I longed for the day I had a house of my own to decorate. Would I go with a Tuscan kitchen or bathrooms inspired by Martha's Vineyard? Now, as a home-owning adult, I check the real estate listings first thing every morning. I do this mostly so I can look inside of people's houses. Most of them are uninspiring, but many have been decorated by artistic renegades or they are the million dollar properties with the architectural details that make me swoon, like walls of glass and steel, or archways leading into kitchens. A bit of exposed brick in the stairwell? My morning has been made. When I find a particularly dumpy home, I take a few minutes to determine how I would redesign it to take it from drab to fab!
(I hate that I just said that.)
But then I decided I'm a decorating hypocrite because here I am judging everyone else's design decisions when I've never really designed a room in my own house. I just moved the furniture and bee bobs that I already owned into the house and there they have sat. I have not selected a theme for a room or a mood for a space or had a vision to bring to fruition. I've just tried to make things look nice with what I have. So I determined that it was time for me to choose one room and put my judgment where my mouth is.
I gave me two rules. 1.) Spend as little as possible. I have no income after June of this year, so it's not the time to be whimsical. 2.) Don't tell Brett. He always poo-poo's my ideas because he can't visualize them. He loves everything I've ever done to the house so I don't know why he doesn't trust me. If I told him I was going to paint our bedroom nearly black with orange accents, he'd have never left for Africa.
So I waited for him to leave and then I high-tailed it to Sherwin Williams. Then I painted our bedroom nearly black with orange accents.
For those still reading, I knew I wanted a moody, rich space that was sophisticated but still playful. I knew I wanted it to be very dark green. I love brass against dark green, and the warm wooden floors and golden accents meant rust and terracotta tones would really pop. Orange is one of my favorite colors. Brett says it's an obnoxious color, so obviously my plans fell into place quickly. I scoured the interwebs for the pieces and materials I needed. I had something very specific in mind for drapes and I could only find something similar at one internet store for a grand total higher than our mortgage payment. All in all, my room re-do would cost approximately $1,380.00
Two of the benefits of being Chris and Nancy Union's daughter is a learned handiness from the former and a thriftiness from the latter. I took a good look at the elements I wanted to bring into the space and I worked out how to do it myself. I spray painted lamps and curtain rods, sewed my own velvet bottomed curtains, and DIYed some sisal lampshades. I regretted the lampshade efforts immediately (they took four and a half hours) but in the end, I spent a total $405 and that includes a big ole rug I stumbled upon that was too good to pass up.
I snapped these grainy phone pictures just before Brett got home and threw all of his crap onto the perfectly styled dressers. But I'll have you know that he LOVES the room. He thought a real decorator had come in and done it - I promptly fixed that by showing him all of the jimmy-rigs I'd concocted to hold things in place.
"Ahh, there's the touch of Lue," he said, wiggling the curtain rod holder that I couldn't quite drill into the stud. He admitted that if I had described my plans to him, he'd have never let me do it and he's very glad I did. He's made people come over to look at it.
Except for the sad-sack, grey duvet cover we use to protect our white comforter from the dogs, the room feels refreshed and somehow bigger than before. I was going to paint the ceiling dark green too but I got scared. I took a poll amongst friends and all but one thought it was a crazy decision but I'm still not totally dissuaded.
There's lots more I would like to do but I've decided to stop here. It's lovely - no need to go big.
When not working on the bedroom details, I was toiling away in the sunny room. That's the dirt-filled catch-all room where we run our little businesses, store our recyclables, and feed the pups. It's filty and chaotic and lacks storage. It's the one room in the house I don't bother to organize when friends come over. I simply ask for forgiveness instead.
So I enlisted Popples Union to build two more bookshelves to sit on top of our existing bookshelf. I used the same green bedroom paint under the windows and on the bench seat that had no business ever being white in the first place. I pushed Brett's desk into the corner to create an actual "office area," and then filled the new bookshelves with all the crap that used to sit in piles on the floor. I ran out of time to paint the bookshelves before Brett got home but I promise I'll get to it.
EisenEars really loves this room too. He doesn't even mind that I pushed him into the corner facing the wall. He's going to build some cabinet doors for the big new bookcase that Dad had to screw into the wall. "I hope you like it there because it's never moving." Hiding the crap behind cabinet doors will really make the room look clean. We can't wait - which is how we know we're aging. We're excited about cabinets.
The biggest change in this room is imperceptible to most eyes. The majority of the crap in the bottom bookshelf was stacked up under my desk; taxes from the last decade, Lux files, the printer, etc. I'm so happy to put my feet under my desk! This room also feels bigger now and oh so clean.
Here's what the rooms looked like when Brett left.
Brett has only been home 5 days but both of us have been putting things back where they belong instead of piling them places. Turns out you want to keep nice looking spaces looking nice.
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