At the End of the Lane

After my trip down memory lane last night I ended up in a bright and cheerful little cafe rather than a gloomy and melancholy hole in the wall.  Figuratively speaking.

Just this morning my living room looked like this...

I wish I also had a picture of the rest of the room-imagine a train had crashed through our house, or a tornado had spun through the room...that will give you some idea of what it looked like.  There were a lot of books, magazines, and papers on the coffee table, balls of various sizes rolling around, a few Tinker Toys scattered here and there, some stray Legos looking for a place to call home.  Before I turned my attention to these lovely details that amounted to such classy decor in my living room I gave my all to the bookshelves.

You see, they are the first thing you take in when you walk through the front door.   And they were covered with such a random and ugly assortment of items that I could no longer stand it.  (Mike, I don't really think your hat is ugly; I just think it's ugly sitting on a bookshelf across from the box for our new mega-ladder.) I thought about trying to pass myself off as being eclectic, but in the end a desire for order won out.  I did some rearranging...

You can see that our green arm chair sat on the close side of the doorway that leads into our dungeon that happens to be upstairs computer room.   Another arm chair had been caddy corner in the right hand corner of the above photo.  The couch faced those two chairs, and sat floating in the living room so that it came out from our fireplace, perpendicularly, and ran across (but not against) the front wall.   I have no idea if that makes any sense in your imagination, but I'm tryin' my best to explain so that you can see the difference, for I have no before picture!  I moved the couch so that it was facing the fireplace instead and then repositioned the chairs so that they faced the sofa, at an angle on opposite sides of the fireplace.  This I have pictures of...

Later in the day I was also able to get rid of that random bookshelf by the window-to my great relief.  I really didn't like it over there, and it had taunted me for weeks and weeks. Now, I like this arrangement better for a couple of reasons, even though it cuts off the living room just a little from the entryway.  (We have an enormous doorway leading from our entry into this front room.  The couch now sticks out about halfway into that doorway but a few steps into the living room.  You can still walk behind it easily, say to go over to the keyboard.)  The coffee table cried out for a sofa to be on the other side opposite from the fireplace.  It would cry so loudly after all had gone to bed that I would have to come in the middle of the night and tell it to shush before it woke everyone up.  Now, though, it seems right.  Balanced.  I know this is in part because when we first bought this furniture it was for a house with a similar setup and almost from the beginning it was arranged in this way.  (Actually the chairs were switched as far as the sides they're on, but because of the door leading into the other room-where the black bookshelves are-I thought the open arm chair would make it, well, more open.)

I have to tell you I feel very good about this room today.  I also cleared off our dining room table, which had gotten to the point where the five of us could eat but we had elbow battles with the wrapping paper, library books, old Mother's Day flowers, and book bag at the other end of the table.  I feel good about that, too.  And having these two front rooms looking so much better is motivating as far as getting the rest of the house to fall in line.  Peer pressure, you know?

Comments

[jen]

oh yes, MUCH better! Good job Christina!! May I suggest one eensy little thing? Push each pair of black bookshelves together...so they are touching? Or can you not because of some moulding at the bottom of each of them? Seeing the space in between each pair is somewhat "distracting" and makes the middle table look really "cramped" in there. Do you plan to mount that picture on the wall or will it stay on the little table? (Sorry, I love decorating...so if my 2 cents are totally uncalled for, just ignore me! :) hee hee) I do like your electic style...looooovin' that couch and that plaid chair chair just makes my heart smile!!

[Mindee@ourfrontdoor]

It looks great! I love the conversational groupings you've managed and that fireplace is gorgeous.