 When my wife and I first met in our early twenties we both lived a minimalist décor lifestyle. This was not necessarily by choice, however, but mostly because we were broke and moved around the city to different rental properties. Lugging around a bunch of stuff every year was not something we wanted to do while paying daily rates for a U-Haul. As the years passed we began to amass extra stuff and our small rental units became a little more cluttered.
Six years ago we finally bought a house and it was twice as big as any place we had ever lived. Again, not by choice, but by the simple fact that our house was bigger than our collection of furniture, kitchen accoutrements, art, lamps, etc., we were once again living with a minimalist décor. Our house was open and inviting, free of clutter, and comfortable for guests when they entered the front door to one of our many parties and backyard bar-b-ques.
Then came the children.
Any form of minimalist décor went right out the window. Instead of a coffee table we now slide around the ottoman, which on most days doubles as a mini-trampoline. We took down the blinds in the kitchen to paint with the intent of replacing them with new ones, but decided to go with the custom made, preschool art project window treatments randomly taped to the glass. The great part about this design idea is the art changes to fit the season or holiday. It is very festive and fun! Especially the one made from a paper plate with a face drawn on it. The plate has a green paper hand taped to it holding a tissue and reads “Cover your sneeze, please.” You can’t buy that kind of classy window treatment anywhere.
Also in the kitchen is the old oak table that we got from a friend whose apartment burned up. This table mostly survived the fire (unfortunately, the chairs did not) and was completely restored and refinished thanks to her insurance company. It is a beautiful piece of furniture that is solidly built to last many lifetimes. It’s a good thing because now it doubles as a glue station, coloring table, and canvas for various food smeared abstract works of art. My favorite so far is the pancake syrup and peanut butter creation that once stayed there all day. The children are so talented.
Our house has a loft upstairs that we used as a home office for a long time. When the children arrived it morphed into a home office/romper room with dozens of loud toys and games that would sometimes turn on by themselves. When we changed the back living room downstairs into the office, the loft was wide open for the kids to play and run and scream! I could finally have an office area that would be free of baby and toddler clutter, Elmo’s annoying singing voice, and the constant electronic sounds courtesy of Fisher-Price and Leap Frog.
Then came the children.
Five minutes is about all the free time I received as the toys quickly marched their way downstairs into the office. Suddenly ESPN was switched to Nickelodeon and the minimalist décor of the home office took on the look of a store clearance sidewalk sale at Toy’s R Us. Our three-year old child, the only one capable of leading this transformation, proclaimed that he didn’t want to play upstairs by himself. His baby sister was too little to be up there unsupervised and he wanted to be in the same room with us. That’s sweet. He won’t want it to be that way forever so we decided to share the office with the children, their video collection, books, toys, and games. Most of the toys are still in the loft and come down in shifts so there are fewer items for me to break my toe on.
So my wife and I have come to the conclusion that this is just how it is going to be – at least until they outgrow the piles of plastic toys and stacks of construction paper. Someday we will have our minimalist décor back with all adult furniture and art. I must say, though, I’m really going to miss our custom window treatments.
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Quirkee Voices 
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