Drew Lowery's Blog: Style with Purpose #stylewithpurpose

Style with purpose.

Style.

Purpose.

When you break that phrase down, what does it say to you? What do each of those words mean to you?

Really, that’s what we’re asking here today. When I set out to start Bliss at Home, I wanted it to be more than just a blog about style, design, and DIY. I wanted it to have a meaning a bit deeper; beyond the blog standard of perfectly styled projects. I wanted there to be a message of home and life being lived outside what you saw in the camera frame.

I’ve teamed up with The White Buffalo Styling Company, Nesting with Grace, House Seven Blog, and My Sweet Savannah to start a new hashtag on Instagram and social to show just that. #stylewithpurpose is what we are calling it.

As a blogger, I appreciate what it takes to “get the shot” and I really do love the styling and photography process. If I didn’t write this blog, I could definitely see myself styling shoots as my full-time work. But, that picture perfect image can get lost in translation though.

That perfection we see on blogs and our Instagram and social feeds can be a bit overwhelming to gaze upon day in and day out. I’ve heard from a lot of you that it breeds a feeling of not being enough, jealousy, and sometimes a little disgust if we are being quite honest. We start to compare our lives to the styled image. It can seem unattainable in our daily lives.

In my blog work here in styling, design, and DIY, sometimes the design really is the design. You get exactly how things look here at my home. Sometimes I have to tweak things behind the camera like positioning of furniture and objects to have them translate in images. If I am shooting a furniture project or DIY result, depending on what it is, I may just take a wall in my house to the feature the item and style it how I see fit for the shoot. Also, what you don’t see is what is on the other side of the camera. The side not pointing at the lovely room or project. The mess behind me, the laundry that never gets done, the dishes that always seem to manage to pile up even though I run that dishwasher 24/7!! I also withhold a lot of the images of my family. I am a bit protective about sharing photos of my kids, family, and friends. I like to protect what is near and dear to me, because let’s face it–there is someone always looking to say something negative on a platform where you can hide behind your computer and be anonymous.

I feel like I’m doing a slight disservice to the message I want to share here on B@H though. The whole reason I use my talents in styling and design is to provide comfort and a bit of joy to my family. I take the time to set the table beautifully, because I think an extra effort in our homes can make the ordinary somewhat magical. I want my children to look back on Christmases and not lose the meaning, but also have a recollection of how special Mom made those moments. Our homes are our havens. The soft place to rest at the end of a busy day. We welcome others into our homes and want to give to them. Our homes are where we show hospitality and kindness to others. It’s where we live life day in and day out. It’s where we are most likely to show our true selves and relax. I guess I give through creating experiences and making our home a comfort.

How does #stylewithpurpose work?

Each Monday, we will post a #stylewithpurpose shot on Instagram of how we are infusing style and purpose into our lives. Our goal is to encourage others to show real-life style with their families and loved ones, not staged perfection. We will all choose our favorite and feature it each Friday. We will do a monthly round-up at the end of each month on our blogs with that month’s features and a wild-card that we each choose (unique to each blog).

The point is to not just show our work as bloggers but to show the purpose behind the style we infuse into our homes and daily lives. I hope you’ll join us in this effort to show what is real and really does matter–not just that perfection-based picture that we see on our TV’s, in our magazines, and now all over our social media. It’s a movement to show the whole reason we make our homes those special retreats for our families and all who cross those thresholds.

We really hope you’ll join us in this effort to be more real in our social lives. You don’t have to show piles of laundry or dishes in the sink (unless you feel compelled to do so, ha!). Show us those moments that remind us why we design, style, or renovate to begin with.