Larson Elsie - A beautiful mess happy handmade home : painting, crafting, and decorating a cheerful, more inspiring space

For our father,
the handiest man we know

Hi there! Were Elsie and Emma and we are so happy you decided to pick up our book.

Over the past few years weve purchased our first homes and decorated them from the smallest corners to the biggest spaces. Before we started working on our homes, our blog, A Beautiful Mess, was mostly small crafts (think pillows and hair clips). If you had told us that someday wed be building tables and making rugs and painting for fun on Friday nights, we would have laughed. Turns out, we got addicted.

A few years later, our homes look and feel nothing like they did the day we got our keys. They look like us now. Weird? Maybe. Cool? Wed like to think so. Personal? For sure. Personality is the most important aspect of decorating for us. Who cares if your house is nice if your friends and family cant see you in every room?

This book was born from the pure joy that big dcor projects brought into our lives. Its special. Were geeky, but wed even call it life changing. We hope you get the same goose bumps from your first giant DIY project (spoiler alertyou totally will).

We know its a giant clich to say theres no right or wrong and you have to break the rules sometimes, but its SO true. We made our fair share of mistakes and regrets from our home projectsbut rest assured, its all fixable! Once we were trying too hard for a classic design and the result was a boring dining room. Good newsmistakes happen. Often the best lessons are learned when we go with plan B because the first idea was a big fail. No matter how awesome you are, youll mess up sometimes. Go with it!

The ideas in this book are specific to us. We photographed almost everything in our two homes this year. Think beyond the projects we share and find ways to make them your own! We know youre creative, so dont feel limited by whats found within these pagesuse it as a jumping-off point to express your personality in your space! As long as you start a project after you put down this book, weve played our part.

Whether an idea seems trendy, obvious, awful, or even (gasp!) overdone, we encourage you to stop caring about what other people think. The point of decorating is to make your home more you. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is how you feel in your home. Does it help you unwind? Does it make you smile? We encourage you to create a space that caters only to you and the loved ones in your home. How sad would it be to invest all this time and money into your personal space, only to create a cookie-cutter something that doesnt hold meaning for you? Trust yourself. Create a home that feels like you in the big ways and the tiny details.

Are you craving change in your dcor? Are you slightly excited, but also a little nervous to try a big idea in your home? Here are a few questions to jump-start the process. We answered all of these while designing rooms for this book, and you have no idea how many lightbulb moments we had. We hope you do too!

List all your favorite spaces (homes you love, but also hotels, restaurants, retail stores, etc.). In the next column, list everything you admire about each place. What were you doing there? Did you like the smells and the music? What features stood out to you? How did that space make you feel? How would you describe the style of these rooms? Take your timereally think about your answers. When I made my list I was shocked by how the spaces I loved visiting contrasted from the spaces I usually pin on Pinterest. You might surprise yourself too!

List the activities you envision doing in each room. Sure, a dining room will be used for eating, but what else? Will you play cards with friends, share a bottle of wine, host a romantic dinner or a silly reality TV-themed party? Think about all the members of your household and how they will use the room. We firmly believe that rooms should be designed for living.

Choose colors that make you feel something. For now, dont worry about what colors go in each roomthats not the point. List all of the colors that you have a strong reaction to and how they make you feel, whether it is positive, negative, or a mixed emotion. List what the colors remind you of. List colors that youve loved in rooms, movies, or inspiring artwork.

This next one might be slightly embarrassing, but please go there with us! Make a list of 100 things about YOU. Things you love, quirks, aversions, memories, dreams, and little details that make you one of a kind.

Now that youve created these giant lists (theyd better be giant!), save them in the back of your book until youve finished reading. When youre done, go through each list with a highlighter and pick out anything that could serve as inspiration for your new space!

We cant wait to see what you create in your homes! Please keep in touch with us via our blog, abeautifulmess.com, and send us photos of your projects. We would love to see them!

If you need us, well be at home trying more projects. We werent kidding when we said we are addicted!

XO,