Moroccan Rugs

Tuesday, 4 January 2022

The Biggest Macro Design Trends We Are Predicting For 2022 – The World Is Shifting (AGAIN)

Everything changes all the time, and fast. Trying to keep up with it is always interesting, not to mention trying to predict even the immediate future. It’s clear that the pandemic made most people focus and care about their homes A LOT. All of a sudden making every room more comfortable, organized, and livable for our immediate quarantine needs became a priority and that is GREAT. But due to the lockdown, we were collectively making more online purchases for utility and convenience – the kid’s books are piling up so we need a bookcase. Jump online and buy one. You work remotely now and now need a desk in the corner of your bedroom. Jump online and buy one, etc. And because of the endless amount of online stores you can buy from having really great stuff that can be delivered quickly, those companies that specialized in affordable and convenient furniture really thrived (and likely will continue to). And that’s great in a lot of ways, but after 2 years we are seeing some new shifts – not in place of utility shopping, but in addition to it.

I thought I was in the minority – my desire/responsibility to buy local, heirloom-quality decor has been pulling at me hard. I thought it was just my mindset, refocused priorities, and ability to do so due to my higher budget. I want to buy once and for the long term, to splurge on pieces from furniture makers when I can, but there is actually a larger movement towards this which is so exciting. Now before we go into these things, I want it to be clear that whatever you do in your home, whatever choices you make whether it’s budget furniture from a big box store or saving up to buy an heirloom-quality piece or simply embracing your hand me downs – if you love it and use it long term, then all those things are great in our book. It’s whatever is best for your budget and your home. So here is where I see that going:

Searching For “The Unique” + “The Rare”

design by beata heuman | styling studio cruz | photos by simon brown photography

lead design by Lead designer jules mesny-deschamps of merci | photos by merci | via remodelista

We’ve seen this coming for a long time, but there is a lot of homogeneity out there in design and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE so much of it and often it’s designed for livability and comfort – which is GREAT and important. But what that has done has made many of us crave pieces that we haven’t seen before, or at least aren’t as ubiquitous (again, nothing is wrong if we all have the same pouf or side table – I myself have a ton of pieces that you can see in a million peoples homes and I still love them). But I’m finding myself also scouring vintage sites in other countries and Craigslist/FB in other states even to find a version of x,y,z that feels fresh and unique for the farm… And frankly, I’m eyeing pieces that might be hard to knock off so I don’t risk featuring it and then it being everywhere the next year. I thought that this was just where I am in life – which admittedly is a very privileged situation – to be able to take time and to have the budget to search for and splurge on unique or custom pieces – but after talking to so many other friends and designers it’s clear that we are all looking for new blood, fresh aesthetic, uniqueness. It’s why I was so inspired by Beata Heuman’s work – every single thing in her spaces are so unique and it’s just such fresh eye candy. I would stare at some of her rooms for a solid 10 minutes, soaking up the details. Now her work is a little too exciting for my chaotic brain to live in year-round, but I think she is helping define this bold uniqueness that is a new 2022 eclecticism. Let’s call it high-quality weirdness that makes our space just feel fresh and unique to us, perhaps even layered over the more livable pieces that are much simpler and more identifiable as new on the market.

Heirloom Quality Furniture With Interesting Joinery

styled by colin king | photo by stephen kent johnson | via beni rugs

Now, this is ALWAYS in, but the movement towards furniture with interesting joinery, something that absolutely could not be mass-manufactured is very clear right now. And it’s so exciting. I feel like the maker community finally has a larger audience (and buyers) and that we are seeing some modern-day Paul McCobbs coming of age – pieces that we save for, splurge on and they increase in value because they are so high quality, specialized, and superbly made. And then we hand them down to our kids, and them to theirs. You know, like the world always did before mass manufacturing. These pieces are splurgy, as they should be because they take years of honing skills, practice, apprenticing, and talent not to mention high-quality materials and likely a big warehouse and machinery. I spoke with Justin Nelson of Fernweh a lot about this – his business is thriving and I think it’s because there is just an appetite for high quality, soul-injected furniture, locally-made heirloom quality furniture. I know that I have a whole pinboard of beautiful joinery for any custom pieces that I want to make.

