Initially I decorated similar to what was in my parents, friends and neighbors houses - comfortable couch and classic chairs, antiques and oriental rugs. New houses and many trips to New Mexico brought in a big, comfy sectional and plain Scandinavian dining table and chairs and Southwest pictures, lamps and accessories, with some of the antiques hanging in there. Current house is a redone Colonial on a farm and, with the help of a decorator, is a more updated farmhouse. It was a challenge to make it more current without making the interior shocking for a Colonial. And then there is my husband’s gigantic television, huge DVD/Blu-ray collection/storage, big leather couch and collection of Napoleonic war military miniature figures....

Married in 1980 and bought our first house. We were broke and took whatever hand me downs were offered. Our couches were a really awful 70s print! In 1983 we bought a larger fixer upper and started to replace the furniture we had been given. I went to a lot of country auctions and bought turn of the century oak furniture for a song. Our first 'big' purchase was a couch, loveseat and chair in a blue ticking stripe. Our house was definitely country.. although no ducks!

In the late 90's the blue ticking stripe was slipcovered with a beige tone on tone matelasse. We started replacing the oak with painted pine pieces. Country started morphing into a relaxed modern rustic.

These days, our California house is definitely California modern with a little mid century thrown in. Our PA lake house is still rustic modern with a few painted pine pieces and some mid century pieces as well.

When we were young and thought we’d live forever and wanted to “ do our own thing” we turned up our noses at the “old fashioned” furniture and other things our parents wanted to give us. We went totally modern...and it was fun at the time.

But as time went on, we grew to appreciate the value of those older well made pieces and we also wanted to mix heirlooms with our decor....but without looking cluttered. We have to switch things out from time to time, putting away some things away temporarily, bringing out others. We’re mostly “ traditional with a twist” .. It’s rewarding to know there’s a family history to much of what we have .

Sounds beautiful, shivece. compromise is always part of any marriage.

czarinalex, no ducks!? In the 80s, I'll admit to having a very large painting in the MBR of geese walking in front of a quilt hanging outside. Amish quilt from PA on the bed. When it was time for the painting to move on, it sold quickly at a consignment shop. Your visual descriptions are lovely and welcoming.

Feathers11, I think we are more apt to take chances in decorating as we get older. I feel the same about not necessarily liking something for what it is - we would not want to live with it, but can appreciate it as an expression of the owner and see their personality.

J Corn, are you the keeper of family photos and records like me? Homes with a twist are more interesting, and seeing family history on a daily basis is important to me. Helps me to still feel connected with those no longer here. I have my paternal grandmother's curio cabinet in a guest room. She had it less filled and in their LR. As a child, the items always fascinated me. When it came to my parents' home, Mom layered it with more items but from both sides of the family. And I subtracted some (things without meaning to me) and added more trinkets, things that belonged to my parents.

ooooh! Fun thread, thanks for starting this, allison -- I'll be back (busy weekend) : )

I could echo a lot of what everyone wrote. Especially allison's list of things that have remained the same. The only difference is that I'm not as keen on fall colors. I love blue and white in fabrics as well as transferware, yellow (especially for walls), and have been adding more green and red/coral in recent years.

My taste has been pretty consistent over the years (I'm in my mid-50s). I started off like shivece, following my parents' style with the comfortable couch, classic chairs, Persian rugs, but ended up going off in a more English country direction. Plus my parents were never interested in antiques, unfortunately.

In high school I started buying shelter magazines and tearing out pages which I kept in a binder which I took to college with me lol. I remember swooning over and dreaming about floral Sanderson curtains back then. I've always loved the English country look, well-worn and well-loved full of interesting and meaningful things. Since high school and college, I've pretty much refined and distilled my tastes. I'm much less tempted by decorating "tangents" now that I'm more certain and confident in my tastes. The major change I think has been a change in preference from blowsy, chintz-y florals to more restrained florals and block prints. I have to be careful all the time to remember to vary the size of prints because I'm naturally drawn to smaller prints.

In my late 20s, I had first a rental and then a co-op apartment in NYC, where I was born and raised, and a good job and was able to start buying some good furniture to the vintage pieces I'd bought. A few antiques, a good sofa, some nice reproduction pieces from Baker. At the time, Macy's and Altman's had beautiful furniture departments (with antique, new, and reproduction items), and ABC Carpet & Home wasn't trendy and overpriced.

