Decorators Who Inspire Us: Alexandra Stoddard

I’m a decorating and gardening geek, and I happily admit it.  Over the years I’ve discovered decorators who have taught me important lessons about creating a home ~ not just a house ~ that you and your family will love.  My first such hero was Alexandra Stoddard, whom I discovered when House Beautiful featured her master bedroom on the cover many years ago.   The image showed her pine tester bed draped with diaphanous white fabric, and the crisp blue and white bedding started me on my lifelong love of using blue and white in interiors.  I picked up Stoddard’s Creating a Beautiful Home: From Starting Fresh to Freshening Up~Inspiring Ideas to Help You Turn Your House Into a Warm and Welcoming Home years ago.  I was young and relatively new to decorating and homemaking.  My husband and I had just relocated from Oregon to the Midwest, so everything felt new, raw, and uncomfortable.  During our first year in that house, I spent lots of time with Alexandra, learning how to turn a soul-less brand new house into a home that felt comfortable to us, and reflected our lives and passions.  I picked up her next book, Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home and Life Each Day.  Her words helped guide me not only toward a way to decorate, but toward a philosophy of living that has stayed with me for decades.  I’m in your debt, Alexandra, as I’m now on the third house in which I’ve used your ideas.  Here are a few gems that I learned from you:

~ Fill your home with things that truly reflect you and the way you live.  When you enter each room in your house, whether it’s the kitchen, living room, or bedroom, you should see things that please you and make you smile.  Each space should be suited to you and your needs: there should be adequate light for reading, tables to set a drink and book on, seating arranged for easy conversation or for comfy reading, art placed just so that it can be seen and appreciated.  Your home should fill you with joy.

~ Don’t spend time longing for bigger, newer and fancier houses like those you see in glossy magazines.  Sure, those homes are breathtaking.  They’re fantastically expensive.  They do impress.  But I would not choose to live in any of them because I couldn’t feel like myself.  Alexandra introduced me to a philosophy that you can, perhaps with a little effort, love the home you have now, if you take the time and care to make it lovely to you.  When my family moved to New England, I had a hard time adjusting to our new house.  In fact, I fought this house for close to a decade, until the day I realized that it had many of my dream qualities:  south light flooding the living room, soft, pretty colors, a view and access to the wood adjacent to our property, and just enough living space to feel cozy without being overwhelmingly large.  Instead of lamenting the decade I wasted in discontent, I think Alexandra would applaud me for persevering until I created a home that’s a joy to me.

~ Making a beautiful home, like making a beautiful life, takes some effort.  Stoddard taught me that this effort is a gift you give to yourself and family.  She called it something like, “loving up your home.”  Do I love dusting and vacuuming?  Not particularly.  But each time I clean, it’s a chance to create a new vignette or tablescape, turning a chore into a creative and fulfilling activity.  When I clean, my home is renewed in subtle but important ways.  I shift a lamp to another location so it can cast a warm glow on a dark corner.  I put some items away, and bring out others, making my decor feel fresh.  I constantly shift books from the bookcase to my cocktail table, depending on what’s inspiring me.  All this “effort” really is a creative endeavor that brings me, and by extension, my family joy.

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~ Last, Alexandra introduced me to the notion that doing things by hand brings great satisfaction.  She writes each of her books long hand, at her beloved desk, using lovely pens and papers, surrounded by flowers and objects that inspire her.  No wonder she writes so beautifully.  Borrowing her notion when I prepare dinners, I take the time to hand chop ingredients on my butcher block that is sized just for my height.  Sure, it takes more time, but it’s satisfying and gives me a connection to my mother, who did the same.  In the garden, also, I plant each window box and urn with flowers and herbs I have specially selected.  When it comes to things I’m passionate about, I slow down and take time.  It’s the process that brings joy, as well as the result, right Alexandra?

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~ I’m not sure how Stoddard would feel about this, but I think of her from time to time as I putter about my house, “loving it up,” and making it more and more lovely over the years.  When my husband and daughter express delight with the results, I know that I have learned something good and useful about how to make a beautiful home for my family.  Thanks Alexandra! You can visit her website for more wonderful ideas here.

Below are two of my favorites books, and I highly recommend them.  All her books can be found on Amazon.com.