Longer Lasting Affordable Everything

styled by emily bowser | photo by sara ligorria-tramp | from: fall 2021 is all about comfort, ease, affordability, and gathering again in target’s new big launch

photo by sara ligorria-tramp | from: my living room update

We are in such a golden era of our larger retailers truly caring more about making better quality materials and making big steps towards responsibility, while also seeing more and more collaborations with makers rather than just knocking them off. What I love about this is how it democratizes design more, helping more people love their homes no matter the budget. Listen, it takes a lot to make these changes for big companies, so we are happy to see big steps being taken. Just because it’s budget-friendly doesn’t mean that it can’t be long-lasting, this is a story we’ll be telling a lot this year and helping point out even more what pieces we think are affordable, without being ‘cheap’.

Decorative Details, Unnecessary Ornamentation

design by luke edward hall | photo by miguel flores-vianna

design by leila sanderson and tony espie | styling by annie portelli | photo by caitlin mills | via the design files

Think over the top old world and dare I say even a little gaudy. I realized this when I was super attracted to a mirror that had the most meticulously carved wooden FRUIT AND VEGETABLE frame at an antique store. I Insta-storied it and MANY of you freaked out in love. The wooden grapes on this were STUNNING. We are seeing this extra adornment, a 180 from Scandinavian style right now, and possibly even a rejection of California Casual (or maybe layered on top?). I’m talking baroque framed mirrors, Victorian stick and ball side tables, and intricately carved console tables like a real grandma. Caitlin wrote about this last year (she is always ahead) and I think it’s a really exciting addition to all the other styles out there. And again I think the reason this is moving fast is because A. Big box stores can’t do handmade detailing easily, and B. Decorative adornment is the anecdote to the minimalism that has been so popular for so long (and will likely remain so for those of us still loving it). It’s like the ‘Eccentric English Grandma’ won the lottery and bought a bunch of 19th-century french and Italian pieces from castles.

A Return To Vintage EVERYTHING

left: design and photo by carlay page | design by jane hallworth, styled by colin king, photo by laure joliet, via architectural digest

left: design by holly lueders and venetia sacret young, photo by oberto gili, via t magazine | center: design by megan o’neill and jesse bull, styling by benjamin reynaert, photo by annie schlechter, via domino | right: design and photo by lowe saddler

I remember a year and a half ago fearing that this was the end of thrift shopping. The thought of going into a store full of people’s used stuff in 2020 felt so unsafe. Luckily they are back open and we are back shopping in person. YAY. So again, because of lack of access to thrift/vintage, I think most of us shopped for what we needed from non-vintage online shops out of sheer ease of not leaving our homes in 2020 and most of 2021. Chairish and 1stDibs thrived during the pandemic, but they typically are pretty expensive so I’m excited that the in-person hunt is back. I know I’m not alone in craving the thrifting, vintage, and flea market experience so I think we’ll see more of that in our homes this year. Again, it’s a return to eclecticism.

Sustainability Through And Through

design by pierre lacroix | photo by yannick labrousse

design by gardiner architects | photos by rory gardiner | via the design files

It’s been so green-washed I know, which is why I prefer ‘intentional’ or ‘responsible’ because the debate around what is sustainable is crazy. This is going to be a huge conversation this year, as I continue to learn all the different variety of ways of being responsible in how we renovate our homes and what we put in them. No lectures here (or in the comments) – just good old-fashioned information and education, done in a really friend-to-friend way. I’ve dove deep and am learning so much (which is really empowering) and I have some experts guiding me/us in the process. And while I won’t be perfect, certainly, I think the entire design and home world is shifting to be more intentional and responsible (see literally all of the above trends) and hopefully the appetite for mass-manufactured, very poorly made furniture that falls apart and ends up in a landfill has waned. Again this year we’ll help sift through the garbage and we’ll find well-made and yet still affordable pieces in addition to the heirloom quality pieces – doing our best to satisfy all budgets (OOF). Listen, both worlds can exist at the same time and no one should shame anybody for their budget choices – whether they are high and splurgy or more budget-oriented. Because…

