31 Days of Decorating with Junk: How to Make Your Home Your Own

*This post originally appeared on All Things Bright and Beautiful in 2011 as part of Aubrey's "How to Make Your Home Your Own" series.

My husband and I have lived in our 100 year old house for about ~~3 1/2~~ 5 1/2 years now. We have gutted nearly every room in the house and tried to make it beautiful and functional with a reasonable budget. From completely remodeling the kitchen to adding two sweet boys to our family, we are truly making this home our own!

Today, I want to focus on one small corner in our living room.

I decided to switch up a few of the accessories in this cabinet and thought it was the perfect opportunity to give you a little glimpse of how we have made our home our own.

1. We use old stuff. We love things with a story. A lot of our furniture is antique or vintage like this cabinet, and the pottery in it is old, too.

2. We use accessories that represent our interests. The antlers represent my husband's time researching tuberculosis in deer at the USDA labs, before we began raising turkeys.

Most of the books in the cabinet are by Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, which is one of my favorite books.

The "A" represents our oldest son, Adam, and there is an "I" on the bottom shelf for the baby, Isaac.

My flute hasn't been played for a few years, but it was an important part of my life growing up, and is on the bottom shelf.

3. We use family heirlooms. The book on this shelf came from my great grandfather's farm and is titled "The Farmer's New Guide" (so incredibly appropriate considering the fact that we are farmers!) and next to the book is a set of binoculars that belonged to hubby's grandpa.

Trying to apply these three rules has helped us create a comfortable home that reminds us of the things we love.

This post is part of 31 Days of Decorating with Junk: Vintage, Antique and Unique for your Home and Garden.