You know I’m awfully sheepish about showing pictures of my house—(“It’s not how I would design it if I could do it properly”, “It’s only half painted”, blah, blah, blah”)—but I was encouraged to do this post in an attempt to show more snippets from my life. I have a tendency to only show aspects that I’m super duper proud of and half painted rooms with sofas that haven’t been reupholstered yet aren’t exactly my glowing moments. But, I was telling some friends about how one little part of my room has changed my life and they said “people would love to hear about that” so, would you like to hear about how something from this picture above has changed my life for the better?
Can you guess what it is?
Is the suspense killing you?
Am I being so annoying right now?
Ok, another hint, it has to do with this picture too: (SO ANNOYING OF ME!)
Drumroll please….
Yes! A coffee table!
Let me explain: my shopping philosophy for anything in my life–wardrobe or home decor– is to wait until I find something I truly truly love, regardless of price (well, within reason). That way I’ll really love it and keep it for always. For some reason, I’ve had the hardest time finding a coffee table that I love, which meant that we haven’t had one for a year and a half and since cups can’t just sit on the ground without being knocked over I was going crazy!
SO, I bucked up and went to….IKEA. Now, I don’t like the idea of buying something that is meant to not last, but I was desperate. And $40 later, we had purchased this white LACK Coffee table.
And it changed my life.
HA! No, but seriously. I could take pictures on the ground or other tables, but to have something that is already set up, that’s just low enough to work on without having to be on the carpet has been the perfect arrangement for my styled shots.
Remember #crafttherainbow, the Instagram hashtag I started? All done on this coffee table! Here are some of the shots from the 30 day series:
And it makes it so easy to switch out my colored paper backgrounds like these ones too. I’ve now started to style some Instagram photos for atly, the platform I use to teach the DIY Blogger Handbook class and it’s all done on THE WHITE COFFEE TABLE!
Here’s another trick: I’m super lazy, so if there was a ton of stuff decorating the coffee table, I probably wouldn’t use it as often, but I leave the table completely blank and it motivates me to arrange little vignettes for my Instagram feed.
Oh! Oh! One last trick to this arrangement: I push the table as close to the window as I can so I can get the best light. That’s essential.
That’s it! That’s the trick. I feel completely silly describing a coffee table changing my life, but it’s true. I felt like this new canvas was waiting to be created and I haven’t stopped since.
Perhaps this trick will help you too? Let me know if it does. Or if you have any other tips! I’d love to hear them!
Edit: I was shooting my new dinnerware collection, Petals. You can find my 3 new collections on Twig NY.