BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Budget Decor Southwestern Style Decorating

My latest article is featured on the Budget Decor site. You can find it here -

Southwestern Style Decorating

I love the warmth found in this style. I was born in New Mexico and although I moved away when I was about a year old, I've longed to visit and soak in the richness of color, culture and landscape that inspires Southwestern style decorating.

Hey Donna I really loved reading this article you wrote and I want to move in immediately! It sounds earthy and homely and non-threatening for a person like me who feels uncomfortable in cool colours, marble, water features and hands-off leather furniture that says I am here to look at but not sit on. I am house proud like everyone else but a house must be a home and not a 'don't touch that' sort of place with no heart. I wonder if these perfect homes remain so or is it all just for show?

My home is painted a creamy beige colour and I am longing to break into my piggybank to bring in some colour. I feel as if I am living in a bowl of porrige. I have decided. Having read what you had to say, am off to choose a couple of earthy tones to paint the walls to get me going on getting a style going. Then I will take stock and see what I should get rid of or re-treat to fit. Tomorrow is coming.

Cheers
Lestie - Editor Container Gardening

I'm glad you like my article, Lestie. I know our home could never pass for show - too many kids and dogs, lol! The pics you see in magazines are definitely prepped for the photo shoot. I remember reading a blog one time of someone who had a photo shoot of their home for a major decorating magazine. Props were used that didn't even belong to the homeowner and afterward it was all whisked away. We still have to add our own heart-felt touches for it to truly feel like home.

If you paint your walls, please come back & post the results - I'd love to know the outcome!

Great article. Gave me some ideas to build upon our desire to paint the sunroom into an adobe hue. This room steps out to the paver patio that will one day have a sunken firepit to spend the evenings around. Although the wife is from SanDiego & I from Denver, it's hard to compromise on the exact blend of colors we want to do in the new constructed home, so it's been white for a while. The earthy tones are preferred, but the tints lead to debates. I'm going to have her read the article.

Hi Donna,
Just read your great article. Some of the decorating relates to some parts of my house, where we have the western decor. You did a super job explaining everything.

Hi Beetle & PJK! Thanks for taking time to read my article - I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

Beetle, your sunroom sounds like it will be lovely and the sunken fire pit sounds fantastic! We're hoping to build a deck with patio underneath this summer and are considering something like that as well. It can be helpful to sit in a white home for a while - get a feel for how you want to live and how the sunlight (or lack of) affects the space.

PJK, I'll be writing more specifically on western style decorating in the coming months. Stay tuned!