Home Decorating

This is a photo from the HGTV.com website. I love the painting on the brick wall and the black cubby-like shelves on that same wall. To decorate our house with such simplistic comfort is a dream of mine. I pour over design and home decorating magazines. The only channel I care to watch anymore is HGTV so I can see what other people are doing to make their home not only appealing to the eye, but functional.

If I could go back to college, it just might be in home design. Although, there surely must be some natural ability, it would make sense that a talent for decorating could be learned and cultivated. I believe, however, that I do have a creative bent toward the arts. It just needs some cultivating and self-motivation to bring it out. I have a love of music, color and theater; all of which are attributes of creative home design. A learned knowledge of how to create a cohesive palette of color and design in our home would be helpful in accomplishing my decorating goals.

Sometimes I think that it takes a lot of money to fund a designing itch. After watching a lot of HGTV and reading the design magazines, a lot is done with things the homeowner already has. Being able to change the way furniture, pictures, fabrics and colors were used in the past and initiate new uses or places for them in the house is all it takes.

That being said, sometimes I also see the designers chunk an old worn out sofa in exchange for a new one. The sofa in our den is a 5-piece sectional that I really never liked from the beginning and have experienced buyer's remorse ever since it was purchased from dear "Mattress Mac". When we bought it, the idea was that we had three growing boys that had been pretty rough on furniture. We were down to a piano stool and one heavy sofa in the living room and we were aching for more places to sit. The purchase was made while living in our previous, smaller house that really couldn't handle the giant-sized sectional either. However, my husband liked the large comfy recliners, sofa bed and pull-down table that made up the large one-piece living room set. I thought I liked it too until we got it home and I could see what a mammoth it really was. It has served us well over the years and given us an extra bed when the boys brought friends over, but there are no more little boys and it is time this mammoth became extinct.

We have never really had a lot of money to invest in furniture. There are some pieces in our house that we've had for most of our marriage and are still in modest condition. However, my taste and need for it has changed. The wood color, size and shape are not as functional anymore. At one time the trend for bedroom furniture was maple colored and heavy. Our heavy dresser with the big mirror standing on top and heavy chest of drawers just isn't practical in our bedroom. Our master bedroom is really too small for such large pieces. So, the furniture overpowers the room size. I'd love to get something more to scale with the proportions of the room to aid in the flow and feel of the space.

However, I realize I need to start inexpensive. The first step will be to paint walls. When we bought this house, every room was painted a different color. Designers say its good to add color and pop to a room. However, the colors were not of my choosing and not ones that I would have chosen. So, we had all of the walls throughout painted a neutral, new-house beige with white trim. It felt fresh, new and I liked it. Now, having lived here for five years, I am ready for that bland color to disappear. All the designers say that paint is the least expensive way to change and update a room. So, that is where I'll start. I'm thinking the trendy mossy green color on the walls of my formal living and dining rooms might look nice with dark wood furniture.

The house will be an ongoing project for my retirement years. Creative projects will be a lot of fun as I see and enjoy the end results. As I progress from one project to the next, I'll get better at redecorating. I will look forward to and enjoy the challenge of turning this house into a decorative, functional home. That is, with a little help from my friends at HGTV and most likely, also Lowe's. I'll let you know how it goes.