The early days

This whole house was completely trial and error, and I made plenty of mistakes!!  (Ok, there may be a few mistakes still sittin' around here, but we'll get to that later)

Here were some of my initial thoughts so you can appreciate them for all their uncoordinated glory. :)

This is the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.

The rug was a special order purchase from Relish, a fun local Bloomington home decor & furniture store. Not quite exactly what I had pictured, and it was a little too small for the room. "They" always say that your furniture should be anchored with either all or some of the sofa/chair legs on the rug. I didn't agree until I saw this picture, months after this photo was taken!

Each of the pieces of furniture look like they're floating islands...  This rug is too small!

I found two leather stools (left) at TJ Maxx, which I intended to use as a coffee table/ottoman in the center of the room. Unfortunately, it was a little too much brown for such a small space.  These stools are too brown!

Also notice the lamp in the corner. It looked a little like this West Elm lamp, except with a smaller shade. As you can tell, the sofa dwarfs this awesome lamp.   This lamp is too little!



Fortunately, the green rug looked MUCH better in the fireplace room. That red couch, a remnant from the Ohio State days, was a comfortable good napping spot for lazy Sundays. It eventually made its way to the basement where it will have a second life in our someday-to-be rec room.

In the open area between the breakfast nook and the fireplace room, empty space. When I took the salmon-orange mirror back (the one I tried so hard to make work), this great mirror caught my eye.  It has great detail, an interesting shape, and the mirror can easily be detached with wood detail repainted to match any room.  But where to put it?  In the front entryway or next to the deck door?

Here's the wide open space and a few of my "experiment" pieces, including the white mirror/coat hook piece and a multi-color rug from Ikea. As much as I liked it, I decided against the Ikea shag rug because it screamed college apartment, with all of its pink, red, yellow, and orange hues. I did it for Ben's sake! :)

More of the story to follow!