8.16.2006

From Chaos to Calm in No Time (Literally... I'm still waiting)

This is the reality of the living room.
The mess is apparent, the task is clear. The weird red lines indicate the 4 corners of the room. It is a very long room: 22-feet by 14-feet. The blank space over the couch is actually vertical blinds, with gorgeous old window that stretch nearly the length of the room. The opposite side of the room (the other long wall) has 2 32-inch wide windows and a large painting between them. Under the painting is the West Elm bench already covered up with a quilt Charlie's great grandmom made.

The images below depict the general idea for the living room. The inspiration, if you will. The bottom left corner should look familiar. I received the West Elm bench a week ago and should receive the bookcase tomorrow.
The top left image is of Inhabit Slats, a product marketed as wall hangings or as a room divider. I've already preached about mass-produced art, but as a room divider these seem pretty brilliant. At $98 a slat, I'm not willing to experiment with the real thing, but I would like to get some Poster Hangers a la Jorgen Moller and make my own with unbleached muslin.
The top right image is straight out of the new Anthropologie line. Classic colors, a bold pattern, and the yellow pillow convinced me that yellow as an accent color to neutrals really isn't the mistake I had imagined it could be.
Below right are 2 shag pillows from West Elm's current catalog. This image is included because a) pillows are a necessity for a well-lived in living room, and b) these are very similar to 2 floor pillows I am currently working on.
A little background includes a new relationship with (my now husband) not yet understood creative differences and a pure white flokati rug. I left a bottle of vermilion red somewhere on the floor of my bedroom, when Charlie stepped on it. The creative difference there being a basic misunderstanding of appropriate places to store acrylic paint. Needless to say, the bottle exploded, leaving Charlie in a panic and a wool rug Jackson Pollocked into its new life. A couple intense and immediate washings was not going to pull the color out, so the rug went into storage until I could figure out another use for it, or buy wool dye to dye it another color.
The other use came to mind quickly and in a rash decision I went out and bought chocolate brown Rit dye. With my fibers degree, yes, I knew better than to invest in Rit, so I rationalized bought 2 boxes. The brown came out a medium tone, nothing close to chocolate, but nice enough to move forward with the plan: shaggy floor pillows. Amazingly enough, I'd imagined storing them under the new bench. Casually, you know, like in a magazine. Then I stumbled upon that picture and knew I was on the right track.

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