A New Heartsease...

Easy Elegance Home - Think Whites and Neutrals

Like a breath of fresh air and the scent of sun-dried sheets, whites and neutrals used as the main colors for your decor create an atmosphere of calm and tranquility.

 

    I remember hearing about a decorator who worked with color all day long for her clients. Yet, her own home was decorated using neutrals and shades of white because of her need to escape the drama of the colors she worked with all day. 

    How one chooses to decorate his or her home can be either welcoming or unsettling. Clutter, funky odors, and garish color combinations can carry subliminal anxiety for many. Neutrals and "the shades of white" add an airy appeal to spaces and gives a calming, serene feel to a space.

 

My bedroom is my sanctuary of rest, repose, and meditation. A large white chair beckons me to read or sit and enjoy the golden light of late afternoon through western facing windows.

    After a long day of working, running around, and doing stuff one's home can and should be a sea of calm; a balm to scattered senses. Whites and neutral colors are expansive and add a sense of airy tranquility to ones spaces. There are many shades of white and they mix well, too. Go to the paint store. You'll notice that whites may have subliminal tints of gray, green, blue, pink, or yellow. Some are "cool", others are "warm".

    Whites and neutral colors are also a frugal choice because one only needs to add that punch of color using a few accents in the form of pillows, throw rugs, and art. Using this recipe, redecorating needn't be expensive by having to replace large costly items such as sofas and chairs, new carpeting, or repainting rooms simply because one tires of the saturation of a particular, once-loved color. 

    Chairs and sofas may be expected to give decades of service. Changing them out because one tires of color or pattern may be avoided by choosing furniture in neutral colors.

   In neutrally-colored rooms one needs only to swap in accessories of a different color for a fresh look or a seasonal feel. 

    I used to think that because I lived in the country surrounded by fields and all the accouterments of farming (read "lots of dirt") and animals that I couldn't decorate in light colors. I solved the problem by making sure that my whites were washable - canvas, cotton, white denim were my "go to" fabrics. 

    White, ivory, ecru, pale grays and greens are considered neutral, too. They aren't dramatic and we don't tire of them as easily as colors with more saturation. If neutrals form the basis for floors and carpets, sofas, chairs, and wall color and we instead rely on accent pieces to add drama, we can swap in and out those items inexpensively and easily. 

    I love red! The entry/dining room of my old farmhouse was painted a dramatic red. It made a stunning entrance and it was a room I used only when entering the front door or entertaining guests, and as a pass through to other rooms.

    The rooms I spent the most time in - bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, the converted attic, and sitting room were all done in neutrals. It was a look and feel I happily thrived in for many years. My present home - my condo - I decorated in all neutrals perhaps because the rooms are smaller and the ceilings eight feet instead of ten. Small accents such as the seat cushions in my dining room have a small amount of red...an echo of former days because I used fabric leftover from my old dining room chairs re-do to cover those presently in my condo dining room.

 

White and neutral colors were the basis for arranging my condo living room. Most of the furniture was brought from my old farmhouse except for the rattan sofa in the foreground.

 

This wee, slip covered love seat is nearly 40 years old and now resides on my condo's covered balcony to create another comfortable "room". I slip covered it in a washable cotton duck commercial slip cover that I purchased on line and tailored to fit (see link below). The cushions are covered with matching drapes that I also purchased and re-purposed as fitted cushion covers.

 

My old farmhouse was decorated in a shabby chic style relying on mostly white and neutral colors.

 

This table awaits luncheon guests. White dishes and bowls, vintage salt and pepper shakers, and silverware in canning jars is both welcoming and charming.

    

    White or ivory-colored dishes of mixed styles and shapes - but of the same composition be it china or earthen ware - adding both the vintage and the casual make for easy and elegant entertaining.

    I hope these few ideas on using whites and neutrals will inspire you toward living your own easily elegant lifestyle!

