Building A Timber Frame

As you plan your new timber frame home, you need to plan the furniture, rugs, and decorative items that will make it a home.  You can start early or wait until your home is finished so you can walk through and “feel” the space.

We made the decision to definitely keep only three pieces of furniture that we had when we started building our new timber frame.  The sofa, chair, and ottoman were comfortable and well-built…and we liked them.  ’Nuf said?

The challenge for our decorator, Pam Pringle of Pringle and Associates , was to make our home inviting and charming while working with these pieces, a modest (a really modest) budget, a little quirky sense of style that David and I had, and two very different personalities (mine and David’s).

While I’m sure it was a struggle, she listened and watched.  She suggested (and sometimes insisted, thank goodness) and she brought it all together.

Timber frames can be daunting to decorate.  The vastness of the ceilings, the timbers that demand center stage, the window walls, the challenge to bring enough softness to counteract that heavy timber. However, Pam wasn’t intimidated by these mere challenges.  Her experience with other timber frame homes, along with her innate sense of what is “right” made our home just that…”our home”.

David and I are drawn to vintage and antique furniture.  Our hearts go out to a gently used dresser or table.  We’ve collected all sorts of “stuff” over the years, much of it that didn’t make the cut and won’t be in our new home.  We’ve never been enticed by a “matching suite” of bedroom furniture and to think that a television belongs in an entertainment center just doesn’t track with us when there is so much cool old furniture out there waiting to enclose a tv. So, Pam’s challenge was to find and compile furnishings and decorative items that weren’t to matchy-matchy for our liking.

The furniture and accent pieces were important, but the rugs that would soften the rooms were key.  Our wonderful distressed hardwood floors are too beautiful to cover completely.  Rugs are necessary, not only for the look but to soften the sound.  Pam chose carefully, with just enough rug to accent.

Furniture, art, accents…all will come together.  With a little help from Pam.  Today our home is warm and charming.  It will continue to evolve as Pam (and David and I) bring in pieces that have meaning and that will add to our home.

Stay tuned.