The Lost Art of Decorating Slowly

Why decorating slowly and collecting meaningful pieces over time creates a more beautiful home.

I think we’ve lost something in the way we decorate our homes.

We can walk into a store today and buy an entire room of furniture in an afternoon. We can order almost anything we want and have it delivered to our front door. But there’s something different about a home that takes years to become a home. A home that is collected slowly has a story.

And sometimes, those stories are worth far more than anything we could buy new.

The dresser I waited 52 years to see again

My grandparents moved from their family farm in Osage County to Ponca City in 1972. That was the last time I was inside their simple, four-room farmhouse. To me, that little farmhouse was magical.

I remember it not because it was fancy—it certainly wasn’t—but because it was my grandparents’ home. It was filled with familiar things, family memories, and the feeling of being somewhere I belonged.

Twenty-three years later, my uncle told me he was bringing something to me. His wife, my wonderful Aunt Peggy, had passed away a few months earlier. When he opened the back of his truck, I saw something I hadn’t seen in 52 years. I recognized it instantly.

It was the dresser that had been in Peggy’s bedroom in that simple four-room farmhouse. Today, that dresser is one of my favorite treasures. Not because it is valuable. Because I remember it.

Every time I see it, I’m reminded of my grandparents, that farmhouse, and a part of my childhood that I thought was long gone.

That’s what slow decorating means to me.

A home doesn’t have to be filled all at once

We have many treasures in our home that we’ve collected over the years. Some aren’t worth much money. But they are worth something much more important to us—the memories attached to them.

Mike and I, well actually I enjoy going to yard sales to find treasures to love. Mike goes with me to help carry treasures. Yes, I’m that lucky! The table above was a yard sale find even without a top! I made the top using MDF and created the apron under the table edge.

We still have the little cart coffee table that my grandson and I built and painted many years ago. It isn’t perfect. That’s part of what I love about it. It carries the memory of making something together.

Some things are worth keeping

When we sold our home in Payson, Arizona, the buyers wanted our bed, so we included it with the house. We loved that bed so much that when we moved here, we bought the exact same one. It made me realize that sometimes we don’t need something new. Sometimes we simply need something that feels like us.
Mike and I also bought a little drop-leaf table in 1998. That’s where we still eat our meals together. And I’ve painted that little table four or five different colors over the years. It has changed with us. But we’ve never needed to replace it.
That’s another thing I love about decorating slowly. You don’t have to constantly start over. You can change something, paint something, move something to another room—or simply let it remain exactly as it is.

I don’t want to live in a showroom

Our home didn’t come together in one decorating shopping trip. It evolved. The dresser arrived 52 years later.

I’ve never wanted my home to look like a furniture showroom. A showroom can be beautiful. Everything matches. Everything is current. Everything is perfectly arranged.

But I don’t want to live in a showroom. I want to look around my home and see our life. I want to see the little table we’ve had since 1998. I want to see the coffee table my grandson and I made.

I want to see my Aunt Peggy’s dresser.

I want to see things that remind me where I’ve been and the people I’ve loved along the way. Those things may not make sense to someone walking into our home for the first time. But they make perfect sense to me.

Your decorating style can change without changing who you are

I also think it’s interesting how our homes change over the years. We go through decorating trends together. Remember oak cabinets? For years, they were everywhere. Then the paint brushes came out and suddenly everyone was painting those oak cabinets.

Styles change. Colors change. Furniture trends change.

But I don’t think our personal decorating style changes quite as much as we think it does. Instead, I think our homes slowly evolve as our lives evolve. The fireplace mantel below that I created years ago, is still very special to me.

What we needed in our homes at 35 may not be what we need at 60. And what we loved 20 years ago may still be something we love today. We simply see it differently.

This mantel has been in many different rooms in our last two homes.

Maybe that’s the lost art of decorating slowly. Instead of asking, “What should I buy to finish this room?” We might ask: “What do I already have that I love?” 

“What has a story?”

“What would I like to keep for another 20 years?”

And perhaps most importantly:

“Does this belong in my home because I love it—or because I think I’m supposed to have it?”

A beautiful home doesn’t have to be filled with expensive things. It doesn’t have to follow every decorating trend. And it certainly doesn’t have to look like a showroom.

Sometimes the most beautiful homes are the ones that have been allowed to grow slowly. A little table painted several times. A coffee table made with a grandson. A bed that was loved enough to buy twice. And a dresser that traveled through a family and somehow found its way back home 52 years later.

Those are the things that make a house feel like home.

Maybe slow decorating isn’t about taking longer to decorate.

Maybe it’s about taking the time to notice what is already meaningful to us.