June 3, 2003

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  Holy Huckleberry Pie, Batman!

  
  

  That bedroom sure is

  
  

  

  
  

  BLUE!

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  much brighter, and well, blue-er than it looks in this photo

  
  

  I got the base coat of paint on the walls today. It is cornflower blue, satin finish. Nope, it isn’t staying this color, this is just the beginning of a much fancier faux finish…

  
  

  It’s raining again so the base coat will require overnight drying because of the humidity. Tomorrow I will be ragging on a glaze of a dark, sort of muted blue. Not quite a navy, with just a touch of purplish tint…one of those hard to describe colors. Anyway, it should give a rich, almost lacy texture and both darken and tone down the color. After the glaze goes on, I will be painting the baseboard in the same dark blue color as the glaze, only solid.

  
  

  Then I am going to step back, take a good long look and decide how to proceed from there, depending on how it looks in the room. I will most likely be highlighting it with one or two more coats of glaze, but I am not sure exactly what colors. I am thinking in terms of a metallic, with maybe a lighter highlight color (either light blue or silvery grey) first. The trouble here is that I prefer silver or copper, but the curtain rod hardware I just got is an antique gold, as are two lamps I have for this room. So I need to decide if I want to combine 2 or 3 different metallics…

  
  

  History

  
  

  I haven’t written much about how I have been arriving at the design plans for the rooms I am redoing in the house. It has taken a lot of thought and planning, and is a part of a larger process I am involved in, of taking inventory of what is really important in my life and focusing on those things that enrich my spirit and create harmony and positive energy in our lives. This is more than just a renovation and redecorating project, it is a part of a cleansing and clearing process which is going on in all aspects of our lives.

  
  

  If you have been reading my blogs for a while, you know that this house was built by my parents and grandfather in 1950, and I have lived here virtually all my life. And that my mom died of cancer in 1980 and my dad pretty much lost interest in everything and let the house fall into major disrepair. I have explained that my husband and I lived in the basement for about 12 years until my dad moved into my step moms house and then we moved upstairs, with a verbal agreement to rent-to-own the house. You also probably know that my dad passed away in the fall and we just officially gained ownership of the house when Bernie and I bought it from “the estate” (= my brother and I) the beginning of this month.

  
  

  Stuff and Treasures

  
  

  I have written about the accumulation of stuff in this house from all the years my family lived here. The Garage Project I have been working on all winter has consisted largely of sorting through and removing this accumulation, and my dad’s mechanic tools, old car parts and things. But you may have missed the part about how I had a retail business for 12 years, and when I closed it in 1999, I brought home the contents of my (1000 square foot) store. You also probably don’t know that in addition to the household things I inherited from my grandparents (on both sides) Bernie also moved in his apartment full of stuff when he moved in with me (in 1987), and later the contents of first his mother’s apartment and then all of his brother’s stuff when they both passed away (in 1991 and 1995, respectively)

  
  

  That’s a lot of stuff. And among all of the odds and ends and things we may one day need, and the stuff we just never got around to throwing out, are some real treasures. We all have treasures. Those things that really make us happy. The things of value, either actually, by merit of being materially valuable, antique, or whatever, or personally, by being useful to us or having symbolic or sentimental associations. These treasures are as unique and individual as our fingerprints, and not even necessarily recognizable as such to anyone but ourselves.

  
  

  But what do we usually end up doing with these treasures? We lose them in a sea of stuff. Often they end up packed away somewhere waiting for us to figure out what to do with them. Every now and then one comes to the surface and we say “awww” and it gets buried again. Or else they just end up being part of the furnishings. Unceremoniously plopped here and there in the house. Not living up to their potential, so to speak. They become part of the baggage, part of the mess, part of the just too many things! factor complicating our lives.

  
  

  Changes

  
  

  I wrote not too long ago about the psychological need for changing things in the house so it feels like our own and not like we are living in my parents house, somehow “stuck in time”. And I have always been aware of the need to psychically clean house now and then, moving things around to release the psychic residue and stagnant vibes trapped in the environment around us. I have also identified the need to simplify our lives and our environment, to cut down on the mental and psychic “noise” interfering with our potential for harmony and true happiness.

  
  

  This became blatantly obvious to me a few years ago when we had been planning on selling this house, rather than staying and buying it from my dad, because Bernie thought we couldn’t afford to stay here. He wanted to move into a mobile home. I looked around at all the stuff and nearly had a nervous breakdown.

  
  

  A Plan

  
  

  So I developed a plan. Find places for everything. If it doesn’t have a place, find it a place, or find it a new home. No more cardboard boxes. No more piles of stuff in the corners. Make it easy for the good energy to flow through the house and also make it easy for us to move when the time comes. I studied Feng Shui, and found out that a lot of the blockages in our lives corresponded directly with the parts of the house where the most clutter was. So much so, it was uncanny.

