Years ago, when I was a hopelessly romantic teenager who watched way too much TV, I dreamed of meeting the perfect man (which I did: you're on his art website now) and that we would wear matching, knitted, aqua sweaters. In public.

You know -- Matchie Matchie.

Well, that was an immediate no-go as my Norwegian Artist, like many reasonable men, was horrified at the thought of being Tweedledum to my Tweedledee. Matchie matchie repelled him, not only in clothing choices but in home decor as well, and what he wanted regarding the latter was a reasonably clean environment (we wound up having four kids) that was comfortable and filled with items of meaning to us -- my Polish teapot, which doesn't match anything; an old oak buffet table that, unlike box store furniture, improves with time; and, because he's an artist, paintings of beautiful places and scenes, the kind of art you enter into and make a story about, one that features you as a central character.

It's Normal to Be Different

Fortunately, because I was raised by normal, unpretentious people and my television addiction ended long before HGTV, I saw the sense in this. Over the course of 35 years, the Norwegian and I have not worried about establishing a strict neutral palette with an approved Pop! of color here and there. (By the way, this Fashie-fashie Colorless Crush was not in vogue 35 years ago, the mandated hues then being blue, I believe, which will eventually come back "into fashion" when the Home Interior Design Industry decrees that it is so. Of course, if people spent less time absorbing TV dictates on what their homes should look like, and more time actually living in their homes, then they would not feel obligated to constantly renovate their personal environment to mimic staged studio shots in a magazine.)

Nothing really matches in our home, but neither is the decor oddly out of sync -- a Victorian fainting couch next to a director's chair, say. (Although if that's what makes someone happy, then for God's sake, let them be happy.) Most importantly, our home is not the reflection of somebody else's tastes -- featuring the full line of their home decor products -- with seasonal variations -- as seen on TV.

Our house is our home, unapologetically reflecting who and what we are.

Surround Yourself with Meaningful Items

The image to the left is Steve's painting, Polish Pottery, which features that teapot I mentioned.  Now if our home "colors" were cobalt blue and white, it would fit in perfectly according to Home Decor Industry standards (except for the fact that it's colorful, which does NOT fit into the present day rules), but whatever home colors we have circulate around sage green and warm terra cottas, which we just sort of fell into because we liked them.

And so it should be with any home -- surround yourself with the things you like, recognizing that they are far less important than the people you love -- and everything falls into place. (Polish Pottery, the artwork, is available as an original painting on this website, as well as a print, and image on products, at Steve Henderson Collections.)