Homestyle The Challenge of Making Your Home Insta Fabulous

I have a confession to make I have no ‘Homestyle’. My house is totally rocking that country living shabby chic style (complete with muddy dog!) I totally live in what I like to call, ‘organised chaos’ it’s a trend I am hoping will catch on! Seriously, I just don’t have the time to do anything to my own home.. I’m far too busy lusting after everyone else’s beautiful homes on Instagram!! Oh how I wish I had the vision and inclination!

HomeStyle, is most definitely not about making your home ‘Insta Fabulous!’

Essentially, it’s being realistic about what you can achieve in your current situation and building a home, that you love. One that you feel safe and comfortable in. A home that you can relax in, your own little oasis of calm. Reflecting your personality and is as unique as you are. A home you can truly enjoy.

Building a home isn’t easy, it’s time consuming and expensive. Plus it can feel like another job to add to the list. Rather than enjoying our homes, we can end up stressing out about getting them ‘just right’. What we need is a homestyle that’s easily achievable, and that’s going to be different for us all.

Chez ChallengeClare

Myself and Mr Challenge live in an old Victorian pub, with 2 of our 4 sons and our spaniel Trigger. We’ve been here for a year now. It’s a bit of a project, which we are slowly getting through. But, there’s no rush, because you know what? We want to spend our time doing more than DIY! (We get seriously distracted by cider making and holidays!)

We’ve got a few jobs done this year: We built a massive patio, BBQ and landscaped the garden so that we could have a housewarming party!! Well, you have to prioritise! Our next job was the front room is, it was cold and draughty with wooden floors… We’ve whacked a woodburner in, decorated, carpeted and got some groovy 70’s furniture, all done! So now we have our cosy front room and party garden! The rest I can live with until we get there!

Our home is a bit of a warren, it’s permanently dusty, with bits breaking or falling off all the time! We also have a tendency to hoard and we have so much clutter… We have 2 spare rooms, filled with clutter that never gets dealt with because we can just shut the door on it.. Oh the shame!

But I love our home because it’s ours, it reflects our personalities.. I do run round like a mad woman erasing our personality from the house (ok cleaning!) before we have visitors, in the hope they won’t realise how slovenly we really are!!

HomeStyle and ChallengeClare

As ChallengeClare grows I will be writing about various aspects of HomeStyle. Sharing ideas and inspiration for building a home that you love and that is easily achievable. Plus some ‘how to’ (or how not to!!) guidance for a variety of DIY projects! The reality of this will be me sharing my long list of DIY disasters!