Style Resolutions Revisited: Grace from Poetic Home

Today's Style Resolutions Revisited comes from Grace at Poetic Home, whose blog is full of inspiring upcycling projects and whose 2009 did not quite follow the original plan...Thanks Grace for taking part!

Here are Grace's answers from last year:

I’m constantly trying to live the Wabi Sabi philosophy, and thus, I try to balance my love for aged beauty and vintage collections with the desire to live minimally. My husband is a minimalist, so I believe that it helps in balancing the aesthetic of our home. I constantly am reevaluating my home and editing out things that I do not absolutely love or do not truly need. I think this creates a serene space where everything is valued or needed, instead of simply “things” that take up space.

For the rest of 2009, I am actually in the process of moving across the Pacific to live on a tropical island, and I am being “green” (aka frugal) and not shipping most of our belongings via containers. While I plan to rebuild on the other side, my access to both vintage treasures and well-designed furniture will be quite limited. However, I am determined to be resourceful and repurpose all the items I can find to create an eclectic interior space that is not dominated by aloha floral prints and bamboo couches.

And here's how she did:

My love for library card catalog cabinets continues to be insatiable, and I was fortunate enough to find a mid-century modern one this year. It made a happy debut in UPPERCASE magazine, and I’m currently in the midst of repurposing it for our soon-to-be-born son’s nursery.

One of my favorite additions to our home last year was an antique horse carriage seat, which was originally upholstered in a hideous little-house-on-the-prairie-country fabric (which you can see here). I removed the yards of fabric, hundreds of staples and disintegrating foam and restored the wood underneath to an aged patina. Now the carriage seat happily lives as an entry way bench.


Reflecting upon last year’s resolutions, it’s amazing how much can change in just one year! Our move to paradise was postponed by our baby, who is due in mid-January, and I have a feeling the little one will be influencing many of my décor choices for 2010. An emphasis on reusing vintage pieces, repurposing, and only keeping what we either absolutely need or love in our home will continue to prevail.

I have an amazing antique chair, Victorian love seat, and mid-century modern sofa that I dragged home in 2009. However, I could not reupholster them as I imagined, as pregnant women are cautioned to stay away from upholstery projects due to the potential toxins in the existing foam. I look forward to finishing (well, after I start on them first!) these reupholstery projects in 2010.

To read Grace's full interview from last year, click here, and visit Poetic Home for lots more inspiration, and if you want to see what a $250,000 typewriter looks like...