The “ONE THING” That Is OUT

“Cheap” anything is out. What we can all agree on is rejecting poorly made garbage, packaged in non-recyclable garbage, shipped from far away that ends up in a landfill in 2 months. Now THAT is out. I’m sure that in the past I’ve recommended pieces that look good, but were cheaply made and fell apart. I honestly just was less concerned with longevity than I should have been and I’ve become far more educated. And while I can’t guarantee that I won’t be wrong in the future or link something that we later realize is cheap, we are excited to do more research, write more reviews and give the best advice we know with the present facts. It’s a big world out there, and we are super excited to be able to spend our time researching, testing out, and recommending longer-lasting design everything. Design and renovation are inherently wasteful, so it’s actually an incredible honor and challenge to have a platform to do better and educate you all in real-time as we learn.

Opening Image Credits: Design by Jane Hallworth | Styled by Colin King | Photo by Laure Joliet | via Architectural Digest

The post The Biggest Macro Design Trends We Are Predicting For 2022 – The World Is Shifting (AGAIN) appeared first on Emily Henderson.

from Emily Henderson https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/the-biggest-macro-design-trends-we-are-predicting-for-2022

Monday, 3 January 2022

Wait, What’s The Farmhouse Style Again? Did We Lose The Original Vision??? How We Almost Made Some Risky Permanent Choices And Why?

I knew this would happen because I know myself pretty well – that my love of Victorian can overwhelm my love of minimalism – because IT’S WAY MORE FUN. Let me be more specific – I LOVE looking at Victorian tile, florals, embellishments, lace – it’s how I dress when I want to dress up (princess sleeves and bright colors). I love staying in weird old Victorian hotels (just stayed in this one recently and LOVED IT) full of wallpaper, weird toilets, and so many florals. I mostly read historical romance novels set in, you guessed it Victorian-era England, and heck I got my degree in history. It all tracks. But I PREFER to live in a more minimalist home. You might wonder why that is or maybe not even believe me – and I would never have believed it myself. But my day-to-day feels so busy that I like my home to be not busy, super calm, and easy to maintain/clean. I love stuff so much, but the more ‘stuff’ you have the more ‘stuff’ you have to put back in its place. Every color, stripe, and contrast excites your eyes which excites your neurons (definitely fact check me there) so while I LOVE IT, I simply don’t want to live in an ‘exciting’ home right now. This could change. And maybe it’s also because I work from home most days and will continue to likely for years, so I’m here all day every day. I love looking out the window at the trees in between paragraphs, staring at the wood grain while I’m thinking. This could also be because I probably have ADD and get easily distracted by things to fix, things to put away, credenzas to style perfectly. So after living at the mountain house and loving the visual calmness so much. Very little that’s “decorative” (beyond art, of course) and just so easy to maintain. So the original art direction was a shaker-style farmhouse – minimal, utilitarian, egalitarian, focusing on natural light, cozy colors, and nothing too ‘decorative’. It was a clear vision. I wrote about it here – but you can see the general art direction:

In fact here is a little art direction brain dump I wrote up (including my typos) a year ago when I first started working with ARCIFORM (some of it is admittedly dumb/pretentious).

I just found it and like an old journal entry, it is A. Very cringy and B. We have strayed a lot from that! Whoops. My favorite is how I want to make sure that they know that we are NOT elegant (nothing is wrong with elegant, it’s just not a word I respond to but it’s all just so silly to identify as ‘not elegant’). Also ‘high quality but humble’ is also admittedly kinda annoying, but you get the idea – well-made finishes that don’t scream loudly in any way… I don’t know if I ever actually even sent to this anyone, but I just found it and thought it was hilarious to share. 2020 Emily really wanted the farmhouse highly informed by the mountain house. Likely because I didn’t really want to leave here.

Then in late August we actually moved to Portland, left our minimal mountain house and I started shopping at antique stores and driving around all these incredible Victorian neighborhoods. Slowly more decorative elements started creeping into the design – more color, more pattern, more whimsy in the permanent finishes even. It’s like I couldn’t help myself. Vintage-inspired floral fabrics replaced the vintage plaids and ticking stripes I’ve been collecting. Simple handmade tile was given a decorative border and stripes in the shower – leaning towards, well the word ‘carnival’ even came up.

