About six months ago, my mother-in-law passed away after a brief illness. She was a good friend and a fellow designer. We shared a love for beautiful fabrics and furniture and often consulted each other on our various jobs. She was a well-known designer in New Orleans and loved the profession as much as I do.

My husband had the blessing of inheriting many of her beautiful pieces of furniture and accessories. So, my challenge was how to incorporate them all into our home. How many of you have had this challenge or will be facing it in the coming years? It can be daunting! Thankfully, I had several months to mentally plan how I would tackle this.

My strategy was to decide, ahead of time, where each piece would go….with a back-up plan of course. My husband had some definite ideas as to where he wanted a few things, so I had to adjust. The surprise part was that when we moved out some of our things beforehand, we discovered that we needed to paint or wallpaper some areas. And, that needed to happen fast before the furniture arrived! Yes, those curve balls happen to designers, too! I moved out the “to-be-stored” furniture and left the empty spaces waiting for the truck to arrive. As much as I planned, I still had chaos — and three weeks before Christmas to boot!

The “Before” Chaos

But, what made it all worthwhile, is that every time my husband walks through our living room now, he stops and looks and says “I just love this wall.” I added his mother’s lamp, artwork and brackets to our chest and mirror. We have combined my family’s memories and his family’s memories in one place, and it makes him happy. For me, that is what a home is all about — a collection of things we love all in one place.

Yes, there are pieces that need to be recovered and more things to hang in stacks in an upstairs bedroom. But, for now, it’s just fine. We will get there in time.

The “After” Transformation – A Collection of Memories