This being the first of my “Around the House” posts, I’d like to start by sharing two main objectives for the entries in this category:

First is my desire to highlight my mom’s incredible creativity. As you’ll see in reading upcoming posts, my mom possesses this fantastic ability to think artistically and out of the box. I’ve got an existing list of “Around the House” examples that I plan to share in future entries, and when I look over this list I’m just blown away by how thoughtful and clever (and also sometimes downright quirky!) her ideas have been.

Second is my aim to show how, as clichéd as it sounds, my mom transformed our house into a home. Over the past few months I’ve started paying a lot more attention to the small touches that my mom made around our house, in a way that I never previously did throughout the 15 years that we’ve lived here. When I look at these small touches, I not only see creativity and thoughtfulness but I also see a tangible expression of my mom’s love for our family. Please spare me as I continue with the cliché and say that ultimately, it’s that love that made our house our home.

With that said, now onto the subject of today’s post — the vines on the wall. If you’ve been to our house before, perhaps you recognize these vines from the photos. Or perhaps you don’t; they fit so naturally into their setting that you may have overlooked them.

My mom got these vines professionally painted on two walls in our kitchen soon after we moved into our house. They’re a beautiful finishing touch to what is a beautiful kitchen. The larger set of vines (pictured above and below) is painted above the arch that separates our kitchen from our family room. The arch itself was a lovely accent for the house, and then the vines that my mom added accentuated it. As you can observe, the color choice was also very deliberate here; the green and copper colors of the vines complement the beige wall as well as the features in the family room, such as the cabinet designs and the plants/pottery on top of the cabinets (which you can see in the photo directly below).

The other set of vines (pictured below) is on the other side of the kitchen, above the doorway leading to the bar area and pantry. My mom had the vines painted here in what was otherwise a small blank area along the wall. This space could have certainly stayed blank without looking bare — the previous occupants of the house had left it like this — but her addition of the vines transformed this space from neutral to nice. She hung up a clock in this space as well, and as you can see the vines effectively frame the clock to add another element.

The vines on the wall are a simple touch, but they add elegance to our kitchen and enhance the French country feel of our home. They illustrate my mom’s creative vision and her attention to detail. Most of all, they highlight her ability to add beauty to everything she encountered.

P.S. A special thank you to the lovely Kayla for taking these photos for me! Unfortunately I have inherited my dad’s (lack of) artistic skill rather than my mom’s…