Sports Central Meets Shabby Chic

Inspirational Ink: Insight for a Woman’s Life

by Tammi Ector Fisse

Recently, the above two worlds met. Surprisingly, neither my fiancé nor I declared décor war. You see, we’re not only blending our families. We’re attempting to mesh our diametrically opposed design styles. Though the transfer of my furniture and decorating accessories went more smoothly than I dared imagine (my kids and I will join our stuff just before the undisclosed big day), I have to confess that my heart set up something akin to a battle drum every time I thought about it. We decided to take this leap of faith a while back, so I’ve had a while to be stressed.

Whenever I’m confronted with something monumental, my way to deal usually involves laying everything I feel out there. Some refer to this as “wearing your heart on your sleeve”. I think I’m more like the title of singer/songwriter Francesca Batistelli’s CD, “My Paper Heart”. I wear mine on paper.

Considering this, it never ceases to amaze me how God works. This month’s Inspired Women marks the one year anniversary of me writing for the magazine. The idea of writing through my move and the transformation of my fiancé’s house to our home came to me only hours before I learned that the issue would focus on Stress…Letting Go and Letting God. A coincidence? I don’t think so. A God thing? Definitely.

Sports Sense

To say that my fiancé, Greg, and his three boys (Yes, I said three) are into sports would be an understatement. You name it, they play it. And Greg coaches it. When I first learned their routine, it seemed they were involved with either a game or a practice every night of the week. Greg patiently explained it this way, “Each boy is only allowed to do one sport per season. The thing is, I’ve got three of them.” Add to this the fact that he’s a director for a ministry that uses sports as a method of outreach to inner city youth, and you could say sports are an integral part of their lives.

This was quite evident in their house. Prior to me subjecting it to a woman’s touch, calling it a man cave may have been taking it too far, but Sports Central wasn’t a stretch.

Please don’t get me wrong. The house is gorgeous. Architecturally it has many of the elements I’d select if I could design a home: Floor to ceiling windows in a two-story vaulted living room, a fireplace, sliding doors that lead to decks from three of the rooms, and all of this on a cul-de-sac that backs into the woods.

From the time Greg and I decided we’d like to “hitch our wagons together”. Other than wishing we could pick out our home together, I’ve always felt comfortable with the house. With the décor? Not so much. I couldn’t fathom manly man style living in harmony with the epitome of girly girl. Since we share everything with one another, Greg has been well aware of how I felt.

The things that best represent his passion are about as far from Shabby Chic as it gets. In making this move, I’m pretty sure he thought he’d be called upon to let go of much more than he was ready to.

Shabby Chic Sensibility

Rachel Ashwell, the founder of Shabby Chic style, has three decorating maxims: beauty, comfort and function. I share her sensibilities. To quote her, “I’d find it hard to exist in a world that had no pink”. Soft, muted colors and most anything with flowers is pure eye candy to me. As a former interior designer, creating a cozy, livable space is at the heart of my decorating decisions. Flea market furniture and vintage items appeal to me since I embrace the beauty of imperfection.

Prior to Rachel coining the name for the style, I’d been doing shabby long before it was considered chic. Apart from the necessity of expressing my style on a shoestring, living with my great aunt’s faded brocade upholstery, crumpled lace curtains and mismatched floral patterned china taught me to treasure the tattered and time worn. Her pieces usually came with a story, not a price tag attached. By age nine or so, I’d already staked my claim on favorite keepsakes. Not because of their monetary worth but their sentimental value.

Everything I adore is about as far from Sports Central as it gets. In making this move, I thought for certain I’d be called upon to let go of much more than I was ready to.

Stressless, Sensible Style

This is where letting go and letting God comes into play. How else could we ever have successfully combined these two discordant styles?

Going into the move, I had numerous expectations, most of them based on my negative experience with my abusive ex-husband. Compromise was not something we did well. Someone usually got their way, and it usually wasn’t me. In all fairness though, I have to admit that I got mine 100% of the time when it came to decorating. Since my ex didn’t care one way or the other, I exercised a free hand in this area, even if it was by default.

Given my history, what a pleasant surprise it was to realize that Greg and I love each other far more than we do our stuff!

After the guys from church who helped with the move hauled some of Greg’s things out to make room for mine, they ribbed him good naturedly by asking, “So when are you putting on the addition?” The look on my poor, dear guy’s face as he realized the sheer volume of what was coming in was comical. Guess I wasn’t the only one with expectations.

Once the initial shock wore off, however, Greg was a good sport in the truest sense of the words. In fact, as we sensibly evaluated what would stay and what would go, our stress levels decreased and we both began to feel more comfortable with what became an extreme downsizing and de-cluttering effort on both of our parts. In the decorating world the process is called “trading the tired for the inspired”. In the spiritual world, I believe it could be classified as letting go and letting God.

With the merge of Sports Central and Shabby Chic nearly complete, I’m amazed by how God moved not only in the move, but in our hearts. Whenever I look around our beautiful, comfortable, functional home, with its evidence of the guys’ passion for sports tastefully displayed through pictures, ribbons, trophies and memorabilia, my eyes and my heart are pleased with the art of compromise. I like how it looks, but I love how it feels.

In making this move, I learned that when we let go and let God, we gain much more than we were hoping to.