Grown Ups Live Here

We are in the thick of home selling/purchasing. We have been slightly burned – more like singed – recently on a home and are very hesitant to assume all will be what it appears. I’d like to get emotionally attached to the house we just bought considering all the hooplah selling ours has created, but it is what it is.

One thing that has gotten my juices flowing getting excited about the house is the prospect of buying some grown up furniture. Not one piece or a lamp, but a cohesive array of things that will give the illusion that grown ups live in the house… not a mish mosh of what’s been brought from previous homes/lives/garage sales/craigslist shopping. The only problem is I do not know where to start. The good news is we made a little change on our transaction, so we may actually be able to hire a professional swatch wrangler to help us stay focused on what we’re doing.

I walked into a Pier 1 today, sat down, and never wanted to leave. I have always loved that store. It’s fun and eclectic but you don’t have to build anything yourself, and it seems to hold up pretty well.(…??) They also have actual patterns and color! We are a bold bit of family and like our crap to reflect that. I can deal with neutral walls if my furniture was anything like the purple couches at the bottom of this post!

A purple haven. I love purple but cannot handle a room of purple walls. I did that in my 20’s, and that’s where it should stay. We will have very limited outdoor space, so we need the inside of the house to feel open and well lit. Dark cave walls do not give the appearance of tranquility and airiness.

For the last five years or so we’ve used a circular dining room table that has mostly been crammed into a room too small for it. Or too small for the bellies that roll up to it while still fitting within the same four walls as the chairs and table together, rather.

I began searching for dining room sets and realized I have no flippin’ idea what I like. I have no style. I can appreciate a certain type of decor – hello Joanna Gaines – but as far as picking something myself and building an entire room around it, I’m clueless. I have tentatively begun a conversation with a designer who may or may not be able to help me. The fact that we are starting with a burnt orange kitchen and living room wall to change should mean we can only design up, right? How much worse can you go from burnt orange walls with tan carpet?

I have failed to fill my husband in on some of the design choices i’m sharing with the designer. In my mind the paint color will be chosen and the furniture picked out and it will all be wrapped up in a big surprise form of “look what we did, honey!” and then i’ll be on Real Housewives of Seattle. … just as long as it doesn’t land me on Real Homeless Wives of Seattle.

Along with the formal dining room/tandem kids play room to design, i’d like to figure out space puzzles with the kitchen-into-the-living room scenario without using the eat in dining area space. There are counter stools and a counter along with a built in desk. The small floating table blocking the french doors seems like seating area overload to me. .. but I don’t know what else to do with that spot – if anything. And then there are the colors to marry. The family we are buying from really liked color blocking. As I said before, we don’t mind colors, but dayumn! Choose something that can almost be a neutral when painting a vaulted entry way.

I sound like a giant douche bag talking about these spaces in our new house. I really do. I hear it now while proof reading and I’m so sorry. (Proof read, kids. It works) I did not grow up in big fancy houses. In fact, I lived in the same tiny house for 17.5 years. We never moved. Once that started I haven’t stopped. Our house was a modest old 3 bedroom rental and we never underestimated the value of a garage sale. This has carried over, I’m afraid, and as and adult we have only ever had a mish mosh of decor. Aside from our bedroom set which has moved with us to four states, and now 7 houses in the 13 years we’ve had it.

It’s late, I began this as a quick little post six hours ago and now i’m tired. Selling/buying is stressful! Shit goes sideways, follow up has to be done, communication needs to be communicated. One would think it forces a person to be and adult! I, however, laugh in the face of adulting.

But seriously, I NEED that skeleton chair and at least one of those purple couches… right?!