And listen, the house, while technically it a 4 square craftsman – was really just a box and the only the original things worth saving were the windows, the living room ceiling, the brick fireplace, the interior doors upstairs, and the soapstone in the renovated 90s kitchen (the kitchen cabinetry was painstakingly dismantled and salvaged and donated to the ReBuilding Center who will find it a new permanent home). So I honestly didn’t understand why we had to stick to “Crafstman” finishes when there really weren’t many original elements that felt “craftsman” to me.

I also want to say something that might be controversial – I know intellectually that busier rooms – rooms with more whimsy, color, pattern, and oddness – WHEN DONE RIGHT – are generally more exciting to look at, they are real feasts for the eyes. And I really want our home, to be so fun and exciting to look at. And that might sound shallow, but I think it’s pretty darn natural especially as someone who has spent their entire adult life styling rooms for still photography. It’s like wearing a safe dress to the Oscars – no one wants to look at that for long. But a home remodel isn’t a one-time event and you’ll have to live with these permanent bold choices forever. The Chief Architect renderings without pattern or boldness honestly just look boring because you can’t see any of the texture and the quality of the finishes. And no, we haven’t even started putting in any furniture, textiles, or art which will make a huge difference and add a lot of excitement. So, I think I was also tempted to, I don’t know, just be more exciting and bold than my dumb ‘simple but special’ minimal mantra (DRINK! :)). There are times when even I’m bored by photos of my own house even as I love living in it so much (TBH I think some rooms of the mountain house were just too minimally styled for the reveals and I should have made them more loose and editorial). So between seeing Victorian houses everywhere, having loved it visually for my whole life, then being more attracted to whimsical interiors in photography I think I lost track of the original intent. So here are the places where I took it too far…

The Guest Bath Nutty Border

It’s a real case of the ‘I like too many different styles’ which is NOT a bad thing, ever, but it can make a house a little chaotic, which is FINE if you are a maximalist. But it’s definitely against that initial word dump above. I freaked out and so did Anne when we saw that vintage tile installation (in a good way). It’s incredible and fresh and perfectly weird. We figured the new bathroom upstairs would be a great place to have more fun and implement this idea. I knew that I would rarely use this room so I wouldn’t get sick of it quickly.

Fun Fact: the more your eyes are confronted by something busy or loud, the faster you can get sick of it which is why people take more risks in more temporary spaces like hallways, dining rooms, and powder baths.

So on a call with ARCIFORM they painstakingly “built” this border from small pieces of tile in order to put it in the rendering. Stephyn did this before our call so that we could just move it around and decide where it should go. And yes, the tile is pink so there’s that.

This is also the bathroom that at the time we were going to work with the original window location which meant that the vanity and the toilet would be in front of it, but not in a nicely centered way. We decided to embrace the awkward and I truly think it would have ended up being really cool. But you get it. It not only has the most vintage-y whimsical style plumbing (which is so pretty) but it now had this odd window/vanity/toilet situation and a pink tile with a striped border. We loved it. Closed the meeting for that day and went about our business. But then after really thinking about it and my original vision the border was taken out and I feel very good about that decision.

The Mosaic Floor Tile

I’m going to write a whole post about this from start to finish because it was a really great creative/design process and there were MANY iterations, most of which I made with painted paper on the loft floor in the mountain house. But the last iteration – the most Victorian of them all – was A LOT. Even for me, honestly. It was my idea. I wanted a slightly ‘larger scale’ of a diamond pattern but since Pratt and Larson only goes up to 8″ I wanted to visually make it bigger (10″ – 12″) by doing one of the above. But once I saw it on the rendering (which I’ll show you later) Brian and Anne were so enthusiastic about it that I caved, questioning myself.

