You know that episode of Sex and the City where a photographer for a magazine is coming to take pictures of Charlotte and Trey’s home? Flowers are arranged on all of the tables and Charlotte wears a crisp, perky dress. They’re the perfect couple, the photographer says, but they separate soon after.

I love looking at house tours on design blogs, but I always wonder what we’re not seeing. I mean, does this couple really always arrange their shoes so perfectly in the entryway? Does one partner secretly hate the uncomfortable MMC chairs or the pink walls in the living room?

Wagon wheel tables, y’all.

These days I want to focus more on what’s real. Here, the house is usually a mess and I still haven’t unpacked everything even though we’ve been living here for nearly two months. The artwork on the walls doesn’t reflect a coherent aesthetic: the prints and paintings on the walls are a strange mix—some are mine, some N’s, some our housemate’s. Our garden’s bounty lines the counters in the kitchen. Raincoats are forever drying on the back of chairs. It sure doesn’t look perfect.

photo via design*sponge