Why Buying Less Made Me Laugh — The Unexpected Perk

The perks of downsizing keep revealing themselves — most recently while we were shopping for curtains and blinds. The contrast between outfitting this house and our previous homes was striking, and it underscored some of the freedoms that come with a smaller, more intentional space. We also explore how past pandemics influenced the way homes are designed today, tracing the origins of features like powder rooms, white kitchens, and higher bed frames. Plus, our honest thoughts on the Frame TV and a fun look at whether your birthday can actually help you pick houseplants.

You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What’s New

  • Here’s a photo of our new bedroom curtains. We chose the Emery Linen curtains from Pottery Barn in Ivory with Blackout lining, 84″ length. They’re on sale and, once steamed, will be a dramatic upgrade from the packing blankets we’d been using.
Ivory Emery Linen curtains
  • We also installed brass curtain rods with matching rings for a polished, elevated look.
  • We still love the Ikea Lenda curtains we used in our last house for their affordability and versatility, but in this space we wanted something with blackout capability and a slightly warmer hue than pure white. We’ve written before about simple steps that make inexpensive curtains look more expensive.

Updates

  • Below is a YouTube segment from Cheddar that explains how historic pandemics and hygiene concerns shaped the way homes look today.
  • We discussed how experts predict coronavirus might influence future home design in Episode #174 of our podcast.
  • We also dug into the history of bathrooms in Episode #177.
  • And for a lighthearted diversion, there’s a recent piece that pairs houseplants with zodiac signs if you want to match your plant choices to your sign.

We’re Digging

Samsung Frame TV under mini split with faux fig tree
  • In last week’s blog post you can see both our new Frame TV and the felt baskets that keep our games organized. The Frame TV comes with a beige bezel, but you can order it without a bezel or choose a different bezel color to better suit your decor.
  • If you’re having trouble getting photos or artwork to display correctly on that TV, resizing images to 3840 x 2160 pixels worked well for us.
  • We also enjoyed the trailer for The Lovebirds — a fun movie with some mature language.

If you’d like to revisit a topic we’ve covered in the past but can’t remember which episode it was, we maintain a master list of everything we’ve highlighted in the “We’re Digging” segments across all episodes, along with a Book Club page listing books we’ve recommended.

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