Dear Bassett Furniture: This was the last week of your 9 Weeks/9 Makeovers Sweepstakes and though I’ve entered dozens of times, I haven’t heard from you once in the past 8 weeks…which means I’ll not likely hear from you after this final week, either. Thank you, anyway. Sincerely, ~Em
Who wouldn’t want to win a makeover? Budget-free decisions, professional advice. But that’s not happening here. SO with most of my decorating dollars going toward funding upcoming projects…I’m going to have to shop in my closet when it comes to things that aren’t on my sneak peek list.
And I promise…I’m not procrastinating from that list…the next item is now in progress!
In the meantime…I needed a place for Norma Desmond (the previously-named “K”). Although I intended to use her in a different place, I really love that piece and for now, I’m not about to hide her in the upstairs hallway, or guest bath. The best place to keep her would be my living room.
I had originally (and intentionally, believe it or not) chosen plain, plain, plain decor for that room…it’s home to our piano, so it’s really more of a sitting room with beige wingback recliners, one fully open wall to the foyer, and no sofa, hence no coffee table.
The thinking was that with a neutral background, I can punch up the room with whatever color is currently popular using accessories: throws, artwork, pillows, accents. (The window panels are actually the same color as the walls, but I couldn’t get them to photograph that way…so this is the best peek I can offer.) As you can see, I hadn’t done much “punching up” since celery green, and even with that, it wasn’t much contrast:
If Norma Desmond was going to “live” here, the first thing I needed to do was rearrange the furniture…a freshen up in itself.
Among my living room’s snoozy neutral color scheme and traditional furnishings, I think Norma loses a bit of her edginess. That bugs me, but I can’t entirely upgrade that room since there are higher priorities (kitchen and family room) that need attention. And since Bassett hasn’t shown up with balloons and prize money, I’m on my own here.
The next thing on the list was to choose some color to play with, so I thought I’d go seasonal with autumn. I looked around the house to see what I could steal and found a couple of pictures and a floral arrangement. I’m not gonna lie, that was some lucky hunting… the squares picture (actually called “Warmth” was stuck to a basement wall, and the floral print (Bobbie Burgers’ “Boom”) was in the upstairs hallway. (I swapped the floral with the tree path painting and got two freshen ups for the price of none.)
I also stole took an orange pillow from my boys’ room (actually, I “rescued” it from under a bed). A few pumpkins added more color.
With more time on my hands, I could have also added some other things from around the house…I know there’s an old wooden birdcage in the basement that I could have painted (gold/orange/rust)…other tables I could have swapped out (and may later). Red pillows from the family room. I could have stopped there and that would have been fine. Freshened up and rearranged; zero dollars spent.
If I really had time, I’d have done SOMETHING with those lamps… because they really seemed to drag this room back to “Datedsville.” They needed some type of funkifying.
So, I caved…hit the decor store and bought my way to the finish line. Throws ($20 ea) that picked up the colors from the artwork AND the newly painted grey foyer, pillows ($15 ea) that pulled out the dark rusty red in the picture, funky mirrors (too small but okay for now) that replaced the plate rack ($10 for all three)…. and pair of lamps ($40 ea) with funky barrel shades and a deco vibe that I thought would work well (at some point, Norma’s silver hardware may have to go back to brass because of all the gold trim in the room).
No earth was shattered or ground broken…but this accomplished a day-to-day decorating task that needed to be addressed. It’s not an ooh and ahh accomplishment and I’m certainly not expecting a congratulatory phone call from Traditional Home, lol…but my room is rearranged, freshened up, and will transition reasonably well into holiday decor. (Suggestions always welcomed.)
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(FYI: Behind the scenes I just started what, for me, is a big object on my sneak peek list…but also up this week: Halloween!)
Do stop by for a spell! Boowahahahahaha!
