LIVE Where You Live (Guest Post by Emily of Jones Design Company)

This morning I am so excited to have Emily from Jones Design Company guest posting. I love her work and am amazed at all that she is able to get done with four young children! I have been inspired by her for several projects including some framed vintage baby items in Lorelei's nursery. I first saw them in her daughter Audrey's room and fell in love with the idea. She is so talented and her blog contains everything from beautiful photos of her home, to amazing tutorials for all sorts of projects. 

So here is Emily:

2011 is my year to let loose. Have a little more fun. Be daring and crazy.

You probably won’t find me sky diving or shaving my head, but I do hope to take life a little less seriously.

Take, for example, decorating my home.

I really love decorating, rearranging furniture, creating displays on our kitchen shelves, changing out pillows – it is a favorite hobby of mine for sure. As far as I can tell, it seems to be a favorite hobby of yours as well.

So maybe you can relate with me on this one.

I get an idea {however unconventional it is} for my walls or cabinets or lighting, but I’m afraid to actually follow through with it out of fear that it will somehow ruin our home. We love where we live, but we don’t feel like it is our ‘forever’ home. So in the back of my mind, the term ‘resale value’ is always lingering when these crazy ideas pop up. And if it isn’t ‘resale value’ it’s the thought that I should just wait until we are in a house that is our dream home and then I can really make it ours.

Anyone?

But here’s the deal. I need to embrace where we are now, fully live in the house we get to call home and enjoy it despite what a future homeowner might think.

{I’m not advising destroying your home or being unwise with what you have … I’m just talking about living in the present and allowing your home to reflect your family – even if you don’t plan on being in it forever}

We learned a bit of this lesson when we remodeled our perfectly fine kitchen to make it look more like ‘us’.

It didn’t cost much and we did most of the work ourselves, but it totally reflects our style and has become a room that I really enjoy being in. Was it necessary? No. When it comes time to sell our house will every prospective buyer love the open shelves? Probably not. Do we love it? Yes. Plus we can now fit lots of little bodies around the table which makes hosting parties that much easier {which we also love}. And that makes it worth it.

So if you are anything like me – stifled in your decorating by the what-ifs of the future sale of your home or waiting for something better to come along – I say let loose. Have fun. Take some risks. Really L I V E where you live.

If that means putting a hole in your wall to hang some artwork – go for it. You can always fill a hole.

It it means using a sharpie to draw the most amazing wallpaper in your bathroom – by all means, go right ahead.

And if it means painting the wood floors in your kitchen with a distressed checkerboard pattern like you’ve been wanting to do for years {honey, are you reading?} – then do it!

Here’s to 2011.

Can’t wait to see what it holds.

. Emily .

j o n e s d e s i g n c o m p a n y

www.jonesdesigncompany.com

And here is just a little preview of some of the gorgeous rooms in her home (all photos are courtesy of Jones Design Company). Head on over to her blog to see more!