It was about 2 weeks later that showed it to Brian with fresh eyes and we both realized we had taken it too far. Now it’s still Victorian, but just less busy. And by the way, the reason that it’s ok that this room has Victorian elements when the rest of the house is a shaker farmhouse is that that sunrooms or conservatories were added on all the time (and still are) and often have a different feeling. It’s a step-down, it’s going to be clad in brick instead of siding and definitely ‘looks’ like it’s a special room. It’s perfectly ok and lovely to put a PAST permanent design element in your home, one that might have been a holdover from the era right before. IMHO (But Anne and ARCIFORM agree with me). But I wouldn’t put a ‘future’ tile design element – like retro 1950s Atomic tile, something that wasn’t invented yet in a much older home. But that’s just me

OH, and I want to point out the obvious, by simplifying both of these tile designs – getting rid of the mosaic stripe and border in the guest bath and the mosaic on the sunroom floor we saved likely THOUSANDS on tile labor. Seriously. Thousands.

The Floral Tiles

via dutch tile | from “the new/old risky tile trend i’m exploring for the farm”

Remember when I was (still am) on a mission to bring some sort of contemporary/floral delft tile into the farm? Well, we ultimately didn’t have the right spot that felt appropriate and maybe we could have found the right place but honestly, it was just going to set us back time-wise. Between getting the samples to my probable indecision, making sure it works with the already chosen finishes… it just felt like we were forcing it. Plus the cost. The one place where it might have made sense (if it had worked with our floor tile) was the mudroom, behind the laundry machines. But it’s a pretty big wall and I’m still scared of ‘accent tiles’ so I likely would have done the whole wall when the plan right now is just paneling which is obviously way more affordable.

The Corbels On The Exterior

For some reason, Brian and I were worried that the house was just going to look like a white box again, especially from the outside. We don’t have an opportunity to do different paneling, or switch to shingles or anything – it’s not pitched enough. And while I didn’t like how small the shutters were I liked the idea of them. What we landed on was a white house, with white windows (already ordered), white brick, no shutters, standard craftsman railing, etc. I showed Brian a few really classic white farmhouses that had white windows and white railings and while I loved it, he was like ‘no, that is way too stark’. Meanwhile, he’s pretty inflexible about it needing to stay white, so without changing the color of the house we would need to add, ‘decorative elements’ – AND BOY WE DID. On one of our Wednesday meetings, ARCIFORM and I put back the shutters, painted them blue, put corbels on the posts added copper gutters, all the things.

Now before you judge or think we are nuts, this is the actual design process. All of you designers out there know when a client (or even yourself) wants to entertain something and you spend hours trying to make it work, just to realize the first plan was actually the best. You take it too far in one direction and then pull it back. It is not ‘wasting time’. We are paying hourly for Stephyn’s design and rendering time and I know that all the tile drawing work has taken her hours and hours, but it’s not ‘wasted’ it’s truly how you get the closest to the ultimate home you want – by experimenting and pushing yourself a little too far. It’s also made us super sure that we want it to be the pared-back version.

What I realized through all of this is that I REALLY NEED to find and restore a distressed Victorian house at some point in my life, and bring all of these ideas and this obvious passion to that house – somewhere I can visit and act out all my Duke fantasies, but not live there day to day. But it’s just not this house and that’s ok. I feel SO GOOD ABOUT IT. Now I know that some of you might be sad but fear not because I’m going to bring in a lot of eclectic furniture – some definitely more whimsical and Victorian like my chaise lounge in the House of Hackney floral and my weird plant stand. I’m not denying my love for this design era, but just NOT taking risks through the permanent finishes in what was supposed to be a shaker-style farmhouse.

And by the way, you want to know the most expensive permanent design element to “change out” is if it’s wrong? TILE. Faucets and sconces? Easy – which is why it’s ‘visually’ more accepted to have crazy 60s french light fixtures in 200-year-old Parisian apartments – it’s more of a layered on style choice, but tile? Be careful. Tile is no joke, especially in large quantities. So while I don’t want to scare you, to play it too safe and be boring (hell, we are so excited about the pink tile in that guest bath), definitely weigh that risk and be reminded that you can bring in so much color, pattern and risk in every other element and through styling/decorating. I have to remind myself of that all. the. time.

