The Struggles of Young Homemakers
How Do I Decorate Cozy Corners In Our Cottage?
My Dear Reader,
Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved decorating my room.
One of my favourite things to do on the weekends was to move all of my furniture and nick-knacks around in my childhood room, and I would then spend the weekdays contemplating how the new arrangement was making me feel.
Already as a child, I was sensitive to my environment, and I looked forward very much to have a place entirely for myself where I could style every room exactly how I liked it.
So you can imagine my disappointment, when I finally was old enough to move out, when realising that:
A cozy & stylised home is not something that you just “have”. It takes money, effort and most importantly: time.
I thought it would be easy, as I would just “feel” what was the best design choice for me.
But I tell you, when you are 19 years old and standing in an IKEA, they will get you to “feel” for a lot of things, and those things will quickly empty your pocket if you let them.
And so I did.
I spend my own hard earned money on ready-made furniture and soon enough I was sat in our small apartment surrounded by white laminate furniture and MÄLM dressers that, though they were practical and cheaper than most, did not make me feel at home.
To be honest, it did not make me feel anything at all. Like a mannequin being trapped in something in between a storeroom and an IKEA showroom.
For many reasons, I never did manage to make that first apartment feel like home, and the decorating and furniture choices certainly were a part of that.
Soon enough I realised that living in an apartment was not for me.
So instead, we went the complete opposite way and bought a small cabin in the woods. Here we were surrounded by nature, and just being surrounded by bird chipper in the old trees already made me feel much more at home than to be surrounded by car noice and high buildings in the city.
We moved all of our IKEA-furnitures with us, and in the beginning, the cabin looked very sparsely decorated, cold even.
Slowly, I started changing out the furniture. Not all at once, like I had bought furniture when we first moved out, in a hurry to furnish every room at make it seem more “complete”. This time, I instead chose to furnish our small cabin slowly and steadily, carefully selecting items.
I did not buy much from new. Instead I sourced decorations and furniture locally from the thrift shops and Facebook Marketplace. It was cheaper, but it took time, and it took effort.
It could not all be done in one trip to IKEA. I had to do many trips to different thrift stores and wait, and use my better judgement when shopping instead of just buying for the sake of it.
Finally, after four years, I had made a fully decorated home in that cabin. It was only 50 square meters, but it was cozy, and it was filled with carefully collected pieces that went together in a cabin inspired style.
And then we moved again. To here, our small cottage and homestead. A place we plan to stay a long time, but also a completely new decorating challenge for me.
In the cabin I had spend a good time on educating myself on interior design and specific styles in order to avoid the temptation to buy all sorts of stuff that end up not fitting into my space.
Therefore, I knew, I wanted to take the surroundings into account. Much of our cabin furniture looked too simple for the 100 year old farmhouse we were in. So I began the work of decorating with researching old Danish farmhouse furniture and styles.
That is how I chose the colour of our trim work, how I decided and designed a floor to ceiling bookcase, and how I got the idea of using a wash stand as a hand basin in the bathroom.
This time around we are still buying a lot of thrifted goods, but we have also taken it a bit further and added homemade items too. Oven mittens, the bookshelves, even the wash stand, that was bought second hand, but made into a hand basin by my father and installed by my husband.
Buying an old home, and slowly filling it up with personal and handmade pieces, is what I believe makes it into a cozy home, at least for us.
This year I will be 10 years into making my own home.
When I first moved out, I did not have the time or skills available, nor the money. But if I could go back in time a give my 19 year old self some homemaking advice, I would say this:
Do not rush out to buy everything.
Learn to live with the emptiness of a new place until you come across furniture pieces and decorations that you actually like and that fits in. Alternatively, start collecting pieces already before moving out.
Buy secondhand or make it yourself.
Decorating can be very expensive, and also wasteful. Buy secondhand or make it yourself for a cheaper, more environmentally-friendly and overall more longer lasting and personal option.
Educate yourself.
There are plenty of free resources on interior styles and historic decorating. Educating yourself will help you discover your own style, and you will become much more aware of what you like and what you don’t. Basically a great way of avoiding wrong purchases.
Give yourself grace.
You do not have to have it all figured out. You are only 19, and there is still so much you have to learn and figure out about what you like in a home. Give yourself time to try things out and to get better. It does not have to be perfect or even good right away. The decorating of your house/apartment does not define your value as a person.
So far, we have only lived here in our cottage on the homestead for almost 2 years, and we still have very far to go. The whole upper floor is undone, and there are still a lot of work in front of us.
Personally, I can hardly wait to see, what this place will turn into in 20, 10, 5 or just 1 year.
Slowly, it is growing into something that feels more and more like us, and I hope it will continue to do so for many years.
See you in a fortnight,
Love from Anne
“Anne's writing is heartfelt, honest and so relatable. I look forward to her life updates as I would a fresh croissant and cup of coffee. I look forward to her posts as I would look forward to a letter in the mail from a friend.”
- Katie Nance, Member.
It’s rewarding to slowly choose your furnishings, especially things from the past that suit your lifestyle, making them your own. You must feel lighter now that Spring has arrived. Enjoy it all. 😘
Love this and so true! I rushed to furnish our blue cottage and I have some regrets regarding this. It’s just something about being a homemaker that just wants you to have it all sorted but sitting with the emptiness for a while and sourcing second hand items is so satisfying and meaningful 🤍🤍🤍