour of the Village (these mainly apply to Hong House).
First off, I recognize completely that I am in no way, shape, or form any sort of expert on interior design/décor/home renovation! The purpose of displaying my home on this blog is to show how a typical homeowner with no design expertise can transform a home into the space that he or she loves.
I also don’t give myself much cred on the photography-front. We only just purchased our DSLR camera, and I haven’t had a chance to do research and experiment with all the different settings. So for now, I have simply applied the Apple “fade” filter to all my tour photos to even out the lighting and give them a more consistent feel.
Our home may not seem quite as polished and “put together” as the some of the homes featured on other home decorating blogs, but the photos on this blog represent what our home looks like on an everyday basis (assuming that everything is put away where it belongs and the house is relatively clean dusting and vacuuming-wise, which it usually is). I didn’t add or take away anything from its normal resting place for the purpose of taking blog photos…just trying to keep it real!
In my opinion, looking at photos of picture-perfectly staged homes can be inspiring, but also somewhat defeating, because for me, that level of perfection would be impossible to achieve every day. My husband and I both work full time jobs and I commute an hour+ each way to and from work. Needless to say, our time at home doesn’t warrant everyday perfection. So while it was tempting to hide items such as our not-so-sightly dish drainer to photograph the kitchen, that wouldn’t be real life…at any given point you will find at least a few dishes sitting in that dish drainer, so it is a necessity on the counter!
Also, I’ve decorated our home is a manner that is functional for our particular household, which includes four rambunctious kitties. While I would love to display lots of photos and/or other decorative items on our bedroom nightstands and dressers, our cat Cooper likes to push those types of things into the floor to see them break in the middle of the night! Hence the somewhat barren, non-decorated feel of our master bedroom. For the items that actually do reside on our nightstands, I had to add gripper feet to the bottoms so that Cooper couldn’t head-butt them off as easily! You’ll also see strategically-placed kitty beds throughout the house, which I did not put away for any of the photos, as they are an everyday fixture here. And as for plants, it’s mostly fake for us. The kitties, namely Chimy, enjoy snacking on real plants.
In my opinion, the decorative style of our home does not seem entirely cohesive, but it is our style, we love it, and that is what matters. Watching Joanna Gaines work her magic on Fixer Upper, I have grown to love farmhouse style and wanted to incorporate that into our new home’s décor. But I absolutely did not want to give up any of my existing art/décor pieces that I loved (mainly my cat art and decorative items) just because they didn’t fit exactly into the “farmhouse style” bucket. For example, replacing my “cats drinking” art in the kitchen with vintage-looking prints of herbs would have probably felt more “farmhouse,” but I wasn’t about to get rid of the pieces that were special to me for the sake of achieving a more blog-worthy look. I’ve collected those “cat drinking” prints over the years and each contains a representation of one of my cats (I know, I’m borderline crazy cat lady – the only thing that disqualifies me is the fact that I am married).
I think that one’s home should contain decorative pieces that the homeowner loves! So for Hong House, I attempted to decorate with items special to us and use filler items with that sort of farmhouse/rustic look that were somewhat complementary.
On a similar note, I used a good bit of my existing furniture so as to not bust the budget, and some of the pieces are not exactly what I would have chosen if starting fresh. Some of them could be refinished for a new look, but I haven’t had the time to get into many furniture projects yet. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to share some of those in the future! Also, in decorating and furnishing, I was trying to keep my husband’s preferences in mind as well, and he favors a modern versus a rustic look. I think that overall I have achieved a “modern farmhouse” style, but with some added distinctiveness!
So in summary, I know that Hong House is far from perfect, but we have worked hard to make it the home that we love! I hope you enjoy following the blog to see its continuing transformation!
Now that all that’s off my chest, please begin the tour using the links below!