Things came to a screeching halt in terms of decorating style a few years later when I married and moved to a farm in rural western Canada. This was before the internet, and the only place to buy furniture that wasn't a six-hour roundtrip was Sears. My husband had bought the farm with a sad little farmhouse just before we met (terrible timing). He had painted everything a cold hospital white (he thought it looked clean), painted the baseboards a cool light grey because he thought it was practical (this was in the early 90s so he was ahead of the curve lol), in the kitchen a horrible white, grey, and mauve-y pink sheet vinyl flooring, and in the rest of the house, cheap grey wall-to-wall carpeting. The only furniture he had was, echoes of czarinalex, a horrible 70s sofa -- orange, mustard, and dark brown acrylic plaid -- and matching swivel/rocking arm chair. The place looked better with my furniture (the sofa got exiled to the basement, and the chair stayed with a sheet over it because it was VERY comfortable and made a great nursing chair for three kids in five years), though I could never get my Persian rug to stop "creeping" in the living room over the wall to wall carpet.

We did repaint the walls, but all of the flooring stayed until it wore out and could be replaced; plus we knew we wanted to build a new house and wanted to save our money for that instead of replacing what was, as my grandparents would have said, "serviceable". I did manage to find some gems here and there -- like the large Chinese blue and white fishbowl planters I found at a garage sale (which I keep ferns in). And then the internet arrived, and I was able to read and learn more, including at GardenWeb and blogs (for the love of a home, Ben Pentreath, etc) and find stores and shops online, esp Etsy and Ebay.

About nine years ago my parents died and left a NYC apartment full of stuff like oriental rugs and Kindel and Henkel Harris furniture, and a vacation house in the Caribbean with a few things. Through some hard work and creativity, we were able to bring back a number of things, and planned around them for the new house we finished building last year.

It's not always easy to hang tight when a favorite all of a sudden becomes trendy. Though living in the back of beyond, sometimes it's helpful when certain things -- like ikat, suzani, block prints, blue and white porcelain/ceramics -- become popular because then they end up at places like Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, and Winners/TJ Maxx where I have access to them : ) . Especially when the trend is truly over and done with, and the markdowns are huge lol.

allison, my parents were firm believers in your rule #1 and I've tried to follow it but sometimes it can be hard, especially living here when I'm never sure what I might be able to find/source.

I can't say that I ever "decorated like my mother." When I was young (till about age 20, really) they didn't have very much and new furniture purchases, etc. happened rarely. Certainly, there was never any trend chasing. Dad MADE the TV we had when I was a kid. (Not just the case. The whole thing). Mom tends to paint everything white. Maybe cream. I remember a couple of incidents when I was high-school aged. Once, my sister and I bought her a new quilt she had admired for their bed, then repainted the bedroom the softest blue on the paint strip and hung a border. (It was 1990. Don't hate). She walked in, looked around, and said, "it's kind of dark, isn't it?) *head desk*

On another occasion, I was painting the living room for Mom and Dad. (I think I painted that house top to bottom, inside and out, no less than 3 times between the ages of 12 and 22. Sometimes with the aid of my sibling, sometimes not). She'd picked a cream color. I got bored, went down to the paint store when I rain out of paint, and got a gallon of the most lovely, petal-soft porcelain pink. (like Becky's DH, I was about 10 years or so ahead of millenial pink, and a few shades lighter). I did two walls in that color. She nearly killed me. Right up until she rehung the prints of some watercolors her sister had done - and the matched PERFECTLY. I was allowed to live another day. When they sold the house, part of what sold it was that the new owner's couch had the precise shade of pink in it. I won that round.

Mom still does white. I still do color. Soft colors, usually. Chalk blue, petal pink, butter yellow. I have to use caution not to end up with Easter Bunny Vomit.

THIS house is still a good portion hand-me-downs. When we move, I'll add in some new upholstered pieces and a new dining set, but otherwise a lot of things will come with. Many of them will get painted new colors and move to other rooms.

I've gotten a bit more adventuresome. I used to "OOOoooOOO" over trends like French Country. (Never Tuscan, not my back. Too many warm tones). Now I tend to wander off in my own direction. I incorporate a lot of antique pieces. And I spend enough time wandering flea markets to know what sorts of things are out there and what to look for. Current goal - a wavy-front quarter sawn oak dresser to use for my table linens in the dining room.

In fact, now that I think about it, I tend to try to surround myself with pieces that remind me of the rickety old farmhouse my grandfather lived in. Most of that was sturdy oak, or some less valuable wood that was painted. Everything was a little faded and softened with age. Wrinkly quilts and sun bleached window sheers.

I'm all about comfort. You can't SIT in a slipper chair - you can just perch demurely on the edge. No thank you. We tend to curl up in the furniture, especially in the winter, so it needs to accommodate that. Soft, deep couches. I might even go for a chair-and-a-half in the new place. And to heck with the designers squawking about it being over scale. Comfort wins.

For the kids, it's all about resilience. Things that will hold up to them. The youngest regularly sits in the turret of the castle bookcase my father made for her.

