The great debate in our household a lot is ‘Do you need to love everything in a room, or have certain items that just mesh well?’ It varies day to day if I think everything needs to be unique and magnificent, or that some items can be blah- but fill a need. I’m wondering what you all think when it comes to this. Do you think that you need to have every piece be spectacular and unique, or do you think that there is an actual need for certain things to be more muted and fill the voids? A lot of us will go through these cycles of loving something, buying it, then a few months/a year later, we cannot stand it and want it gone, it’s even worse when it is a big item like a sofa or a table, then we have to call in professionals similar to Rubbish Works Junk Removal but ones that operate in our area, so we can get it away. Luckily that doesn’t happen all the time and bigger items are normally debated for a while before buying, but the little things are the ones that can catch us out.
Heres a breakdown of our dining room {which now has a different dining room table}:
Unique/fun/rad/’out-there’ items:
Black thrones
New farmhouse drafting table
Vintage schoolhouse chairs
DIY cardcatalog buffet
Antique gold mirror
Blah items:
Tan rug..which we hate, and need to replace
Wood Buffet … we like this but it is large and is very similar to the shape of the cardcatalog, also we have a lot of wood tones going on so, we are hoping for a change soon.
Thats it…which doesn’t say too many good things for the blah items, considering both of the existing items we no longer love, one we dont even like!!
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| This was seriously one of the only photos I could find that shows our curtains..excuse the Christmas decorations:) |
Unique/fun/rad/’out-there’ items:
Coffee Table
Copenhagen low back couch {which is unique because it is a sectional, and FITS our space, which 99% of sectionals don’t even come close to fitting!!}. We do hate the chrome legs on this but havent decided what to do with those.
Blah items:
Target rug…but we actually love this rug, so its a great blah item!
Home Depot fan…don’t not like it, don’t love it..this fan equals BLAH!
Our Curtains….it’s definitely time for some new ones, the black damask print material is starting to change color and they are just so darn dense. I’d quite like to get some custom curtains made so that they match the colour scheme of the room. Not sure if we want a simple curtain or a pattern again. There’s so many colours and shapes to choose from!
Our Curtain rods… or at least the placement of the rods, they should be higher, but have to wait to get new curtains before we can adjust the height.
So as you can see, our house is a little bit of unique, a little bit of blah. What is your home? What do you think a home should be? Do you think everything in the home needs to ‘speak’ to you? Were torn over here..help!!
<3,
Hi Adri. I think rooms can most definitely be a mixture of fun/unique & blah/practical (especially when a budget is involved :). However, I just saw this fan re-do yesterday that may work for yours: http://kfddesigns.blogspot.com/2011/06/painted-ceiling-fan.html
Things take time. And sometimes you don’t want to have each thing be too much of an eye catcher so people don’t know what you want there focus on. A different rug is always a easy fix though. Love your home! Both of you have inspired my husband and I to start our own home renovations
I definitely think that rooms need to have a mix of both to be truly successful. If every single piece is super unique and earth shattering, then those pieces would lose some of their appeal. Kind of like, if it was Christmas every single day, it would lose some of it’s specialness because the frequency of it would make you forget how out of the orginary it is.
You need some “blah” pieces to make the unique pieces stand out even more.
I totally agree… I have Blah items in my room and I have them on my ‘to be replaced’ list.
I have had really good luck with RugsUSA – they have a ton of rungs that are unique/fun/non-blah and they are always having a sale!
There are some pieces in our home that mean a lot of us and make me smile every time I catch a glimpse of them. And then some pieces we picked up because we really needed to style the bookcases/dresser/coffee table. They might not mean anything, but they were chosen with purpose.
I think it’s important to *like* most of the items in your home, but because taste is always changing and evolving it’s all part of the decorating game. Some pieces may have started out as favourites, then just likes and now they’re blahs.
