Have you been working on a room and you're feeling stuck or it's not looking the way you envisioned? If so, it's time to press the reset button and here's how I do it.
I've been working on my living room for a few months, now. When I was looking at it the other day, I realized it's not turning out the way I wanted it to. It is mostly, but once I added two of the curtain panels, it totally messed me up. I had been decorating for a pretty neutral room and the pop of color and pattern from the curtain fabric began to compete with all of the pictures and accessories.
Step 1:
Remove all of the pictures, accessories, and anything else from the room that you're not sure about. Only keep what you really love or need. This is a great time to move some furniture around and experiment with new arrangements.
Your neighboring rooms are going to suffer during this process, but it will (hopefully) be short lived.
Happy accidents can happen as a result of this, though. I set a birdcage on top of my buffet in the dining room and realized it looked perfect there!
Step 2:
Now, it's time to play. I pull things from my all over the house to try out different ideas. I ended up hauling a bead board door from my basement stash and placed it over the piano. It looks perfect there. Don't put anything back in the room unless you love it where it's placed. Don't settle.
Step 3:
Create a list of things you want to work on or change in the room
...finish the curtain panels, paint and reupholster the French arm chairs, paint the desk under the window and paint the small chest of drawers in the foyer area.
How did it turn out? Well, I'm still working on it, but here's a peek at one spot...
This is a fun and free way to finish rooms you're working on or to give your home a mini-makeover. It's amazing what moving things around can do...and how fun it can be.
