My house is a Craftsman style bungalow. It has wonderful woodwork and built-in cabinets in the living room, and thankfully it looks like the woodwork in the living room was never painted. The woodwork in the bathroom and kitchen had been painted, though, and while the bathroom woodwork had already been stripped, I had the kitchen done and stained, and it looks so much better. Anyhow, back to the living room. When we moved in, there was paneling on 3 sides and this, um, pink wallpaper on paneling on the wall above the fireplace and around the large picture window. Pink blinds and pink-and-forest green drapes and pink sheers completed the decorating scheme. Yuch. Besides being dark, it was just not decorated in what I would call nice colors. The carpet is a deep teal green, and I do like that, although some day I would like to get rid of the carpet and restore the original hardwood floors. I also have dreams of that awful paneling coming down, but again, that's a project for the future. Maybe by the time the twins graduate? I know, wishful thinking!
So how do I become content with what I have? The first step was pretty easy. We had painted the dining room a light cream color shortly after moving in, and I had that left over. So I removed the pink wallpaper and painted the one wall in the living room the light cream color. That made it so much more bright. I know that painting paneling can be done, but it is a very labor-intensive project. Thankfully the folks who lived here before us had done something to the paneling that was covered with the paper so that I didn't need to do any prep work other than wash it well and make sure it was clean. It took me about 2 hours to do 2 coats of paint, including taping off the the woodwork and cleaning up. I also handmade lined, insulated drapes for the large picture window. That took a while, but I couldn't find insulated draps in the deep purple color I wanted. (I was going for jewel tones.) I also was able to sew up a few pillows for the sofa, and I made matching drapes for the sidelights of the front door. I'm not totally happy with those, but they will do for now. I also used $1 hooks to be able to open the sidelight drapes to let in more light. The windows in the door and over the mantel are bare.
The only things I now struggle with in this room is clutter and keeping it picked up. Why children who used to be so good and picking up their things lose that ability when they become teenagers is beyond me! But I'm continuing to work on that, and it's slowly getting better. Eventually I would also like to get more seating and 2 end tables, but again, that's not an immediate necessity. What we have suits our needs, and I can wait on our wants.
It's not my ideal room, but it's good enough, and as long as I can walk through without stepping on something, I'm content with it.
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