ahhhh.... decorating....

well spring fever has come and gone, but i have accomplished so little in the decorating of my family room.... we finally have chosen a color for the walls....it took months and months...a neutral is very difficult for me to pick out....

you would think if i'm an artist it would come so easily... and it does pretty much, if it's all about me! but hubby and i have made a deal... he is conservative and i am not... he likes traditional and dressy....i like crazy and bright... so we met in the middle...

we went shopping together and picked out a couch, chair and ottoman... he goes for the traditional look and comfort... pillows had to be attached on the back, for belle, the beagle loves to climb down in them and smoosh them...and we had decided that i would be in 'charge' of choosing the fabrics and decor... and end tables... his request only was a neutral for the couch...

i chose a camel colored couch.... so comfortable that you don't want to get up in a chenille fabric (i just love!). for the chair and ottoman i wanted something 'crazy' and there weren't many choices for this where i was shopping... i would've liked a polka dot or a burnt velvet... or even zebra.... but i settled on a huge floral with a chocolate background.... i thought it looked like something that would've been in my grandma's house...

when it was all delivered that was the first thing he said, that chair looks like it cam from your grandma's house... i don't believe he met it as a compliment, but secretly i thought, perfect...

so it's on to the throws and pillows....

now i must admit, my friends know about my obsession with pillows.... you will find so many stacked in the laundry room, shelf to ceiling, seasonal, jewel tone, bright and cheery, etc... and it wasn't like i really needed MORE pillows.... but off i went, buying and returning...and finally decided to stick with chocolate.... fringe galore too....the more the better i say... and of course, they mostly are burnout velvet... my favorite...with my favorite pink velvet pillow from anthropologie, my favorite place to shop...

we hung a dark wood and metal mirror above the couch... framed large photos of the kids and carefully placed part of my collection of kitty b. of earth angels art work...



now it's on to the drapes... sara has taught me a lot about placement, after all she does have a DEGREE in this, which doesn't stop me from telling her she must be wrong still.... (we both are ALWAYS right!), but i'm torn as to picking an accent color, which i can really do without because of the wild chair.... should i take the dark color of choch. and have drapes to bring up the dark color to the ceiling?, or use an accent color... i have also picked out a rug, zebra, as the final ta dah.... remember a couple of years ago when zebra rugs were so hip?, well i'm always late in doing, and see that i still LOVE these rugs, so therefore, the idea is a keeper... even conservative sara agrees that it would be the perfect "diane" ta dah for the room. it was pretty difficult to find a zebra rug in the brown, but pottery barn came through...

so.... here is what i've learned...

if you have something large on one end, needs balance on the other....
if you have something dark on one end... needs something dark on the other...
an undersized rug in a room makes the room look smaller....
a huge rug in a room, makes the room look larger...
if you don't LOVE it, don't buy it, you will tire of it...
you CAN be a rule breaker.... love where you live!

my new favorite show is - Find Your Style... i just love this... we all know that decorators can come in and make miracles happen, but this show teaches your how to do it yourself... how to take 2 different styles and blend them...i have learned so much in just 4 shows and wish it was on more than once a week.... you can check out their site and see when it is on and get tips.... I also love to watch Vern Yip, he has a new show too...

and what i do is print off pictures of what i love from on-line, (love this site....Shop Style) run upstairs and place them throughout the room to see what looks good... i cannot tell you how many bad decisions i've avoided by doing my decorating this way.... and plus i can just stick them in a folder so that whenever anyone comes over i can make them suffer going through my ideas with me...I love the shop style site... it's easy to use...and shows you what is in different catalogs...

so i think in time i will be able to blend both of our tastes, traditional/dressy for him, a kick to make me feel at home...

well... it better be off to work for me... i'm going to need some free time this summer to make a collection of game boards for one of the family room walls....