Un-Hemmed Curtains and Half-Finished Projects: What You’re Not Seeing From Your Favorite Bloggers

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the perfect pictures I see all over the web, specifically on Instagram. Pictures of homes and lives that are seemingly perfectly clean, organized, color-coded, and matching…posted by people who must have their lives together more than I do in order to have homes like that. I let these pictures (and thereby these people) get me down, make me feel inferior, and prevent me from appreciating the things and people and spaces I do have. Isn’t it crazy how simple pictures can make us feel like we aren’t enough and don’t have enough? But here’s the craziest thing of all…these pictures make me feel all these ridiculous things even though I know the truth. I know these pictures don’t depict reality. I know the homes I’m seeing in my feed don’t always look how they are pictured. I know they have a stack of papers on their kitchen counter and a pile of dirty laundry sitting just out of the shot. I know the rest of the house might be disaster in the same moment the one room I’m seeing is perfectly styled and well lit. How do I know? Because I’m a blogger, and I do it too. I post the pretty picture of my kitchen even though there’s a sink full of day-old dishes in it right this minute. I blog all the projects I have completed even when there are a many half done (or not even started!) projects in each and every room. My friends…what you see online really is a highlight real, the very best, the perfect shot, the best-case-scenario.

Today, I thought it would be fun to show you some things that are always “just off camera” in my social media and blog posts. These are just a few of the spots and spaces in our home that whenever I see them I think to myself “If only my readers saw this!,” or “Man, I feel like such a fraud!” It is my hope that by seeing these real-life glimpses you’ll realize that bloggers are busy people with messes and clutter and half-finished projects too, and in no way should you judge your worth or value by comparing your home or your life to what you see online. Because honestly…it’s what’s just out of view that is real life!

This won’t exactly be a “messy home tour,” although maybe I’ll do that another time. (Because let’s be honest…here at the end of summer…my home is a disaster!) This time, I simply grabbed my camera and walked around the house to show you some real life, half-done, barely done, should-be-done projects and maintenance updates that I’ve been staring at for weeks, months, even years. So when you think “how does she get it all done,” you’ll know that I really don’t. Not even close!

Let’s start in the kitchen, shall we? Below is the most recent photo of the kitchen you’ve seen. Looks nice doesn’t it with the wallpapered backsplash, curtain and clear countertops?!?

Aside from the pile of dishes in the sink I already told you about, do you want to see a snapshot of the cabinets you can’t see?

Yep…the face of our bottom drawer came off its hinges. After about 2 months, we finally ordered new hardware to fix it. We’ll see how long it takes us to get to it once the parts arrive. Besides looking oh-so-classy, the lack of a drawer front gives Sam unfettered access to all our plastic bowls, plates, and cups…so you know where they mostly end up? All over the kitchen floor…all.the.time. #fun

Right next to the kitchen is our eat-in dining room. Here is a recent “pretty” shot for you:

Along the left in that shots is an entire cabinet you don’t see. Want to know why? Because it’s pretty much empty.

Around Christmas-time, Sam became mobile enough to start pulling things off shelves, and he particularly loved pulling down the (nice) dishes and cookbooks I usually kept here. It became too much work to keep items on this shelf so I resorted to putting nothing on it instead. Not exactly the “perfectly” styled shelf you would expect, huh?

Oh – and those 8 curtain panels that hang in the family room and dining room?!?

I used safety pins to temporarily hem them so I would know how much to take up with my sewing machine. Well…I never pulled the curtains down and actually hemmed them. Safety pins are still holding up the excess length…2 years later.

The rest of our downstairs is caught up in our renovation from the flood we had at the beginning of the summer. For the last two months, we’ve had dry wall missing from the lower third of the wall across 4 rooms. We haven’t had a functioning downstairs toilet since June, and the carpet in both the living room and office are mostly pulled out due to water damage, exposing the concrete floor below.

Once our renovation wraps up…hopefully soon…I’ll be sharing my thoughts about living through a renovation as a renter. It’s been an interesting situation to say the least!

Let’s head upstairs!

The last few photos I showed you of our playroom are below.

Notice I haven’t recently shared an angle that reveals the true state of my beloved grasscloth-covered trunk we use as game storage and a coffee table. Why? Because I got a hair-brained idea that I was going to refinish it so…without any plan in place…I started pulling off the grasscloth while playing in the playroom one afternoon. Then I discovered that 1) removing the paper was going to be a big job, and 2) I had no plan for what I wanted it to look like once it was off…so it has sat like this (below)…for the last 6 months. Looks nice, don’t you think?

Both of the boys’ bedrooms are in pretty good shape. I actually just made over Henry’s bedroom (I can’t wait to show you!). It looks all neat and spiffy now, but just you wait until you see the “before” photos. I’ll be sharing that makeover here soon in the start of September!

Let’s finish up in our master bedroom where a majority of my “I can’t believe I’m showing you this” spots exist! I haven’t shown you much of our master bedroom, and for good reason. In fact, I think this photo below is all you’ve seen of it so far:

I haven’t shown you much in this room because 1) it’s suuuuuper hard to photograph because of all the weird windows in here, and 2) because just out of the shot above are all sorts of unfinished “moments” around the room.

Let’s first talk about the curtains. I found these adorable tasseled curtain panels at HomeGoods. One set wasn’t substantial enough for this huge expanse of windows, so I had the brilliant idea to buy two sets and sew two panels together to make really large panels for each side. It’s a great idea. And it worked. And I can’t wait to show you how and why I did it….if I would just finish them!

The right panel is actually sewn together. But I got the length wrong, so this panel is also being held up by more safety pins. Notice the uncovered pillow form on the chair. Nice, right?!?

And the other panel? Nope, haven’t gotten to it yet. And did I mention that I sewed the first panel about 10 months ago? Every week…every single week…I put “sew second curtain panel” on my To Do List. Still.not.done.

Just next to the curtain panel that’s not sewn together is my favorite mirror in the whole house. Look closely now…do you see the two tiny mirrors that are missing? They came off in our move…2 summers ago…and are sitting in my bedside table drawer. Four drops of super glue and that mirror would be as good as new. I’ll get to it…eventually!

Finally, let’s go look over in the other corner next to the bed. Poor Greg doesn’t really have an office-like spot in our current home to put the things that belong to him. We could certainly find him a shelf or a cabinet out in the garage, but we just haven’t. So it’s sitting here piling up. Promise me you still trust me as an organization blogger, lol!!!

See, my friends?!? There’s so much “real life” just outside the photos that are designed and intended to inspire you! I certainly love (and will keep sharing) photos of beautiful spaces; however, I hope this post inspires you in a different way. It is my hope that by seeing these imperfect images you will take heart and pride in the home and life you have and the unique homemaker you are. It can be all too easy to think someone else’s house, life, closet, wardrobe is better than your own, but resist. Please don’t compare your home, your skills or your life to all those pretty images you see here, on Pinterest and Instagram, and everywhere else around the world wide web. I promise I won’t either. All of us…and I mean all of us…have our un-hemmed curtains and half-finished projects, messy corners and broken furniture…even if we don’t show it off nearly as often as we should!

I hope you enjoyed this unique home tour of sorts. I’ll be back on Friday with a quick wrap-up of the How to Organize Paperwork series before kicking off the holiday weekend!