Friday, May 2, 2014

Decorating a Room Around a Few Pieces of Furniture - The Idea/Planning Stage

Hello everyone!

I'm looking forward to transforming my space into a space that not only works for me, but one that inspires and reflects me.
It's probably too early in the morning to be thinking about this, it's 7am here in Pennsylvania, but I'm in the ideas/planning stages of redoing my craft room and just laid awake in bed last night thinking about it. The rooms in my home are casual with a beach theme running throughout, but I would like to do something special for my craft room. I considered doing a very sleek and clean surfaced, modern room, but I find it sort of boring (uninspiring). I'm also drawn to a Shabby Chic - French Country look, but I've had no idea where to begin. I need to cover up the clutter I'm living with currently.

Recently a friend of my husband's was giving away two nightstands and a vanity. When I saw them I fell in love and my mind was made up. I want to go with a cozy, fresh, feminine room with soft colors and flowing curtains that gives off an atmosphere of history. The new furniture was the perfect start. Gorgeous!

Each piece is heavy, well made, with large deep drawers that I can organize my craft materials in. They were the owner's grandmother's furniture and that felt special even to me. I still have to clean them, but below are a couple of pictures of one of the pieces.
 There are two nightstands and the color in the photo is quite true to the actual color. I do not want to paint them as I love the softness of the overall color and the hand painted floral motif.


 Each drawer is different and I love that about it.     


 I used the flash to show the details of the flowers and leaves. The flowers are bluish with a slight turquoise appearance. These are the colors I want to focus on. I'm a huge fan of shades of blue.
Now on to what I have and what I would love
The problem I'm running into is that although my space is a decent size, my walls are blocked from end to end with mismatched furniture pieces. The only way to redo my room is to redo my furniture by making it look cohesive and softer in appearance. Like most craft rooms, my room is also filled with plastic containers, plastic drawers, boxes, organizers of all colors and shapes and boring filing cabinets. I need to do something about those too.

Below is a photo of the bookcases in my room. As you can see, although I have some of my crafting materials contained and organized on these shelves, the overall appearance is not appealing to look at. The shelves I added above them don't even match. There was a point that I felt proud of how organized and thrifty I am, but I completely missed the boat on attractiveness.
For whatever reason I didn't even consider appearance at that time.


Yesterday I came across this decorative idea for my plain white bookcases from Just a Girl and Her Blog where you can see a step by step tutorial. I think she did a super job giving her bookcases a fancy and feminine appearance. This is something I want to do in my craft room that I think will be a good start to the look and feel. 
I like the color she used as her backing for the bookcases, but I'm looking for a color with a bit more blue in it. Like the picture below.

I think this photo is absolutely beautiful from the blog Lyckoslanten. I'm looking to hide the majority of my craft materials, but I love the soft feminine color. 

Compare the photo above with the feeling I have in my craft room. It feels horrible! I hear cheerleaders shouting the U. G. L. Y. cheer.

My craft materials are at arms reach and conveniently in sight, but my room is embarrassingly dark and ugly. My ugly clutter is dragging me down. I'm not one to want a room like those in magazines. After all, they are usually staged with accessories, color, perfect lighting for the camera and so forth.
How many people have their craft lace partially unrolled from a wooden spool and intertwined with a fern or keep an expensive doily with pearls on their work surface while they paint, glue and cut or even at all unless it's for a photo? These people could be out there, but I personally don't know anyone who does these things.
 
I'm grateful to have what I have and do what I do. I just want a room that reflects ME and not my craft materials.

So I leave on a on a good note - I'm going into this with realistic expectations and I love to craft and decorate so this is right up my alley. I'm looking forward to transforming my space into a space that not only works for me, but one that inspires me. I hope you will join me on the adventure as I would love to hear any suggestions from you, your experiences and look at ideas you would like to share. I would also like to see your craft room do-overs and what works for YOU.

Happy Crafting!

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