Whimsy + Pottery Barn

When it comes to decorating the house, I’m a total child of Pottery Barn.  So much so that I used to save all their catalogs … until they had the bright idea of publishing books showcasing their decorating style.  Classic, traditional but with a comfortable enough slant that you feel you can put your feet up and relax.  After all, between the kids, their friends, and pets, stuffiness and plastic covered loveseats are totally out for me.

But as much as I love Pottery Barn, I also like to bring a little bit of whimsy to decorating the house, with little things here and there that are unexpected.  Like our fortune area.  Fortune cookies have always been a fun part of getting Chinese food.  An old friend and I used to choose our cookies, and then switch before opening them.  For some reason, the men in our family never eat the cookies, but Nick does.  He and I always wait for the end of the meal and then tear into the cookies to read our fortunes.  A few months ago, we started talking about the different fortunes and that it was a shame that we had to throw away the good news.

“But maybe we don’t,” I said.

“What else would we do with them?” he asked.

We started brainstorming.  I thought it would be fun to tack them up somewhere, but with an upcoming move on the horizon, I didn’t want to embark on any big project that we might have to undo.  We started tossing the fortunes into our kitchen coin jar … until last week.

We knew we were going to put them on a wall somewhere, but I wanted it to be subtle. Like a happy surprise that you caught a glimpse of when you turned the corner. We ended up choosing the trim on this little alcove by the dining room. It’s perfect. We pass by there many times a day and it’s just a fun little thing. Originally I had planned to use straight pins to attach them to the wall and even found pretty ones with shiny colored metallic little tops. But the pin is too long and too hard to get into the wood without it bending. So I started looking for push-pins, but something different from the usual primary color bulletin board kind. When I found a set at Target, I knew they were perfect. A shorter pin and small round pops of color.

I love that one of the recent fortunes that Nick received was about Popeye (not that he even knows who he is, unfortunately) and eating vegetables. How appropriate. And my last fortune? The last one in the picture … “To love and be loved is like feeling the sun from both sides.” Love it.

I took the first picture, and Nick, the second. I always find it interesting to see his perspective when taking a picture, and this time, it was completely different than mine.

Good fortune really can be just around the corner… if you plan it that way.

Print it!