 

Link to how I tailored a Sure-Fit slip cover to fit a wee loveseat:

https://heartseasecottage.typepad.com/gails-garden-at-heartsea/2012/04/the-cottage-lifestyle-tailoring-a-ready-made-slipcover-to-fit.html

    

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    For several weeks we're going to leave the current theme. You're invited to come along on my last car camping trip of the Season before Winter clamps down hard. I'll be sharing some places, my "spaces" in my SUV, ideas, and techniques for comfy car camping/glamping, as well as that often wondered and whispered at "potty challenge" (how to accomplish this feat neatly, daintily, cleanly, and discreetly all whilst living and traveling in my car!). 

 

    

 

 

Easy Elegance Home - Think Outside the Box!

 

Here, I'm wintering over geraniums that won't survive Northern Idaho winters. The potted hosta will be set out in a couple of weeks as it needs Winter's chill during dormancy.

 

    You don't need a lot of money to have an elegant, nicely decorated home. Nor do you have to shop furniture stores with their matchy-matchy furniture options.

    An eclectic look often has greater appeal than a suite of furnishings consisting of matching finishes and style. For decor, look to what you already have or what can be found at thrift stores having unique, personal appeal that complements what you already have and love.

    In the picture above I've wintered over geraniums kept outside during warmer months. Living plants make inexpensive decorating items and great focal points. One or more large plants have greater impact and presence than a bunch of tiny pots that require frequent watering.

    The bench occupied by the geraniums was brought to my condo from the back garden of my old farmhouse. Vintage and used garden furniture can be brought indoors to serve as extra seating and add an above-the-ordinary look.

    In the photo below, featured in my last post, the small iron table and chair set once sat under the giant elm tree in the front garden of my farmhouse.

    Subjected to nearly two decades of wind, rain, snow, and ice has given table and chairs a patina that enhances the character of my decor. I had a piece of glass cut to fit the table top recently. In Winter I cover the cold glass with a layering of tablecloths. In Summer I like the airy, cool look of the glass top.

    My small dining room contains very little that was purchased new. The China cabinet was given to me by a friend and I painted it's dark wood a soft gray to give it a faded-by-age look. The candle sconces - one of them seen to the right of the cabinet - were purchased used on eBay for a fraction of their cost when new.

 

    In this room the only newly purchased item is the hostess tray in the corner. 

    The lamp was given to me years ago by my mom when she was in the throws of redecorating her home. The two panel screen behind the tray was something I already owned. It was four panels once, but I separated the panels and use the other two as large shutters on each side of a long bank of windows in my living room. The crocheted lace border salvaged from an old bed skirt trims the bottom of the checked curtain.

    Two plates on the wall were purchased from a thrift store, while the statuette next to the window came out of the kitchen garden of my previous home.

    The curtain is a reuse from a set of four panels once hanging in the farmhouse dining room before I decided they made the room too dark. 

    I made seat cushions for the two chairs to make dining more comfortable, using a toile fabric remnant to add some French country ambiance.

    To the left of the cabinet a three-tiered server is used when I host a formal tea. Then, another bistro table is brought in from the front porch to seat the extra guests.

    The unique, the odd, the unexpected when drawn from a variety of sources, venues, and giveaways creates rooms that are uniquely creative and one's own.

    While my decor suits me, you can adopt the concepts of Re-use, Recycle, Re-purpose, Refurbish, and Repair to tastefully, inexpensively, and elegantly furnish your own home. It will have the "wow" factor of being uniquely, beautifully yours. And, it will also have the "woohoo" factor that you did it for far less$

    Decor should reflect the people living in a space. Their own lifestyle, interests, and attitudes are good starting places. Your style will be different than mine. Nor does it need to clone the costly offerings at the big box stores, or the cash-chic of the decorating mavens.

    We need to occupy and feather our own nests, not have our homes be odes to the fads and fashions of those who claim the ephemeral and dubious titles of "TV fashionistas".

    For inspiration look at your hobbies, your interests, the type of music you listen to. Do you read books? Collect cameras? Admire a particular era in history? Do you like to forage in the woods, beach comb? Paddle a canoe?

    Are you drawn to a particular area of the country even if you don't presently live there? Perhaps the Appalachian mountains, Cape Cod, the Southwest, or the Midwest appeal? Paris even?

    Does an era of history or an architectural style inspire?

