Much of the groundwork for Sage Garden Style developed over a period of years while I was a stay-at-home mom.
In the beginning, the look I call “sage garden style” , grew out of necessity (a limited budget) but as I honed the look I began to love it and realized it was really a preference. If you love the eclectic look of mixing it up as I do you will find it provides a way of decorating that is both easy and in tune with your own personality preferences since you do the choosing of items that speak to you. It is the blending of indoor and outdoor lifestyle decorating with rustic and floral elements in furniture and fabric, elegant pottery, and lighting ambience. All of these key elements are pulled together in a way that is spectacularly stylish yet comfortable and inviting so that guests are always at home and more importantly a lifestyle for the family that encourages ease and comfort of everyday living.
If you love gardening or even the idea that something your decor celebrates the seasonal changes then this is for you! One of my most vivid memories of childhood was staying with my German grandmother during the summer. Her small home in a small rural Kansas town had a small garden in the back yard. It was split evenly on each side with a stone path leading through the center to a chicken coup. We would go out each morning to pick fresh warm eggs. There was always fresh milk left on the back porch daily and we spent the warm summer mornings cultivating and tending the rows of lettuce, rhubarb, beans, carrots. There was always a clear connection for me between the work in the garden and the bounty of the table. Bulbs planted in the autumn yield beautiful spring tulips and daffodils just in time for Easter for a great bouquet of fresh flowers. Peonies and lilac bushes return year after year with some work in the beginning and a big payoff as summer returns-the ultimate in delayed gratification. I don’t know who said it but I have heard the saying “ A person who gardens is a person who believes in tomorrow” . Hope and glory. To me that is the essence of gardening.
If you think back to your memories, you have your stories too. So, the idea of bringing the outside indoors and living outside is a a part of all of us. Taking cues from nature helps to create pleasing color palettes, elegant but casual decorative accessories, seasonal changes to your décor to keep it timely and interesting, and most of all a practical approach to your living that makes things simple.
Natural fabrics that can be washed make living with your decor so much easier. A spilled drink or a spaghetti stain on a washable pillow cover or a slipcover is not a crisis. More importantly, creating a lifestyle with easy care décor allows a family to be a family. It is possible for you to have great style in the middle of living your life. In fact, I believe that is the definition of style…and grace.