Five Decorating Principles From One Little Chair
There’s nothing like a little dose of January to bring on the urge to re-vamp, re-arrange, or re-decorate. It’s the perfect time of year to evaluate your decor & freshen things up a little. And if the budget’s still a little tight from all the Christmas shopping, that just leaves all the more opportunity to get creative with what you already have & make it work for you.
That’s pretty much what I did last week when the Christmas decor came down & the living room was left with a Christmas-tree sized empty space in the corner. After brainstorming & shopping the house a little bit, I remembered a chair I had in the basement storage that’s been waiting for me to get up the nerve to re-upholster it. And when I brought it up & got it in place, it was the perfect touch I was wanting in the living room & the perfect reminder of some basic decorating principles.
1. Shop where the deals are. Thrift stores & yard sales are a creative decorator’s dream. I found my chair for $8 at a yard sale this past summer. I wasn’t even sure where I would use it at the time, but a deal is a deal, & sometimes you should buy even if you don’t know what you’ll do with it right away. (It’s advice like this that financial advisors tell you to run from.) But consider this–when you can buy a decent piece of furniture for roughly the same price as a Venti cup of Starbucks, buy it. If all else fails, turn a profit later by selling it on Craigslist.
2. Don’t limit yourself to Plan A. As I mentioned, my Plan A for this chair was to eventually re-upholster it for the library. I even have the perfect fabric already purchased & ready to go. And I still may do that eventually. But for now, I need an extra seat in the living room, so Plan B it is. Before going out & searching for that something you need, don’t forget to search what you already have. That certain something you’re looking for may already be in your house. (Remember this mirror?)
3. Don’t forget to accessorize. The real reason this chair works for me in our living room is because of the accessories. I mean, in all honesty, this thing is like a chameleon in our living room on its own…
Can you even see it? It just blends right in!
7 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
January 6, 2012 @ 2:46 am
Excellent lessons! I love the chair…can't believe it was $8 – what a steal! Thanks for sharing your tips.
maxwellhouseinteriors.blogspot.com
January 6, 2012 @ 1:17 pm
Great post as always, Julie! Love the chair and can't believe you bought it for $8. I agree with what you said about buy it when you see it and find a place for it later!
January 6, 2012 @ 1:33 pm
Love this post and truly enjoy reading your blog. My sister-in-law taught me these two items:
1. If you have a choice between small and big, get big (wall accessories)
2. Think of at least 2 or 3 places to use it so if it doesn't work in the first place, it probably will in the 2nd or 3rd and the money won't be wasted.
January 8, 2012 @ 4:29 am
Love it! I picked up two chairs today for the same reason…they were too good to pass up and I know I can make them beautiful again!
http://www.craftyimaginings.blogspot.com
January 9, 2012 @ 6:19 am
What an easy yet effective way to spruce up a boring chair! Have a lovely day, Kellie xx
January 10, 2012 @ 7:19 am
LOVE it! Lol I just went 'shopping' in our storage shed! We moved to a much smaller space and I just needed something NEW after taking all the Christmas down and I was surprised in a good way about all the things we had that I'd forgotten about! Absolutely WONDERFUL tips!
January 18, 2012 @ 4:52 am
You're my kind of girl – you can't pass us a great thrift shop chair! It is adorable and I love that it can move around the house! Following along now and glad to have found you!
Kelly