It seems there are perpetual stacks of clutter waiting to be sorted, cleaned, stored, or thrown out. Clean clutter. The kind that accumulates when you are packing or unpacking; getting ready for a trip or digging out from under the stuff you brought home. And, I cart way too much stuff with me wherever I go, accumulating more even as I distribute the gifts and return the borrowed items.
This time I'm supposed to be home for a week. The good news is that we originally had planned a 2+ week road trip with CA ending in Central Illinois for his mom's shoulder replacement (which I'd mis-heard (been mis-informed-?) was to be a rotator cuff repair) and me ending in Michigan with my sister, JL. We've had some good spring days together in the past few years visiting nurseries and planning our perennial beds and annual blooms.
Anyway, sometime during our week at the beach we decided to head straight home for a few overnights before going our separate directions. CA was home for two nights and I managed four in a row. It was a gift. We had so many responsibilities and balls-in-the-air the weeks prior to leaving for the beach, and it felt so good to re-center ourselves in our home environment with some time to connect the dots, make the phone calls, and clean up between the journeys. We both arrived home late yesterday afternoon, and the clutter is definitely our stinking-like-a-fish-after-three-days house guest.
Of course rather than planting the new perennials in our newly cleaned-up landscape beds this morning, I convinced CA to move some furniture around... Sneeze, cough, blow your nose. Where does the dust come from? I distinctly remember a thorough cleaning not too long ago.
This is where we're starting from in the master bedroom.
Many of the changes DV is suggesting are contingent on other projects, so timing is imperative. While we were able to begin to re-arrange the master bedroom as she suggested, we have not yet ordered the new twin beds that will comprise a much lower-profile king bed configuration than our existing tester queen (with too tall mattress). We can already appreciate that our bedroom appears much larger; can almost imagine how the visual space will open up when we move the tester bed upstairs and our bed is an appropriate height.
We moved the armoire that holds storage baskets and our smallish flat-screen along the same wall to the other side of the bathroom door, on a 45˚angle, as DV suggested--freeing up the space at the foot of our bed. We first thought we wanted the armoire flat against the smaller wall section, but quickly realized that the angle allowed for a visual appreciation of a lovely piece of furniture. The decorator knows best.
And, the two natural pine 4-drawer chests we used as nightstands now exist side-by-side with our smaller tables serving as nightstands. This allows for several improvements: a) our plantation shutters are now fully operational, not blocked by the nightstands; b) we have the option of putting our flat-screen back into the armoire (after we move the cable connection) or on top of the wide-expanse created by these side-by-side chests; c) CA's clutter ends up behind the closed-door on his nightstand instead of on the floor and around his chest of drawers; d) once the new beds are in-place I get to shop for a better nightstand for my side; and, e) the sight-lines for t.v. viewing are vastly improved. To be completely clear here, CA usually lays across the bed with his body in a semi-twisted position in order to be able to watch t.v. in our bedroom, and we virtually never watch t.v. when we're in bed at night.
The wing-back chair is destined for the new morning room (ex-dining room) and we can already tell that my beloved leather recliner will fit nicely into the corner of our bedroom. The leather is wearing well, and I can envision the chair as an excellent addition to our bedroom. It looks comfortable, well-loved, and appropriate. Just can't move it in yet until the 60" round table in our dining room finds a new home, making way for the two wing back chairs.
We're getting our heads wrapped around our redecorating plans, realizing we have to move slowly and have a number of things in-place before we hire the guys to move the furniture around the house for us. And, I'm making some additional decisions about what gets re-purposed and what gets replaced.
This is a HUGE PROJECT, which we'll work through as we can afford, taking our time--with the help of DV--to get it right.
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