Updates

I haven't posted in awhile.  Between the end of school and getting ready for vacation, decorating was put on hold.  That is, until this weekend!

BIG changes occurred in my house this weekend. I finally convinced my husband to completely swap furniture in two rooms.  So the living room furniture went in the den and the den furniture went in the living room.  Why such a big change?  Furniture size vs. room size.  My 'den' has lovely vaulted ceilings and is a bigger space (although awkwardly laid out with the windows and fireplace, but that's not something I can actually change unless we were to buy the house, and that's a whole other renovation project all by itself!).  My living room was small to begin with, but when I added my room divider, it became even smaller.  If you've seen my sectional sofa, a small room was not my best choice to put it in.  But I wanted a formal living room, so at the time, I thought I could make it work.

Four months later, I didn't really like either room.  

The den was to...RED.  Now I love the color red.  But in that room with the vaulted ceilings and the awful paint color, the red was just overwhelming (and yes, we have finally chosen a paint color, so we just need to go down and start buying paint) and I didn't even like to be in that room.  I tried rearranging the sofa's.  Changing the accessories around.  Nothing seemed to help.  Part of it is the color, and I know that.  But I couldn't ignore the glaring fact that the furniture wasn't right for the room.

And the living room, that I envisioned as cozy just seemed cramped.  It was hard to get into the room because you had to walk around the chaise lounge. Once in the room, it was all sofa.  The accessories were ok, but they just didn't seem to add any oomph to the room.

On Sunday, I sat in my very red den, trying to identify what the main problem was.  I knew the color was a big issue.  Yes, I have the paint chip picked out.  Yes, that will help (actually, that will help a lot) but still it didn't seem right.  The window placement is another huge issue, and not one that I can do much about.  But I finally looked at my room.  Then I went into the living room and looked at it.  And I came to the conclusion that the furniture needed to be swapped.  Thankfully, I have a husband who not only humors my whims, but was equally as unhappy with the rooms as I was.

I have to say, I'm very happy with the results so far.  I've decided to paint the remainder of the living room Silver Screens, to match my office, and I'm going to take down the divider between the rooms.  Now that the red sofa's coordinate with the red, black, and silver in the office, chopping up the space doesn't make sense.  I'm going to dye the room dividing curtains red (I think...maybe navy...might have to play with that a bit) and hang them on the bay window.  I also need to paint my white lantern sconces a nickel finish to match the accents in the room.  Surprisingly, I really like the dark wood accents that I already had in the room from the formal living room.  They really ground the space.  

The den is still a work in progress.  Now that I have room to hang up my artwork (the living room had almost no wall space so once the mirror and sconces were up, that was it) I need to decide on placement.  I also think I'm going to have some mats made for them.  I love the frames, but the existing mats aren't working for me.  I also need to get a bookcase to store all the dvd's, Wii games, and CD's.  We're getting rid of the existing entertainment center (it has really seen better days and the black doesn't match that room) so that will need to be replaced eventually.  And there's still the paint issue.  But I have curtains that will work and work well, so that's one less thing to do.

I would love to post some photo's.  Except my camera has finally died.  I tried to snap a few with my cell phone, but they came out fuzzy.  I might try my husband's when he gets home (he has a higher pixel count) but I make no promises at the moment. 

In case your counting, here's my to do list:
  1. paint the living room
  2. paint the den
  3. paint the hallway
  4. buy new bookcase's (most likely from Ikea unless we decide to make them ourselves...which is very likely with us!)
  5. buy a new entertainment center -OR-
  6. buy a new TV to hang on the wall (current tube TV is huge and they no longer make entertainment centers to fit TV's that large...we're sort of leaning towards a new TV)
  7. hang up curtains
  8. get artwork matted to put in frames
  9. hang all the accessories
Please don't ask me how long this all going to take.  I'm debating doing some painting in the living room today because I still have paint left.  But that would come after some sewing time!