The interior of my home will never grace a magazine page or a blog post about design style. My aesthetic is far too eclectic and practical. My home is furnished with hand-me-down family items mixed with a few new purchases made over the last thirty years. However, some of my favorite things are the little cowboy touches sprinkled throughout my home. My home is more traditional American than rustic western overall, but I’ve collected quite a few decor items over the years that add a fun touch of cowboy chic that leaves me smiling. Especially since my husband is the one who has given me the vast majority of these.
Let’s take a tour, so I can show them off.
We start in the entryway, just inside the front door. To your right you’ll find a cowboy and cowgirl kneeling in prayer at the base of a cross. To your left is a wall hanging featuring a gun belt, three Texas stars, a cowboy kerchief, and a pair of girl’s bonnets. The bonnets were made for my daughter’s Little House themed birthday party when she was about 8 or 9. I have a couple in my bedroom as well. Couldn’t let them go to waste!
Next, we move to the kitchen and my prized salt and pepper shakers. I use these almost every day. My husband and I bought them in a gift shop when we were traveling to some western-ish place that I have since forgotten.
Moving to the living room we find my favorite piece of cowboy art. A gift from my husband several years ago.
As we move down the hall, you’ll see a stash of my books on a shelf along with a pair of miniature boots that a reader gave to me. They add the perfect touch!
Coming into my bedroom, you’ll see some western flavor on my dresser, also gifts from my Texas hero. Love the pen holder and little keepsake box. (Apparently I didn’t notice that the lid was backwards when I snapped the photo. Ha!)
And we can’t forget the bathroom. Every western writer need to be able to brush her teeth in the proper frame of mind.
I have a few items in my day-job office as well. I have a small collection of decorative pencil sharpeners that have I picked up at various gift shops over the years, and the pencil holder on the right is one of the first western decor items my husband ever purchased for me. It’s my favorite!
~GIVEAWAY~
Leave a comment about your favorite decor item (western or otherwise) for a chance to a win this pair of western hooks.
For those who love to smile as they read, bestselling author Karen Witemeyer offers warmhearted historical romance with a flair for humor, feisty heroines, and swoon-worthy Texas heroes. Karen is a firm believer in the power of happy endings. . . and ice cream. She is an avid cross-stitcher, and makes her home in Abilene, TX with her husband and three children. Learn more about Karen and her books at: www.karenwitemeyer.com.
Love your cowboy and western touches in your decor.
My favorite decor items in my home are a double wedding ring quilt made by my grandma and an antique dry sink from Pennsylvania that I bought.
What treasures, Denise! I love wedding ring quits and antiques, both!
I have many favorite items, but I appreciate my old crockery churn and vat that have been handed down in the family. I use the churn beside the back door for an umbrella holder, and I put a round glass top on the vat and use it for an occasional table.
What a smart way to repurpose heirloom items so they can still be used today, Janice. I think of those lines from the Beauty and the Beast son, Be Our Guest – “Ten years we’ve be rusting, needing so much more than dusting, needing exercise, a chance to use our skills . . .” Makes me think these items want to continue to be of service. It’s what they were made for. 🙂
I have a print in a frame of an old Ice cream shop. Soda fountain and all.
Love that! So delightfully retro. Plus I adore ice cream. 🙂
Gosh, I have so many favorite things! I’m looking around and it’s a good bit. I’m also one to keep things my children or grandson has made me. And of course my Grandmother Tom made me a quilt when I graduated from high school, my mother made me a double ring wedding quilt and an aunt who has made me quite a few. All are displayed in one way or another! I’m not sure I have a decor theme either! But, I consider it traditional with a touch here and there Victorian, not western.
Thank you for sharing your favorite things!
Love those heirloom quilts, Tracy! I love quilts anyway, but having those family memories sewn into the seams makes it a priceless treasure. I have an afghan my grandmother made me when my first child was born. It was the last one she made before her health stopped her from crocheting. It’s precious.
I have a ceramic western boot that holds the bouquet from my wedding and I have my grandmother’s old hand-cranked coffee grinder in my kitchen
Those sound wonderful, Rhonda! I’m not a coffee drinker, but I love the idea of having an heirloom grinder in the kitchen!
cowboy hat
Classic!
I love lighthouses, and there’s something related to them in every room in my house! It might be books, a picture, a figurine, or maybe even more than one item in each room!! I also like Precious Moments figurines, though they aren’t represented in every room!
Lighthouses are such beacons of hope. I love that you have them throughout your home, Trudy!
Right now, my favorite decorative item is a crocheted rug that I managed to finish & put in front of the bed. We recently removed all of the carpeting in our upstairs (including the bedroom), so I needed something soft to step on when I got out of bed. I couldn’t find anything that matched, so I learned how to crochet & made an area rug! It’s so cute & perfectly matches the other decor in the room!
I’m so impressed, Ami! Need a rug? I’ll just learn how to make one. That’s awesome!
@Ami I love hearing that you learned to crochet to make a rug! Really great!!!
In our living room I have lots of family photos, going way back. One year my husband took our wedding invitation and mounted it. I love it. So I put it with all the other wonderful photos. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
What a great idea, Lori! Family photos are the best. I have them all over my house, too. Love the idea of framing the wedding invitation. Mine is tucked away in a photo album somewhere. 🙂
I collect thimbles from different places and I have a cabinet that I display them in. Right now my favorite one is from Hawaii. I also have a child size china cup and saucer that my Sunday school teacher gave me about 50 years ago that was hers as a little girl. I also have a cowboy boot Christmas ornament That I got from Linda Broday that I put on my tree every year. So this just to names a few of my favorite things.
How wonderful, Quilt Lady. Love that thimble collection. I bet you have memories from every place you visited when you look at the cabinet.
