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by christina britt lewis and timothy dean lewis photography by angela statzer it's the little things. know what i mean? we hear the same things over and over and over... it just doesn't feel finished. i want it to feel done. maybe i need more stuff... so we ask people to show us what they love. we ask what they are most proud of in their home. we ask what makes them happy... and then they tell us their stories. and then we know. we know how to help them love coming home....  when we walk in the door we already know we will make those windows feel far more important by stretching the existing rods and adding some longer panels in a color that better complements their gorgeous rug. we already know we will center that rug in the room and tighten the furniture for better conversation having and family game playing. we already know the big things. we are there to find out if they are dewey decimal point sort of people or backwards bookiness sort of people. we are there to discover if they prefer to live surrounded by crystal and candlesticks or pottery and picture frames. we are there to find out the little things that make them happy. we are there to know how to help them love what they already have all over again. so we ask questions. and we listen. and then we know...    we know that rusty reds and spa blues are going to make that beautiful rug they already have even more beautiful.   we know that we what they already have will come together beautifully with less new things than they imagine.      we think that home is the most important place in the world.   so why wait?    finish.  because when you love coming home... when you are proud of your home... when home is your happy place... you are free to carry on with the things that matter even more... things like... setting the coffee table for family room picnic and movie night. inviting neighbors over for pot luck football parties. spending money on weekends away with the ones you love instead of more stuff for the house. takeout by candlelight in the dining room with lots of good wine and good friends. things like... people the people you love are more important than your home. for most of us that means accepting some things the way they are... we are going to live with our orangey cabinets and floors. happily. we are going to live with linoleum in our bathrooms and those big ugly sheet mirrors. we are going to live with old carpet and will forever swear by "spot shot" to keep it looking newish enough. we are going to love coming home and consider it "finished" even in all it's "unfinishedness". it's finished enough for us and those things don't bother us. once in a while i think about painting our kitchen cabinets... but we choose adventure with our people over painted kitchen cabinets every single time. and i hope (please God, i hope) that if we become people who can afford to have both... we would give any extra away to somebody who needs something more important than painted cabinets. may we be people who see beauty everywhere. may we be people who feel gratitude for what we already have. gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. it turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. it can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. -melodie beattie and us so sing with us as you finish just until you love coming home... the entire first floor of this home was a big project taken on just before christmas...
when we were already completely overbooked. we could not possibly have made it happen without the always brilliant, endlessly optimistic, ridiculously creative status quo antagonists we get to call our people... angela statzer kelly lies uncle bill linda gromko tyler antrican charlotte white glove delivery andrew roby electric nadeau west elm charlotte with so much love and gratitude... christina and tim Comments are closed.
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