room reveal

new room pic

About a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote a little series called Enchanted Spaces, where I talked about the rooms in my home from the perspective of different fantasy concepts. Before I could quite finish the series (or, ahem, finish my apartment, to be more accurate), my husband and I moved.

While I’ve been itching to do more with this series, we are currently renting out a room while I’m in graduate school, which, between the limited space and limited budget, has made doing a “room reveal” difficult. I was thinking, though, lately, of the importance of home, and of having a sense of space in any living situation. Fantasy literature often ends with a sense of restoration and a homecoming. Ask Dorothy, Alice, Harry, or Wendy, and they will tell you the importance of home.

And so, I wanted to share a few of the little things I’ve done to make my space a little more homey. The room isn’t finished (and with my husbands tech equipment, the dog stuff, and the stuff I didn’t want to put into storage, I don’t know if it will ever be quite where I want it) but I am happy with the direction it’s headed. I’ve also enjoyed finding creative solutions to both create more space and more storage.

One of the choices we made, which was originally out of necessity, was placing our mattress on the ground. We have a dog who has some spinal issues and who also loves to snuggle with us. Or rather I should say, he cries all night long when he can’t snuggle with us. So, we wanted to make sure our bed was accessible. We placed our mattress on a slatted frame that had come with our old bed so that it could breathe, and added a little ramp for the dog. While this did mean sacrificing under-the-bed space, it also made the small room look a LOT more spacious. By placing the bed under the window with curtains, we made the illusion of a “frame” above the bed.

The second thing we did was to invest in curtains to hide our storage. While I’m all about minimizing and keeping belongings in the open, we had brought many belongings with us, such as some of my grandma’s quilts, my memory box, and my husband’s record collection as well as everyday needed tools, electronics, and toilitries, that we had placed on a tall metal industrial bookshelf. It was a mishmash of boxes and the clutter was distracting to me. So, I purchased two mustard/camel colored curtain panels from World Market and a set of curtain hooks, which fit perfectly over the top of the metal bookshelf. After the holidays last year, a bunch of garlands were on sale at Target, and I purchased the silver and gold one in the picture above for about five dollars. It hung perfectly over the top shelf. Now our stuff is accessible and organized, but not adding to the clutter. And bonus: since I didn’t need the curtain ties for the shelf, I tied them on the neutral curtains over our bed to, ahem, “tie” everything together.

The best investment I have ever made in terms of furniture has definitely been a series of unfinished pine crates from Michaels. I purchased these several years ago, and we have used them in so many different configurations and for so many different uses. We currently are using two as our bedside tables, two at the foot of our bed to stop our dog from jumping off and for extra storage, and two more stacked as a little bookshelf. I’m all about modular furniture because it can be reconfigured as living situations and needs change.

While I did purchase the set of curtains, the lamp, a letter box for mail, and a new set of fair-trade sheets (as the old ones had a huge hole in them), I really wanted to use what we had available to us. The homeowners had kindly lent us several pieces of furniture when we moved in. Since I was needing a space to study, I also borrowed the corner chair, which was already in the home and matched the room’s color scheme. While I may eventually replace it with a compact desk and compact office chair, this works just fine for now. I brought a small box of neutral decor with me, so that I could change out items without having to worry about a color scheme and I’ve also used my jewelry as decor.

And then finally, I wanted to add some pop. My sister helped me with this. She got me the two mustard-yellow pillows for Christmas, which was just what I needed to finish off the look without adding more clutter.

So that’s it for now. It’s still small, packed, and kind of cluttery, but I am loving finding creative solutions to make the space not only work, but feel like home.

enchanted-spaces-living-room-1

I am very pleased to unveil a new series, Enchanted Spaces, which is all about perceiving space in a more magical way. I’m in the middle of tidying and revamping my house, and will focus on a concept from a different fantasy novel for each room. Bear with me here: I’m not a designer or a photographer, just a girl with a passion for re-imagining space. First up: the living room.

I have also been changing up the rooms of my home to reflect different climates. The feel for my living room is desert. I had considered doing a before and after picture, but the problem with this was that I am a firm advocate in slow decorating and wabi sabi.

Slow Decorating is a concept I got from a lovely book called Simple Matters, although I am not sure that she uses the term by name. The idea is to buy simple, quality pieces that will stand the test of time and not to rush one’s decorating or to follow a trend. Think of a simple, quality, shaker-style wood dresser found at a thrift store that will never go out of style.

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese concept based on three principals:

Nothing lasts.
Nothing is finished.
Nothing is perfect.

Think of a beautifully simple old cracked pot that has many stories to tell. That’s Wabi Sabi. Pinterest is full of examples.

enchanted-spaces-living-room-3

So, needless to say, there was no “drastic makeover” to show. The room is tidier and cleaner, things are in slightly different places, and I swapped a few things from my bedroom and this room. Most of the belongings I have I accumulated slowly over a long period of time; some actually belonged to my mother and grandmother and even my great-grandmother (for more on my “stuff story” read this post). The only new items I acquired for this reveal were a tapestry of my mom’s that my sister gave me as it didn’t match her stuff and a beautiful tree branch that I found on a walk.

enchanted-spaces-living-room-14 — Family piano, mom’s tapestry from India, digital photo album

enchanted-spaces-living-room-10 — Pottery my mother-in-law gave me, found tree branch

The concepts of slow decorating and wabi sabi reminded me a of the book (and film) Tuck Everlasting, which is precious if you haven’t read/seen it. It is about a family that doesn’t age, and about the importance of growth, change, and the juxtaposition of life and death. In particular, I thought of this quote:

“Everything’s a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. The frogs is part of it, and the bugs, and the fish, and the wood thrush, too. And people. But never the same ones. Always coming in new, always growing and changing, and always moving on. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the way it is.” ― Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

enchanted-spaces-living-room-13 — Canvas top from a decorative box (hides thermostat); dream-catcher from Cherokee Festival

My husband recently asked me why I read the same books over and over again. I explained to him that it wasn’t the books that changed; it was me. Therefore, I perceived the books differently and picked up different things about them. Similarly, I don’t look for drastic changes in my spaces, but as I change, I pick up different nuances, swap a coat of paint, add a new pitcher from a trip, take out that shelf that no longer speaks to me.

enchanted-spaces-living-room-4 — Work in progress; childhood dresser re-vamp (Anthropologie knobs)

So you see, to me a space is something that is never remaining the same, but always evolving, moving, changing, and being re-imagined and perceived differently. It is a sense of growth that really makes a place interesting, but slow growth. I want my spaces to grow with me, neither faster nor slower than my own personal journey, because they are a part of me and a reflection of my own life story.