Welcome to another installment of Homemaker, (previously Loss + Finding Home) an exploration of home & design. Answering the questions: What makes a home? How to use design when you’re not a designer. And what does it mean to be home when someone is always missing from the dinner table?
In an era where you have access to every word ever written, I’m so grateful you’ve chosen to read mine.
Hello Friends,
Since design and lifestyle are such new topics for me, I wanted to keep this one short. I know I think this stuff is interesting, but maybe you don’t. Please let me know in the comments what makes you curious. What do you want to know more about?
Remember that scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Andy scoffs at the supposed seriousness of selecting a belt?1
Behind Maranda’s vicious and iconic take-down is an important question: Where does influence stop and personal taste begin? In other words, do we make choices or “choices”?
When we were designing the house, my biggest problem was that I liked everything. In a sense, I was over-influenced. I couldn’t tell if I actually liked something or if I just saw it in a magazine or online, and therefore I liked it simply because it was familiar, and familiar is safe.
Rather than back off, I fell like Alice down the rabbit hole.
I wanted my home to be stylish but timeless enough to age well. In my infinite scrolling, I stumbled upon the YouTube personality Nick Lewis.
His videos are 15-20 minutes long, and as entertaining as they are repetitive. The man will not shut up about his disdain for open shelving, word art, and Modern Farmhouse. Meanwhile, I love open shelving and have whole Pinterest boards filled with Shiplap.
After a while I came to think of him as the kind of friend who “tells it like it is,” but in a helpful way rather than as an excuse to be an asshole2.
He’s the kind of influencer who understands the absurdity of influencing itself and embraces his role with a mix of humor and self-awareness3.
My favorite videos fall into two categories: design styles and trends.
Design Styles
I love the industrial look of a city loft, panel molding in a Victorian, stained glass in an old Craftsman. I love a wrap-around porch, the clean lines of modern Scandinavian design, and the whimsy and color of Boho. And yes, I love shiplap too.
The problem was that our house isn’t a Craftsman or a Victorian. And we don’t live in an area surrounded by sleek modern homes. We have a single-level Ranch-Style house with a long flat front, and we live on the edge of town, where most of the houses are also single-level ranch-style homes. Panel molding and exposed brick would look out of place, and I didn’t want people to tilt their heads and say “Huh?” when they saw our house.
Taking a deep dive into the definitions and history of different design styles helped me incorporate what I like into something that feels cohesive.
Trends
In nearly every video on trends, Nick acknowledges that there is always someone in the comments who says they don’t take part in trends, and to that he says, “Really? Did you have frosted tips in 2001?” … or in my case, a “tramp stamp” tattoo? He describes trends as a “cultural osmosis” we can’t avoid. (Re: Maranda Priestly and her cerulean blue sweater)
After watching enough of these, I started to see trends like the sun: changing with the seasons, pretty, necessary, but maybe don’t look right at it.
Here’s our take on the broken floor plan, which has become more popular since the pandemic.
Our original floor plan had a galley kitchen that felt like a tunnel. When my two older kids were toddlers, I appreciated the ability to set them up in the living room with a movie while I hid in the kitchen making dinner and listening to a podcast. But this was also isolating.
We knew we wanted to knock down the wall between the kitchen and living room, but design moved towards more separate spaces after the pandemic. We wanted an open floor plan, but not too open, so we ended up with a bit of both.
In all my searching and scrolling, I realized that what I was looking for was me. I think I found her.
This is where I am today. Thank you for listening.
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And if you’ve never seen the movie, please go watch it now!
If you love the Farmhouse style but are afraid it’s starting to look tired, Nick does a great video on how to give it an update called Fixing Farmhouse
This video from April Fools Day last year had me rolling and I cackled at his take on Gweneth Paltrow… another influencer who seems to be in on the joke that is influencing.
It’s so gorgeous!! Especially the front door!!
So fun to read someone’s design/style evolution. And I LOVE Nick. I love his candid takes and his razor sharp sense of humor.