Five decor trends I loved TOO much
April 19, 2019
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I noticed a few trends in my old decorating style and thought it would be fun to take a look back. Many of these are projects that may have brought some of you to the blog years ago!
My how things have changed! :) Note that I am NOT making fun of my old decorating (I'm proud almost every step along the way) and I am not making fun of anyone that incorporates any of these things...let's make that clear. You'll see I still like them all, I just don't use them quite as much.
It does tickle me to look back at things I may have had a little obsession with. Decor trends come and go and it's just fun to look back.
SPRAY PAINT
I still LOVE spray paint. It's been a DIY staple of mine and always will be!
We were deep in debt when I started blogging, so I would often take thrifted items and spray paint them...even if they were fine to start with. 😂 I had a few missteps, like painting this big stone pear black:
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My how things have changed! :) Note that I am NOT making fun of my old decorating (I'm proud almost every step along the way) and I am not making fun of anyone that incorporates any of these things...let's make that clear. You'll see I still like them all, I just don't use them quite as much.
It does tickle me to look back at things I may have had a little obsession with. Decor trends come and go and it's just fun to look back.
SPRAY PAINT
I still LOVE spray paint. It's been a DIY staple of mine and always will be!
We were deep in debt when I started blogging, so I would often take thrifted items and spray paint them...even if they were fine to start with. 😂 I had a few missteps, like painting this big stone pear black:
It started as gray -- not sure why I thought black would be better. Goodness. I LOVED spray painting. I'm surprised I have brain cells left.
I spray painted frames, light fixtures, door knobs, decor, art, window shades...even the floor vents!:
I loved me some ORB spray paint -- otherwise known as oil rubbed bronze. When a blogger mentioned ORB everyone just knew what it was. ;) Ahhh, the good old days.
I will say...the painted vents looked great with our dark wood floors at the old house (not the ones pictured here), and I've started doing the same at this house. They hold up surprisingly well and the darker color doesn't stand out nearly as much.
I will always love a good spray paint project, don't worry. These lamps used to be shiny brass and the mirror was a wood tone before I sprayed it black:
I still think spray paint is the easiest way to transform decor on the cheap. I've just reeled it in just a bit over the years. :)
THE COLOR BLACK
I loved oil rubbed bronze a LOT. But my go-to for many years was black. I was obsessed with painting things black -- it really didn't matter what it was (obviously with the pear). When I painted our laundry room bright yellow (not one of my favorite design decisions), my accent color was...black:
I spray painted most of the items you see in that photo too. Even the clothespins in the jars. See? Problem.
And when I painted furniture...I painted it black. Alwaaaaaays:
A touch of black is still a favorite of mine -- you can see why I think every room needs some of it in this post.
But I'm trying to branch out just a bit! I went with a pretty olive green for this piece in our family room and still LOVE it:
STENCILS (EVERYWHERE)
Another DIY project I did a lot was stenciling -- on furniture, art, the walls...I used them a lot!
I added some in a shimmer paint (shimmer was another favorite detail) inside the wainscoting in our old family room:
And I figured out a way to give them texture too -- I did this treatment in two of our bathrooms way back when:
Thankfully it wasn't hard to remove! You can see that process and the after photos here.
Nowadays the only thing I stencil are DIY lettered signs like this one:
But there are still some gorgeous patterned stencils for walls and floors! I don't think that trend is going anywhere soon. It's just been updated a bit. ;)
CHALKBOARDS
Another trend I repeated over and over was chalkboards. I had a TON of them at one point. I didn't care, I loved them!
This spot on our old kitchen wall had many versions of a chalkboard -- it started with this one:
And that same spot eventually became a full chalkboard wall. I loved it then and still do!:
My love of them is still strong -- they are such an easy way to fill a big wall and add the black accent that I love.
We only have one giant chalkboard now and I'm pretty sure it will be the only one in the house for awhile:
You know me though...
VINYL WORDS ON THE WALL
And finally...a trend that started years ago and is still strong today, it's just morphed a bit. Remember how big the vinyl wall sayings were years ago?
Gosh I had them EVERYWHERE...both in vinyl and with my own handmade stencils. This stair wall was one of my favorites:
You'll notice another trend back then was poor picture quality. ;) It says "The best things in life aren't things." That stairway wall went nuts on the Internet!
I talked about the word art trend last year and how I think it's gotten a bit out of hand (but I still have some word art pieces that I love).
Now I try to think outside of the box and DIY my art for the walls when possible:
Did you have any of the same decor obsessions? Did I get you hooked on any of these years ago? :)
Overall my style has simplified quite a bit. I prefer quieter design overall now, but as I always say, I appreciate my process throughout the years. Every step along the way has been a blast, and I've loved sharing it all with you!
See more of our home here. To shop items in our home, click here! Never miss a post by signing up to get posts via email.
One of the reasons I loved your blog was the "Thrifty" part! The only one of these I don't recall is the bright yellow laundry room. Thanks to you I have a ceiling to floor chalkboard wall and still love it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started following DIY blog, of which yours was one of the first, I spray painted everything Antique White. LOL! I'm still working on changing some of that. I did use the ORB. We painted our family and living rooms last summer and I painted all the door knobs ORB. They are holding up pretty well.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely had the obsession with chalkboards and spray paint. I still have a few chalkboards tucked away. Spray paint will always be part of my life...especially the newer ones that are textured but definitely not as much as in the past. Never stenciled much or used vinyl lettering but liked the look until it went overboard. I only used ORB once for a stand mirror and it worked great.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm I'm not sure I have any of these obsessions, but then again I don't really have time to obsess over much!! Oh except gardening, that's definitely a spring obsession for me. I think I'm too busy with constant upkeep on my house whenever I'm not at work....it keeps me out of trouble with things like spraypaint I guess! :)
ReplyDeleteHow has it been over 9 years since he Orb spray paint! I remember seeing it everywhere on blogs. Too funny!
ReplyDeleteYou hooked me on to ORB and I used it on my shiny brass floor vents at your suggestion. They still look pretty awesome and I only had to touch up one of them since painting them years ago.
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