Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Family Room Reveal and A Story

   

Where do I begin? I guess at the beginning……..

There was once a family room, a very nice family room. “ It is just not ME!” said the magical girl that saw pictures of rooms in her head……

Family room summer look May 2011 026 (800x600)_thumb[6]

You see this girl had a plan, an ongoing plan for many years. She was just waiting for the right time to start the ball rolling.

She only had a few obstacles, time, money, and an unwilling in-house handyman to make her vision come to fruition.

She would drop hints of her desired plan along the way for several years, until one day the in-house handyman was willing to go forward with her plan.

First this sofa had to be changed out from this……..

mantel for Linda 003 (800x600)


To This………
new sofa in room 008 (800x600)
She had waited a verrrry long time to get her blue and white ticking sofa. She had her ottoman rebuilt to her design specifications, and recovered to use as an ottoman, or a coffee table.

Of course a new rug had to be chosen, and this girl just knew a black and white striped rug would be perfect for her. 

Many did not agree in the house, but she realized they did not understand her vision.

You see this girl has magical powers, she has visions, visions of entire rooms beautifully decorated.

Next there just had to be changes made to the mantel………

mantel for Linda 002
The antique Victorian over-mantel was no longer going to work with the new clean lines, and fresh look of the future family room so……..

The Dismantling of the Mantel began……….

mantel collage
Up the ladder her in-house handyman went ,and then the mantels fancy top came down.

After a lot of planning, and stacking of moldings the girl and the handyman agreed, this was a cleaner, fresher look for the new family room…

Mantel dismantel 004 (800x490)
Now the Victorian lighting is all wrong so we have to come up with a solution. Since the girl has a vision she  knows the look she wants, but has to do a trial, and error on three lights…..

three choices
There was a clear winner in her mind, and yet she still had some in the house that did not agree.

She stuck to her vision and the lights went up………

black sconces 001 (784x800)
By now the new white chairs had been added along with a re-do of an existing small arm chair in a darling buffalo check…..
new sofa in room 012 (600x800)
The girl’s smile was getting bigger and bigger with each new piece.

Next there had to be some changes made to the brick on the fireplace wall.

Now this is where we had a bit of a pause in the story. 

You see the live-in handyman had a deep spiritual tie to the brick. The girl found out it was against his religion in the handyman world to paint brick!

Oh dear this is a big problem for the girl so she comes up with an alternative plan.

He is willing to move forward with this plan. The side panels of brick will be covered with a wainscoting treatment……

wainscoting and mirror 007 (800x600)wainscoting and mirror 008 (800x600)

There were new accessories arriving……

MIRRORS

new mirrors 004 (800x600)
Uh-Oh! Too much going on with the existing floor lamps. Something has to change.

Meanwhile the live-in handyman is busy working on making the mantel look just like the girl wants, except for one detail…

The brick around the fireplace opening….

 He decides to sit a spell and ponder what to do next?

Pillows are arriving, a new lamp to go in front of the new bright white mirrors arrives, and it is perfect in the girls eyes…..

family room, blue jay and flowers 007

apothecary lamp 002 (600x800)
The live-in handyman even painted an existing side table navy blue for the girl, trying to make her happy…...

Blue end table 001


Blue end table 017 (800x600)

Everything is looking just like the picture the girl had in her head except the last bit of brick!!

THEN……….
A design miracle occurs!!

The ever so handy live-in handyman finally sees the girls vision…..

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apothecary lamp 004

So my dear friends we have gone from this.…
Family room summer look May 2011 026 (800x600)_thumb[6]pod pillows 005 (800x594)

And from this to this……..
mantel for Linda 002 (600x800)_thumb[9]
pod pillows 003 (800x600)_thumb[2]

To finally arrive to a much awaited destination to the picture of the room in the girls magical head……

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Now to most this story would be over, but there is still more to come.

For some reason the magical girl that sees pictures in her head has a few more ideas to be added!!
As always …………..


A special thank you to all of you who have followed along with this long journey. I so appreciate your reading, your in-put and your compliments. You all made this journey a lot more fun for this magical girl who sees pictures in her head, and for her live-in handyman.