The interesting thing about this blog is that yes, it’s a blog for my photography  business… but there is a large majority of people who, when asked about their favorite aspect about my blog, say that they love the “home” posts! I’m really not offended that weddings aren’t their favorite part at all because personally, I could spend (and sometimes do spend) HOURS looking at gorgeous decor inspiration online. That’s RELAXING to me! I enjoy getting ideas, seeing new color palettes, dreaming of mixing up patterns and textures. I enjoy home design and looking at floor plans and evidently, I’m not the only one.  When I asked “What do you want to see more of?” a couple of months ago, the response was an overwhelming “More home/decor posts”!!! This is exciting to me because I love sharing about our home… but it does leave me in an interesting situation…..There is a fine line between

 inspiration and bragging

I NEVER want to share inspirational decor posts and come across as a “show off”. That makes me feel sick just thinking about that. That has never been and will never be my intention. EVER. I share my home decor projects because I REALLY love that stuff… and I know other people do too.  It helps build our audience and lets people see a peek into our world. I constantly battle this dilemma in my head… What is too much?  Will people take this the wrong way? Will this be well received? ….. Ultimately, my goal is to INSPIRE…. but this winter, I’ve had a realization. I don’t just want to provide “pinnable” content, I want to share….

intentional inspiration.

When I post about our home, our decor, our paint colors, our place settings, etc… I want there to be something MORE behind this content. There’s nothing wrong with pretty things but I’ve been convicted recently that I need to make sure I’m communicating our heart behind this area of our life. Decorating, dinner parties, wall displays, re-arranging the spare bedroom… all of these things mean nothing on the surface, but when you know my heart behind why I do these things, it adds some depth to the inspiration.

Michael and I got married and lived in a 1300square foot cape cod our first two years of marriage and it was adorable…. small, but adorable! (View old house posts HERE, HERE & HERE) We hosted get-togethers with 20+ people in that tiny house and it was so much fun. Our air conditioning unit could barely keep up but we were having such a great time that it didn’t really matter. Amazing memories were made in that house and that was where we realized that we loved hosting people. We loved having people stay with us and even though we didn’t have a spare bedroom, we worked really hard to make our couch cozy! :) We dreamed of the day when we could not only have a spare bedroom for our guests…but we could have space to host LARGE events! We wanted to host workshops in our HOME instead of at a fancy venue. We wanted to host youth group events, small groups, birthday parties, Thanksgiving and out of town guests for long periods of time! Every time someone enters our home, we have a unique opportunity to love them and make them feel cared for and that’s why we built our current home.

So do you need a new home that’s larger than 1300 square feet and is decorated beautifully to love and serve people? NO, absolutely not. You just need a heart for people. We loved and served people in our smaller home for years and we really enjoyed it!! It was cozy and homy and we loved having people over!! ANYONE can love and serve people with their space, no matter the size, shape or square footage and I believe that God calls us all to do that in some way, shape or form. (Hebrews 13:2)

No matter what your space looks like, I think most everyone desires to make their space feel warm and welcoming. This is where the decorating comes in! My goal in our home is create a space that is fun to be in. There’s nothing wrong with having white walls and nothing hanging on them… but personally, I think frames and curtains help make a space feel a little more cozy. One of the first rooms we decorated in our new house was the guest room. I wanted our first guests to come to visit and feel like they had their own space that was safe, welcoming and inviting and so that room took priority over others. The more I make this house our home, the more I realize that I love decorating because I love PEOPLE. Sharing our space and hosting our friends and family is one of our favorite things to do and my contribution to that is making the space WELCOMING!!!

After praying about this, talking with friends and working through this with Michael…. I have decided to transition my decor and home posts into a BRAND NEW SERIES!! Introducing…..

a Home Made for Hosting

I’m excited about this series because it is going to show the inspirational, pretty stuff… but it’s also going to have share more of our heart behind how we love and serve people with our space. I want my “pretty” to have a “purpose”. So get excited because we have a lot that we want to share with this series. I have to remember that this ISN’T a HOME DECOR blog because I could blog about decorating for weeks at a time! This series will pop up every now and then, just like our previous home posts, but there will also be some “Home Made for Hosting” posts that just talk about the spiritual/service side of our home as well.

I hope you’re just as excited as I am…. and I hope my rambling makes sense! :) I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on all of this! Thank you for reading and sticking with me! Because I made you read so much, here are some updated pictures of our living room!! Enjoy!! xoxo

Resources:

– Couch : Bassett

– End Tables & Coffee Table : IKEA

– Paint Color : Sherwin Williams “Amazing Gray”

– Pillows : Basset

– Cuddler Couch : Basset

– Lamps and ceramic table piece : Homegoods

– Teal entry table : Target

– White Shelves : IKEA (Lack)

– Affordable Canvases printed by : CG Pro Prints