let your walls shine

I touched on it last week … and many of you agreed … we should all take a few more risks with our home-decorating and truly live where we live.

We should hang photos and not care about nail holes. We should be crazy and paint a room in a unexpected color just because we love it.  We should find meaningful ways to add meaningful pieces and let our homes be an extension of our lives, our families, our personalities.  It’s risky and sometimes costly {in time and money}, but don’t you think you function better in a visually inspiring space?

It’s fairly unimportant in the whole scheme of things – all this decorating and re-decorating our homes. But to those living in it and to those visiting, it can do so much to welcome, inspire and comfort.

One girl who has this figured out is the darling Ashley from The Handmade Home.

Well, I should say Ashley and her husband Jamin. They’re one talented team who have taken their perfectly-nice-but-very-average builder-grade home and turned it into a colorfully charming home with so much personality.

Here are a few before & after shots:

Haven’t they done an amazing job of re-imagining these spaces?!

And one more because I think I’m in love with this sofa:

Ashley & Jamin have three basic decorating guidelines that are really great and totally go along with the idea of making the most of our homes, today. Living where we live, today.

1. follow your instincts

{not your friend’s or your mom’s or the designer’s you love, but your own}

2. if you don’t like it, change it

{sometimes this takes patience, sometimes it takes saving up, sometimes in means being creative to figure out a solution that cuts down on time and money}

3. make it

{don’t buy; make}

Those are good guidelines, don’t you think?

Here’s something fun: Ashley & Jamin have written an ebook all about how to add personality to our homes in the form of decorating our walls with handmade projects.

There are 22 projects with over 250 pages {seriously, beautiful pages} full of inspiration, creations, and plans for making it happen in your own home. It’s a realistic, user-friendly fun approach on creating one-of-a-kind handmade pieces.

And the best part? The book is truly a piece of art in itself.

I have not read a lot of ebooks; I sort of like to touch the pages of a book. But seriously, this one is worth purchasing.  I think my jaw dropped further and further with each virtual page turn – so many great ideas, inspiring photos, tips and tricks to help along the way. It’s really great.

Okay, enough gushing.

The book is in pdf form, is instantly downloadable and costs $9.95.

You can grab a copy right here.

Thank you to Ashley & Jamin for creating such an inspiring resource and for setting the example of how great your home can be if you take some risks and do what you love to your home.