My “New” Home

 

The Interior Decorator has come and gone. And my house looks freakin’ AMAZING! I try hard not to think of the cost associated with what we did….I’m just focusing on the end result…..and again, it’s AMAZING!

Would I have come up with these ideas/solutions/changes on my own? Really not sure. If I could/would, it would be years from now and only if I had seen it at someone else’s house.

Some of the changes came from her ideas, other changes were mine. What I love most is how “together” my home looks now. Grown-up, even. And thankfully, it “flows.” I’ll post some pictures and some notes….

FAMILY ROOM–when we moved into our home in 2001, we had a Big Blue couch (we actually called it Big Blue). We had light blue carpet installed, and the tiles around the fireplace were greyish-blue, along with greyish-blue vertical blinds for our sliding-glass door.  But about 18 months after we moved it, I had an epiphany. I wanted the wall with the big window to be red, and the rest of the walls a tan color. Hubby was skeptical about my vision, but it came out awesome, and we get nothing but compliments over the Big Red Wall.  In 2004, Big Blue got moved to the basement and we purchased darker tan couches. So, the blue carpet just looked very odd in the room. I lobbied for new carpet for years, because after 3 babies, 2 dogs–it was disgusting. Hubby wanted to wait to replace the carpet in case Aspen became incontinent. As much as I liked the theory, I was getting tired of the gagging-reflex every time I vacuumed. So, since we were going forward with some interior decorator suggestions to “upgrade” the fam room, I won and got a new carpet……OMG!  How did we live before?

Time for this to GO!

[I’m not adding a “new carpet” picture, because you should be able to see the new tan carpet in the other “family room make-over” pictures]

We also replaced our toy bins with proper end tables!

Interior decorator didn’t like our vertical blinds. She said they were “cold” and did nothing for the room.  The vertical blinds had become “just part of the room” and I never paid a lick of attention to them.  I had to agree with her. But we needed a better solution, because our fam room gets very cold in the winter–high ceilings, lots of windows, fireplace, and sometimes the doggy door is in when the temp gets colder.  She came up with a great solution–double lined drapes that can be opened with a rod. 

Here is a Before/After:

Vertical Blinds

New Drapes for Sliding Door

 

Her next suggestion was to replace the tiles around the fireplace with black granite. (according to her, every room should have some black in it)  I think once a very long time ago, I suggested this to hubby, but he doesn’t remember.  Hubby LOVED this idea. We went back and forth on whether we wanted to/could spend the money for this luxury.  Hubby loved the idea so much, it was his contribution to the home make-over. He wanted to GO FOR IT! And I have to say, the outcome is GORGEOUS. It made our fireplace look so much Larger!! (downside–the amount of dust and fur it collects–very noticeable–must always clean!)

And the last change in the family room is side panels to our big window. She said that with just the cornice over the window, the “window floated.” (whatever that means) I wasn’t sure if we “needed” the side panels, but hubby said I should go with the expert and “complete the look.” It’s taken me a while to get used to it, but what I like is that it looks like stage drapes that open up to accentuate the gorgeous outdoor view. The drape fabric is the same as the new slider drapes. 

DINING ROOM:  This is why hubby gave me the extravagant gift of an interior decorator (I think). As soon as we moved in to our house, I really wanted our Dining Room to be a showcase because it was built with a beautiful tray ceiling and wainscoting, as well as the 2 nice front windows. I wanted the walls to match my china–a navy blue. However, I listened to my mother, who doesn’t like dark colors. She insisted I “tone” down the blue I had chosen. Well, instead of a nice navy, I ended up with SMURF BLUE. Needless to say, I HATED IT!! (the only pic I could find w/ the smurf blue walls–the twins 4th Bday)

Smurf Blue walls

The other thing I wanted to change in the Dining Room was the drapes. I once attended a twin club COPE meeting and the host had gorgeous Navy and jewel tone vertical striped drapes. I have searched YEARS for something similar–in stores, on-line, fabric stores–NO LUCK. I’ve had this “vision” in my head forever, it seems.

