What is our western bungalow?
The story behind our western bungalow.
It all started when we were laying in bed one Sunday morning before the move into our first apartment together. “We’re bringing my bed”, I said. Instantly, Collin replied, “No, we’re bringing my bed.” Uhh, was this how it was going to be? My bedroom at the time was all grey and white, modern, minimal with touches of chrome, faux fur and marble. I was still styling remotely for Stitch Fix part time, in addition to my full time job, so I needed to bring my desk which matched perfectly with my bedroom decor so it only made sense that we bring my bed, right? We went back & forth for quite a bit as neither of us were willing to give up our bed. Needless to say, Collin eventually got what he wanted as I soon realized that as our styles were coming together, it was easier to mix in my pieces with his than it was to incorporate all the pieces he’s collected from traveling with my modern, minimal style.
So because I’m type A, enneagram 3 and lean more toward OCD than not, I decided it was time to create a color palette and determine what the overall style of our new place would be while ensuring that both personalities are reflected throughout the home. Color palette was easy enough: black, white, shades of brown, touches of grey and green (accounting for plants) were the colors we were working with. Now, I needed to come up with an overall vibe that would guide our vision because we (Collin) had so many pieces from so many different parts of the world that I was struggling to tie together to create a cohesive look. Just so y’all know, he had just hung all these pieces randomly around his apartment and I was not going to have that in my space #anxiety.
So I dove a bit further, we had 6 surfboards between the both of us, tribal masks from Collin’s travels to Indonesia in addition to a 12 point buck mount from Collin’s latest hunt, a steer skull he got in Texas and a mini (faux) steer skull that I had. Essentially we had surfboards and skulls. I couldn’t find any interior design terms to describe our style, so I figured the 2 places that make us happiest are the beach and Collin’s family ranch in Texas. I knew we would continue to accumulate pieces from both of these places so how better to describe our style than our western bungalow?
Once I had landed on our western bungalow, I was ready to start styling away! I started scrolling Pinterest for some inspiration but, of course, couldn’t find anything that represented our style 100% so I took inspiration from here and there. Our core furniture pieces would lean toward clean lines, modern & contemporary. We would incorporate prints & textures (my fave) to tie together both the western and bungalow elements for a cohesive look throughout.
I could talk about style & design for days but I’ll go ahead and wrap this up for y’all. Our western bungalow will continue to evolve and grow as we do. We can’t wait to collect more pieces from our travels together and curate a home that’s a reflection of us. We appreciate all of you who are following along on the journey of our western bungalow!