My interior design style is a constantly evolving thing. Our home is full of bit and pieces I have been collecting for years. My eyes are always on the lookout for things that will grow and add to my bohemian style.
Bohemian is probably the best way to describe our home. We have an assortment of old and new things that all seem to fold together into a very cohesive style of decorating that tells the story of our life.
Each piece of furniture has a story and is as wide ranging from ‘I brought it at Ikea’ to ‘I found it on the street and spent hours restoring it’. My most beloved things always seem to be the lucky finds from op shops and hard rubbish. Sometimes despite my hunting I have had to purchase things from stores I would rather avoid. I would prefer that all my clothes lived inside something that I had found and fixed myself rather than the faux birch Ikea drawers they currently reside in but i’m also 100% aware that my clothes can’t live on the floor… So until I find the perfect piece there they will stay!
I once found a rickety old piano stool on the side of the road, I took it home and used the dust bag from my Nancy Bird hand bag to make a new cushion cover for the seat. It now lives happily in the hallway with a picnic box suitcase on top of it.
I also love to make things! My favourite clothes that need to be hung live on a stand I made myself from 5 pieces of dowel. I like being able to see my clothes so I can pick what suits my mood, I find that anything I can’t see immediately won’t get worn.
I like to buy lots of small things I find beautiful and move them around my home. My vintage timber Kodak film developing box is a good example of something that has had lots of different purposes. I’ve used it on my desk to hold letters and pieces of paper and next to my bedside to hold my asthma puffer and other night time necessities. At the moment it is sitting on the bedroom fireplace mantle with books that were being thrown out of VCA music library, an oil burner and photographs. All these objects all have a little story about where they came from, they all have their own history.
Our kitchen is a light filled room with probably the most useful collection of beautiful things. I have always loved to cook, my mum trained as a chef and I grew up eating the best food. It was only natural that I wanted to be able to emulate her cooking. This came along with wanting a lot of things in the kitchen! I have lots of hand me down plates, cups, glasses, wooden spoons, pots and utensils. My prized kitchen possession is a knife that Josh gave me for my 25th Birthday, it’s Japanese and staggeringly sharp. (In case you’re wondering its regarded as good luck in Japanese culture to give someone a knife, its only bad luck in France where they consider it a sign of severing the friendship. Lucky my knife is Japanese!)
My next thing that I am on the lookout for is a timber desk. I am currently using an Ikea desk that was donated by my friend when she bought a beautiful mid century desk from Grandfathers Axe in Northcote. (It’s the stuff desk dreams are made of)
Your home should be a reflection of yourself and your personality, too often I feel like people will buy lots of new things they see for their home without considering the greater impact. Its wonderful that we have the option to buy lots of cheap new things however I feel that their story is often a shorter and much sadder one. All the furniture and things I have in my home are the result of a investing a little bit more time. You can shush that little voice in your head that says ‘I don’t know anything about interior design’ because I bet if I showed you two different coffee tables you would have a preference.
If you have the option to purchase something that is locally made of a good quality that you love verses something cheap that you will probably need to replace I feel that the choice is simple. If we consume less, and consider our purchases on more than just a financial level then our home will begin to tell a far more interesting story. There are Ikea products in my home, i’ll admit that 100%. With the exception of my chest of drawers and the little step ladders I have they are all hard rubbish acquired or second hand.
Our dining table, which always gets commented on how lovley it is, I found in the street upside down looking very sad for itself. It has now had many family dinners and hundreds of hours of macrame rope cutting on top of it. You would never know it is something that was being sent off to be landfill. I could have just as easily not taken the time to turn it over and attempt to squeeze it into my car. (It took two trips with the help of two of my friends, and now we have a great story about how we rescued it together!)
Your home is a reflection of you and how you feel about the world. I am considering my impact on the world and trying to tread a little bit lighter. Once I find my new dream desk and chest of drawers I won’t just be throwing my Ikea away either! I’ll find a someone just moving out of home and donate it to them.
Can people see you in your home? What story are you telling about yourself?
Maggie xx