    Make your house your home, your nest, your sanctuary by incorporating the things you love in a minimal, yet sassy statement of who you are and what you love! Easy Elegance is about thinking outside the box - the Big Box store!

    It's fun! It's doable! It's practical! And it's all you and yours with whom you abide and reside!

 

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Easy Elegance is simple, minimal, achievable, uncluttered and, well, easy.

    

Easy Elegance: A Time Out After All That Hard Work!

Decluttering is hard work. Time for a break to sip a "Dande-Frappa-Cinno"!

 

    I don't drink coffee so I've had to invent a satisfying beverage that I enjoy. I call it a "dande-frappa-cinno". I like frappucinnos, but don't like the caffeine. So.....

    To make this satisfying sip for one, you'll need:

1 tsp. "Dandy Blend Instant Herbal Beverage With Dandelion" and 8 oz cold water, or,

1 tea bag roasted dandelion root tea steeped in 8 oz. hot, hot water for 20 minutes and cooled (Traditional Medicinals makes a nice roasted dandelion tea in individual bags one).

1 tsp Rich Chocolate Ovaltine (to "mocha" it up), optional

Two to four drops liquid Stevia or preferred sweetner (optional)

1/4 to 1/3 cup vanilla-flavored or plain almond, coconut, soy, or dairy milk frothed (if nut milk contains gellan gum and/or xanthan gum it will froth with a wire whisk. You can also add 1/8 tsp of xanthan gum to a cup of nut milk and whisk briskly to mix and foam). Soy and almond milk generally don't need "gums" to froth up.

Ice

A sprinkle of powdered cocoa, cinnamon, or nutmeg to garnish.

    1. Brew and steep the dandelion tea in an 8 oz measuring cup for 20 minutes. Cool. Pour into a 12 or 16 oz glass. Add the tsp of Ovaltine, if desired. Sweeten as desired. Stir. Add ice. Then proceed with steps No. 3, etc.

    2. If using Dandy Blend, add one tsp each Blend and Ovaltine to a 12 or 16 oz. glass and add 8 to 10 oz of cold water water and five or six ice cubes.

    3. Sweeten as desired.

    4. In an 8 oz. glass measuring cup add the milk and using a wire whisk, roll the handle rapidly between your palms, for several seconds until it foams up.

    5. Using a spoon to hold back the foam, pour the milk under the foam into the dandelion mixture. Either mix in or allow "legs" of milk to create a design of their own.Then, use a spoon to scrape the foam onto the top of the beverage.

    6. If desired, garnish with a sprinkle of powdered cocoa, cinnamon, or nutmeg.

    7. Light a candle, sit down, put your feet up and relax. You've earned it!

    This beverage is great hot, too. Nix the ice, or course. Prepare as before (no need to let the tea cool after steeping). Add Ovaltine if using. If using Dandy Blend, pour in hot water. Ovaltine, if desired. Stir, and sweeten, as desired.

    Heat the milk in a microwave for 30 seconds, or on the stove top just until it begins to simmer at the edges. Foam the milk and add as before. Garnish is desired.

 

Dandy Blend can be found at many health food stores, natural markets, and on Amazon. It contains extracts of roasted barley, rye, chickory root, dandelion root, and sugar beet.

    

    In the next post we'll get back to work on decorating our homes in the Easy Elegance style.

 

 

The Road To Easy Elegance

Easy Elegance is simple, somewhat minimal, tasteful and, well...easy. 

 

    As with Elective Frugality there is a "road" to be traveled, a road that leads to freedom, simplicity, abundance, and contentment. 

    As with any journey, we pack what we need or want to take with us, and go forth leaving behind what is "too heavy" or doesn't serve our journey.

    On the road to Elective Frugality we left behind debt and the "gospel" of advertising and marketing propaganda. We stopped enriching CEO's and impoverishing ourselves buying needless stuff. We identified what we truly need when we recognized how much unnecessary stuff we've been spending our hard-earned money on. We became wealthy when we discovered that what we already have is enough. We look instead to relationships, beauty, Nature, "soul-fullness" and free time for fulfillment rather than acquisition and working overtime to pay for it. We unloaded the psychic weight, stress, and indebtedness of what presently constitutes the American "dream", thus simplifying, enriching, and freeing ourselves from a broken system.

