Ever finish a room and realize it isn’t really
finished? If at first you don’t succeed,
try, try again!
Moving into a new (old) house brings on an onslaught of
emotions. There’s excitement, the sense
of adventure, that feeling of a newly clean slate waiting for you to make it
your own, and all of these feelings are what makes change an exciting endeavor.
But after the wave of positive emotion passes, something else tends to settle in…maybe exhaustion, possibly
frustration, and inevitably, a whole lot of overwhelm. Even though every logical bone in your body
might tell you that nothing is going to be instantly perfect when you start
over somewhere new, the barrage of boxes and potential projects can get even
the scrappiest DIY designer down.
When faced with this conundrum, I personally tend to quickly
revamp a central room in a desperate effort to be able to label one part of the
new house as “done”. If I can pass by an
area that in my mind is complete each day, it somehow makes all of the other newfound
clutter and chaos more manageable. The
check on the to-do list scenario, we might call it. While this mind game I and many participate
in does help us cope with our circumstances a little bit better at the time,
sooner or later we all need to return to the original scene of the crime and
rework our efforts into what we always wanted, which is a truly great room to
share with family and friends. And this
point brings me to…our family room.
Before we moved in, this second floor space was a walk thru
catch-all…a spot for the exercise equipment, a little storage (in the form of
some awkward built-ins), and a sea of mint green carpeting. Three out of four
walls held something–one opened onto the main bedroom hallway, another held a
window, and a third the staircase up to our daughters’ attic loft bedroom. The extra high ceilings were a blessing and a
curse because they made the space open and airy, but at the same time cavernous
and empty. Definitely not an easy
project to take on, but because it was literally located in the center of the
house, it felt like a room that needed organization, cohesion, and its own
identity for it to be usable and effective, and for me to not go insane when
considering everything else in the house that needed to be addressed.
Stage One involved some basic initial moves: getting rid of
the nasty seafoam floor covering in favor of the beautiful pine hardwood floors
underneath, neutralizing the gold walls with a light cream, and figuring out a
way to conceal the strange, off-center built-in shelves in the corner. I decided on an accent wall that would
continue up into the girls’ room and went with a tangerine orange, hoping this
strong color choice would be bold and cozy things up a bit in relationship to the
high ceilings. To the orange I added a
periwinkle blue (complimentary color for maximum impact and all) and a great
printed fabric that I was sure would make for a successful design, and I
thought that if I was strict and stuck to this disciplined pattern of blue,
orange, cream, and pine finishes that the room would come together perfectly.
So why 18 months later did I need to come back and add
another layer or two? In the end, the
room wasn’t personal enough. First and
foremost, it didn’t look like anyone lived there, and anything that didn’t
match the original scheme (aka the large brown leather couch) stuck out like a
sore thumb. The other missing element
was texture. Everything in the space was
a 2-dimensional color, so by adding a sisal area rug, nubby knitted throw, an
assortment of accent pillows with a variety of different pattern and finishes,
the yarn in the art installment, the rough burlap of the coffee table, the
shine of the galvanized metal magnet board…all of these minor additions gave
you something to touch and feel, and made for a major improvement in the
welcoming vibe this family room gave off.
Interestingly enough, since adding the new elements, this room has had
more use and traffic than ever…kids lingering to hang out, impromptu family
football game viewing, even a stuffed animal fashion show (long story)…probably because
instead of just being “done”, I can now say with certainty that it is
fabulously “finished”.
So what can we each take from this psychological decorating
experiment?? Sometimes getting the look you want takes a little time, but it’s
always worth the effort. Try not to rush
yourself, and don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board and make another
attempt at décor and design in a space in your home that you thought you had
already checked off. Where you live is
always a work in progress…and although that fact might at times be frustrating,
in the end, the reward always outweighs the stumbles we might make to get to
the “finish” line. J
