Friday, August 16, 2013

Style Cure Day 11



Day 11: Plan a get-together

Ha!  Hahahaha.  No.

As this Cure goes on, I'm definitely getting a lot more choosy about what days I do and what I'm ignoring, and that's okay.  I'm less discouraged than I was yesterday, which is good too. I think letting go of both the need to follow each day exactly and that feeling of "I'm behind I'm behind I'm behind" really helped.

Last night, I went to Home Depot and got a bunch of different colors that could possibly work together and started fiddling on the wall.  With a lot of discussion last night and this morning, I think we've decided to do grey on the bottom, blue on the trim, and white on top.  (This combination is the fourth from the left or third from the right.)  Brian is a bit hesitant because that's a LOT of blue all around the room - the trim is all along the ceiling and the floor, around all the windows, and around all the door frames.

BUT WAIT maybe I should be doing white on the trim, grey on the top, and blue on the bottom??? ARGH THIS IS THE WORST.


The task for this weekend is to shop, so we'll see.  I can't get past the painting part to even consider starting to style the room, so I think some stuff is going to have to be done out of order here.  Perhaps I'll paint this weekend and then shop and style next weekend.

ASSUMING I CAN PICK SOME PAINT COLORS THAT IS.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Days 7, 8, 9, and 10

I must own you, loveseat


Day 7: Clean your room and think about paint chips
Day 8: Choose your color and think about a "pairing"
Day 9: Research your pairing
Day 10: Make a shopping list

Ooomg I am failing so hard at this you guys.  It started this weekend, when our job was clean the room.  That didn't happen, at all.  Instead, Brian did a little bit of organizing, taking a lot of stuff off the green shelves and moving it to the shelves next to the fireplace...but that's all we did.  The rest of the weekend was spent looking for a chair for the living room, since we're switching the downstairs furniture with the upstairs furniture.  So instead of thinking about what color to paint the den, I've been obsessing over this loveseat for our upstairs.  We also bought a mount to put the TV (again, upstairs) on the wall.

So then we come to day 8, picking a color.  The farthest I've gotten on that is taping a bunch of paint chips on the wall.  Brian is worried that whatever we pick will darken the room too much, since it's a downstairs room with low ceilings, and I mean, he has a point, but the brown makes me so sad that I'm pushing forward with painting anyway.  I think we're going to end up with a blue, although grey is a strong contender, and I think it's going to be extremely light in color.

Because we haven't picked a color, it's basically impossible to do Days 8 and 9, because how do you pair something with a color that hasn't been selected yet?  And then a shopping list...I feel like this has gotten way more advanced than I'm capable of.  They're talking about lampshades and pillows and I don't even know how the room is going to be arranged or what color it's going to be. :(

I'm getting really discouraged.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Days 4, 5, and 6.



Day 4: Set up a one room outbox
Day 5: Make a floor plan
Day 6: Learn about color

I've been quiet the last few days because the tasks didn't really lend themselves much to blogging, with the exception of the floorplan fiasco.  I set up our outbox (which is just a box of things that you think you might want to get rid of, which you go through after a week and make a final decision about), put some of my stuff in, and realized there's no way Brian will put any of his in.  (He really likes his stuff.)

We worked on this floor plan last night, and we totally need help.  (I realize now I really should have made the floor brown, since, you know, that's the color of the floor, but I digress.)  The layout that's up there now is roughly the same as the layout is currently, except that there are two chairs instead of one+end table, and there are three bookshelves instead of two green ones. The little blue square is an ottoman, the colorful thing there is the pinball machine (which is cabinet-style, not giant machine style, and the light brown things are a DVD rack and the 9-cube thing.  Everything is proportional.

So HELP.  How do we lay out this room so that the pinball machine isn't neglected in a corner, and we're not splitting the room up so harshly into two pieces?  Keep in mind that there's a 3-4 inch ledge at about waist-height that goes around the length of the room, except on the wall where the bookshelves are now, and the red bit is another ledge where the fireplace is, but it's thankfully much lower.

Looking at the pictures in the previous entry and the layout, any suggestions for color are appreciated.  I realize we're going to have to do warm colors, which...ugh, and Brian has made it clear that he doesn't want anything too contrasty, which nixes my idea for super dark on the bottom and light on the top.  Possibly a green on the bottom? Maybe?

how i did i get here i'm no good with decorating

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Day 3: Choose your room

Some of the video games.  A lot are still in storage.



Day 3: Choose your room and sit in it for 10 minutes

The task for yesterday was to pick the room that needs restyled. I puzzled over this for ages, honestly.  All our rooms could use a little sprucing, but I've also been working on them for months now, so there wasn't a ton of revamping that needed done in any room.

Except one.  The one that I was most sure I wouldn't be allowed to touch:  our den.

When we first moved in, I had originally pictured the room as a cozy place where we could watch TV and sit by the fireplace, and just generally be comfortable.  I thought maybe it would be our main hang-out room, where we would entertain most often, and had great ideas for it.

Then we moved in, and it became Brian's room.  Not that that's a bad thing, but just not what I had pictured.  Currently the room has a small TV, a couch, a couple of old chairs, a pinball, and aaaaallllll the video games.  The room is perfectly functional for him, and he likes the simplicity, which is great for him.

But it does make for a room that's really not particularly nice to be in if you're not Brian or one of his immediate friends. 