I have a hodge podge of things, I do have a ceramic covered wagon that my twin sister picked out at a garage sale right before her breast cancer came back and she went home to be with Jesus, When I see it it makes me smile I remember how happy she was to find it. We both loved your books we would read them together. Thanks for the stories and inspiration.
What a precious item to have that holds so many happy memories. I love that, Sharon!
My favorite decorative item which is a real treasure and a piece of art is my late father’s soapstone sculpture of a head. It sits in a very prominent place in the entryway. Very impressive and extraordinary art.
How amazing to have such a talented artist in the family, Anne. My mother-in-law has painted a few pieces for us that we proudly hang on the wall.
I have so many things to mention. Avon collectibles such as ceramic eggs with stand, a lighted Madonna egg with mother and Jesus inside and angels on the outside. Also, Collectible gun shaped cologne bottles, and a few bell cologne bottles. Also, I have a meat grinder which was my mothers and I never use it but do not want to get rid of it. Also some milk glass items. My collection has lots of items, too many to mention. But I cannot leave out family pics. I used to display on a large wall each of our graduation pictures of my brothers and sisters along with Mom and Dad on their 25th wedding anniversary. So many delightful memories to ponder over from time to time. They make me want to go back in time, but one cannot live in the past. Now I am nearly 79 so I have tons of memories.
What a wonderful collection you have, Judy! Milk glass is so pretty. And those photos are the best of all. I’m glad your home is filled with lovely memories. 🙂
Hi Karen! I have an old bonnet that I’m going to display the way you did! One of my favorite items is my great-grandmother’s glass head hat pins that I display in a lady head vase.
How fun, Karen. I have 3 hat pins that I inherited from my grandmother. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so they are just laid out on a chest. I like your idea.
yes we live in an old one room school house that was moved down the road (original victorian house burnt at the site) on logs pulled by horses and mules – the farmhouse looks to have 2 stories but it is just the old high ceilings of yester year long replaced by the dropped ceilings of the 50 & 60’s! I have lots of farm and ranch type decor – most of it horses!!
How fabulous, Teresa! I love old Victorian houses (and schools!) but I have no skill for renovation, so I’ve never had the nerve to invest in one to live in. I love staying in places that others have renovated, though. 🙂
Karen…Quite a few years ago I bought a couple of gourds at a traveling show that was for Fall items…people in my life noticed them out for display in my home and started buying them for me and I’m now the proud collector of gourds. 🙂
I like the salt shaker set you showed us, there are a whole lot of neat ones for sale to choose from. We went went to a salt shaker museum in Gatlinburg and were amazed at how interesting it was.
A salt shaker museum? How fun! 🙂 And I love your unique gourd collection.
I love your western deco ! As you enter my house to the right of you will see crosses on the wall, that my family has gotten me and a couple of them that my grandchildren have painted for me. My living room has a wall that is full of pictures of my most loved treasures, My Family. On one of my walls I have 2 horse shoes that have some very pretty paintings on them that my husband purchased for me, the horse shoes are the frames for the little paintings. Have a great week.
Family pictures and handmade gifts are incomparable treasures for sure, Alicia. I love the idea of horseshoe frames. 🙂
My husband saved the sign with the Post Office name on it from the small building his grandmother used for a post office at their farm from 1902 to 1932. I set it on our mantel. It is really just a long board with the name painted on it. At this point the name is barely visible but it’s still there and such a great reminder of local history. With distances between towns so great there were several farmstead post offices in our county. Because there was a post office here our place shows on old maps.
What a unique and special keepsake. I love that!
I love your little boots on the bookshelf along with your books! I have a shelf totally dedicated to your books (I have them all?)… maybe I need to find me a couple pair of boots. My sister is a custom cowboy bootmaker, so they would match your books & remind me of her! ?
Your cowboy-themed decor is perfect… thanks for sharing!
*That question mark WAS a smiley face! Haha
How fun to have your sister make you some mini boots! I hope you do. 🙂
My favorite decor piece is in my bedroom. It’s a picture of my 17 great-aunts and uncles from my mom’s side (9 siblings and spouses) seated and standing in front of The Lean Back Saloon which is part of the Old West town my great-uncles built. (Don’t worry though–when it’s open, the saloon only serves rootbeer floats!) 😀 Though the picture was taken in 2007, my cousin printed it in sepia tone and made a frame out of old barn wood, so the whole thing looks amazing. All those aunts and uncles are gone now, but that picture hangs on the wall beside, and it makes me smile.
That sounds amazing! how fun that your great uncles actually built an old west town! So cool!
I love battery powered lights on a timer. That come on at night and give such a nice feeling.
My favorite decor items are the framed art pieces I purchased during my years working at an arts center. I love all things handmade. Thanks for a chance to win a prize.
Handmade items carry the most sentimental value, for sure. I have several items that were handcrafted by family members around my house. Those are priceless!
My favorite decor item would be a lap quilt that I cross stitched and quilted for my Mom. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
How wonderful, Debbie! I’m an avid cross-stitcher, so I know how many hours it must have taken to do a piece as large as a lap quilt. So much love poured into that.
I could say books since they are in every room except the dining room, master bedroom and bath. The books are specific to the theme of the room. We have a Southwestern room and all the books pertaining to the West and Native peoples are located there. I have a sand painting we got one of our trips out West, a signed print depicting a bison herd stampede, and another of a mountain man. There is a Native American painting on leather and other items reflecting the western theme.
How cool that you fit the books to the theme of the room. I love that!
My favorite is the piece of cowboy art with the Scripture verse, but the boot toothbrush holder is a real kick!
Thanks! I love those little things that make me smile every day. 🙂