The only furniture that I kept when I moved was the couple of mid century pieces I had in my basement den. I didn't consider them part of my style. They were just inexpensive vintage pieces to fill the space. Some of it was because I thought I wanted a fresh start. And some of it was because the pieces I did keep (like a couch, chair, bed) didn't fit up my crazy short/narrow stairs.
I've never been comfortable here and I'm tired of it. I can't move. I can't totally redo rooms as I have an incredibly tight budget. Decorating my old house was so easy. Everything fit together. Decisions were easy. A color scheme came together quickly and wasn't changed all the time. I bought pieces that I loved and they just worked.
Truthfully I lack a cohesive vision for this house. At least a vision that isn't changing as quickly as the weather. It's like I don't know myself any more. I don't know how to fix it and I'm tired.
I know the feeling! My condo (from which I recently moved) was very, shall we say, eclectic, because I was still figuring out what exactly my aesthetic was (and, frankly, just starting to learn about design). When I moved into my new house, I had a much clearer picture of how I wanted things to look, so I was able to start with a clean slate and arrange things accordingly. But yes: there are so many pretty (and shiny!) things out there to distract us and it can be hard to rein it all in, especially when the budget is tight (believe me; I feel your pain - so much of my stuff is from craigslist, and I wish I had an unlimited decorator's budget to spend on Persian rugs). Can you sell some of your stuff in order to buy new stuff? That's always my rule: out with the old, in with the new. It is also hugely helpful to re-paint; it changes the entire feeling of the space. Could you re-paint your walls or ever your furniture for a whole new look?
ReplyDeletePS - this is Anna from dailydoseofkevin, by the way; not sure if my screen name made that clear!
DeleteHi Anna. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
DeleteI've thought of painting but I'm not sure what direction to go in. The lack of a cohesive vision is a big part of my problem. I have tons of ideas. And I like everything. I can't seem to pick an idea and stick with it. Since I sold everything when I moved and started over with hardly anything I've been bouncing all over. Today I want to paint all my brightly colored walls white. Tomorrow who knows?
I like your idea of selling stuff. I have a couple good quality vintage Danish modern pieces that are worth some money. I can sell them and buy some new pieces from Craigs List that might better fit my design ideas.
Hi again! Apropos painting: something that I did in my new place - kind of unintentionally, but which really worked out, in the end - was I kept all my walls more or less within the same color palette (not necessarily throughout the house, but pretty much on each level of the house), with some small variations. The end result was that the space looks more sophisticated, I think. In my last place I just painted (or wallpapered) each room whatever color I wanted, and while it still looked good because the colors complemented each other, the effect was really eclectic (to use the same word as before). This time around I'm using 1) fewer statement colors, since I realize those can be hard to work with down the road if I change my aesthetic (see for example my orange wallpapered dining room from my last condo, which looked cool, but in all honestly limited what I could do with the room color-wise: http://dailydoseofkevin.blogspot.com/2011/01/dining-room-bookshelves.html) and 2) monotone effects within a single space (so for example I have my darker blue credenza against my lighter blue walls in my living room - I didn't plan things this way but it fortuitously looks really nice). The main level of my house is blue, but most of the rest of the house is done in shades of grey. I had never really realized how "colorful" grey can be, with some tones looking really green, others really pink or purple, etc. So for example, my master bedroom is painted Behr's "Feather Gray," which actually reads as really mauvey pink on the wall; my home office is painted a grey tone called "Road Runner," which has a lot of plummy purple in it, and my guest bedroom is painted "Celtic Gray" - with a lot of green in it. But I think, even though these three rooms are all next to each other on the second floor, they work because they're all variations on grey. I feel like a good neutral wall like that can still be more interesting than white (I for one really dislike white walls, even though I see photos of gorgeous white-walled spaces in magazines and love them there; as soon as I move into a new place I feel like the white walls are so sterile and cold, and yes, I have even tried painting warmer shades of white; it still doesn't do it for me) but not so overpowering that it limits your options if you want to switch out your furniture in the room later on, for example. Just my $0.02!
ReplyDeleteP.S. again (sorry for all my comments!) - one other thing you can do is reupholster some of the more basic pieces of furniture on your own. For example, I was just looking at your "dining tablescape" post from Jan 20th, and thinking that those chairs of yours would look really nice re-upholstered. I know you're trying to move away from MCM, and to me, it seems like that brownish (probably textured) fabric is VERY 1950s/60s. Those chairs would look really nice - or at least I think they would - in a nice white/charcoal rugby stripe, don't you think? It wouldn't be too loud so that it would clash with the style of the chairs and table, but it would still be a nice facelift for the chairs and would make them look more alive (I am a huge sucker for vertical stripes and have them all over my place; they always look so fun). Maybe something like the stripes here: http://www.babybedding.com/white-and-gray-stripe-fabric? It is so so super easy to recover dining room seats (if you've never done it yourself, I'm sure there are tons of tutorials online) and all you need is a staple gun. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi again! I really love your comments so don't feel bad. I don't really have anybody to talk decorating with. The colors you've used in your house sound so lovely.
DeleteI hear you about the color of walls. In my old house it was much larger, had tons of sunlight and had white walls with lots of warm wood tones. It was so pretty and elegant. In this house I finally felt I could be myself and stop decorating the way people expected me to and went crazy with the colors: turquoise, leaf green and aqua on the walls with lots of brown mid century wood tones. All 3 colors are in each room just in different quantities. It didn't feel like me (but was pretty) so I added in the black and white and toned down the brown and sold some stuff and moved to Hollywood Regency. But now I wonder if it's just too eclectic to use your word. I'm so limited to what works in each room. And my condo is small, 750 sq. feet so its a lot of color. Every picture I Pin has white walls with colorful accents.
I've been giving it a lot of thought and I'm thinking of painting the green dining room the same turquoise of my living room. That way my main open space is cohesive shade of turquoise and my bathroom and kitchen (once I paint it) will be aqua. So still colorful - just a little less. I've also changed my mind about the pink accents I added in the fall. It's just too much color and looks juvenile. I was warned that it would, I just had to see for myself.
I've been wanting to reupholster the dining room chairs. I've actually been shopping Craigs List and Ebay for new chairs - something less straight lines but taller and more curvy. I'd love Chinese chippendale faux bamboo chairs but they are expensive. I keep hoping for them to pop up for cheap on Craigs List. The plan is to do a stripes like you posted except black and white.