Sentimental furniture pieces that will stay are not so much "inherited" as made by Dad. Although he has declared a moratorium on case goods, since they're too heavy for him to maneuver around his shop. He is, however, more than willing to go antiquing with me, load up pieces, and help with any minor repairs.

My house will never look like a pottery barn catalog. Nor like a magazine spread. Unless it's "Lifestyles of the Unhinged Farm Denizens"

Glad you commented, beckysharp. Now I realize I need to edit my comment to reflect my current love for color - I must have blocked that out! I do love fall colors, minus the orange. Never have been an orange person. Bright red either, but darker is okay. I have never put red or orange in a garden. Too jolting for me! I can't say enough about blue. It's always been my favorite color, medium to dark, not baby. Teal is a favorite, but I only have it in my wardrobe. We didn't furnish the LR of our first home until #3 was born (we had been there 3yrs?). The camelback sofa was a fabulous deep coral. Great color. Yellows are okay as long as they are more golden than bright.

I wanted to do a more English look in curtains, but prints that are too small get lost here. I am happy with the direction, but next house (?) will be smaller and I can do that then. I did the same with ripped out pages. Used to save all my magazines. Now I just have old issues of Southern Accents and Veranda.

Being in the furniture business, my parents were all about new. They started buying antique accessories in the mid-80s, but not that many. Luckily, my sister does not like antiques and thinks anything old is worthless. She would end up donating! So we did not disagree on things when dismantling our parents house. For decades they had two or three homes, and Dad would bring (too much!) things back to their main house as they sold. It was crazy, but thank goodness he did not mind donating items when he tired of too much clutter.

Holly, thanks for sharing your stories. I always thought Mom had her hand in the decorating, but found out when we were building our last house (and they were building a lakehouse across the dam from us) that it was really my father that made all the decorating decisions. Mom put her touch on their homes with accessories, kitchenware and the gardens.

My father was not a handy man, but Mom grew up a tomboy, so she was quick to learn or already knew. I can do a lot around the house because of her influence and guidance. I believe she got it from her mother, who was one of two women that worked in a railroad yard. She designed and made the stencils for the railroad cars in the 30s and 40s. She went through the distress and toile paint phase, and both she and my mother painted. I am lucky to have some of their artwork.

Yes, comfort is key! You're lucky to have a dad that can help when needed.

I've been thinking about this more, and my decorating has definitely become much more deliberate and informed in the past 10 years or so. I think there was a lot I understood about decorating without understanding the why. My house and I are in a much better place knowing the rules, especially when I decide to break them : ) .

As we started to think more seriously about building our new house, and from reading GardenWeb, I became much more interested in the whys and hows and other underpinnings of decorating. I've learned so much over the years from other posters here at GW, about furniture, decorating styles, and more, from posters like palimpsest, Marcolo, chijim with his inspiring layerd looks, and the terrific "Design Around This" exercise. I've learned about lots of books and new designers (like Garrow Kedigian), and have also been moved to research designers' rooms to find out more about details, the rest of the room, the rest of the house, etc.

Interesting conversation. I think my style (however eclectic it is LOL) has mostly evolved/changed due the the fact that after my younger (early married) years, I quit trying to follow trends (country, then jewel tones, etc) and returned to what I/we truly like. I have always loved cool tones (pink and green was my favorite combo as a child/teen). I love neutrals with colors accenting. A great backdrop for the patina of old wood pieces and wood floors. No oranges/yellows/reds in our home. I must like soothing colors. We were young marrieds when we discovered a love of antiques and have not stopped. Both of us have things we love to collect. As others have mentioned, items from trips, past generations, memorable occasions, are treasured in our home, along with many pieces picked up on our antiquing escapades. We have a few family pieces that we treasure. I've always loved cottage type decor. If we were to build again, I'd probably go with a cottage or farmhouse. Unlike Allison though, I don't like moving! Funny though Allison, I am another who has a color scheme for the yard as well as the inside. Only pink, white and purple/blue flowers for us! I guess the most important part of my evolution is to do what you love, not what is trendy. Perfect example - we are probably one of the very few with white kitchen appliances, but stainless steel will never, ever be "me". I've learned to be true to myself and what we like/want in our home.

I don't like moving either! We were in our first house over 20 years. The last house was suppose to be "the one," and we were there 13. Doesn't seem that it was that long. I'd say we are here to stay, but DH's health is not great and if he's not here, I am not sure I would stay in this house. Only time will tell.

I am not surprised you stay true to yourself, Tinam61. Ray Booth's post on IG this morning was a traditional house that asked for a contemporary interior. It read "Allow yourself to be OTHER-THAN you were expected to be."