But really, the worst thing about the room to me is the poor use of space.  We have shelves that are basically empty, or have things on them that I set down literally the day we moved in and never moved. (See: the jar of peanuts on the mantle.) 

So, after talking to Brian, I think I can make some changes, as long as I don't go overboard and ruin the things he likes about the room, which is that he has a place to sit, he has a TV, and he has easy(ish) access to whatever game he wants to play at any particular time.  I need to find a way to spruce up the room and make better use of the space without completely disrupting his flow (OR spending a ton of money, haha.)

Pictures and to-do list below.  Suggestions are desperately wanted.  Required even.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

UFYH

Picture discs from the 40's that we hung up last night.


Because we're having company over today, Brian and I have made really good progress towards unfucking our habitat this weekend.  Right now I'm really pleased with how at least our middle floor looks.

There are two problems with this:

1) Whenever the phrase "made really good progress" comes up in our house, suddenly Brian and I manage to completely stop whatever we're doing and give up.  It's a sign of the end whenever we get pleased with our progress.  So, crap.

2) Now that everything is neat again, I'm moving into that "oh there's so much to be fixed here" state.  I'm now painfully aware of how there really should be a houseplant on the cart in that corner, and how we need to make a firm decision on putting the TV on the wall or on a stand because the white space above the TV is driving me nuts, and how I'm going to have to rearrange my gallery wall soon because the empty spots are driving me crazy, and how I need to reupholster the wing-back chair, and on and on and on.

But overall, I'm happy right now. I'm able to look around right now and see things that are in my house not because they're functional, but because they're lovely. I have live flowers in a vase behind me.  (Okay, live is stretching it...they're a week old.) I got new throw pillows yesterday, and they are ORANGE.  I hate orange!  But I like these and they look nice with the sofa that's currently in our living room and the sofa that is soon to be in our living room.

I like being happy.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Style Cure: Day 2



Day 2: Go on a style treasure hunt

Well, this didn't go so well for me. I am terrible at window shopping. I have a tendency to see what I like, decide that I want to buy it, and I buy it. I'm not good at mulling things over or thinking about it over the weekend or "saving money" to buy things.

But, I tried.  Brian and I went into Uptown Westerville and looked in a couple of shops.  I fell in love with this long media table at Amish Originals, and I managed to take a picture of a lamp there too.  Brian and I did get the chance to talk about what we liked, and we realized we like wood furniture that's not too dark, and we're willing to spend more money on pieces that are well-made and will last for years. (This is a big deal, trust me.)

Then we went into Cinda Lou, and I found these dishes, and I absolutely fell in love.  Aaaaand I bought them. >_>  I read on the internet after I got home that this was estimated to be the most popular dish pattern in the country in 1957.  So basically it's perfect.  They're blue and brown and it's not a complete set but you can buy pieces online so I can get a complete set and I am just in love with it.

So that ended the actual window shopping portion of our day, wherein we liked one expensive thing that we didn't buy but probably will soon, and we liked another much less expensive thing that we did buy.  I am so bad at this!

Well, I suppose the point was to narrow down what I like.  And I spent some time in the Ikea catalog today and I think I have a pretty good idea, maybe.

- I like wing-back chairs
- I like color, especially blue.  I don't particularly care for red or yellow but I'm coming around to muted orange.
- I don't super like the country feel, but I definitely don't like modern either.  The only way I can describe it is "solid and comfortable".
- I like vintage, but not 70's.  Early 60's and before, but not too overboard.
- I like plants.  I want plants in our house. (But caaaaats.)
- I don't like clean, white, Scandinavian. I need the white to be broken up with color.

So there.  I succeeded even though I failed. =P

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Style Cure: Day 1

My fledgling gallery wall, plus one unimpressed cat


Last time I did an Apartment Therapy Cure, I tried to blog it.  I ended up failing towards the end, but I shall try again!  If I write about it, I'm more accountable about it, which increases the odds of me actually finishing it.

Day 1: Complete the Style Cure interview

This Cure is going to be harder, because as bad as I am at organizing and cleaning, I'm even worse at decorating.

I've always felt like I have no particular sense of style, and I didn't grow up in a decorated home, so I didn't learn as I grew up.  Our apartment growing up had white walls without much on them.  There were a few pictures or art of some kind here and there, but not much, and there wasn't anything in the house that was just there to make things look nice.  (There might have been at one point, but then we kids probably broke it.  Like my grandfather's clock.  We were dancing, okay?)

Feeling like I don't have an innate knowledge of how to make things look nice made me leery about trying this, but I can't give up if I haven't begun, so let's get to it.

My answers to the interview are below the cut, in case you're interested.   What I got from it is this:

- I like actors, writers, movies, and TV shows that are funny and clever, and I've clearly been focusing on female writers more than male ones.
- I have a distinct bias towards British actors and cars.  I feel like this leads back to the enjoyment of things that are clever. 
 - I like things that are comfortable more than I like things that are beautiful.
- I like things that are vintage, either in actuality or just appear to be so.
- I'm really hungry. (Seriously, it's lunch time.)

So, whatever I do, it has to be comfortable and functional.  Having a really nice looking end table is all well and good, but if you can't find a pen or scissors or the remote when you need it, then there's no point.  I've found in the past when I try to organize especially that it all ends up getting undone because we leave out the things we use most often.  Putting them back becomes too much of a hassle.

Hm, it would appear that this interview was more helpful than I thought it'd be.  Bring on Day 2!