    Now we set out on the road to Easy Elegance which enhances and uplifts our new abundant and electively frugal life-choices. There is a sacrifice here, too. Not as many, but of a different type. We've already sacrificed debt and enslavement to a broken system, leading us to more peace, freedom, and simplicity. Can any sacrifice be a loss if what we gain is life enriching and freeing?

    Instead of a loss, that sacrifice becomes an offering, an oblation, an atonement leading to new and richer, more joyous life.

    On this new journey we're taking what we've already learned and adding a new dimension, called Easy Elegance. 

    If you're already a minimalist or near-minimalist you can skip this next step...de-cluttering!

    Clutter - too much needless stuff - depletes energy and costs money. We have to find places to store stuff we're not using - thus we believe we need bigger, more costly homes.

    We may decide we need to buy a bunch of nifty boxes to "organize" our clutter. Perhaps we've got so much stuff stored in the garage that our car/s are "driveway orphans" and "curbside waifs".

    Perhaps we find ourselves paying for offsite storage. $$$ wasted!

    When we have too much stuff we have to expend energy to care for, insure (via the energy of money), and clean it...or clean around it. The energy of too much stuff causes both overt and subliminal stress. People simply function better in uncluttered and ordered environments.

    De-cluttering is the first step to Easy Elegance. When clutter is cleared and only the useful and beautiful remains, our homes contribute to, rather than deplete from, our peace of mind. Environmental energy is invigorated rather than diminished. Our homes contribute to our sense of well-being. Our surroundings are more peaceful and we don't spend so much time looking for things. We know what we have and where to find it. Our homes are cleaner, easier to clean, and more likely to be cleaned because less stuff is in the way and less effort is required. Less time cleaning, storing, and organizing stuff means more time to enjoy life, engage in hobbies, and be with loved ones!

 

When we have less stuff we can focus on the beauty of what we do have.

 

    There are many books and YouTube videos on how to de-clutter. I'll give just the basics here.

    Start by taking one room at a time. It's helpful if you can empty each one out completely or leave only the large furnishings that are consistently in use - sofa, chairs, maybe a lamp. Remove games, toys, throws, area rugs. Clean the room for an instant lift in energy. With the room empty, or nearly so, it's also a good time to paint for a fresh look, or new color scheme.

    Be sure to remove ALL your tchotchkes. If possible use the room for a couple of days with just it's barest essentials in place. After enjoying your sparse room for a few days, one author (Myquillyn Smith - Cozy Minimalist Home) recommends bringing nothing back into the room smaller than a pineapple because anything smaller isn't essential or useful as decor. This means lamps, perhaps a clock, a vase, a stack of books would be things you'd bring back in - a TV if that's where you watch it.

    Simply leave those (smaller than a pineapple) wee, dust-catching, hard to dust around cluttery bits in a box for re-gifting, donating, or selling at a yard sale. Those wee bits gathered into "collections" that occupy every bare surface don't allow the eye to rest on any one thing, but instead to be continually roving from thing to thing causing subliminal stress and restlessness.

     Separate excess stuff and bits into three boxes or large trash bags. Designate the boxes/bags for re-gifting, donating, selling. Toss the rest. Don't be afraid to toss damaged stuff unfit for any of the previous venues or that has been hanging around for years awaiting repair. If it occupies space and can't be used because no one wants to take the time to repair it, you may not need it after all. BE MERCILESS!

    And, if you haven't used it or worn it in the past year, consider sending it away. If you must replace it at some point our world is filled with abundance and choice. Simply get a better, prettier, more currently fashionable, or less obsolete version. Be RUTHLESS!

    Reflect. Think about how you and your family use the newly emptied room. Is there another room in the house that might better fill that need? Is there a room that can fill a need for which it wasn't intended but will serve your household better or more efficiently?

