The Sentimental Decorator by Brittany Shepard

10/13/2026

Years ago, I thought a beautiful home was something you purchased all at once. I worried about bare counters, matching sets, and keeping everything looking new.

Loss has a way of stripping away that pretense. It taught me to stop saving the good things for an occasion that may never come.

Now I live in this 1953 house filled with chipped plates, estate sale linens, and pieces that carried other people through their days. None of it is pristine.

At 42, I finally understand that wear and tear is not a flaw. A room with patina brings far more comfort than a showroom ever could.

You do not have to keep your home or yourself frozen in time to be worthy of love.

Tonight I am slicing a small piece of birthday cake onto an old Friendly Village plate for supper.


•
•
•
•
•
•
Vintage Decor | Home Inspiration | Collected Home | Traditional Home | Sentimental Style | Curating Joy | The Sentimental Decorator | Joyful Rituals of Home | Sentimental Home | Homes with a Story

10/11/2026

✨ Sentimental Sunday✨

I don’t think we talk enough about the responsibility that can come with inheriting someone’s things, especially when we loved the person.

Suddenly, a dish isn’t just a dish. And deciding whether to keep it can feel tangled up with gratitude and grief and loyalty and questions we don’t quite know how to ask.

So we keep things because someone else kept them. And many times that’s exactly the right decision.

But sometimes I wonder if there’s another way to honor what came before us. Not by becoming the permanent caretaker of every object, but by paying attention to the meaning.

What story needs to be known? What tradition deserves repeating? What object genuinely belongs in your life? What would be deeply loved by someone else? And what can you release while still keeping what mattered?

Maybe inheritance isn’t an assignment to preserve everything. Maybe it’s an invitation to decide what you’ll carry forward.

And I think there’s freedom in that.


•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Vintage Decor | Home Inspiration | Collected Home | Traditional Home | Sentimental Style | Curating a Joyful Life | The Sentimental Decorator | Joyful Rituals for Home

10/09/2026

Do you have pieces tucked away that you are afraid to actually use or display?

I spent years treating inherited things like museum artifacts. I thought keeping them safe behind cabinet doors was how to respect them.

The people who loved these pieces never bought them to leave them in the dark. They lived around a table with crumbs, water rings, and conversation.

They were meant for ordinary hours.

When I use the special things, I am not being careless with the past. I am letting a story breathe inside my house.

You are allowed to live with what you love instead of saving it for someday.


•
•
•
•
•
•
Vintage Decor | Home Inspiration | Collected Home | Traditional Home | Sentimental Style | Curating Joy | The Sentimental Decorator | Joyful Rituals of Home | Sentimental Home | Homes with a Story

10/08/2026

You don’t have to apologize for a home that holds a heartbeat.

We’ve spent years being told that a modern, stylish home has to be stripped-back, neutral, and bought from a single catalog. But if your living room is filled with inherited dishes, worn furniture, and pieces that carry the fingerprints of the women who raised you… that isn’t clutter. That is your story in physical form.

You are not failing at minimalism. You are a Storykeeper.


•
•
•
•
•
•
Vintage Decor | Home Inspiration | Collected Home | Traditional Home | Sentimental Style | Curating Joy | The Sentimental Decorator | Joyful Rituals of Home | Sentimental Home | Homes with a Story

10/06/2026

Every fall, the dishes move.

The summer patterns go up top, and the ones I find myself reaching for this time of year come down where they’re easy to grab.

Grannie Ella’s Franciscan Apple and Friendly Village come down alongside Spode, Bordallo Pinheiro, Kyoto by Momoyama and other pieces I’ve collected myself.

Some were handed to me. Some I found. Some already came with a story, and some are becoming part of mine.

But none of them do much good sitting somewhere I can’t reach them.

I’ve learned that if I want to actually live with the things I love, sometimes the first step is very practical:

Put them within reach.

Do you rotate anything in your home with the seasons?


•
•
•
•
•
•
Vintage Decor | Home Inspiration | Collected Home | Traditional Home | Sentimental Style | Curating Joy | The Sentimental Decorator | Joyful Rituals of Home | Sentimental Home | Homes with a Story

10/06/2026

Y’all!!! I’m so grateful for your support!

Next year is going to be so fun!

Hey friends! The votes have been counted and Brittany Shepard Brittany | The Sentimental Decorator is our new 2o27 Brand Ambassador! 🎉👏🏻🎉
Thank you to everyone for your votes and enthusiastic participation!
Watch for her column in the magazine that will begin with the Feb/March 2027 issue-on newsstands mid-December 2027. Her social media days will start in January and off we go to another great year of inspiration and fun!
Way to go, Brittany! 🙂

10/05/2026

This is my Grannie Ella’s amber pitcher. I’ve almost donated it more than once.

But every fall, I bring it out, fill it with flowers, and give it a place on my kitchen table. It feels good to use something she once used. And it’s one way I carry maximum meaning forward in my home.

Sometimes carrying something forward means keeping it. Sometimes it means using it. Sometimes it looks like something else entirely.

If you have a piece like this, send this to someone who’d understand.


•
•
•
•
•
•
Vintage Decor | Home Inspiration | Collected Home | Traditional Home | Sentimental Style | Curating Joy | The Sentimental Decorator | Joyful Rituals of Home | Sentimental Home | Homes with a Story