Antique Tobacco Baskets and Being the “Real” You

I shared this photo of my living room a few days ago on Instagram, and I was nervous about doing it.

 

 

If you’ve followed me for some time, you may have noticed I don’t share a lot of photos of my home. Besides it being a tough space to photograph, it’s a very unfinished space.

While it’s cozy and inviting for our family and friends, I’ve felt like my home doesn’t always measure up to the Home/DIY blog standards that are out there.

Sometimes I feel like to write a blog, every photo I share has to be a magazine-quality image of a space fit for an HGTV designer.

I’m not saying that’s true, but it’s the struggle I feel sometimes when I want to share with you all more about my own space.

Since we had our living room painted back in the spring, I’ve been working on re-doing our decor, but it still has a long way to go.

There is still so much wrong though about this space, and you can see it the Instagram photo I shared:  my tv stand needs to be painted, the floor lamp next to it needs a makeover, the shutters framing the tv are too short and don’t contrast enough with the wall color, there are cords everywhere . . . I could go on!

But I decided to throw caution to the wind and share this photo anyway.  Because you know one thing that is so right with this picture? Yep, that awesome, giant tobacco basket!

I loooove my tobacco basket and I wanted to tell you all about it!  So who cares if the rest of the room still isn’t together?

I decided it was worth sharing anyway.

 

 

I’ve been on the hunt for one of these for about 6 months now.  I have seen them online and a few for sale by other dealers in my mall, but they were out of my price range.

That’s one problem with being a dealer–you never want to pay full, retail price for something because you know if you look hard enough you can find one yourself for way cheaper!

So last month at the Canton flea market, I spotted this basket stacked up along side another one in a dealer’s space.  The dealer said she brought 10 to the market, and all she had left were these last 2.  They were both pretty beat up, but I’m ok with that.  Of the 2 left, I picked this one–it was the green paint that stole my heart.

 

 

And my patience paid off.  I paid $55 for the basket, as opposed to the $150+ I have seen them for elsewhere. Once I got it hung up on the wall I couldn’t wait to tell y’all about it!

 

But let’s go back to the idea of “the perfect room” for a minute.

 

Besides wanting to show off the tobacco basket, another reason I decided to go ahead and share my unfinished room is because if I want to be anything on this blog, it’s the real me.

And the real me is a slow decorator.

The real me doesn’t have a lot of excess income to spend on home decor.

The real me is living with her green couch because she can’t afford a new one right now.

The real me has 3 kids and didn’t have time to paint my tv stand this summer.

The real me doesn’t mind having an unfinished room for awhile if it means that my patience will pay off by finding the right things for the right price.

 

 

I know that it’s my job, as a blogger, to provide beauty and inspiration to my readers. I don’t get to pass on that in the name of authenticity.

But at the same time, I want to always make sure that I am not creating too perfect of a world that doesn’t fit with most of our realities.

I want to encourage those of you who are putting spaces together a little at a time that it’s worth it to enjoy the beauty of what you have despite what you may be lacking.

 

 

There are some parts of my living room that are coming together in ways that I really love.  This whole corner is newly arranged, and I’m loving the interest it adds to what was a forgotten area of my room.

So if you need a beauty shot, I think this one will work 🙂

And if I have a message for this post, it’s this:

 

Be patient with your spaces. Be patient with yourself. And be the real you.

 

And to go find yourself a tobacco basket, because they are fantastic!