Abandoning perfectionism

Setting up this house has been a bit of a process for me.  As I wrote a few months ago, I found the modern design and aesthetic of the house intimidating, and I have been struggling to "make it mine." Many of my things have been easy to place, and I am happy with how they go with the house.

Others just don't match up in my mind's eye - usually older pieces that I have moved from house to house and never really looked at, if that makes any sense.  The bed, for example.  I have always loved wrought iron beds, something about the deep black colour with soft curves and curlicues.  I even did a post about them in 2009 (before I knew anything about referencing images, obviously).  When I bought my bed way back in I-don't-even-remember, my only real sources for furniture were my parents' house and Ikea.  Since my parents didn't have any extra queen beds kicking around, it was off to the that big blue and yellow store, and I came home with this:

(I went to find it on the Ikea site, but apparently it is no longer available - which means I must have bought it a while ago!)

It isn't too bad, but there are a few things that bug me about it:
- it is so obviously from Ikea
- the curved line on the top of the headboard - I wish it was straight like the footboard
- those round curly flower things - not sure what it is about them that bugs me, but I think they just seem too cutesy and busy.

The poor bed bothered me in the old house as well, but when we put it in the master bedroom in the new house, it just didn't work for me at all.  I feel like this room is begging for a big upholstered bed.

Now it would be lovely to put all the stuff that bugs me up on Kijiji and go out and buy exactly what I want, but sadly, they forgot to plant that money tree in our new back yard.  So instead I used some West Elm gift cards I had for the Steven Alan euro shams and long grey pillow, and splurged on an Ikea linen duvet cover and wool pillow from Winners.

Aaaand I still don't like it.  And there still is nothing over the bed.  And I am debating about curtains. And I still don't love the colour. I feel like this room will never be finished. (Cue the violins!)

However, it finally hit me this weekend that if I wait to share photos until the rooms are "DONE", I will never blog again! So instead of beautifully-styled rooms that I am proud to share, you are going to be getting a lot of photos of not-quite-there-yet rooms that I am not yet happy with. Maybe just posting the photos will spark a moment of genius and I will figure out what the heck to do. Or maybe you guys can give me some suggestions.

Either way, I am just going to have to decide to be OK with the bed, the sofa, the colours, and the bookcases in the basement. I am going to have to be OK with living in a partly-finished house. Which means, I am going to have to be OK with having a blog that is a chronicle of making this house my own, warts and all, instead of a fancy portfolio of my impeccable style. While I would love to post about putting a room together from scratch, that just isn't realistic.

Insert deep comment about embracing the imperfections in life, then post inspirational tee photo.

T-shirt $30 at Tees in the Trap

Thanks for sticking with me folks! :)

Sun Room Re-Arrange

While everyone was out the other day I re-arranged the sun room.  Although it isn't the ideal arrangement for the space, I wanted to move the sofa from in front of the radiator so it could warm the room better.  Plus it is always fun to have a fresh perspective without buying new stuff!  I like how the photos turned out with the clean winter light, although I could have styled better by taking out the phone and the wedding photo... Ah well, it's all practice.  (For what I have no idea...)

Although it is cooler than the rest of the house (it is over the cold room in the basement and has all those windows), it is my go-to spot for coffee and blogging - it is so bright and cozy. :)

Design Dilemma

These photos are terrible, but I wanted to illustrate one of my most befuddling design dilemmas.  Our main floor consists of this one long room, and I love the openness of it, especially now that our kitchen has become part of the room.  However, that big long wall has me stumped.  How do I differentiate between the living room and the dining room?  Or do I even bother?  Do I fill up that empty space, or leave it? How do I make one room flow into the next without making it just one big rumpus room (which let's face it, it is!).

Behind the sofa I currently have the kids little craft/snack table, and that teak side board is stuffed with craft supplies.  The back area by the door of course gets a lot of traffic, especially during the summer.  I did have a rug under the table but with the two messiest eaters in Canada living under our roof, I moved it down to the basement.

My latest idea is to put six matching white frames there - I was thinking I could perhaps use my own photography, either of the kids or of the more artsy flower-type shots.  I am hoping that they would make kind of a 'focal point' for the dining room to balance the mirror/fireplace combo in the living room.

I put up the paper to get an idea of where I would put them and what size they are - there was no measuring or science to this mess (only the top 3 are the actual size of the frames)!  I think they would go a little lower, and slightly closer together.  But what should I centre them on?  I guess the table, but we move that from time to time... And is six enough or should I do eight?  Or is this a truly dumb idea?  Help?

Can you see the difference?

Nope, I certainly didn't clean up! Instead I ignored the mess, as you can see, and hung up another artwork.  I have been trying to maintain a 'less is more' approach to decorating around here, and as a result we have a stash of amazing artworks with no home.  This one was a wedding gift from our talented friend Lee Petrie, and I really wanted to find a spot for it.  Plus this corner seemed kind of anaemic anyway, so I figured it would be perfect.  The fact that they have similar frames didn't hurt either.

The difference in the mat colour sort of bugs me, but I am not going to stress about it.  Just happy to be able to check off one of those little things on my mental list.  The top art is a needlepoint of a Nordic Fjord that my dad picked up at an auction and could do with an archival cleaning, but since I don't work at the art gallery anymore, I lost my connection. :)  You can see the mat doesn't quite fit it either, but as of yet I haven't invested in Linsday's magic matting cutter.  But never say never...

Now that I see these photos... that lamp shade really needs to be a different colour...

Unstyled: I love my kitchen

Inspired by Jules's "Unstyled Life" posts, I thought I would post my typical afternoon, getting supper ready in the kitchen while my kids play in the sunroom, the afternoon sun pouring in.*  The fan whirrs, the cicadas buzz, and the kids murmur their toy's stories.  Makes a girl's heart happy.

*Makes me think of that line from one of my all-time favourite Joni Mitchell songs: ...the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses...