Working with what you have
Sometimes you need to work with what you have. Example- I've run into a slight snag in house design this week. You see, we had rented out our townhouse as an executive rental. This meant that we left all the furniture along with dishes and linens. This worked out well because we were able to move fairly painlessly. We figured when the lease was up we would take back the furniture if we couldn't rent it as an exec again. Then the renter said he would likely renew the lease and that meant we would buy all new things. Woohoo! Although it sounded a bit overwhelming at first, I had embraced the challenge fully and was already shopping for new furniture pieces. For instance, the grey couch in my Living Room board. Now it seems the renter no longer wants our furniture...sigh. So I need to find a way to work our existing couches into the living room. The problem, they are a baby blue color. Ok, it's not terrible. I may be able to work with them but I was really looking forward to the new couch. God likes to teach me lessons when I don't want to learn them. And I do realize that I am very blessed to be able to buy a house, let alone renovate. So as I try and learn this very important lesson I will brainstorm some ways to use what furniture we have in the existing design.
Some ideas-
Now I will have to hold a swatch of the paint color next to the couch but the blue color might work. Since the walls will be an aqua and there will likely be more than one shade in the room, it may even look intentional. I will just have to use more grey in the pillows and other accessories to tie that color in a bit more.
Another idea is to use a grey slipcover to continue with the original idea of a grey couch. The tricky thing with that is finding one that will fit well and not look sloppy.
The other snag is that we have a sofa and loveseat. I had originally planned to only have one couch on one wall and a pair of chairs opposite in front of the window. I think I could just use one of the couches and put the loveseat in the basement. I'd rather not put a couch in front of the window because it would block too much light. I'll have to play with the layout a bit.
We also have a dining room table I will need to work with. It's not terrible but we refinished it a few years back and stained it a dark cherry color. The look I am going for now is more along the lines of a rustic wood table with mismatched chairs. Something along these lines:
One idea would be to sand the table again and refinish it to look more rustic or.......just buy a new one, lol. The thing with this table is that we received it for free from the previous owner so it's not like we paid for it. Also, if I find a really cheap one at a garage sale or online, the hubby may be on board with this one. The other issue is that I was looking for a rectangle table and this one is round and can be made longer into an oval shape.
So I have some ideas, even though they may not be ideal. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have. It is unrealistic to think that we can get new furniture every time we want a change. This will be good practice to rethink things and refurbish to get a completely new look. Stay tuned for some re-purposing!
Some ideas-
Now I will have to hold a swatch of the paint color next to the couch but the blue color might work. Since the walls will be an aqua and there will likely be more than one shade in the room, it may even look intentional. I will just have to use more grey in the pillows and other accessories to tie that color in a bit more.
Another idea is to use a grey slipcover to continue with the original idea of a grey couch. The tricky thing with that is finding one that will fit well and not look sloppy.
The other snag is that we have a sofa and loveseat. I had originally planned to only have one couch on one wall and a pair of chairs opposite in front of the window. I think I could just use one of the couches and put the loveseat in the basement. I'd rather not put a couch in front of the window because it would block too much light. I'll have to play with the layout a bit.
We also have a dining room table I will need to work with. It's not terrible but we refinished it a few years back and stained it a dark cherry color. The look I am going for now is more along the lines of a rustic wood table with mismatched chairs. Something along these lines:
One idea would be to sand the table again and refinish it to look more rustic or.......just buy a new one, lol. The thing with this table is that we received it for free from the previous owner so it's not like we paid for it. Also, if I find a really cheap one at a garage sale or online, the hubby may be on board with this one. The other issue is that I was looking for a rectangle table and this one is round and can be made longer into an oval shape.
So I have some ideas, even though they may not be ideal. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have. It is unrealistic to think that we can get new furniture every time we want a change. This will be good practice to rethink things and refurbish to get a completely new look. Stay tuned for some re-purposing!
Comments
Post a Comment