So we are back to mostly a Shaker Farmhouse. We still have some contemporary elements here and there, as well as a claw foot tub, a border in one of the bathrooms and yes, still a mosaic tile sunroom – but it’s just quieter now. And while I know that some of you hate minimalism, it’s our house and I can’t wait to show you how it’s going to come together to still be warm and interesting. Design plans for each room coming at you soon!! xx

Opening Photo Credit: Photo by Suraya Barbee

The post Wait, What’s The Farmhouse Style Again? Did We Lose The Original Vision??? How We Almost Made Some Risky Permanent Choices And Why? appeared first on Emily Henderson.

from Emily Henderson https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/whats-the-farmhouse-style-again-how-we-almost-made-some-risky-permanent-choices-and-why

Sunday, 2 January 2022

The Link Up: Emily’s “Teeth Cleaning Lollipops” invented by a kid, Jess’s $30 Shearling Jacket & An At Home Nail Kit

HI FOLKS. It’s officially 2022 and we are officially full of hope that this year will be vastly better than the last. Are you with us?? Great. There is no time like the present so let’s get right into the links for this week:

Today’s home tour (via The Design Files) is a contemporary home that incorporated salvaged items from stables from the 1800s, so that should be all you need to convince you to click here and check it out. The project belongs to two sisters and their intention to highlight the history of the property is both inspiring and beautiful.

From Emily: I’m a sucker for this. I know it sounds too good to be true (and it might be) but I keep hearing about these ‘teeth cleaning lollipops‘ that can act as a treat for kids (and grownups) but are supposed to mitigate tooth decay and cavities. My spidey sense warns me that they can’t be better for your teeth than actually brushing teeth, but I see it as a good alternative to a sugary sweet. It was invented by a 12-year-old ‘candy-preneur’ who obviously saw a hole and filled it.

From Mallory: I’m VERY into powder dip nails right now (they last longer than gel IMHO!) so when I saw this powder dip kit, I got very excited. I recently purchased it as a gift for my friend who’s also heavily into powder dip…I’ll report back on how she likes it and when I’ll cave in and get one for myself!!

From Jess: I’ve been wanting a sporty shearling jacket but simply didn’t want to spend the money on an expensive one. So when I was shopping for my last trip, I saw this little guy for only $30! It’s cute, I love the super small hits of neon and I feel fun and put together when I wear it with just jeans or workout leggings.

From Ryann: I have a Nordstrom Rack less than a mile from my apartment which is a blessing and a curse. The other day I went there with only the purest intentions to find a gift for a White Elephant game but I somehow left with a few things for myself?? Very strange. One of the things I got is this jacket that is insanely cozy. It’s a steal at $45 and I really love the crop fit and the way it drapes. I got an XL but I think I could have sized down to a L for a more fitted look. I also bought these platform heels and this velvet dress that by the time you are reading this I will have worn on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

From Caitlin: In the spirit of the new year, I wanted to share the 4 things on my phone that I could not live without: Robinhood, for making stocks and ETFS easy; Coinbase, my crypto wallet of choice (if you’ve ever been interested in learning more about the whole space, their resource library is great); You Need a Budget for all things financial; and Axios’ daily newsletters for staying up-to-date with the world (I subscribe to AM/PM, Pro Rata, Capital, Media Trends, Login, Science, Space, and World). Highly recommend all of these if you’re looking to start off 2022 on the right foot!!!

Alright sweet friends, that is all for now. Happy 2022 and we hope to see you tomorrow for a fun farmhouse update. xx

Opener Image Credit: Design by Sibling Architecture | Photo by Katherine Lu | From: An 1800s Stable Turned Contemporary Home Connected To Bushland, History + Family

The post The Link Up: Emily’s “Teeth Cleaning Lollipops” invented by a kid, Jess’s $30 Shearling Jacket & An At Home Nail Kit appeared first on Emily Henderson.

from Emily Henderson https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/kids-teeth-cleaning-hack

Saturday, 1 January 2022

Happy New Year + My Fresh 2022 Outlook… Is My Identity Crisis Over?