    My old farmhouse had two parlors - one to receive visitors and another for family use, and a large eat-in kitchen, but no dining room. I wanted a dining room, but only needed one parlor to use as a living room. The (visitor) parlor, entered into by the front door, had a lovely maple floor and another doorway that went into the kitchen. I made this room serve my needs as an entry hall/dining room with a reclaimed Duncan phyfe dining table placed in its center - the dining chairs rested along the wall until needed.

    When guests came for dinner the table leaves were raised and the chairs moved in from the walls. 

 

    We can be very creative with our rooms if we look at them and their potential use with new vision.

    

    My personal style runs to shabby chic, French Country, even a wee dose of farm style. Any style you love or choose will shine with less stuff to distract from the effect you wish to achieve.

    Decoratively speaking, an effect is best achieved with larger items - those having a greater presence, mass, and "voice" - than with a bunch of small things with little mass, or visual importance.

 

 

Way too much stuff! There seems no room for people or for a life to be lived, nor oxygen to be breathed. Cleaning this mess would be a daunting, oft-delayed task.

 

Not mine, but I like the simple, minimal, yet elegant style.

 

Perhaps a vintage/modern look appeals more to you. Much can be done with paint, new hardware, visits to the thrift store, and fabric to create a similar look.

 

Comfy, airy, uncluttered, a room with "room" to think, to be, even to wrestle with the kids - few tchotchkes to get broken here!

 

    Finding your personal style, or honing and refining it with what you already have is the essence of a style you can live and thrive with.

    Easy Elegance has no fear of the words, "Re-use, Recycle, Re-purpose, Refurbish, and Repair"!

    But what if you just can't part with all or even some of your stuff? Of course, this would be a personal choice and yours to make. However, there is also the energetic facet to consider in harboring lots of excess stuff. By releasing  and/or donating the old, the outdated, the unused, you gift another with something he or she really needs, wants, or can use. When you empty out you open up to a universal principle called, The Law of Return, Karma, the Golden Rule. What we release, give away, donate, gift engages this ancient law by creating a "cosmic vacuum". You find that new things, opportunities, boons and blessings come your way. You will gain far more than you give. Or, you can put your tchotchkes in a box and store it someplace. A year later revisit the box. Do you remember all you've put into it? Did you survive just fine without these things taking up visual space? Are you now distanced from them enough that you can give them up? If you simply cannot live without them, return them to their spaces and simply love having them.

    In the next post I'll share some ideas for finding your idea of Easy Elegance without spending a lot of money. I'll share what I've done to spark some ideas that you can apply to your own style and the beautiful, useful possessions  that made it through the de-cluttering process. Your home will be a place you'll love to be.

    I'll suggest a few simple techniques, but nothing that takes an engineering degree, skills in carpentry, or construction. Paint, a little fabric, your own creativity and ideas, and your home will undergo a transformation you'll be proud to call your own....and, it won't cost you a fortune because we've chosen Elective Frugality first!

 

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Easy Elegance is simple, minimal, achievable, uncluttered and, well, easy.

 

Instead of layering and draping every surface with Holiday decor for each Season I arrange a single focal point on a console table situated between the living and dining rooms. I don't want to devote my minimal storage to great gobs of Holiday decor and yet I still give a nod to each Season. Ditto outside on my front porch.

 

Minimal, yet suggestive of Autumn.

 

Re-Capping the Journey Into Elective Frugality and An Intro To Easy Elegance

 

Elective Frugality is the genteel recognition of having acquired "enough", and that authentic abundance and real wealth are not money- or thing-based, but are instead, Soul-founded.

 

Elective Frugality "crosses the road" away from debt.

 

     Together we've examined what constitutes the present version of the American Dream. The "dream" that was once the providence of all, now only serves to enrich the uber wealthy. The dream as it now exists has become the people's nightmare of clutter, indebtedness, overwork, broken families, and stress.

    However, we can awaken and live a life of joy, freedom, and happiness by turning away from the marketing and advertising propaganda telling us that we must buy lots of stuff - more than we actually need - and to buy bigger, more expensive homes to house all the excess stuff.

    Shopping for needless stuff has become a frantic habit that eats away our abundance and fills our homes with far too many needless things, creating and maintaining a state of personal and perpetual  indebtedness.

