e have lived in Miami for a grand total of four and a half months now. In mid-May, we will leave for Vermont. In the first month of moving into our sunlit loft apartment, we really hustled to get it feeling warm and comfortable. We invested in the most gorgeous rug ever produced, set up my crafting area and made it artful with an Anthropologie-esque instillation, made a bed frame out of pallets, and went antique shopping to make vintage crates into nightstands. If I were giving Bobby and myself a report card grade for turning our house into a home during that first month, I’d give us a solid B.
I had other plans to “complete” our space. For one, I bought 100s of clothespins to create a piece of wall art. As of 5 days ago, those were still sitting in their plastic wrapping. I bought them in November. A huge, blank wall above the couch has been staring at us for ages. Every once in awhile, it lets out a lonely moan to let me know that it would like to be decorated with something, anything.
For the last little while, I’ve been telling myself that, time-wise, I missed the window. Our home is pretty good. It earned a B grade. We’re moving in two months…do I really want to put so much time and effort into projects that will just have to come down?
Then I read the book, The Nesting Place, that was a birthday gift from my dear friends Maren and Ben.
Myquillyn shares different insights about embracing the home that you’re in. She’s somewhat of an expert as she and her family have lived in THIRTEEN different homes over the years. She’s done her best to truly make each home feel like it’s theirs, even though each and every one has been a rental. I got a little more convinced as I turned each page. Even though we’re only renting, even though we’re only here for a couple more months…it was time to complete our apartment. (Note: it’s not like this was a moral imperative. It didn’t spring out of a need for perfection. It just felt like a goal that was right for me as I love creating warm spaces anyway. Despite the inevitable move, I know the amount of joy Bobby and I will get from living in a “completed” space for our remaining time in Miami will be worth it.)
The more I thought about it, this goal lined up with my 12 Months of Making challenge…so the first half of March has been dedicated to getting caught up on Project Life and the tail end of March will be dedicated to mixed media as I make our place feel “finished.”
I’m going full steam ahead over these next couple weeks, turning some of these blank walls into (imperfect but wonderful) masterpieces! Stay tuned – and go read The Nesting Place if you are looking for similar inspiration!
Looks like a good book! Maybe I can find it at the library…
Yeah, you should definitely go look for it! I think you’d like it.
Well, I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with clothespins! And even though we’ve been in our house more than 23 years now (Is that even possible? For that to be true, I would have to be OLD.), I still enjoy decorating the mantel and every other horizontal space with colors of each season. Sometimes the vertical spaces get in on the hilarity, too – you just never know around here. Good luck with the second half!
Go Grace! I’m impressed by your stamina and love of your home, however transitory it may be. After all, that place is really you and Bobby, not the walls. But like Martha, can’t wait to see the clothespin creation… Will you paint each of them first?
Grace,
I can’t tell you how much this post inspired my April activities! I’ve been having the same hang-ups with my apartment here in Japan, as I’ll be leaving it at the end of July, but I realized, I do spend enough time in it that I really, really wanted it to be a place I liked spending time in.
Now that spring has arrived, I finally am no longer confined to the kitchen area (the only room with a heater and where I spent the majority of my winter), it’s been really great to branch out into the other rooms and hang things up to make a home.
The weekend I got home from spring break travel, I got The Nesting Place on my Kindle and got to work! It was a really nice, easy read. Between that and your blog posts, I’ve done a lot of work. I’ll have to send you some pictures of my apartment to show you.
Thanks for the inspiration and reading reccomendation!
This is so fantastic to hear! I’m thrilled that this helped inspire you and that you found some inspiration in The Nesting Place as well. YES I would love to see some pictures, please email me! I still have another post with one last project I did…so be on the lookout. :)