ICYMI, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!

Yep, we are officially no longer renting, which means I am finally allowing myself to go HAM on our home decor! Seriously, I'm definitely not your next fashionista, but all things home are basically are my favorite things! Call it my Cancer sun, or the fact that I'm basically home 24/7 (#workfromhomelife) but it's my sanctuary. I truly love being home. Growing up and still living in our vacation beach town has made traveling quite the challenge. I basically need to go to even nicer beach towns and stay at hotels that are more comfy than home in order to feel like it was worth the money. But that's my problem… anyway back to our home!

Growing up my mom always let me help decorate my room and I'd join in her DIY home projects all the time. In college I felt totally free decorating my dorms and apartments! They were the first rooms I really got to do all on my own. But then postgrad life settled in and so did renter's life. Not only were the hubs and I renting, we also rented fully furnished places for 5 years!

Our last rental was the first time we actually got to decorate (snoop inside here!)! With that said, it also meant that we were literally starting from scratch. Like we didn't even own our own towels or forks. So we focused on getting the bare essentials. We didn't want to go to crazy because:

a) we were literally starting from nothing and needed to be budget conscious and

b) about halfway through out first year there, we realized we'd probably only be there for another year or two. Which meant that we didn't want to have to move a ton of things. We fully embraced minimalism and didn't even get a kitchen table! We laughed because we were having a baby and living like college kids eating on our couch every night.

So when we came across our house, it felt very exciting to finally be laying roots! So today I wanted to put together a “mood board” or sorts for our home! Originally I always thought our house would be very spa like. You know, neutral color palette, natural woods, very tranquil.

How To Create A Mood Board For Your Entire Home | Interior Design Inspo Reveal For An Eclectic Vibe!

1. Lean into the character of the house

When we bought this house, I knew that spa-like vibe probably wasn't going to work. Instead I decided to lean into the character of the house. We also negotiated that the previous owners leave some of their furniture which suited the house well already. The previous owners had a pretty boho-eclectic taste, which is similar to mine, so that worked great. Our house was also built in the 70s which is known for the back-to-nature movement around the home, and actually is when the whole “open floor plan” concept started to be introduced! V appropriate for our home which essentially is an entirely open floor plan until you get to the stacked bedrooms.

In fact I found this 1970s home decor checklist and our house leans into most of these:

Crafts revival and hippiedom (macramé. string art, embroidered wall hangings, afghans)
Scandinavian teak and pine
Avocado green and harvest gold
Bold patterns and prints (flocked wallpaper, flower prints)
Stacked stone fireplace and stone walls
Timbered ceiling beams
Exposed brick walls
Terracotta tiles and hardwood flooring
Metal (chrome, polished steel)
Geometric shapes and lines
Thick and chunky masculine furniture
Wood paneling
Skylights
Indoor gardens
Fireplaces with elevated hearths
Big windows and lots of glass
Floating staircases
Wicker furniture
Shag rugs
Earth tones: brick, rust, sand, avocado, harvest gold
Brightly colored furniture
Orange

We have exposed brick around our fire place with an elevated hearth which we do plan on redoing. We also plan on leaning into the terracotta texture in a very interesting way in the future which I can't wait to share! Our home is already full of shag rugs, macramé's, textured wall hangings and pillows, glass doors everywhere, and a skylight! We plan on hopefully doing the ceiling beams some day as well!

Currently our home has dark wood laminate floors, which I don't love, but am also not about to rip up and replace since they are in good condition and we have some other pricier projects at the top of our list. Our home is also on almost a half acre with massive floor to ceiling glass doors in every single room. Loads of natural light. The main shared spaces in the house are totally open floor plans (family room, living room, kitchen, dining, etc.).

2. Create a cohesive flow throughout by pulling in a few key elements

I really want a cohesive flow through out the house, from the indoor to the outdoor, form the shared living spaces to the bedrooms. One thing I realized in the little bit of decorating I've already done, is how all the things I have gathered from our previous place, can really work anywhere in our home. Which I love. It allows old pieces to become new again by just switching up their location. I think creating a mood board for your home also increases the likelihood of being able to use items in any room, since everything is working off a similar over arching palette. That palette can be comprised of a few colors, textures, or materials. Just choose a few of each and that will tie your entire home together.

Our home is going to be very much back to nature, with loads of woods and greens, boho eclectic. Yes, the eclectic piece gives me a chance to infuse some of my farmhouse/beach house vibes without committing to it. It gives me a chance to sprinkle in some mid-century modern and industrialism without being tied to every piece looking quite like that. It basically means I can do whatever I want as long as things exist in my palette.

3. Put together a mood board or tray!

Creating a physical representation of what your building can really help you pull everything together. You can do this digitally, which I'll show you first, or create an actual physical display of your mood board, which I walk you through with some more tips in the video further down.

But first, here's the digital mood board for our home. It's a rough color palette with elements that tie everything together. So nothing feels like an out of left field hot mess. For instance, as I've started putting things together in our house, I realize our old guest bedroom (which I never loved) will not work. The bed frame was gifted to us, and is just a too dark and too finished compared to the other woods (we do have dark textured reclaimed wood, but nothing black and smooth). The comforter set was also gifted to us and it doesn't have any of the texture, that the previous rooms have. This room stands our like a sore thumb in our current home as you walk through all the rooms. However, this will be the last room we touch since we have so many other higher priority projects, but I'm using it as an example because on the importance of having a mood board for your home. You don't want every room to feel like it's decorated by someone else. You want to cultivate a vibe/feeling throughout the home, and this room just doesn't for us.

> > > The Vision < < <

Nature vibes

This picture immediately drew me in. We have banana leaves all over our home already so I figured let's make them part of our palette! I love the warm tones that just invite you in. If I could curl up in this I totally would. Each room will have some plants to tie this in.

Soft touches

We always wanted tranquil beach house vibes, so while we are leaning into the warmth of this home, I still want to honor that hygge style we originally dreamt of. This perfectly brings the softness and creaminess to create a calm space. The other reason I love this is for the textures! The playful mixture of textures like straw and wool contrasted with the harsher sunglasses I think showcase our eclectic vibe. We have stronger metal from our industrial vibe, mixed with macramé's from our boho vibe and I think this shows how harsh meets soft. Each of our rooms have a little pop of pink and larger anchoring whites or neutrals with loads of texture like this photo.

Beachy boho

Again a nod to our original home desires of beach house, while still infusing the more boho cozy feel of our actual house. I love the woods from the trees and tiki, and again macrame texture of the hammock, mixed with some pops of color in the yellow and red from the tiki and boat. Plus this is where I feel like everything get's tied together. So while one room may feel like color palette #1 and another more like color palette #2 – this is the melting pot of it all! We see the textures meet the colors. Plus our home has a lot of blue grey touches so I thought this was perfect.

Voila!

So that's the over all vision. Lots of natural vibes from the colors, to the art, to the textures. I still want to keep a bit of a tranquilness, but I also want warmth and color. I know I did three color palettes here, but again, this is for our entire home, not just a room! So this does a good job showcasing the different rooms connective tissue.

Each palette has a natural aspect to it. Whether it's the trees, plant, hammock, or natural straw. Every room has some sort of natural element in it too. Each room, like each palette, has grey and muted browns throughout.

With each palette there's a pop of color that is in this yellow-green-pink combo. We also have touches of blue throughout. Again it's indoor-outdoor living so it brings in our pool, and some other pieces like our bay window pillow that already existed in the house or items I previously owned. I love these photos particularly because they have texture. They have straw, and wood, and fur, and wool. It feels rich and warm and soft and airy all at the same time to me.