No Rules Decorating

It's no secret that we love our neighborhood.  Think Ozzie and Harriet, Ward and June.  Think Wally and the Beav riding bikes and trick or treating.  It's just charming and friendly here.  The houses are lovely, the lifestyle is perfect for our family.  But the one thing that isn't lovely and perfect can be the layout and space of the houses.  Each one, while full of life and character, poses it's own challenges for using the space and finding storage options.  It's worth my while to figure out how to make it work so that I can continue to call The Vortex home.

A house is more than a series of walls that dictate how we use the space within them.  Depending on the layout and demographics of your home, it's probable that at some points along the way, you want to pull your hair out.  The closet isn't big enough.  The toys won't fit...where on earth do these stuffed animals go?!  My table just won't work with me in this eat-in kitchen.  I don't think families in the 1950s had nearly as many stuffed animals and small appliances as we seem to.

Buy there's nothing demanding that you use the rooms in their traditional sense.  Here's what I mean:

The largest bedroom with direct access to a full bathroom does not necessarily want to be your master bedroom.
 

Your wonky cooking and eating space doesn't have to be so frustrating...it's just asking for a little more thought.

The extra room with no real purpose (our infamous "Fireplace Room") can do double duty and help alleviate some of the problems from those other rooms.

When all your rooms start thumbing their noses at you, it's time to have a conversation with your home-sweet-home.  Start reconsidering how the spaces are being used and how they could translate into easier living.

A word of warning:  If you do think room swapping is in your future, just be ready.  It's a great time to purge and organize (read: it's a hot mess).  It's a perfect opportunity to redecorate (read: you may be repainting every single room).  But it's so worth it in the end.  Just be prepared to work fast because this is just one photo of the during:

Dreadful.

Follow along with the pretty major changes we made, as we swapped the purpose of each bedroom, introduced purpose to the Fireplace Room, and started the journey of figuring out how to best use our kitchen.