self & style
September 16, 2015 § 2 Comments
I fall in and out of love with borrowed ideas. Blessed with friends who are naturally brazen in their creative exploration of self, I tend to get lost in second-hand inspiration born of their fearlessness. I envy them their everyday bravery from the security of my neutral color palettes.
When we moved, I promised myself to challenge my preferences and play with unfamiliar accents. I pledged to make mistakes and take chances with color. A creature of habit, I found myself turning to online inspiration for a color by numbers approach to shading in the blank spaces of my home.
Each picture was a study in a stubborn resistance to change. Mismatched table sets seemed to invite the assumption of wear with trendy antiquing techniques, neutrals in contrast over color. Even my virtual pin board guarded old favorites with passive aggressive attempts at change; someone else’s other in shades of self.
Not unlike days of dog-eared catalogues from high-end home goods companies, I was browsing an ideal over individualism. I wanted the sense of casual elegance without the challenge of struggling with the risk of error, but I was already circling a larger truth.
Then my husband and I began shopping for a table. As we sounded out likes and dislikes, sifted through ideas and shared our needs, we began piecing together an ideal that was completely unexpected and entirely familiar.
We drifted from table to table, chair to chair, like fairy tales guest testing unfamiliar pieces of furniture for a sense of comfort that hinted at self, I began leaning towards a few surprising certainties that inform a sense of style.
Solid wood and clean lines, feminine curves and textures; I want pieces that will weather our daily lives with strength and grace. A table that my children will play on as naturally as they might unpack unused pieces of china for a special occasion. I want something that will hold the lines of stories in every scratch and dent for years to come.
Preferences that I previously disregarded as safe are no less beautiful for the joy or comfort they provide. I may never be trendy or bold, but I’m finding a different kind of wonderful as I learn that sometimes the bravest choice is recognizing self in personal style.
scribblechic 
Have fun with your branching out! Sounds like a wonderful adventure:).
Thanks, Kay! I’m having a ridiculous amount of fun figuring it all out.