Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Early Snow and the Old Studio/New Living Room

It looked like this out front this morning:


Not too bad and the kids went off to school. Halloween decorations clash a bit with the snow, but there you are.

By midday it looked more like this:

and then it got even worse. The kid's practices, football games and boy scout meetings were all canceled and everyone made their way home eventually.

Our internet was down most of the day, but just popped back in so my productive hours of painting are probably over now. Heh. And even though we had a few flickers, the power did stay on all day so that was good.

Anyway, in other super exciting news (I think I need to get a life:), our new rug finally arrived yesterday and now the old studio/new living room is pretty much finished. Still trying to scrounge up some art to put on the walls (I hate empty walls), but it is a very comfy room and I plan to take a day soon and just sit on my new couch and read. Well and probably nap too since I can't seem to read without falling asleep anymore. But I digress....

This is actually the second rug we bought for this room. The first one (you can see it here) was beautiful and I loved it. But it arrived before the furniture came, and then the deadline to return the rug passed too. So when the furniture did arrive, of course, it did not work well at all with the rug-the warm tans in the rug made the neutral sofa look slightly pink. Subtleties that could not be seen on the computer screen while ordering, alas, and the kind that drive me crazy. It was close though and I tried really hard to like the combination, but after a few days I knew that the mismatch was always going to be the first thing I would see in that room. I am obsessive like that. So I managed to get the return deadline waived, sent back the old rug and ordered a different rug, with fingers crossed. I had a good feeling about the new rug though, especially because it was cheaper than the first one. When I unrolled it yesterday, the room looked perfect, the choir sang and the whole world seems right again....




See how easy I am? It only takes eight gallons of paint, brand spanking new furniture and two rugs to make me happy. Oh yeah and a new studio which made all of that possible. Ok, so maybe I am a bit high maintenance....

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The room is beautiful, looks peaceful, and I agree, the new carpet is much better.

Janet said...

The deeper tones in the new carpet do work better! We just suffered through a summer of renovation also. If only we could determine where the wasps are getting in now that the tv room ceiling was opened up..........and could STOP them! But it is better to look good than to feel good as the saying goes.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

oh your house is soooo pretty, and perhaps we, 90 miles to your west, chuckle a bit because YOU got snow and here: mostly rain....

Helen said...

The room looks fantastic and well worth the effort to get the colour scheme just right. I love the dark walls... stunningly natural and elegant.

Jelaine Faunce said...

Wow. That is a fantastic rug. I mean, I liked the other one, but this one looks incredible with the furniture and the walls. Good choice.

Pamela Robinson said...

I love the brown. You chose absolutely the perfect shade, not too purpley, not too red. I agonized over a red wall. I did the same thing where I ended up mixing it myself. I ended up loving it so much (and having a lot of paint) I painted the ceiling red too. Then our toilet leaked and we had to have everything repainted... grrrrr

Kim Morin Weineck said...

That painting on that wall---perfection.

Anonymous said...

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n warner said...

Tracy,
You made excellent choices and revisions. Good job extending that return time on the first one. Room is very warm, and great choice of newer rug as that works much better. Your artistic eye worked in all elements together....and I might add, an excellent shopper for deals...as we say in school - 'you made good choices!'

Hey, pretty cool weather out there...compared w/ soCal...both offer dreamscapes.

Nina

Natalya Khorover Aikens said...

it's a fabulous room!

Melody said...

The livingroom looks amazing Tracy. Love the new carpet and the brown on the walls. Great job and so what it took 8 gallons of paint it was well worth it. I especially love your beautiful painting by the chair...gorgeous as always!

Jeanette Jobson said...

Fabulous decor and that carpet is wonderful.

I'm glad someone else had snow as we had a little of the wet stuff last week but today its up to 15C. Go figure...

tlwest said...

I know what you mean about the "right rug" It makes or breaks a room. Little things that do not match drive me crazy but my husband-- lol he VOWS to change something he dislikes and I will hear it everyday until it does haha! You gave me an idea for my blog in the future... there is one particular thing in my house that has been cursed by my husband... Snow looks wonderful. It's just cold here in Florida- bleauh...

Tracy Helgeson said...

Gosh, can't believe I didn't respond to any of these wonderful comments here! Sorry about that!

Thanks everyone for your responses. I was almost able to spend the day in the new living room on our snow day, however it was too cold (no power) and so I spend my time in the dining room next to the fireplace.

And the large painting on the wall is mine-it came back slightly damaged form a gallery and I repaired it. I haven't had a chance to return it yet, and it was taking up too much space in my studio, so we hung it up in the new living room. Now I am not so sure that it will leaving my home again:)

Making A Mark said...

What a really lovely room! It looks fantastic.

Although I don't quite 'get' (green/heat wise) why you have no curtains. Is this because you have external shutters instead?

I really love sofa and the chair with the tuffet - I'm just getting round to giving myself a good talking too about the need to update and you've just shown me what I want. I now just have the slight problem that nobody over here seems to want to make it! :(

Tracy Helgeson said...

Thanks Katherine, and I think I prefer the term tuffet over ottoman now:)

Good question about the windows. I suppose we should have curtains for energy conserving reasons. But our windows are pretty new and efficient, and are very well insulated so they are not drafty at all (in fact our whole house is pretty snug despite it's age; or maybe because of it). So that along with the fact that I hate having curtains has meant that most of our windows have no coverings. I like the light and the views and since we live in the country with no nearby neighbors this works for us. I also like being able to have the beautiful window mouldings visible, look how nice they are! Pretty rare to have such nice woodwork in an old country farmhouse.

In our old house in Utah, we lived right in town and all of our windows had coverings. I swear I spent half my days walking around either opening them and closing them, or forgetting and having dark rooms all day.