In comes Interior Decorator.  I tell her my issues with the dining room, and what I would like to do. She brings me a magazine picture with navy-striped walls.  Wallpaper? Nope. I figure it out–flat wall paint w/ semi or high gloss paint stripes (I watch enough HGTV to figure it out). Plus, the suggestion of painting the wainscoting and tray ceiling. LOVE IT!  However……her “muralist” would charge (are you sitting down???)  $1500-$3000 to paint my dining room. One Room. I nearly have a coronary.  After battling over the cost of the fam room items (she must think I’m a friggin’ cheap-skate. I’m not…) I explain to her that no [way in Hell]would I pay that much to paint a room (just stripes, mind you), could I get someone else to do it? Years ago, we had a mural painted in the twins room as a bribe gift for them giving up their room for Little Guy. I called up MY muralist, who agreed to paint my dining room–stripes and all–for a FRACTION of the other quote. 

As a result of “saving money” on the painting (humph), I was able to “allocate” more money on the drapes. Of course. She brought over some fabric samples–one which included navy/jewel tone stripes (but of course that would look odd with striped walls), as well as other samples. She brought a paisley–AND I AM NOT A PAISLEY PERSON–that was……….. stunning. It incorporated all the colors of the Dining Room and just looked….elegant. And of course, it was the most expensive of the fabric samples.  I swallowed, gulped actually, and went with the paisley. I started to have panic attacks—maybe it would be TOO MUCH PAISLEY for me to handle. Maybe just the valance could be paisley, and the panels could be solid? She told me to trust her. I did.

Here is a picture of my “new dining room”:

That concludes the “expensive” updates to our home.  We also had the kitchen and hallways painted. I chose lighter colors this time, and it just opened up the home. 

My hallway used to be a  vanilla-yellow, which I really, really liked. I thought it was warm and homey.  It is now a light green called “Palm Breezes”

Vanilla Yellow Hallway

Palm Breeze Hallway

 

And lastly, the Kitchen. When we moved in, I had hubby paint it a Sage Green (in the 70’s, I’m sure it would have been called “avacado green”) to mimic an episode of “Room by Room” I saw that inspired me.  I have actually LOVED my green kitchen. But we have been going back and forth on whether to re-do the kitchen, and to what extent. The project is on indefinite hold. And I can’t tell you how many “paint chips” (or whatever they are called) I had taped all around my kitchen–it was driving Hubby INSANE.  So, until we decide what we’re doing, I painted the kitchen white (I couldn’t live with a green hallway AND a green kitchen).  Surprisingly, I really, really like my white kitchen. It goes great with the cabinets, appliances (which do need to be replaced sooner rather than later), and kitchen table set.  I’ve also realized that with white walls I have more flexibility for knick-knacks and other bits-and-bobs. Who knows? The white might stay.

Sage Green Kitchen

 

 

 

 

White Kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

And that concludes the tour of our “new” home. 

Was the interior decorator worth it? To some extent. She came up with great ideas/solutions that as mentioned above, I may not have thought of. The changes clearly make our home look “grown-up” and sophisticated. But what really shocked me was the COST of implementing her ideas. A “normal, regular” person really has no idea what the costs associated with having the help of an interior decorator really are (especially if you watch a lot of HGTV, and the shows don’t tell you the cost!). It was a learning process for me. She did tell me during our first meeting that some decorator’s require a contract with a minimum spend ($10k was the number she threw out). Luckily, she didn’t require a contract, and I only went ahead with the ideas that worked for me. The end result IS GORGEOUS, but it took a lot of swallowing.

 

What I did learn in this experience, is that she is in it to make a living. She focuses on ideas/suggestions that would make her money. And her enthusiasm for those ideas is very catchy!….which can be financially dangerous! She became a little snooty with me when I decided to use my own (more affordable) painter or when I said I wasn’t willing to spend $$$$ for other accessories. It was as if my painter (whom she had never met) wasn’t good enough to paint stripes on my wall. I was very dissappointed with that.

I was utterly shocked with the price of custom drapes, especially after a lifetime of buying drapes “off the shelf.” But after doing some research, it seems that custom drapes, regardless where they come from are PRICEY.

Yes, hubby and I are happy with (1) our “showcase” dining room, and (2) a solution to our “cold” family room.  But,  I think we are done for a while……