Sometimes the best home decor is an item that has a history, a piece of your heart, a story to tell. Scratch that… it’s not really sometimes. The lovey dovey stuff is hands down da best!
We’re pretty good at collecting things from Craigslist and thrift stores that have a history. It’s just we don’t usually know what that history is. I’m sure this marble chest in our foyer has a story or two that we’ll never know.
Ever since we painted the walls, added that chest, and swapped out the light fixture though, we’ve sort of gotten all “squirrel” in other parts of the house this summer to focus on finishing the laundry room, living room, and powder room.
But the other night, when I was chasing after Olivia fumbling up the stairs at bedtime, I looked around at these bare foyer walls, and they were just begging for something. Anything!
And then I remembered the watercolor portrait I had painted for my parents when we were living with them this past spring. The house that has seen 12 years of my childhood and every year thereafter.
The artist, Jocelyn Edin, was so sweet to include a miniature version for me. So I had it sitting in cardboard for the past several months as I searched for the perfect spot.
Last Christmas, Robert’s mom commissioned a local artist to paint a portrait of their house as a surprise for Robert’s dad. So it was fate that the two should end up hung together on the same wall.
They were both 8x10s, and I wanted them a little bigger, so I just bought a couple of mats and stuck them in these two 11×14 frames I got on sale at Michaels. I love how mats make special art look even more important and command your attention.
So now their permanent spot is right beside our front door for us and everyone to see immediately when we walk in. I love how it’s our own special tribute to our roots.
As we were hanging them up, Robert mentioned that maybe one day we could even have a painting done of our old house and this new house and make a history of our homes all on one wall, where we can have all of our chapters of our lives collected together to remember. Oh, that man of mine… he’s a total romantic. 
Even though half of our house currently has no light switch covers (as we wait for electrical work to be done), and that room just out of view is still lined with misfit boxes full of things yet to find a spot in this place, hanging this art had a feeling of finality about it. Like planting our roots to grow and thrive even further.
And that’s what home should always be anyway, right? No matter what furniture you fill it with or how you decorate your tabletops, the feeling of heart can never be replicated.
(P.S. If you want more ideas for how to decorate with memories and heirlooms, here’s a full [older] post about it, “Making Home From the Heart”.)
Happy decorating, friends. If you’re feeling stumped about what to hang on your walls or place on your shelves, maybe the answer is tucked away in a closet just waiting to tell its story.
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