Lately I have been striving to better myself and my home in various ways. I put myself back on Weight Watchers, and added in 3-5 days per week of exercise.
I have streamlined our homeschooling curriculum, and also applied to be a product reviewer (watch for upcoming news on that!). I managed to get my home
somewhat organized in December. Now, as I look around at the very early 90′s color scheme of my home (which was that way when we bought it), I want to
pluck my eyeballs out do something about it. I need to do something about it. I can’t stand it any more!
Don’t believe me? I mean, what could be SO BAD about early 90′s anyway? Well, check out the pictures and you will see home highlights from my home.
MAJOR ISSUES:
Teal carpet. Actually this is everywhere in the house. Teal even in the vinyl floors too.
Hunter green & pink master bath. To the right is a vanity area with a 6′ long pink counter.
Aqua shades
Aqua vertical blinds at the back slider, which no longer open or close.
Shell pink floor to almost ceiling shades in the VERY small dining room. FIVE of them. Pink!!
Lavender shades in our bedroom.
And last but not least, too many styles of furniture and colors of stain on the wood. NOTHING GOES TOGETHER! See above picture of living room.
Oh, our bedroom. We actually have what they call a Master Suite. Our home is four levels, and the top level is OURS. Bedroom, huge walk-in closet,
dressing area, and bathroom. The only other thing up there is the laundry room closet, and if there was a way to remodel it to be larger
and take away a little bedroom space, I would do it in a heartbeat. Our bedroom is HUGE. And messy most of the time. It has champagne colored carpet,
which was VERY expensive stuff from what we can tell… however it is stained beyond cleaning and just looks icky.
Here is where I am asking for your help. I am also calling on THE NESTER! Why? Because I have been reading
her blog a lot over the past several months and she inspires me. I also think that her window mistreatments look very do-able, though I feel like I need
someone to hold my hand. And I would love to hear what SHE would do with my horrendous colors. 
I’m dyin’ here. I can’t stand the teal. Any. More.
New carpet is out of the question. Getting rid of the cellular shades is out of the question. We live in Eastern Washington, and we need all the
insulation at the windows that we can get during the winter.
If we had the money we would buy new carpet and shades, some new furniture, paint, and decor items, and just go for it…. but
unless anyone out there would like to be so kind as to donate a total house makeover to a homeschooling family living on one income, the mother of which
has no design sense, it all has to be done a little at a time with nickels and dimes. HELP?
Your house is very pretty! My personal suggestion would be to paint a few rooms in bolder colors. NOT BOLD colors, like tacky green and ugly neon yellows or anything, but aim for a medium shade, instead of light. This link is a picture in my livingroom, which the color is called Cozy Beige. Not too dark, but very homey. http://www.flickr.com/photos/46077966@N06/4229775991/
I love looking thru decorating books and sites-lots of inspiration! And since we had to move to a “new” home due to our home burning down last year, I got to try out lots of ideas!
One other thing I like to do-pick one large floral bouquet or center of focus piece in your rooms–much less dusting, and the clear spaces are great for a clear mind too!
It took me five years to talk my husband into off-white, and with the teal carpet there really isn’t any color I COULD use that won’t either clash, or turn my house into blue-green aquariumscape. Ugh. The windows are a huge problem. What to do with them? We have to keep the shades for the insulating factor (and at $1600 to replace, we can’t do that either.) Can I use the slider blind header some other way? Should I just toss that??
Okay, I know you hate teal but maybe you can work with it a teeny bit? Like go for a blue and chocolate brown scheme. You’ll have to work on it piece by piece, but you could recover your couch (or slipcover) in a dark chocolate brown. You could buy a very large area rug in a dark brown (or maybe a modern print with a little bit of blue in it too) that would cover most of the teal carpet and only show a little bit around the edges. You could repaint your woods in either a dark paint or stain OR (I kinda like this idea) a white to lighten up the room with all the dark chocolate browns you’re bringing in. Your window mistreatments can be white and brown and hang over the blue shades, but even if some blue is visible it will still coordinate. Yes, the teal isn’t gone but at least most of it is covered and what is left is yanked out of the 90′s. What do you think?
(For area rugs, you can see if you have a local habitat for humanity resale store, we have one here, and they’ve always had a lot of large area rugs every time I’ve been in there.)
To further pull off the look, you can accessorize and containerize (on your desk, entertainment center, etc) with white, brown and teal or turquoise accessories and storage containers. You can switch out or paint your picture frames (white or chocolate).
Even if you had to do ONE thing (a rug, and then slipcovers, and then curtains) out of each paycheck, it could be done, piece by piece. It’s the way I have to do things around here, too. =\ But it’s doable! =)
Unfortuntately, no, it’s not.
The sectional is less than a year old; recovering is out of the question. The oak furniture was all built by my husband…. who refuses to let me do anything TO it. The entertainment center just needs to GO AWAY. We don’t use it, don’t need it for anything. All the components on the shelf are obsolete and unused. My man’s a stubborn one. I thought about going brown & blue…. but I can’t find anything along those lines with TEAL! I’ve looked, believe me. My thought was to try and tone DOWN all the teal/green/blue. Window mistreatments are a must and I’m chicken. I need help with that! I don’t know what to do with the ugly slider blinds… and the dining room with the huge windows with pink shades! More mistreatments needed there and a creative idea because the room is VERY narrow and there is only 11″ of wall between windows. The windows ARE the walls in the dining room. (Freezing cold in winter and terrarium-like in summer.) I’m hoping The Nester has some creative ideas for me on the dining room.
I feel like such a loser because I can’t decide what to do and I don’t have money to really DO anything either. If I did, the shades and carpet would all be replaced first!! I already have an area rug by the back slider, and the living room is actually not arranged the way it shows in the picture any more. I took the picture before I did the big decluttering December thing.
Hmm…..well, not sure what to suggest about the blinds, but I just have one other idea–do you think you could maybe evaluate what you have on your walls, and decide what you don’t really “love”, and replace some things with large accent pictures or pieces? One large picture, or one large floral arrangement can become a focal point, which may distract you from what you don’t care for. I personally think your carpet is pretty!
Hope you find a solution that is just perfect! My home isn’t perfect, or everything I want it to be yet, but in time….. 