HG Openhouse Blog

I do know that decorating blogs this month tend to be about holiday decorating and not actual home re-decorating. In fact, I probably should have saved this post for AFTER Christmas, but I’m so excited about the re-decorating we’ve been doing in our living room/dining room the past few weeks that I just had to share. Sorry for the interruption in tree trimming and gift giving ideas, but surely I’m not the only person out there who decided to re-decorate a room right in the midst of the holiday season, am I?

It all started with a leak we had in the wall last spring which finally got repaired late this fall by our condo corporation. They re-pointed the brick outside but there was no saving the interior dining room drywall so down it came and up went a new sheet of drywall which meant that we had to have the wall repainted. And that’s how it all began BECAUSE….

The dining room and the living room flow together as one big room, so the need to repaint the dining room wall was the ideal opportunity to just do the whole room in a new color. And that, my friends, is how I got my husband to agree to start redecorating the living room during the holiday season.

I have never, quite truthfully, been happy with the wall color in here. It was a lovely shade of gray that matched the accent wall of cinnamon slate quite nicely (or so everyone said) but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t really like gray or maybe more to the point that I don’t think the gray liked this room. It always felt just a little out of place like that odd person at your Christmas party who, no matter how hard you try, doesn’t quite blend in.

On the other hand, I loved the cinnamon slate accent wall so whenever I thought about changing the wall color in the living room I could never decide what I would put in its place. Then it dawned on me that I could use Cathy’s infamous color tip and keep the accent wall as is and just go up the paint chip a few colors to a lighter shade. The new color (Benjamin Moore porcelain) is very similar to the old gray but now the undertone is “a perfect blend.” So, we repainted and it is so much brighter and warmer. Then on Black Friday we went rug shopping BECAUSE….

My husband has never really liked our white rug all that much — too hard to keep clean. And now with the paint changed it seemed like the rug was just begging us to go. Seriously, after the painters left I’m sure I heard it pleading, ” I need to go!”

In preparation for this very moment, I had been surveying a few hundred friends for area rug ideas and all my decorator buddies said to try to get a rug with ALL the colors of the room in it.

(Tip: If you are planning to redecorate a room anytime soon, can I suggest you pick the rug first and pull your colors from it? Way easier).

Anyway, we just happened upon this wonderful Pak-Persian rug that had all our colors in it plus some and features a “tree of life” motif that we both really like. Call it “art you can walk on”. We got it laid out nicely in the living room and then we went shopping for chairs BECAUSE….

Our guests don’t really like to sit in our love seat. It’s supposed to provide seating for two but it’s a bit crowded so usually only one person sits there. Since it takes up too much space for seating for one, it’s being replaced. Besides, I don’t think it looks all that great with the rug.

The new chairs are on order so you’ll have to stay tuned to see the finished room in the New year, but you know that once those chairs arrive I’ll be on the hunt for a new lamp and some throw cushions and maybe some new artwork BECAUSE….

p.s. Anyone else doing a little non-holiday decorating over the holidays?