I’ve been in an identity crisis for most of 2021. Personally and professionally and it made planning the future very hard. WHO ARE WE POST-LOCKDOWN??? The year 2020 shifted the blog (and all our lives dramatically). Our design content pivoted (are we done with that word yet?) pretty quickly to help solve problems, create comfort, and give resources in the home as we were all in lockdown. But we did it in a very low-budget, casual way that required way less production on our end. And I LOVED the freedom and ease of that level of production. We went from 4-7 photoshoots a week to maybe 1-2 with my iPhone, at my house, in my pajamas. I’m talking REALLY LOW QUALITY when it came to photos, styling, etc. I just rewatched and read Brian’s post about Matty Matheson and I really loved that vibe. We were way more focused on what was practical and relatable than trying to be perfect. And not only was it fun/fast/easy to do but it was actually what we wanted to see on the internet, too. Even myself, a stylist obsessed with perfectly yet effortlessly styled photographs did NOT want to see someone’s home looking annoyingly beautiful during that year.

Cut to the end of 2021. In the last few months specifically, I’ve seen this real shift back to “perfection” on most of the internet. And y’all I don’t want to go back full-time perfection pushing. I found myself, for the first time in my career, really comparing myself to others, feeling jealous their homes looked so good, their content so professional, and frustrated that the world is just back to business as usual – that what we learned in the last two years has already been forgotten. But of course, that was just my own insecurity, grappling with my desire to not become the machine that I once was, and just trying to figure out how to “do it all” while maintaining the sense of slowness that I’ve had. I also have felt confused about what people want, and like there is a backlash for anything we do because the audience has gotten so large. Here’s an example – If I wear an American-made, expensive dress, people are irritated that they can’t afford it and I get called out. If I wear a $19.99 Target dress, people feel like I’m promoting fast fashion and I get called out, and if I wear something vintage/thrifted people feel frustrated they can’t click and buy. And I fully understand all three viewpoints, but no matter what I feel bad that someone is unhappy and it feels like a lose-lose. The sauna blanket posts is a great example – so many of you found it useful (and the traffic/engagement were very high which yes, produced a lot of revenue) but many of you found it was off-brand for me – which I fully get, but it was honest and I had fun doing it. It made me think what is “the brand” anyway post-pandemic.

While the blog was doing great (thanks to you all) in 2020 and 2021 I was still confused about the future. Brian and my priorities shifted and we really wanted to slow down. So we left the city and focused on trying to create a life off of the hamster wheel in Oregon. But what does that look like business-wise? Do I want to grow the business or keep it “as is”? Can you even exist without wanting to grow or progress? Isn’t that just part of the human condition? How do you exist as a content creator or “influencer” with a team to support without getting back on the hamster wheel and saying yes to everything good that comes our way? DO I HAVE TO BE ON TIK TOK???? Can we possibly keep up with every platform and do them well??

And then I realized, wait, we can do all of those things and maybe that’s actually where we should live anyway (and always have, but with less mental ownership). We can still do low-budget mirror-selfie posts while also doing the higher budget styled-out photoshoots. And that’s not only OK, but perhaps having a looser approach can actually have a broader/more inclusive appeal. We can be more things to more people and just own it.

So here is the analogy that I pitched to the team – We are like a large Hollywood studio production company that tells stories about home and design. We can do big-budget blockbusters (the tent pole superhero films that pay for everything else), the low-budget indie films (budget stories, trends), documentaries (real process and education), off-broadway plays (experimental design posts), commercials (sponsored content), and even the free theater in the park (feel good makeovers) – WHATEVER WE WANT as long as we do them in the EHD way. Not every production (post) will be for all people, and that’s ok. Like Hugh Jackman – I prefer him in The Greatest Showman over Wolverine, but he does them both really well. Some people are here for the big well-produced reveals, some for nitty-gritty farmhouse documentary process, some for house hunting, some for trends, budget products, fashion, and some for sauna blanket reviews. And that’s GREAT. We hear you and we know that many of you want budget design ideas while others want discussions around sustainability. And that’s good! Both things can happen here. With my team and our contributors, we can be more things to more people, but we can’t be all things to all people every single day. We all can agree that if today’s post isn’t for you – just come back tomorrow and hopefully it might be.

left aka “blockbuster”: photo by sara ligorria-tramp | right aka “low-budget indie film”: photo by me…clearly

And listen, if coming here many days in a row makes you feel bad, uncomfortable, or snarky in any way – then I think we aren’t the right fit for you. And that’s ok, too. We’ll be more on top of the comments this year to ensure that this remains a site full of positive, productive, and constructive design conversations, education, inspiration, resources all with a personal connection to us. No snark towards each other, or the writer of the post in the comments allowed, and if you want to snark about me there are dark places on the internet you can waste your time. Go for it. Of course, discussion and constructive criticism are ALWAYS welcome, but I’ve had too many readers reach out saying that some days the comment section kinda ruins the spirit of the blog and bums them out and we agree. No one should feel guilt and shame for their choices in their home. I know many days I’ve avoided the comment section myself out of anxiety and we have some writers that don’t want to write for us anymore because of it. And listen, it’s just a few commenters so I think it will be easy to control (we know because we can look up IP addresses even if you use email aliases like a few of you do). So don’t waste your time, you will be quickly deleted (which FYI automatically deletes any comment that replies to the original one so don’t reply to them). Boundaries, y’all. We aren’t perfect people. We are human, and we are trying really really hard to help inspire, educate and entertain no matter what your budget and style.

I’m actually super excited and feel re-energized – and I couldn’t have said that 2 months ago. I feel more empowered to educate and use what I’ve learned to help you all through your design process. And I’m not alone! With the help of my team (and former team), we’ve really turned into a publishing platform and have been able to broaden the voices, styles, and budgets and want to continue to do it in 2022. I think I just needed to own my shit more, be proud of the mess, process, the reveals, and throw up some new boundaries (the buzzword of 2021).

I think just giving myself permission to do the big-budget blockbusters and the more experimental low-budget indie films has unlocked my creativity and made me less hard on myself. Going back to perfectly produced everything gave me anxiety and just didn’t feel right. I mean I’m living in a house with sheets on the windows for curtains and renovating what feels like an absolute mud/money-pit. My hair is frizzy every day because of the rain and I mostly wear yoga clothes and bogs. I don’t really feel like a style inspiration right now and I refuse to put it on just for the camera. How do you show that mess “perfectly”? I think you don’t, you just embrace it. And yet I can’t WAIT to style out the farm, making beautiful photos and videos to reveal this insane project (yes, the “blockbuster”), I LOVE styling branches in a vase to camera and placing the slippers next to the bed, *like so*. But I also love talking about my mudroom or closet woes, with iPhone shots. I love working with a partner to tell a story around their product, which often pays for the feel-good makeovers. We love finding truly great budget furniture and researching smart products for better living. And I love writing personal posts about parenting, marriage, and religion.

WE LOVE IT ALL. So instead of feeling like we have to be one thing, we are embracing the fact that we can do posts of all budgets/styles, etc, as long as we do it in the EHD way.

So expect all of it – it’s going to be a real “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” year – which honestly isn’t that much different than the last 10 years, it’s just a clearer mind-frame and less apologizing. And in digital and social media there is literally no predicting what will work – well except talking about dead cats, vasectomies, living room rug sizes, hair, and sauna blankets. I suppose I should figure out what all those have in common and plan our editorial calendar based on that?

A huge thank you to my team, of course, who has stuck with me navigating my identity crisis this year. There was a lot of “talking it out” and moments of privacy and I know that isn’t easy for a small team to navigate, both personally and professionally so thank you Jess, Caitlin, Ryann, and Mal. I appreciate the hell out of you. And thank you to our new contributors who have created some of the best content on the blog – looking at you Key, Malcolm, Albie, Ajai, Anita, Lea, and Rashida. I’m so proud of all of the EHD family for the incredible content produced, even when your leader is having an identity crisis. You’ll see even more faces this year as we grow a small team in Portland.

And thanks to you readers, seriously. Twelve years in and I know that many of you were here from the beginning and come every day and I can’t TELL YOU how much that means to me. I am not a “people pleaser” in general, but boy do I want to please you, as you guys truly do know me and have supported me on the way up. So just thank you for sticking by me, coming back, and embracing all of the changes, transitions, and self-indulgence

CHEERS TO 2022 being a VERY interesting year!!!!!