Of french laundry baskets & dream houses…

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

First of all, aren’t these baskets gorgeous?!?  I love finding beautiful pictures on Unsplash and this one was so restful to me.

My sister, Brooke, and I were discussing baskets the other day and her recent purchases from this shop.  She was convincing me that I need to purchase a stack of these french laundry baskets and use them in my house.  I was right there with her and I could instantly envision myself in a carefree sundress floating about my home a la Mimi Thorisson, complete with very old house, gardens full of fresh produce and a kitchen full of children and flowers.  That’s a lot of pressure for a $33 basket.  Haha!

But it brings up a fun subject, I’m always so fascinated by what someone considers their dream home.  I don’t know that I actually have one, I just really love houses, any kind and as long as they are true to their own style I will appreciate them.  If you want to see me get lit up about something, just ask how I feel about non-structural pillars and non-functioning shutters.  OH MY GRACIOUS!  There are not words strong enough to communicate how much I hate bad home design.  On Saturday morning we went for a drive looking for a bagel shop and then got turned around and our baby fell asleep so we just drove around one of our favorite neighborhoods and looked at houses for an hour.  If anyone tells you that being old and married is lame, they don’t know what they’re talking about, its fantastic.  So Josh & I are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to house style.  Our best compromise would be Mid-Century Modern, which I know is having a huge moment right now, but in my defense I’ve loved the style of Frank Lloyd Wright since I was in my early teens.  Josh loves the clean lines and I love anything that’s just a little funky.  I know I would love the challenge of blending it with my own decorating aesthetic.

I spent my last few summers in Wisconsin volunteering at a historic home.  I hate public speaking so I never gave the tours, but I helped out and soaked up every bit of history that that old house would give me.  It was built in 1888 (100 years before I was born) and it became such a special place to me that Josh actually proposed in the tower and on our wedding day we came back to the house for our portraits.  So yes, I have this thing for old houses, I think it’s because I’m very nostalgic and because my parents were always so intentional about our homes growing up and the introspective side of me will get instantly emotional at the thought of “home”.  For me, old homes have character and meaning and memories and emotion in their very foundations.  I love walking through them and trying to figure out why on earth that wall is there or what purpose that shelf or window had.  I told you, I’m a nut when it comes to these things.

On a funnier note: I sometimes like to ask a group of people what movie house they would live in if they could choose.  Usually the initial response is the bigger the better, then they start to get a bit more homey and then as you think about it the answers get better and start to actually reflect the person.  Being the ask-er of the question I’ve had time to ponder and so my answer is decidedly the Brady Bunch House.  There is just something about it!  I know, soundstages and movie magic and blahblahblah, but it’s that staircase and the Astroturf in the backyard and lots of warm 70s toned feels.  It’s just kind of perfect.  And speaking of Brady Bunch House, have you followed the drama?  It just recently went on the market and its been interesting to see everything unfold.  I do feel really sad for Lance Bass though, and I think it does seem unfair how he was treated.  It’s such a strange twist for HGTV to now own it, although if you think about it makes sense… 2nd most photographed house in America is now owned by the “authority on all things house” and I guess it’s also a good distraction from Fixer Upper ending.

All right, this is about enough of random house talk, I’m not even sure that this counts as solid blog content, but hey!  It’s my blog and this is the stuff that interests me and its nap time so I write.  Thanks for reading to the end!

Question time:  IF YOU COULD LIVE IN ANY MOVIE HOUSE, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?