There Is Always Two Sides To Everything

No, this is not a political statement nor am trying to solve an argument between my girls. This is something far less important unless, of course, you're a serial decorator wannabe.

So, we (really, meaning I) have a tendency to see the things my home is not. I notice all the things my home doesn't have. Why didn't these things stand out when we were buying the house? I don't know but here we are 13 years later... My living room has 5 windows, a door, interrupted wainscoting (aka beadboard) and an opening to another room big enough to park a couch in. No solid walls or a fireplace; all this means that a focal point for the room is hard to identify, furniture arrangement is a nightmare for one like me who wants to move everything around all the time. What's a girl to do?!

I have oogled over all the pretty pictures online; the winter whites and silvery visions is where I was headed. I rummaged through photos of Christmas' past in my living room.

Christmas 2015

Then, I took a left turn at Albuquerque. (Does anyone remember that cartoon?) I was lamenting that I had no fireplace to hang my stockings by, no huge mantel to display my mother's painting over, no wall space worthy of a special piece... I stared at the hutch top across from me and tried to figure out how to hang the picture there. You know, like the pictures hung on bookcases in front of a beautiful stack of books. Yeah, wasn't working. Think, think...think....

Easter time 2016

That hutch was a Craigslist score. I drove that thing home on the top of my Highlander with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand up through the sun roof holding onto it as I drove 20 miles an hour all the way home! But, I digress...Then, decorating genius hit. Or maybe I am crazy. Or both. I needed to enlist help.  I grabbed Mister, who confirmed I was in fact crazy. "Let's just try", I said, hoping I wouldn't hate it and have to hear him say "I told you so".

I cleared everything off that hutch top and we turned that puppy around to expose the back of the cabinet. It is solid wood (laminate would have been such a bummer).

Took these with my cell phone. No time to grab the camera when I ask for Mister's help.

I considered white washing it but Mister didn't seem to like that idea. I put a nail in it-not sure if it went through the other side or not- and hung the picture. I stepped back. It was not white, not sparkly, not silver, not pristine like I had imagined.  I dug through my stash and put some things together. I threw a bottle brush tree in the back of a truck I had ordered online and tossed in a few more I had picked up in my adventures and not bad.

No, it's not conventional. It won't win decorating awards. I might look at this next year and gasp as I cry "What was I thinking?" The silver and winter whites will wait for another year or another room. This year this room is feeling very cozy and I think I like it. I was being selfish and ungrateful as I considered all that my home was not but once I stopped to look at what I did have I was happily surprised. Moral of the story: try to look at things around your home differently... there is always two sides to everything.

*Comments are always welcome but please no advertising or links not affiliated with home decor as they will be deleted. Now, I'm off to the parties:
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