I don't know if its the crispy weather we are having in Southern Ohio right now, or if its knowing that in just 10 short months I'm going to be a Mrs....but I'm in the mood for a major home re-boot.
As I've mentioned before we live in a very "vintage" town home in a historical ( all be it in need of some tlc) town. We are up against a leaky basement, teensy kitchen (read: no counter space) and very modest closet space. We also do not have a defined dining/living room space- just one "great" room where everything kind of rolls on together. That is my biggest source of discontent.
Our main living space is a living room, rolled into a dining room, rolled into an office. The living room area its self isn't so bad its cozy and mostly complete but the rest is an un put together mess. Especially Ben's "office" area. He insisted on the biggest honkenest desk from ikea imaginable and it is just stacked with boxed collectibles, paper work and his junk. And because its such a prominant peice of furniture- the eye is immediately drawn to it. So I've come up with a plan to rearrange things to give us a much more practical living space.
How about some pictures to help you visualize? I've never posted pictures of our living space before so for the first time officially welcome to our home! I warn you that these pictures were taken with the house "as is" I didn't run around picking up empty glasses or run the sweeper just for pictures so sorry- we're only human!
Our Main Living Area:
TV area: I mostly like this space- its comfy and lived in as Boo is clearly demonstrating for you. If we we're going to leave the living space on this end I would begin looking for a more eye-catching peice of wall art to put on that far wall. (As you can see I pulled out the fall decorations today and began rummaging---I'm impatient)
I also want new curtains- those sheers are boring and let in too much light!
This is the "dining room" - More fall and decorative stuff sitting out on the table (A post about all my thrifty finds to come!). You can see how the table is literally at the end of our couch!
This is Ben's desk area - the desk takes up so much space and has nothing on or around it to catch the eye. Except for these things: Nerd paraphenalia that I prefer to hide anyway:
And all together now:
This is just to show how the "dining room" runs right into the "office". I know it looks a mess with all my hodge podge on the table but the point I'm trying to illustrate is how close together everything is with no clear division.
And the rest:
Side yard door directly to the left of the desk
On the wall opposite the desk....say hello to Bryndel Bear who's nap I was interrupting!
And a shot further into the hall.....
SO what is this plan I speak of? Well that brings me to the sad part of the story. I'm seriously considering relenquishing the guest bedroom- which serves more as a closet/dressing room for me than anything- and changing it into an office.
My guest bedroom/dressing room:
To give us more down stairs space; I would leave the bed but put it up against a wall (seriously we probably use it 4 times a year) I would move my dresser and chest into our mostly-furniture bare bedroom, throw away the beat up desk I spray painted bubblegum pink and use as a vanity( see picture below) and move all my hanging clothes from the cramped closet in the spare bedroom and into the cramped (although slightly more spacious than the guest room) bedroom closet. Ben would move his hanging clothes to the guest room closet ( cause lets be honest- he rarely hangs his clothes) his antique pretty dresser would become a (functional) accent peice in the hall or guest room and then (after all this blah blah blah) the giant honkin' desk would come to live in the spare bedroom - thus giving us more space to set up specific living room and dining room space downstairs. I would move our TV area to the space where the desk is, trade our teeny dining table in for a larger one and set up a dining area where the current TV area is....WHEW!
It sounds like a good idea in theory- its just making it happen that's going to be the challenge. Its also a little sad because the extra bedroom has been the one place that is completely under my control. I painted it a buttery yellow and have allowed it to be a girly haven complete with pastel pink curtains and ribbons and the whole she-bang. If that room is messy its completely my fault for not keeping up with it- and if its clean (which it usually is) then thats all my doing too. If I give that room to Ben it will become his space- meaning that no space in our house will be just mine and means that my girly, froofy, shabby chic days are numbered. But in honesty the whole room isn't as functional and as cute as those first two pictures lead you to believe.
Case in point:
The desk. My computer is on it but not hooked up to the internet...or power supply for that matter. I mainly use it as a vanity.
My clothing rack is just taking up space on one wall with nothing else on it.
My closet is literally that small....on the right side there are shelves for folded close and on the left there is duct work.....the closet in our bedroom is somewhat biggerbecause there are no shelves or duct work.
Overall though- I feel this is the best decision to give us more space so that we can spread out and organize (which I love) so I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to take one for the team here give up the room and get on with my life.
The first thing I'm going to do here is try moving the upstairs rooms around- and stop using the guest room as my dressing room. If we can make that transition work we will proceed with the rest of the move. If not- we're stuck.
We'll see how it goes.
Wish us luck- or better yet if you have suggestions please share!
Looove!
Miss Amber Lane
NOTE: I've been working on this post for awhile- as of 9/12 the bedrooms have been rearranged and the spare bedroom is anxiously awaiting the desk to be moved into it. So far its working out really well! Stay tuned for pictures of the transition coming this way soon!
Brass bird cage- Rennie was hoping that there was a birdie in there for her to snack on ... sorry Ren - no luck!
