Does it have to be everywhere?????

I knew someone once who had their ENTIRE kitchen decorated in the Pfaltzgraff pattern Naturewood. You might not know it right away, but if you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about. I think Pfaltzgraff made EVERY accessory and decorating item known to mankind for this pattern. And I'm all about finding a theme.... but let's be serious. There's got to be a moment when you say to yourself... hmmm maybe the Naturewood wall paper is a BIT over the top!

So the answer is no... it doesn't have to be everywhere, in every room, on every surface. You can choose to decorate your kitchen and living room possibly. Or maybe just a bathroom, or even a small room like your laundry room. Just like you can decorate one room with a country feel, you can do another room with a beachy feel, and try to use weathered objects that still have a country feel. It doesn't have to be a consistent pattern or color scheme throughout your entire house. The key is to try to tie things together in small ways.

So don't worry... if you decide to go the "country" route when decorating, your ENTIRE house doesn't have to be plaids and berries. Unless of course that's how you want it to be. :)

Figuring out what you like

I know this sounds like an easy thing... but when it comes to decorating, its actually not. My advice to you, as its been in past blogs, is to look around. Look at lots of website, get magazines, so you can see stuff put together in a room. Here are some of my favorite magazines and catalog's to browse.

The Country Door - has a great website to browse, but the catalog is even nicer. Its good to see things paired together - could give you a new idea of how to put something together.

The Country House - also a great website, but again... get the catalog. You'll get lots of ideas, and things are pretty reasonably priced.

Terry's Village - I know I've mentioned it before but along with finding reasonably priced merchandise in there, you can also find lots of good basics that will serve as fillers for your decorating.

The most important thing is to take your time. There's no rush to get it all done NOW! In my experience the more time you take, the better chance you have of finding exactly what you want, rather than settling for something that's just OK.