With the Salt Lake County Parade of Home well under way this week, {and me not going, boo hoo} I decided to go through some of my hundreds of pictures from the Utah County Parade of Homes in June.
There is so much to love about the Parade of Homes. The beautiful homes and furniture, the great decorating ideas and the girl time with my parade buddy, Lisa.
I also love that I come away feeling inspired and energized to tackle some of the decorating and design issues in my own home.
Here are some of my favorite moments:
I loved this house in Highland, because it was fun and fearless. It reminded me that my house is mine to do whatever I want with, and that I shouldn’t be afraid to put a hole in the wall or to personalize it in ways that will make me and my family happy.
These are random photos from different houses. I have the perfect place to do horizontal stripes in my own home. I love that it this would-be boring, awkward wall interesting.
Almost every home we visited had a sliding barn door. Oh, how I love a good sliding barn door. 
Another trend this year: secret doors. Awesome. 
This bedroom was beautiful. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it had the perfect balance of pink and gold. So pretty.
This whitewashed herringbone brick fireplace. I love it so much.
The house with this dress-up room in it had a colossal play room, with different themed areas. Lego room, salon room, candy store room, and of course kids’ movie theater and video game station. But this dress-up room is genius. Every home should have a dress-up room. Am I right?! 
There were lots of decorations at the Parade of Homes where I could hear my mother’s voice in my head when I saw them. “We could make that,” she used to say when we were shopping. It used to drive me nuts. Now I get it. I heard her when I saw this great bench. 
That light. So fun. 
This home in Mapleton also had a lot of great features. And I looooved the decorating. 
And I always love the parade home by Ezra Lee. His homes are super contemporary and creative. And while we don’t always have the same taste, I always leave his homes inspired to try new things. 
One last thought. In talking to others about the Parade of Homes, some of them tell me that they like to go, but sometimes feel like visiting these homes makes them feel sad, or like their own homes don’t measure up. I can honestly tell you, that I’ve had those same thoughts in the past myself. These homes are new and pristine and have been decorated by professionals. In most cases, no real person or family has ever lived in these homes. So there is no clutter, or clothes. No kids’ art projects strewn all over the place. No family pictures on the walls. They are just houses. They are not homes. When I visit these houses, I remember that and it takes the my-house-is-not-good-enough feelings away.
Because I wouldn’t trade all of my mess for the most perfect home in the world.
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