TheBanyanTree: [External] And one thing leads to another....

[Teague, Julie Anna]

I've been going through much the same thing but for different reasons.  When I moved into my house, it was winter, it was less than a year since Lee died, and I had other personal issues going on, and, as I've done before, I chose paint based on my general view of life, which at that time seemed very gloomy.  I was going to move into the house in short order and had just gone through the massive excavation and clean out of the house my boys and I had lived in for twenty-seven years.  I was beyond bone-tired, so for the first time in my life I hired someone to paint the interior walls before I moved in.  They had to be painted--they were all a fleshy tan color that gave me the creeps and went with nothing I owned then or ever would own. Long story short, while I picked perfectly delightful colors for all the other rooms that were being painted, I chose dark gray for the front living room.  I had an idea that I would enliven this dark gray room with lots of art and color and it would seem cheerful, with the dark color wrapped around me like a safe cocoon of...gloom. It never seemed cheerful, despite all the bright pillows and art and teal sofas.  It felt like a dark gray cave that no one ever wanted to hang out in.  It has one large window but is shaded by huge trees in the summer, and had drapes at both sides, so it was just dark dark dark.  All the time.  I suddenly realized a month ago that I hated that room and never, ever, wanted to be in there, and that this needed to change. 

I researched and planned and thunk till my thinker hurt about what would make me happy.  I sold the teal sofas, which in my old house were perfect but in the new small house felt made the room feel like a storage room for sofas.  Even one normal sized sofa is just too much for that room.  (When I downsized, I really downsized, but I LOVE my small house and my location and by beautiful little yard.  The house, fortunately, was not a mistake.)  So this week, I painted the walls a lovely shade of silvery gray with a hint of blue in a certain light.  I'm ordering a light gray apartment-sized sofa when the site's new fabric comes in. They sent me swatches and of COURSE I wanted the one that isn't available yet. I got my new navy linen-like chair and my new white coffee table which matches the book shelves I installed when I moved in.  It looks so clean and bright and swank (yes, swank!) now that I am swooning over this room.  I love it.  The light just BOUNCES off the walls!  It feels like a dead weight lifted off my shoulders. I also removed the heavy drapes and have ordered a simple automatic blind which won't hide the funky mid-century architecture of the window, which I also love. I'm am so completely smitten with this room that I want to hang out there all the time.  Fortunately my dog is tiny  and doesn't shed, chew things up, or destroy furniture, so that is not a worry.  The entry way is still dark gray and the husband and I have decided that even this has to go!  We want something cheerful that says WELCOME to our cheerful home!  We're thinking maybe a raspberry color.  Or something.  Not sure yet.  But I'm so much happier now.  And it's not just the living room color, which was more a symptom than a cause. Funny how colors are like that. 

Julie

 

-----Original Message-----
From: TheBanyanTree <thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com> On Behalf Of Pam James
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2019 8:50 AM
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Subject: [External] TheBanyanTree: And one thing leads to another....

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I'm not sure where the starting line is....  There are a few points to make before I even start to tell about what is happening now!!  Okay.  I'll just dive into the middle, and hope to bring it together as I go!!  (for the record - I own rescue Great Danes and I do volunteer work that causes me to sit in court)

Several months ago, before March when we got Bella, Bo and I went and house/dog sat for my friend - also a Pam! - who had FIVE dogs.  (I got really good at counting to 6, who's in, who's out, who's eating,etc!!)  (For the record, she finds strays on the side of the road that she brings home, and she was 'fostering' a pup whose owner was displaced from
Florence!) In the evenings, I sat on what I thought was "her" chair, on the other side of the end table from the recliner, which I assumed was her husband's!  I was wrong, by the way, SHE claimed the recliner, but that has nothing to do with the story.  The point is that we had a great time sitting on that chair!  There was an ottoman, and I'd curl up with a blanket and my tablet, and whichever dog got there first!  Bo tried - I was
*his* mom after all! - but he couldn't fit no matter how many different ways he tried to contort himself!

I thought that chair was super comfy and I sort of bonded with it!  So when Pam told me they were getting new chairs a few months later, I was thrilled when she offered to deliver the old set to my house!!  I put it in the 'Happy Room', and convinced myself that someday I was going to learn how to reupholster and I'd get that ugly-as-crap-to-me chair recovered!!  Did I mention that I thought it was hugely ugly?!  - laugh out loud here!! -  I loved the chair to lounge on, but me and Pam have totally different tastes in fabric!!  It's kind of a perfectly fine red and goldish damask.  Blegh.

Meanwhile, I don't use the Happy Room like I used to.  When Axel was alive, I'd sit in the chair by the window with my feet on the ottoman and my laptop on my lap, and he'd lay on the bed and those were our spots.  Then Axel died and Bo got here and that brat doesn't lay nicely anywhere - he charges around and bedspreads go flying and nothing is safe from his teeth and I stopped having so much time to sit around and play on my laptop and then I needed the room to stash stuff that was for the non-profit I play with, and etc ....  It all kind of happened at once, and the Happy Room door was shut to keep Bo out!  It's still Happy, but any plant I put in there seems to get forgotten and dies!!!