Every item in a room can’t be a show stopper. They would be fighting for attention and it would be eye fatigue. Some pieces have to be neutral to meld everything together. For instance, you don’t want a living room with all wooden legs on the chairs, tables, and sofas, so a skirted table and a few chairs would break up the legginess. I think your dining room is starting to get a little busy. There is no place for the eye to rest. I also think the modern chairs might be out of place. They are almost Too different than everything else. I would also remove that cabinet to the right under the window and the flower printed chair. Your card catalog is so special, but some of the other items are stealing its thunder. Good question though. Sorry for the critique. Ann
Sorry, but I can’t leave well enough alone. Dining room: I think you should move the card catalog under the window. The wall is bigger and it would look better. Put the lamp on it and a plant and nothing else. Your whole living area is traditional, and very nice, so you can’t fight it with too many different styles. Move the dark buffet to the short wall under the mirror. I would like to see the mirror on the brick wall. A straighter edged plainer mirror would be best here I think, or a huge multicolored unframed canvas of modern art. You can make one yourself. See Sketch 42 for ideas. Banish the art deco radio, the phone,the mason jars, and the cabinet to the right of the buffet and the printed chair. Put the bust on a pedestal or box on the buffet. You need something low and narrow on the table. With a lot of color, like little pots of flowers in a low basket. Take out the rug for the summer.
In the living room, replace the colonial looking chest in front of the sofa with the railway cart, or whatever that is. Place a green plant, a basket, or a metal object on it with two books. Take up the rug for the summer, or turn it over. I’ll bet you could paint it a little on the wrong side. To think about for the future: You need a color story in these two rooms. It doesn’t have to be much, but you need something besides light and really dark. Try wrapping t shirts or other colors around pillows to see what colors look good on the sofa. Just to check the colors, not to leave there. Check out some books from your library. There are lots of decorating books using traditional frameworks with quirky pieces. They will give you some ideas. Good luck, Ann
I guess this is very true. I have things that we bought years ago that I loved then, but feel differently now. I’m slowly weaning them out. I think style evolves and that’s the beauty of it. I don’t think it has to be a show stopper ultra unique item, but it should be something you love. That’s what makes it home. Change the rugs…easy fix and in a few years you’ll change them again. When we started fixing our house, we did all sets, ugh. Working on that now.
I think that the core major items of a room MUST speak to you. You MUST love them!! But the smaller details (decor, rugs, curtains) can be fillers for a time, but I don’t have to love everything about them because they can change and evolve over time. Maybe they work for now, or in general they are ok, and to me that is ok. My style has changed so much over the last couple of years, and it is still evolving!! It’s ok to love MOST things in your home! 🙂 that’s my take! 🙂 (and the truth is – your home blows me away!!!! Even with the “blah” (as you call them) parts!! 🙂 -Lisa
Hi.
I think your home is beautiful with the great wainscot. I don’t think that you have to love everything in your home. I agree with Lisa that the major items must be loved, but the lesser items can be moved, removed, or changed when the mood hits you. I also agree with Nutbird that you have to change some pieces around to either other walls or other rooms. I don’t think the rug with your couch goes well in that room at all. The blank brick wall needs something. You will figure it out. I might post pics of my house and get fresh eyes to see where things should go. My mother used to come into my house and rearrange pictures and furniture and then I would have an Aha moment and think why didn’t I think of that. Best of luck to you in continuing to create a beautiful home.
Thanks for all the input guys! I love hearing your opinions and take on things!
Jana- that fan painting re-do is awesome. I will DEFINTIELY consider that for the living room. Thanks for the suggestion.
Robin- I am so glad you are inspired now! Good luck on projects!
Allison- so so true. That would actaully be depressing if Christmas was every day, maybe a week would be better;)
Megan- thanks for the suggestion on RugsUSA- ill definitely be checking them out!
Sarah- So true. We totally have pieces that used to be our most favorite items, and now are just ok!
Ann- WOW. thanks for taking the time to write all of that. A lot of what you said are already things that we plan to do/are already in the process of doing! Great minds think alike right?! We totally agree that there needs to be able to be a spotlight on the ‘show stoppers’ of the room. A lot of the things in the dining room photo are actually kinda just stashed there for the time being, I just dont take the time to set up each photo and style it. This blog is more ‘real life’ than styled rooms to me, so thats probably why you saw a lot of clutter. Truly, thank you for your advice though. Love the input.
J- totally agree that style envolves, and actually never stops evolving. thats usually why we make sure that almost every purchase we make is a good deal. That way, if in two years we dont like it anymore- we can sell it and either make money or atleast break even!
Lisa- You are too sweet. I assure you that our blah items truly are blah items! haha. Thanks for the encouragement and input though!
Elaine- Thanks for the advice girl! We are constantly moving items around, changing the feel, etc. You should totally post some pics- it is nice for others perspectives to be heard. Thank you so much!
<3,
Adri
The great debate in the household is shown on the post here. Good post