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Multigenerational Mom Muses on Twin Toddlers & Twenty-Something Daughters

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Watching Paint Dry: An Ode to Homeworthy

I’m newly-addicted to Homeworthy episodes. I spend each morning on a single one (okay, on weekends, maybe more than one), and I watch it between when the dog wakes me up and my family wakes themselves up. 

While I do love the really elaborate homes, I find the ones where the owners have thrifted beauty on a budget and personality on a pension to be my favorites because that’s what I must do too. 

I love color and cozy. I love quirky and layered. I, too, am in love with whimsy and imagination. Give me interiors collected and slowly evolving. Give me bunting and blossoms, pottery, and art. 

My favorite hosts are usually the Brits with flats full of bits and bobs. Or Bostonians with townhouses chockfull of history. Or New England cottages with hydrangeas to spare. Or Southern homes with plates on the wall. In other words, pretty much anything, if it isn’t too staid or uptight.

Some hosts on Homeworthy sound pretentious and want nothing more than to show off their wealth. Those ones aren’t for me. But others are playful and want nothing more than to showcase their passions. They are the ones I’m drawn to – along with their houses stacked higgledy-piggldey with books or stockpiled with deep, quilted beds and a dark, moody snug.

My son laughs at me and says these videos are the most boring things on the planet. And I smile and think about how my father used to sit for hours ‘round a coffee table with his sibling physicists and draw mile-long equations and I thought the very same thing. 

It all goes to show that when you have a passion for something, you can literally enjoy watching paint dry – which is what I’m currently doing as I pen this as my newly-done dining room dries with Behr’s equivalent of Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster — because, OMG, who can afford $120 gallons of paint???

You had me at Burrow

I just read a headline from House & Garden UK that says cottagecore has given way to burrowcore. I’d say, they’re speaking my love language.

I’m a lover of little havens full of favorites, both my tribe and my trappings. A good book, a soft throw, a mug of coffee or glass of wine, my family gathered all around is heaven to me. Add soup on the stove or scones in the oven and I will never leave.

I bought into minimalism when we first purchased our house – or as minimalist as I could ever get. I painted nearly every surface alabaster white (which I still love, btw… see my kitchen above), but my favorite room in the house is my office, with its dark bronze walls, books stacked to the ceiling, daybed piled with pillows, and the heavy, muted rug my dear Aunt Jan gave me underfoot. 

My truest loves are comfortably cluttered and full of flavor. Always have been, and always will be.  I love my home like I love my literature, full of moody tones and blowsy sentences. I love my decor like I love my food, full to bursting with spice and dense layers.

Minimalism is sparse. It feels deconstructed. Like Hemingway details, sharp and dry. Like food plated by a Michelin-starred chef: angle of substance, line of nourishment.

Maximalism, on the other hand, is overwhelming. Too many things competing for attention. See me! Pick me! Exhibitionist energy in big, bold colors, heaps of fussy meringue on display. Like a great big bowl of Eton Mess. A saccharine toothache.

But burrowcore… THAT’s my speed, my flavor, my jam.

It’s introverted, homey, cozy, layered. All soft spaces, lit with lamps and candles and sunny windows. It’s equal parts shadow and sun, forest flavor and fragrant meadow. It’s collected, gathered, connected, maintained. It’s family hand-me-downs, antique shops and internet finds. It’s Beatrix Potter making best friends with Faulkner. It’s comfort food served warm from the stove.

Here’s to burrowcore forevermore.

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