When Axel was alive, I put a gray fleece blanket on the end of the couch he laid on, and he'd gracefully get up and down and the blanket barely moved.
And then my soul dog died and Bo came.  <sigh>  I love this mutt and he's lucky, but it's not hard to guess how this particular 14 month old Dane ended up in rescue!!!  I have a large sectional, and Axel used to get up on one end.  Not Bo!!  Bo owns the COMPLETE sectional - every section!  He runs zoomies around the living room, and on the sectional, sending it slamming into the table behind it and off the rug and totally screws up the pillows!  He has pulled out the stitches that are there for looks though now they look unattractive and there's a puncture on one cushion...  He's had a great time on this piece of furniture!  But I'm not stressed about it.  Firstly - you can't own Danes and expect to have nice things!!
hahahahahahaha!!   (you can laugh some more here!!)

And, I don't spend a lot of money on living room furniture because I get bored with it and want to change things up!!  In the 13 years I've lived in this house, this particular beat up sectional is the 5th 'couch' I've owned.  Every other piece I've been able to sell or give away, but this one will go to the curb!  That's right - I'm looking for another couch!  I'm going to attempt to keep the dogs off the new one but if that intention fails, I won't cry - for all the reasons I've already mentioned!

My neighbors (who are like more kids than neighbors to me, especially since they birthed me a grandbaby!) and I went to the furniture store a week or so ago because they were looking for a piece of furniture themselves!  I wandered around getting ideas and taking photos.... sectional again or couch and chair??  And then I came upon a chair I just fell in LOVE with!!
A swivel-rocker in the most HAPPY, colorful print!  Maybe a little too green-and-not-teal, but oh man!!!!  And I thought I could build a living room around it!!

Because my walls are gray, and dark teal on the short opposing walls.  In fact, I just repainted the wall with the sliding door last week!  (and here we backtrack in this story) I'd  seen drapes hung from the ceiling
(somewhere!) and thought I'd love that!  I got super-long drapes and hung them, and hated them ever since!  The door is 'square' and the drapes hang 'rectangularly', and it shows where the sun shines through!!  So I was going to get the drapes hemmed and rehang them 'normal', right over the frame.  And then I saw a set of drapes for sale on Facebook's marketplace, and it was only 20 bucks for 4 panels - *and* they were a teal and gray pattern!  EEEEkkk!!!!  LOVE!  So I repainted to cover all the holes I was filling.  This is funny:  I went to Lowes in search of new paint.  I wanted to stay with teal, but I needed new.  I picked up five or six 'swatches'
and compared, and then chose the one I liked best from them.  (Too many choices just confuse me!!)  Would you believe that after four or five years I came home with the EXACT SAME color?!?!  Crazy!

So far I'm building a new living room decor from a wall and drapes!
Brilliant!  Actually, I know that I can still reuse my original drapes, just hemmed, and they're a paler silver pattern, so all is not lost!

Yesterday, on my way home from court, I had to pass the the Ashley store, (I live 20 miles east or west of any kind of real stores!) and I stopped to see THE chair again, and do another walk around.  I *really* liked the small sectionals, with a handy chaise, and then I could still have a chair!! But the chaise side was really just an unattached ottoman, so was that really going to be a great idea if Bo did run zoomies?!  (Although now that I look at my coffee table, that's not going to work because it's too big!  I need a regular 'couch'!!

My same friend Pam has some kind of pads that I can put on the couch and they will emit a high sound that only the dog can hear, and it might keep Bo off!  I'm going to give them a try.  Of course, sweet Bella is deaf so they probably won't work for her at all!!!

So the chair.  I loved the idea of a gray couch and brightly patterned chair!  But I was wondering about the pattern on this chair and then looking online for other chairs and ALL OF A SUDDEN it came to me!!!  I could reupholster - well a professional could! - the Pam chair and ottoman and it would be perfect!!  I already HAD a chair!!  Duh!!

So I asked on Facebook who anybody knew that upholstered, and I've come up with a person to do it!!  She had me take photos and she told me that I'll need a total of 14 yards of material.  She gave me a couple of websites to use.  HOLE-ee cripes!!!  First of all, I only like about one in a hundred 'swatches'!  There's not a lot of teal patterns out there!!  (In my mind I "see" a bright paisley-ish teal and gray pattern boldly going where no other pattern has evidently gone before!!)  And the prices!  eE-gads!!
Almost four hundred dollars for enough yards!  Plus I gotta pay the upholsterer!!  I could buy a new chair!!!!

But alas... I can't FIND one!  Nor can I find material!  I actually saw one on a site that looked like a serious possibility and I put a sample in my cart.  The sample was a buck.  One Dollar!!  Shipping was freaking $6.95!!!  I'm an Amazon Prime chick....  I'm used to *free* shipping!
Seven bucks for a piece of material seems like they're trying to rip me off, and those who know me know I'm always on alert for anybody trying to get over on me!!  It's a flaw...

And while all this is going on in my head, I wondered about my teal and gray patterned rug.  Would it match the new patterned drapes and a potential new patterned chair!?  Mallory, from next door, my 'grandbaby's mom', said no, I needed a solid color.  THAT was easy!!  I found one online
- FREE shipping *AND* free returns!! - and it's on its way!  A teal shag!!
Hahahahahah!!!  It's probably going to be horrid all together when I'm done!!

And that's my whole one thing to another story....  and it's not even over yet!!  I'm still sitting here at the dining room table looking into the living room with both Bo and Bella hanging out on the couch; it's pushed back off the rug and away from the coffee table, pillows and blankets on the floor and on the coffee table - none on the couch, the floor in need of a vacuum, and the sun streaming through the sliding doors that have no drapes yet.....

This is my life and I seem to be okay with it!


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