When I think of all the homes we’ve redone, raised our kids at and welcomed many grandchildren into, it’s impossible to choose a favorite. I like elements of each place. I have learned so much as I redesigned each property and experienced first hand, living in the results of my designs. Some designs were great and I’ve carried them through to the next property, but other design concepts needed a little tweaking.
We’ve lived in just about every common type of American dwelling, starting in an apartment, moving up to a mobile home, then small pre-fab starter house, a couple of Victorian era homes, and some in-between.
Our last home was a mid-century sprawling house that if you’ve been following Simple Decorating Tips for a while you probably caught a post or two on the extensive makeover we gave it. (HERE is where you can see more projects including the before and after at that house!)
Looking back at this photo of the day we left our last house is a little bittersweet. It helps me remember how much redesign and thoughtfulness I put into design details.
It was an huge undertaking but we were so pleased with the end results and did love living there.
Though we may miss some things from there, we do not miss the maintenance!
Times have changed and so has our home, again! Since my last post here we have sold that house and I’ve closed my shop, which was located in the lower level, where I sold Fusion Mineral Paints, DIY products and taught furniture refinishing classes.
It was so much work moving! That house was fairly large and with the retail shop, packing and moving was not typical. Instead we had sales, a plethora of sales! Yard sales, sales on marketplace, shop sales until we sold just about everything except the bare bones that we knew we’d have space for in our new, much smaller home.
Our house sold quickly, (HUGE shoutout to our Wisconsin Realtor, Julie! She was amazing!!) but our new place was not ready for us yet, so we put the remaining household things into storage and lived in a bit of limbo for many months.
The place we now call home, is a brand new built twin home townhouse, (yep, almost half the size of our last house). We were fortunate that because we selected the lot before the twin house was built we were able to have interior floor plan and design options. So even though living in limbo wasn’t our favorite thing, it was worth it to get it built with the details we felt were important.
Living in a townhouse is different from so many of our other homes we’ve had. Each one of those was so unique, both inside and outside. This townhouse is anything but unique on the outside. It is in a small sea of identical townhomes. In fact, they are so similar, my husband pulled up to the wrong one a few months ago, thinking it was ours. He actually got all the way to the front door before he realized he wasn’t home.
Every house has its own positives and negatives, though, right?! The challenge is to figure out how to make it work and be happy with it. Our last house was large, and had a beautiful yard with extensive landscaped gardens. But the downside of that was the amount of time and effort to maintain it all.
One of my goals I’m facing with this low maintenance townhouse is how to create something on the outside that looks unique and stylish but still stays within the guidelines of the HOA.
Townhouse living doesn’t have to be boring though! I’m here to tell you that I, a very creative soul, am really having so much fun decorating the interior of our townhouse. Though there are many restrictions on the exterior, it’s pretty much an open book for me applying style and design to the interior. HERE are all the posts I’ve shared so far on our townhouse living.
The style I’ve landed on for the townhouse is what I referred to on my design notes when it was being built, as ‘townhouse style’. LOL Seriously, that is what I called it though. I once saw a magazine spread on a townhouse, probably in the 80’s and it stuck in my mind. Imagine a sophisticated farmhouse style with a touch of chinoiserie and vintage elements and you’re getting close.
I have kept the color palette more sophisticated, ample neutrals, whites, tan, brown, grey, with black accents. Of course classic blue and white sprinkled throughout with accents of vintage dark green.
The townhouse color palette is purposely neutral because we have a second place we call home, (that’s where we lived when the townhome was being built) and that one is anything but neutral or sophisticated!
Our second home is a modest house on a small lake. This vintage home is a bright colorful eclectic cottage style and has layers of colors and vintage patterns throughout. It’s wonderfully casual and relaxed, just as a lake place should be. At the cottage we definitely tend to focus more on enjoying the outdoors and relaxing with family and friends.
We didn’t completely give up our outside maintenance when we gave up the big house… we still have all the gardens and landscaping at the lake! It’ll be fun to share DIY garden projects with you this summer.
The plan is to get back on a regular posting schedule here at Simple Decorating Tips. I’ll share my makeover projects from both of these homes. My goal is to encourage you with your decorating endeavors through these posts. I hope you will find creative inspiration here as you too strive to make a beautiful and well functioning home.
***Update*** HERE is the page with all the townhouse posts and projects!
Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you reading along.
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