I’m so glad you’ve discovered my little corner of the internet, where all things home will be featured. If you love everything from decor ideas and seasonal decorating to home renovations and projects, then you’re definitely in the right place! In this first post I wanted to go a little bit more in depth on how the idea for this blog came to be and what I envision for its future.
Hi, I’m Caroline
First off, let me introduce myself! My name is Caroline, and my family and I live in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. My husband and I are high school sweethearts, Aggies (whoop!), and we will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary later this year. We have two kiddos (ages 5 and 2), two Beagles and one crazy cat. I’m an introverted home-body who loves tacos, all things Fall (fun fact, our wedding anniversary is Halloween), and my soul feels most at peace when I’m near the ocean.
Now, more about how this blog came to be. My daughter started kindergarten this year, which had me doing some serious contemplation of how fast time is going by. I realized that in just a few short years my youngest (who will be three at the end of the year) would be off to school as well. What was I going to DO with myself once they were both in elementary school?!
I stopped working full time towards the end of my first pregnancy to become a stay at home mom. My background was in marketing, and while I liked my job I didn’t LOVE it, and I decided to move on to life as a stay at home mom. I had always had a side gig as a freelance graphic designer, and continued to do so after kids. I’m the kind of person that very much needs some sort of creative outlet in life, and for a time it fulfilled that while also giving me the freedom to work from home as much or as little as life dictated.
I’d always planned on returning to the workforce once my kids were school aged. The thought of returning to cubicle life in an office setting was not appealing. And finding something with a flexible, part-time schedule that would still allow me to be home with my kids after school seemed next to impossible. While I will continue my freelance work, I’ve come to realize that it is no longer fulfilling that creative outlet I crave. So I started to think about things that I truly love and enjoy doing: writing, graphic design, photography, project planning and home decor/styling. Could I find a career path and creative outlet that combined the things that make me happy? This contemplation and reflection is what planted the little seed inside my mind that would later bloom into Styling Suburbia. I talked myself in and out of this blog idea MULTIPLE times while thinking and brainstorming. It took me weeks before I even mentioned the idea to my husband. But even while struggling with self doubt and fear of failure, I realized that I just couldn’t kick the idea. I knew that if I didn’t at least TRY I would always have regret and wonder at what this could have become. So here we are! I still struggle with self doubt and my inner critic (can you tell I’m an Enneagram Type 1?), but I’m going to enjoy the ride, wherever it may take me!
Here’s a little background story to help put things in perspective as far as real estate and home things are concerned. My husband and I have lived in a lot of homes over the years, and we’ve learned a lot in the process. We’ve done everything from investing in a foreclosure and renovating to purchasing an empty lot and building a home from the ground up. As mentioned above, I’m an introverted home-body. Home is where my heart is, and as a stay at home mom, it’s also my office. I need to love the space I’m in, and it needs to feel like home. The home that we built was supposed to be all of those things, but unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way. You know what they say about real estate: location, location, location. We learned the hard way that location is indeed the most important thing when it comes to your home. There were a combination of factors that led us to put our house on the market (commercial developments along our fence line and road development behind our house to name a few), and from an investment standpoint we decided it was time to cut our losses sooner rather than later.
So, in the spring of 2019 we moved yet again into what felt like our permanent, forever home from the second I stepped inside. If you’ve ever gotten that gut feeling about a house, then you know what I’m talking about. For whatever reason, and one that is hard to put into words, it just felt like home. Now if I’m being honest, my dream home is a turn of the century Victorian that we restore to former glory. It has a wrap around front porch with gingerbread trim and is near a beach somewhere. Maybe someday this will be a reality. But for now we are living that suburban life in a new, master-planned neighborhood full of cookie cutter new-builds. We’re here because we have small children and our priorities are good schools and amenities that make family life convenient and more enjoyable, all while surrounded by families in similar stages of life. We can walk down the street to the park, the pool, and even go fishing or boating in our neighborhood’s lake. For now, these conveniences take precedence over our home’s architectural character and history.
I follow a lot of home decor accounts on Instagram for inspiration. Most of those homes are in unique, beautiful locations or have a ton of architectural features and old charm and character that make them stand out. Farmhouse and Boho styles are trendy at the moment, and it’s easy to find accounts that focus on those trends. While all of these accounts are wonderful follows and make for some beautiful photos on my Instagram feed, I didn’t really find them applicable to my own suburban home. What initially sparked the niche idea for this blog was to create a place for those of us living that basic, suburban life, but still wanting to find ways to add charm and character to our newer homes.
I have big plans and ideas for Styling Suburbia. This is our forever home, and we hope that the projects we have planned will help it stand out and hopefully take away some of that cookie cutter, new-build feel that so many suburban homes have these days. Adding charm and character with custom features is our main goal. We have home renovations both big and small planned for our home that will be featured on this blog over the coming months (and years)! Hopefully our experiences through these projects will be a valuable resource to you as you work to transform your own spaces. I have always loved home decor and styling, so this blog will also be a great place to source design ideas and products. If you love seasonal decorating then you are most definitely in for a treat! I know there are more of you out there that love your house, but want to make it feel like home. A place where you and your family can grow, love and create life-long, cherished memories. No matter where your little piece of suburbia is on the map, hopefully this blog will be a place you can turn to for ideas and resources, and most importantly, FUN!
