Less is More?

I was looking at pictures of the spec house from four years ago...nearly five now, actually...and something was bothering me. I couldn't figure it out.

I even went as far as to take pictures from our house from similar angles. I sat down and compared, one by one. Finally, it occurred to me: the spec house looks airy and ours looks cluttered. Not Hoarders cluttered, but cluttered.

I concentrated first on the kitchen.
The window is uncurtained. I think I like that better. Once Spring comes, I will take the curtain down & see. The tops of the cupboards are empty. I don't like that. Mine has plants, etc. Our stools are larger and while more functional, the smaller stools don't look so cluttered. Finally, I like the flooring, I wonder why I didn't choose it.

Today i cleared the counters of some stuff. A decorative canister of kitchen tools that I don't use. A plant went onto the windowsill instead of the counter. A wine bottle went into the cupboard (first bottle of wine drunk in this house)

I want to get a wall or under cupboard mount paper towel rack for one less thing on the countertop. Otherwise, I'm somewhat satisfied with the small changes I made. (not represented in this picture so much) Also, I want to get those faux window panes for this window. You know, the stick-on kind that you get at Home Depot.

Then I looked at the living room. The layout of the furniture is vastly different between the spec house & ours. We have the ginormous entertainment center and the spec house doesn't have a television. So they are two vastly different rooms. By the way, the "name" of the spec house is "The Cottage".


I like the openness better in this room but it's unrealistic given the ownership of a television and our furniture. We had the option to purchase this furniture and we seriously considered it. The windows are uncurtained and ours are during the summer. The windows have the faux panes but I wouldn't want them on our windows. This picture, to me, looks showroomy while ours looks like home.

(excuse the crap on the counter, Saturday busyness)

When our television finally dies, we will get a wallmounted flat screen. Then the entertainment center will go away. This is something to look forward to and dread as the bookshelf is part of the unit.

Finally, the "dining room"
I would like a smaller table like the spec house as we rarely have dinner parties but not just to make room for the trees. There's room to turn the table vertically versus horizontally and I may try that. Also, the lack of curtains make it look more open.



I am still planning on painting the main wall a mocha color, especially now that Kevin has his "new" chair that matches but not quite matches. I'm going to go through the living room with a critical & suspicious eye, casting away stuff that is there simply because it is. The kitchen will get a coat of soft butter yellow.

So, the moral of this story? Spec houses don't have histories and this one does.