My Own Worst Enemy / Family Room Sneak Preview

One of the things that has surprised me about “going pro” is that I get much more excited about decorating other people’s homes than I do my own. And we are building a new house!

Don’t get me wrong, I do like being able to have control over the process, but there are two big barriers that come up time and again. One is chronic indecision. It is way easier for a designer to narrow down choices for a client than for themselves. I think this might be because we know the things we see at design centers, in shelter magazines and on the web are just the tip of the iceberg – there’s always something else out there, what if I haven’t found “it” yet? The other issue is obvious: time. When clients pay you to decorate their homes, it goes without saying that this work will always take priority over yours. Personal projects always fall to the bottom of the list. In short, when it comes to decorating our home, I am my own worst enemy.

Fortunately, I’m happy to report that I am starting to make some progress on moving beyond the ‘bones’ of our house. I’m prioritizing and going more or less room-by-room to make it a more manageable process. The family room is at the top of that list, since it’s the room we spend the most time in (followed closely by the master bedroom – more on that to come). Here is a little sneak preview of some of the fabrics I’ve finally decided upon for the family room!

We’re going to have a large L-shaped sectional (light green herringbone), an arm chair (both the stripe and teal diamond/chevron), and a big square ottoman (also light green herringbone) with a flat top that we can use as a coffee table when we need to (with trays, of course). I am planning to put a sofa table behind the sectional (still deciding which side of the “L”), but I haven’t found what I’m looking for just yet. I found the perfect rug, too, for my “color story” in this space…

So, progress is being made! Now that I have made all of the big decisions in the family room, I’m moving on to focus on the master bedroom and living room. For the former, we have a bed and a mattress on order – and that’s about it. But I am pretty excited about our new bed (king size – woo hoo!). It’s the Helaine bed from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.

There’s just something about sleeping in a new bed, with a new mattress and crisp, new sheets that I am really looking forward to! I’m tossing around a lot of ideas for seating, window treatments, bedding and an area rug. So many decisions! I am having fun with it, and I know I shouldn’t complain. But if I were an actual client, my house would probably be done by now (the interiors, I mean – still waiting for the house itself to be finished, of course)!