Hello there to all of my new blog subscribers! Welcome to The Cache - I truly hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy creating it!  And your timing is perfect, as I'm kicking off a new series that I'm calling The Curated Cottage Chronicles.  It's all about my own home - the successes, the failures, the tips and the hacks that have gone into and will continue to go into this home of ours. 

 

I’m writing this as I sip on my second cup of coffee, curled up in my wicker lounge chair, eyeing my pup Shiner sprawled out in his favorite spot on the family room hearth. It has been an absolute whirlwind of a few weeks and this is but a moment in time before I jump back into the fray. 

We’ve just launched the beginning of many, many images and videos of the Curated Cottage. While we’ve given folks some peeks into corners and even some overall photos, no one has seen the cottage in its current state. Which, to be honest, will probably be different six months from now. (more on that later!) The Potted Boxwood has been out to do a video tour and we’re thrilled to be featured on her blog and Instagram in the next month or so. And all that I can say is that, gosh, I really hope you like my house because my plan is to share a lot of it not just for the pretty pics, but also to help you understand my own principles of design, the rule of thumb that I use for various choices, and first and foremost, to keep it real in terms of what happens here. And it’s pretty much what happens in your homes, too…life!

We did an introductory reel of the house showing most of it, and we captioned images with a quick one liner about what goes on in each space on a daily basis. We’ll share much more in the coming weeks with you, either here on the blog or on Instagram or YouTube.

But let’s talk about the Curated Cottage and what it is to me and to my family beyond the obvious. I have four grown children, two enormous English Cream Golden Retrievers, and, of course, my long-suffering husband. My three boys are either married or have long term loves, my daughter Darcy has cerebral palsy and lives here and she is almost always accompanied by one of her wonderful caregivers. At times, this is a very full house for a supposed empty nest and I knew that we would need to have a lot of flexibility in this house to accommodate for a crowd.

The public room sizes are very generous for a house of this size and that is part of the reason that we bought it. Of course, we’ve had to do a lot of renovation and then, even re-renovation - don’t get me started - after a flood to get the spaces to lay out the way that they do now. But it has been a wonderful “downsize” for us from a home that was two and a half times larger than this one is. We’ve been so lucky to find a home on one level which has become increasingly important for Darcy and at times, for my husband John, too.

Almost any designer will tell you that their home is a laboratory of sorts for them, and mine is no exception. But even more so, there are areas of the house that we have had to wait to address until we have the means to tackle them in the way that I envision. And I would say that is almost always my advice for people who are envisioning making changes to their homes - whether it’s renovation or redecoration. Don’t succumb to the lure of your Pinterest boards and saves on Instagram without understanding exactly what your means can afford and that includes, by the way, the psychological cost of the chaos and change that even the simplest project can conjure. In other words, don’t bite off more than you can chew!

 

I specifically wanted this house because it affords me the opportunity to make it what I want it to be over time, which allows me to refine my vision even more. That way, when we finally do make an upgrade, I know that it’s exactly what I want it to be.

But, to be honest, the Curated Cottage houses an ever changing array of objects, art and furnishings due to the retail side of my business and now, the online boutique! Now sometimes, I will buy an item specifically for the Cottage when I am in Europe, but oftentimes it will end up here because I accidentally unloaded it here rather than at the studio from Round Top, or we were shooting product photography here and it just sort of…stayed. Or it may be that I truly loved it when I bought it but couldn’t justify it to myself at the time. So I’ll have it at the booth in Round Top for a show sort of low key hoping it doesn’t sell. And then if it doesn’t, I decide that it’s meant to be and it finds its home here. Now, there are many, many wonderful pieces that have had some time here and then gone on to find their forever homes. Otherwise my marriage might not survive!

But I also like to see how new products feel and look in a home environment. So I’ve used the fabulous Carron platters for serving, and the new Match 1508 plates at the table to be sure that they are as practical as they are pretty. Sharland England decor has snuck onto my shelves alongside antiques and family photos and I will be trying out the Rebecca Udall linens on my bed and table in the coming months. The wicker lounge chairs on our site are the very same one that I am writing from right now. I don’t want to offer for sale anything that I haven’t used or coveted myself.

Re: life happening here - a few notes and observations. My floors and rugs are light and you may think that I am wildly impractical. Not for a moment! Did I mention that my dogs are cream? And Golden Retrievers? Which means that they shed blonde hair 365 days a year and blonde hair blends beautifully with light floors and rugs. My walls are the same color of white throughout the main areas of the home, they are painted flat because I love the chalkiness of a flat finish. But they are unforgiving and so we have touch up paint and a Magic Eraser at the ready all of the times. 

I used honed marble everywhere for my countertops because it is slow to show marks and because I can use a green scrubby to get out a lot of stains and spills without damaging the finish. My upholstery fabric selections are all either performance fabrics, or have been professionally treated before upholstery. So when we have spills and it’s Dawn to the rescue. And last but not least, I use my available storage here in lots of creative and unexpected ways and we’ll have more time to chat about that later.

But for now, my coffee is long past cold so it’s time to close. But you have my warmest welcome to the Curated Cottage and all that goes on under my roof.

PS: If you’ve enjoyed reading about the Cottage, and you don’t have time to read all of our blogs - and let’s be real, who does - please look out for the Curated Cottage Chronicles in your subject line and be ready to step into my little corner of the world.