Remember I told you we moved to a new house recently?  We moved over the summer to a town about 10 minutes from where we lived before, and I'm just starting to feel settled. 

I'm like a cat when it comes to change. 

The style of this house is a little more modern than our old house, but I don’t really “do” modern.  I love rustic - not country - but distressed, modern-farmhousey, industrial-ish, old-world European-esque.  

Like if Joanna Gaines and Michelangelo’s David had a baby and pushed it around in a steampunk buggy.

I know I’ve told you that the worst fights Mark and I have ever had were on ski slopes, but those fights are rapidly losing rank to our fights about decorating the new house.

Mark doesn’t like rustic.  In fact, his taste exactly the opposite of rustic.  He likes minimalistic spaces with sleek, shiny, ultra-modern pieces.  

But not in the cool way that you’re imagining in your head right now.  

It's more like 1986 and a black, mirrored coffee table had a baby, and they forced it to wear a Members Only jacket with parachute pants.

Meeting in the middle on this has been our biggest difficulty when it comes to our move.  

It’s finally actually coming together, though!

We have these two carved-out niches in our living room that flank the fireplace.  They’re really tall, so they needed some built-ins of some sort, but I wanted a look that was a little different from traditional built-ins.  

We hired out the same company that built the cabinets in our house to build a floating credenza on each side, and then floating ¾-shelves.

The company was backlogged because of all the construction in our area - we waited for nearly three months for these babies!  All my home decorating was on-hold until the built-ins were installed because I felt like they would sort-of anchor the room.

But now that they’re in, I realize that decorating the space isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.  You have to be really careful with shelving, so you don’t make it all cluttered looking.  

And, of course I’m paralyzed by the fear of going too rustic, in case poor Mark throws a clot if he sees one more chalk-painted knick-knack, or - God forbid - a wreath*.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

I hate the top left.  I think it’s the flowers - they're definitely too white.  I’m not sure if that’s it, but I feel like there needs to be something horizontal and gold up on that shelf.  Those two white flowers have to go.

I also need to get a few candle stands for the candles midway down on the right side.  Other than that, I love the way these have turned out!

Meanwhile, we’ve finally come across decor we can both agree on:  animal heads!  

Mark is a hunter, and we’re trying to marry that hunty-style with my love for animals in costumes, which has become kind-of my motif, so when people ask, “How are you going to decorate this room?” or “What style are you doing in here?” or, “What’s your color scheme?”,  I reply, “Animals in costumes!”, because that’s the answer to everything decor-related for me right now. 

AND it’s sort-of a semi-hot thing in the stores lately, so I’m super giddy about it - it's the cutest thing ever!  

I’m incorporating my animals-in-costumes fetish with framed art like these from Hobby Lobby:

...throw pillows like this one from Target:

...and statuettes like this crowned lil’ fella I found at Home Goods:

He holds my Kendra Scott necklaces!

And despite Mark’s insistence that he hates rustic, - which I believe animal heads to be the antler-topped embodiment of rustic so he needs to get his damn story straight - he’s on board with hanging up the few deer heads he’s had stuffed over the years.  

I think they add an earthy, cozy feel to our open concept layout, and since there are only a few, hanging them up won’t feel like a hunting lodge.  Plus, we’re out in the country, now, so they make sense.

What are your thoughts?  Channel your inner Chip-and-JoJo and help me balance out my shelves, please.  

Also, stay tuned for my version of an “IKEA built-in hack” that I’ve been working on in my upstairs "multi-purpose" room!  

*There is the most beautiful magnolia wreath hanging in my entryway, but Mark hates it.  He said wreaths are country and they’re for old people.