    We shop for entertainment and distraction and to fill what could be a truly meaningful life with mindless acquisition. We spend money, instead of quality time with those we care about. Shopping has become almost obligatory. It needn't be.

    Working extra hours to afford ever more stuff - or pay for stuff we've already acquired on credit cards or via loans - takes us away from relationships, meaningful moments, and communing with Nature, both outer and inner.

    My previous posts shared how to start today to create for yourself and your family (not CEO'S and their "shareholders") more abundance in your own lives rather than filling the pockets of bankers, corporations, marketers, and advertisers. 

    The goal - your goal - can be to enrich yourself and create a more prosperous and happy life by ignoring the propaganda to spend more on needless, but momentarily alluring things, or to purchase items simply to "impress" others. After all "those others" won't be the one's making monthly minimum and interest payments on already charged up credit cards. The people who really matter don't need to be impressed by big, costly houses, expensive new cars, or a $50,000 kitchen remodel that you'll be paying for over the next ten or twenty years.

    Another strategy is to live in a home you can easily afford and drive a car that's clean, attractive, and affordable so YOU can live abundantly and free of anxiety and the other dangers of indebtedness.

    We've explored how you can pay off credit card debt early ditching it altogether as you develop the habit of paying cash for things you need and want...or if you must charge something to a credit care - say for online shopping - you charge only what you can comfortably pay off completely when the statement arrives. Never carry any interest-attached balance on a credit card.

    We talked about how to get rid of your mortgage early by making extra payments to reduce the interest obligation attached to every home loan. The more you pay on the principle loan amount each month - over and above the required payment - the more and faster the interest portion of the loan shrinks!

    We've even explored alternate lifestyles that forgo the need to even pay mortgage or rent, such as living in a tiny house, an RV, a van, on a boat or houseboat, or even living in one's car as do those intrepid few who've choose to be major-minimalist nomads! 

     

Getting out of debt - owing no one recurring payments and interest on anything - is like a breath of fresh air infusing happiness and simplicity into your life!

 

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Sneak Peak Into Easy Elegance!

 

Easy Elegance aims for comfort, simplicity, and beauty. So your first task is to choose a style you love, or keep the one you have, if...you love it! This photo shows how I created my own personal style in my previous home, an old Folk Victorian farmhouse in Utah, I called Heartsease Cottage.

 

    In upcoming posts I'll share how I've created Easy Elegance in my present home, Heartsease Haven, a condo on the edge of the forest in Northern Idaho.

    Enlarging, building upon, and enhancing an Electively Frugal lifestyle is a co-equal philosophy called Easy Elegance. Easy Elegance brings beauty, creativity, comfort, and simplicity into one's life. 

    Easy Elegance is not ostentatious, or ridiculously expensive, nor will it throw you into debt. You won't stun your neighbors with how much money it took to achieve your look, but you will "wow" them with how little you spent, or saved, to achieve a fashionable and comfortable home. 

    Easy Elegance is created on your terms, using your style, and what you like. It's a look that's comfortable, simple, creative, and hospitable. It's somewhat minimal - you won't have unused, unloved stuff taking up space - but it's a look that's not starkly minimal, either.

    Rather than having an abundance of knickknacks to trick the eye from thing to thing, to thing, the aim is to have a true focal point where the eye can rest and observe beauty, symmetry, and harmony.  

    Most decorating styles can be easily accommodated into the Easy Elegance philosophy - think Shabby Chic, Country French, Farmhouse, Rust-Chic, Boho, Craftsman, Log Cabin, Shaker, Retro, and Modern, to name just a few. Or combine your most favorite and comfy pieces to create your own eclectic style!

      I've opted for a combination of Shabby chic and Country French decor for my homes, both past and present, because that's what I happen to like, so I'll be using those styles to illustrate the Easy Elegance philosophy. Simply tweak the ideas to fit your space, your style...your way!

 

Instead of a collection of things to bounce the eye from item to item, it rests instead on a singular, simple but tasteful thrift store pitcher holding a collection of flowers (and yes, weeds) from the garden.

Easy Elegance is simple, minimal, achievable, uncluttered, and, well, easy.