the barn

Whether you are decorating a bedroom, a ballroom, or a barn–for a wedding, a birthday girl, or simply to live in and enjoy, there’s one mistake that we continue to make over and over again…

the barn

In the past month I’ve decorated The Barn for two completely opposite gatherings. I couldn’t buy all new furniture and rugs, I didn’t want to go to a party store and waste my money on a bunch of throw away paper “themey” decor.

So how’s a girl to decorate on a limited budget, with limited time using what she has without investing time and money into all the wrong things?

girl time

The biggest decorating mistake we make is focusing on the tiny details first.

 

We tend to fret over the exact color of the 5 x 7 photo frame instead of hanging our drapes correctly or even having drapes at all.

We spend an hour hot gluing cute scrapbook paper onto teeny tiny water bottles instead of spending our time creating one impactful, large-scale focal point.

There’s nothing wrong with looking for the perfect frame or cutesy-ing up water bottles–but do it last, if you have the time to do it at all–don’t put your energy and money into the little details first, put them where you can have the most impact–hopefully by shopping the house, investing in things that can be used over and over and over again and using scale in your favor, your decorations can have a much longer life, and you can do much less work for the same amount of WOW.

blue pallet

So for Mantime, I grabbed a blue pallet that ended up at my house with a delivery (I didn’t even have to paint it!) I shopped the house and borrowed the big Sailfish from my son’s room–since I’ve spent the last five years focusing on larger, WOW items for my home, I have better options when shopping my house–I actually need LESS stuff to have a bigger and better impact on a space.

girl time

And for the Cozy Minimalist gathering last week, I have all the same furniture, but I shopped the house for neutral texture–I had two $40 hammocks that I’ve yet to use outside, Megan and I nailed up a tassel throw, doilies, and some garlands that I already had to create a large-scale-woven/weaving-type effect.

I grabbed the large pink column from my office and used my teepee–not because we had some teepee theme–but because I wanted interest, scale, and neutral texture. And I borrowed the Lindsay Letters Canvas from my office–it’s gorgeous, and the perfect color!

In the next post I’ll tell you more about the flowers and the plants (I have a secret trick for those too).

flowers

For now, remember especially when decorating for a party or event, put your biggest effort, and investment into things that make the biggest impact, that can serve you over and over again.