A record of Go-to Classic Home Decor Elements

Sometimes it is lively for us to scroll through the photos on our House Tour page and try to pick out decorating similarities or patterns that we have never noticed before. Obviously there are blatant themes that we knowingly gravitate towards, like a light and airy look, neutral colors with some hits of soft blue and grass green, white curtains, dark wood furnishings mixed with white painted pieces and white ceramic animals (which I admit I like a little too much). But it is also interesting to notice that we seem to have subliminal attractions that even we are not privy to until waaay after the fact when we are looking at the photos as a whole.

For example, in each of our three bedrooms we have chosen patterned bedding. We are not large on big graphic textiles in our home for the most part (although we enjoy using them in mood boards for our color-loving clients, a lot of our house is decorated with subtle textures that have been layered, not bold prints and patterns around every turn). So of course we find this little graphic patterned bedding similarity quite interesting. Whatever it is about fluffy white bedding- which you’d think we’d be drawn to for all three rooms given our enjoy of all things airy and white- was somehow rejected in exchange for a lively high-contrast geometric look in the guest bedroom…

… a softer graphic pattern in our bedroom…

…and a detailed modern floral look in the third bedroom.

Heck, even the daybed in the sunroom is accented by graphic little geometrically patterned pillows, so clearly there is some sort of attraction to bedding that is a bit beyond basic. Go figure! I guess it is possible to even surprise yourself.

Another more obvious pattern is our proclivity towards natural materials. We consistently knew we enjoyed bamboo blinds (which we have in the living room, the laundry nook and the den) and jute rugs (as seen in the kitchen, the den, the third bedroom, and our bedroom)…

… but it was funny to notice that even the compact finishing touches and accessories that we introduce are frequently natural objects like woven baskets in the bathroom, corks as vase filler, planters made from natural fibers, even woven pillows in the den and the third bedroom. Interesting…

But looking closer what other patterns can we find? Obviously we like light slipcovered sofas and mocha floors (which we have throughout the house) along with plenty of white frames (found in every single room- they are handy for switching out since they all match each other) and white pedestal tables (we have one in the den and one in the sunroom). And we cannot forget leather storage ottomans for stashing everything from files and folders to paint decks (we have three in the den, two in the living room and one in the dining area). But we also noticed that we in fact have a subtle animal theme going on. Not only are there the aforementioned ceramic animals living it up around the house, we also have a cow print pillow in the den along with curved ceramic horns on the mantel:

… a zebra pillow in the mini mudroom area:

… and various portraits and pictures of Burger throughout the house (including a formal little silhouette John had made for me based on Burger’s actual profile):

Then piggybacking off the natural theme (and overlapping a bit into the animal theme as well) we certainly have some sea-life patterns going on. From our bedroom and office botanical prints….

… to our clam shell in the kitchen and various starfish and faux-coral pieces that we have peppered throughout the house, they all work well with our airy and open theme. And I guess we are simply suckers for things that remind us of lively in the sun.

We also have a definite mirror fetish. Guess how many we have in the house? Let us see, we have one in the sunroom, one in the half bathroom, one in the den, one in the living room, one in the bathroom, one little one layered over a giant one in the guest bedroom and an even bigger one in our bedroom. So that is seven mirrors in a house that only has nine rooms. Yeah, we like mirrors.

And speaking of those oversized mirrors, it seems as though we frequently select one noticeably large object to place in nearly every one of our rooms, perhaps subliminally to add interest since we do not use a ton of bold colors and patterns to keep things exciting. For example, there is the giant clock in the sunroom, the large hurricane next to the fireplace in den, two oversized jars on the coffee table and the console table in the living room, the giant greyhound next to the fireplace and a life-sized ceramic dog in the sunroom, two oversized frames in the laundry nook, a large P monogram that we made for above the console table, and even the aforementioned giant clam shell in the kitchen.

Then we noticed the glass lamp thing. Would you believe that we have a glass pendant lamp in the kitchen above the sink, two glass-based lamps in the living room and one giant oversized glass gourd lamp in the guest bedroom? And if that does not sound like much of a pattern to you, consider than we only own one additional table lamp in the whole house (the metal task lamp on our desk in the den). That is three out of four table lamps that are glass! And you might say that we had to notice that trend, but we are typically simply attracted to something and we buy it. There is not much thought other than “where will it go?” and “how much does it cost”- so we rarely think “do we have something else like this already?” because for some reason every time we fall in love with something we are convinced that it is distinct than anything else that has ever existed and we must have it. Especially if it is on the clearance rack…

And on the subject of lighting, we simply realized we are a bit biased when it comes to lamp shades. We knew we preferred clean-lined drum shades, but we did not realize there was hardly a distinct shape in our whole house (the floor lamps in the den and our bedroom along with the two glass lamps in the living room and the glass lamp in the guest bedroom all have modern non-tapered shades- well, the one in the guest bedroom is a smidge tapered, but not by quite much). Who knew we were such drill sergeants when it came to that?

Oh and we cannot forget about our fondness of subtle tone on tone stripes. We painted them on our porch floor, the walls of our half bath, and even snapped up two identical jute rugs with them for the third bedroom and the kitchen.

So are we lame-o losers for consciously and subconsciously stocking up on patterned bedding, jute rugs, natural objects, animal-related paraphernalia, beachy items, mirrors of all sizes, glass lamps, drum shades, and stuff with subtle stripes? We guess it could be considered a bit boring to some, but we simply think that we like what we like, and sometimes repeated attractions to things indicates that you are at last pinning down a signature style of sorts- so people will see something and immediately say “that is so you”- which is consistently flattering (unless it is some tacky Dolly-Parton-looking outfit or something). Take the remarkable Nate Berkus and his enjoy of latch-like hardware, textured linen, beat up old chairs, and black window sashes. Or the unparalleled Candice Olson and her enjoy of luxe creams, soft blues, gleaming crystal chandeliers and opulent fabrics.

Plus sometimes similar materials, colors, textures, and styles peppered in many rooms throughout a home can in fact keep things cohesive and assist with the flow- especially in a modestly sized casa with modestly sized rooms like ours. That way it does not feel like you are living in a house made up of totally unrelated spaces that feel jarring when you exit one room and enter another.

Of course we also like switching things up with interesting elements that do not occur anywhere else (a bright green quilted headboard here, a patterned yellow rug there, a painted green bookcase here, a capiz chandelier there) so we are by no means suggesting that people get all matchy-matchy and formulaic (in fact here is one of our go-to posts of all time about how NOT to do that). We simply thought it was an interesting little study in our strange subconscious psyche (were we oversized sea-loving animals who liked looking in the mirror in a past life?). And we’d enjoy to know what patterns you folks pick up when you look around your space. From purple velvet to oil-rubbed bronze, what cannot you folks get sufficient of in your house?