Years ago, when my husband and I moved into our first house (still the house we\u2019re in now) we didn\u2019t know how we wanted to decorate. I\u2019d grown up with antiques my parents had acquired while traveling overseas. My husband had decorated his apartment with modern furniture. Our house had been a rental, so all the rooms were painted white (except the odd half bath anyway) \u2013 which gave us more freedom to wait and figure it out. Then a few years ago we became fascinated with Arts & Crafts or Craftsman style \u2013 maybe most famous in the Midwest from Frank Lloyd Wright. We lived in a bungalow after all.<\/p>\n
When Craftsman style was popular here in the United States, it was approximately 1910-1925. It encouraged originality, simplicity of form, local natural materials, and the visibility of handicraft. You might be familiar with a quote from William Morris,<\/p>\n
\u201cHave nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Is there actually a good reason to have anything in our homes that is not useful or beautiful? When was the last time you really looked around your home to notice what you might not appreciate anymore?<\/p>\n
You might even say to yourself that anything that doesn\u2019t fit in one of these criteria \u2013 useful or beautiful \u2013 could be clutter. Can you imagine the simplicity your life could have if you had only useful and beautiful things around you?<\/p>\n
We all need the useful things. I wouldn\u2019t give up my vacuum or washer and dryer for anything. I\u2019m quite attached to my bed. Yet, I do wonder about my cell phone sometimes \u2013 is it really that useful? Our lives are certainly more filled with tools today than they were 100 years ago. How often do you think about whether things are actually useful to you? I think about it, as my husband and I joke \u201cI am the dishwasher in our house.\u201d That\u2019s something \u201cuseful\u201d we don\u2019t even have. I don\u2019t mind it; I even appreciate it. We contemplate a push mower sometimes \u2013 although we\u2019ve not made that leap.<\/p>\n
I appreciate that the \u201cbelieve to beautiful\u201d part too since it leaves it as subjective \u2013 it doesn\u2019t have to be beautiful to anyone else (although it avoids the spouse issue!). I\u2019ve been in homes filled with framed artwork from their children and grandchildren \u2013 where it wouldn\u2019t be beautiful to me as such, yet I imagine it was absolutely beautiful to them. This also allows the variations we all can have about how sparse or filled an area can be \u2013 one can be beautiful to some and downright uncomfortable to another.<\/p>\n