Why Decorating Books Are Important

Not everything is a bullet point, not everything is picked up from a lesson plan. Sometimes we learn in the middle of a conversation. Sometimes we remember a sermon illustration better than the three main points. Sometimes we find exactly what we need when we weren’t even looking.

Decorating books are like that.

As I was working on the HearthKeeper Library, I realized I have an abundance of books about decorating and that I’m always looking for more.

Why?

Well, books about decorating, seeing other women’s choices and work in their home, even five seconds of aesthetic scrolling on Pinterest inspires me. It doesn’t make me discontent to look at Beatrix Potter or Tasha Tudor's garden or to watch Shaye Elliot of the Elliot Homestead decorate for Christmas, it inspires me. It makes me want to strive, to do better, to create my own beauty in the pocket of my own world. It expands my mind so that I think outside the box about possibilities in my own home.

But the absolute joy of decorating books is the golden nuggets you find that set off a lightbulb in your mind. The moment when the way someone says something reminds you anew that home is essential. Every decorating book centers around that one crucial truth: home is important.

Decorating books have helped me learn to let a space rest after I make a change. I learned that’s not only valuable in my home, but with people. People and spaces need rest, especially after upheaval. Another one helped me decorate with empty space in a way that didn’t turn my home cold. This uncluttered my brain and my husband’s brain. I had never considered how loud my home was until I stumbled across a book that talked about it amongst many other things. Another taught me about being cozy. I learned to look at a space and see if it is ready to be used for resting, recreating, or working. Does it invite me and my people in?

Decorating books are like having a conversation with your best girlfriend, your mom, your sisters. It’s not all golden truth dripping down, there’s quite a bit that might not apply to you or that just isn’t essential, but hidden in the ebb and flow of the discussion are things that change your whole world.

See, decorating is so much more important to our homemaking than we ever give it credit for. It sets the aroma of our home. Done well, it welcomes in our husbands, children, friends, family, and more. Done poorly, taken for granted, or just assumed it has no value, our homes become cold, boring, dead dumps.

Decorating tells our story. If you don’t think the story of your life is momentous you need to remember God thought it was important enough to make you alive and write it for you, the least you might do is look at the goodness He’s filled your life with and practice thanksgiving via your decorating.

Decorating isn’t wasteful. It’s Godly.

God decorates every space in the world with beauty, from atoms to mountains, from wildflowers to sunsets. Every minute and major element of creation is festooned with beauty. How can we look at what our Father did and then look at our homes and throw up our hands or worse deride those who love decorating? The Father loves decorating, and so should we.

It shows a very shallow mind to think that decorating doesn’t matter. It matters enough for God to put beauty in everything. To say you don’t care is demeaning and short-sighted.

Dear tenders, if you aren’t good at it, learn. If you lack the skills buddy up with someone who is skilled. Go to the library and bring home a whole armful of coffee table books and just look at the pretty pictures. That’s all. Just look. Look and look and look and look and look. Saturate your heart and mind with beauty. Then, find only a few, only a handful, and start reading. Start training your mind to value beauty in your home.

How we decorate is vital to the health and well-being of our people! You need to buy into this. This isn’t something we can afford to slack off in, or just discount.

Look, it doesn’t have to be Pinterest-y or land in a particular category like cottagecore, but decorating deserves respect for all that it does.

Think about the homes you enjoy being in. Think about, notice, and observe how much of your enjoyment comes, even subconsciously, from the time and effort a homemaker has put into art, fixtures, furniture, curtains, plants, family displays, rugs, and more. This doesn’t happen by magic. Someone worked diligently to create the atmosphere you’re enjoying. Someone made mistakes, realigned her focus, and got help. Every homemaker has things they love that they use in their decorating. I love a nice plant in a white pot, personally.

A home where someone decides to be an amateur (which means to love) interior decorator is going to be much healthier for the mental and emotional and physical well-being, not to mention sheer creativity, of all who dwell there than a home where no one cares. It’s the same with cooking and cleaning. Creating beauty is never a waste of time, effort, or education. Decorating is vital to our families. It may be humble, thrifted, homemade, repurposed, or found on the curb, but what you put in your home either communicates warmth, welcome, and love, or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, get help.

Now, back to decorating books. Don’t reject them or demean them as shallow and useless. Some of the best homemaking and tending advice I’ve ever gotten came between the pages of decorating books. Some of the best advice on the why of homemaking I’ve ever gotten came between the pages of decorating books. Not to mention the visual feasting and pure inspiration to be found in them.

Side Note: If you struggle with being discontent, I recommend not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Discontentment isn’t solved by removing anything from your field of vision that you crave. The heart is capable of being discontent without feeding the eye inspiration. Instead, try to find a delight in the beauty of things even if they aren’t something you have or ever will. I will never have Tasha Tudor’s garden. Ever. I don’t have her background, knowledge, skill, or live up north. I live in Texas. I have chronic health issues, not limitless supplies of energy, and I have a husband who doesn’t particularly want to live that way, but I love looking at pictures of her garden. It’s good for my soul to see such beauty.

This isn’t a call to get a degree in interior design, but a gentle reminder that these books aren’t a waste. They’re tools to help us elevate our work and our homes and to encourage our delight in what we do. They’re not theology or bullet points, but conversations we engage in, picking out the things that help us invest in our spaces.

If we’re not delighting in what we do, we won’t do a good job. If we aren’t harnessing the power of light, color, textures, and patterns, our homes won’t be places for people.

People were created by God to enjoy His creation, not to live in cold, stoic, purposeless, communistic places.

Get thee to a library, ladies, and get all the books with beautiful pictures!