Do you ever look through your favourite house decor photos on Pinterest or Instagram, and ask yourself what is it about these interior design choices that I like so much? Well, I'm that sort of person, always thinking through things, and prone to analyse things in an effort to probe into what it is that makes me tick design wise.
I discovered during such an analysis whilst researching ideas for our new farmhouse, that it seemed the letter 'W' was a prominent factor, let me explain....
The first W was an obvious one - it was W for White, I love the white paint on farmhouse furniture, the white window and door architraves, white washed or white waxed, nearly every image I liked had a white theme running through it.
But I didn't realise the W connection yet, even after my second W - Wood.
I have always loved wood from childhood, helping my dad in the garage doing woodwork projects, wooden carvings purchased on my travels and always wooden furniture, wood in all it's forms, stained, raw, painted, even the smell of wood when it's freshly cut. Old wood, especially wood that has a story to tell of the people who worked with it before. Yep, wood was a definite factor in my most favoured images analysis!
I also have a fondness for Wire, especially vintage style wire baskets, bird cages and vintage metal objects in general, from old farm tools to salvaged decorative metal from old houses. Another W item had appeared in my list. It was at this stage I realised I had a bit of a theme going here, somehow the letter W was like a litmus test for knowing what it was that made a style of decorating work for me.
It cemented itself as my 'go to' letter when I added Worn to the list. I was drawn to things that had some wear on them, the well worn edges of furniture, places that many hands had touched, dips in stone door steps where generations of feet had passed through. When giving a piece of furniture a makover I most often found myself distressing it a little to add that worn look, not full on 'shabby chic' but a gentle natural looking wear you see on a piece that had been loved by many.
It should have been no surprise that another feature of my many most liked images had Wicker in them, woven cane, reeds and other mostly natural materials, especially willow (oops, I did it again - I love Willow - of course I do, it's a W word). I love those big chunky cane chests you see at the end of beds, cane baskets with lids, woven things in general.
At this stage I started looking for W's and they were everywhere! If you have read my posts about windows, you will know I have a love of windows that extends to windows even in interior walls! (Read that post here) Yes, windows were definitely a part of many images that appealed to me, window frames with or without glass, windows letting in lots of lovely light.
So despite all the evidence for the W factor, I still went through 10 sample pots of paint for our house exterior colour, until discovering the perfect grey/blue that didn't look too blue in the light, or too grey in the shadow, I could have saved myself time and money (those sample pots aren't cheap) if I had just let the W have it's way - the paint colour we ended up choosing was Dulux paints 'Water Worn' - a double W - should have known! I still recall how I laughed when I realised the W factor had struck again.
Do you have the 'W" factor in your home? Comment below if you have found the letter W dominating your home decorating choices.
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