A Reply to Angela: Style

I've been writing this as a comment to Angela's original post on style and realized it was getting long, so I thought I'd make it its own post.

I'm pretty horrible at interior decoration - that's more Rich's territory.  I get these ideas, and I try to implement them, but, more often than not, it ends up looking....well....like I didn't quite complete a train of thought.  Example:  last year, I thought making a bright summer quilt and matching throw pillow would help lighten the living room full of black shelves full of games and the super old futon with the blue mattress cover.  Result:  awesome looking orange-color-themed quilt and throw pillow that just kind of looks randomly tossed onto the blue futon.  I don't know why I seemed to think if the quilt and pillow were bright orange, the blue would naturally look orange, and the room would magically look open and airy like those photos in the Ikea or Room & Board catalogs?

When it comes to home atmosphere, though, that's where I spend a lot of thought and worry.  I want my home to feel welcoming.  To me, that means having things that can get scratched a bit, maybe dinged up a bit, without worrying too much about them.  I actually traded in my first car (a shiny, bells and whistle-loaded 2-door Honda Accord) after owning it only about 6 months in part because I was so worried driving it every day that I was going to get a scratch or a dent somewhere on the inside or outside.  I got my XTerra because I felt like if it got scratched or dinged, I wouldn't feel so badly about it.  I guess I care less about form than I do about function.  Here's kind of my personal scale of things (the "<" meaning less than):

Form < Function
Trendy < Useful
Pretty < Comfortable
Cluttered < Uncluttered/Organized
Design < Atmosphere

In my dream home, there are 0 vertical surfaces to let things accumulate; that's probably impossible, but I try to have a place for everything and everything in its place.  Some days, I try harder than others.

My hope is that when our family is older, with teens especially, that our children will like inviting their friends over, and that their friends will enjoy being in our home.  I want people to feel welcome, at ease, able to relax and kick back, and to not worry about keeping everything "just so."  I think that's in part because my parents' house was very formal: white couch, white walls, white carpet, white upholstered dining chairs, gorgeous cherry formal dining table...covered with a white plastic table protector that was removed maybe twice that I can remember, and cherry furniture.  Even visiting now, I am so careful not to make a mess anywhere!  My parents also have a very dysfunctional relationship, which adds to the tense atmosphere.  Whenever I imagined my future home's atmosphere as a youth, I dreamt of it being comfy and cozy, open and inviting, welcoming and homey.

So, I guess I care more about the way the place feels than I do about how it looks design-wise.  I guess that's good, since design-wise, I struggle!  Thank goodness I married a man with a better sense for design than I have!