  
  

  When we first moved up from the basement, it was essentially the beginning of transforming the house from “my parents’ house” to “our house” It was the first round of clearing out and settling in. Partly because this house was built in a 1950′s/60′s style, with low ceilings and small windows, and very little built in lighting. Partly because it is surrounded by lots of shade trees, and constructed of cinder blocks, and partly because my mom had always favored dark colors in floor coverings and furnishings, plus heavy draperies and Venetian blinds on all the windows, this house has always been dark.

  
  

  After living in the basement for 12 years, and going through a rough time in my business (which rubbed off on our marriage) we were both craving light and the clearing of energy. So out went a lot of the old furniture my dad left here, and those Venetian blinds and heavy drapes. I painted all the rooms that we would be using in very light colors, actually all tints from a palette called “glacier whites” that Behr Paint had at that time. They were technically all white but there was just enough of a hint in color to give a slightly different feel to the various rooms. I changed an old, inefficient overhead lighting fixture in the kitchen to a ceiling fan with 4 lights. Switched the kitchen drapes to lace curtains. Nice and bright and airy. Did similar things throughout our living space. It really felt like the energy in the house changed. Like it woke up or came alive somehow.

  
  

  That was about 4 or 5 years ago. Since we never were sure if we were staying or moving, it felt like we never really moved in completely. Bernie didn’t want to spend any more money than we absolutely had to on stuff for the house because we might decide to move at any time. I was in serious financial trouble with the failure of my business and couldn’t contribute much in that area either. Still can’t. But now we are committed to staying here. And I can sure put a lot of time and energy into the house even if I can’t contribute much to the budget.

  
  

  Transitions

  
  

  I strongly believe that we are always, at any given time in our life, pretty much where we should be. It is up to us to find and learn, or choose to ignore (and therefore often repeat) the lessons that exist therein for us. I think the transitional period we have been going through was what we needed at the time. Bernie and I have changed and grown a lot over the past few years, both individually and in our relationship together. We have both been through experiences which emphasized the importance of focusing on the things that are important in our lives, and letting go of the rest. As we have gotten older, we have mellowed, and I guess we just don’t have the energy we used to have, to constantly be swimming upstream against the current.

  
  

  I think the house has also been right where it needed to be, figuratively speaking. It has been going through transitions itself. The house is experiencing its own growth, more or less, as we are fixing it up, making improvements and changing things to suit us, rather than to just continuing to be the way they have always been for the sake of being the way they have always been. The “blank white walls period” has been a sort of psychic cleansing for the house and also given us a blank canvas to contemplate our next plan of action.

  
  

  A Re-defined (or Refined) Plan

  
  

  In the course of sorting through all of the stuff we have accumulated over the years, it struck me that it was a total shame that often our treasures are stored away, while things that have little or no meaning to us take up the most space and have the most exposure in our lives. In the process of thinning out the excess stuff I have become quite expert at looking at things with new eyes. How much am I attached to this? What purpose does it serve in my life? If it is important to me, one of my “treasures”, am I making use of it, doing it justice by allowing it to fulfill its potential to enrich my life?

  
  

  This attitude toward my surroundings, honoring the true nature of even the most mundane, the divinity, so to speak, in everyday objects, has led me to the next step in my continuing journey. We all define ourselves to a certain extent by the place we live and the things we own. We shape them, and they shape us. Who we are is reflected in what we save (or don’t save) and what we choose to surround ourselves with. but most of us are not conscious of this fact. I have been continuing with my “finding a place for everything” mission, but have stepped it up a notch by consciously surrounding us with our personal treasures, and finding ways to utilize the things we really like in our living space, while discarding those things which serve no purpose and have no meaning.

  
  

  Personal Icons

  
  

  And I have gone on even further, by choosing the most important items, and using them as starting points, icons, more or less, around which I am planning the interior design and decor of the rooms in the house. For each room, I am analyzing the function and what our expectations are. How can this room help to nurture, to renew, to energize, harmonize, and facilitate a greater realization of our potential as individuals and a family? What do we expect from this room and how can we help it give it to us? Which of our treasures belong here, and what can we use to furnish the room?

  
  

  Once I have decided that, everything else is falling into place. I have been craving richer colors (as evidenced by that very blue bedroom) probably as I am approaching a greater understanding of what I need. The white were a blank canvas, and now the picture is beginning to form. Once I decide what I am designing the rooms around, then I figure out what other furnishings are needed to make the room functional. Then I go through the stuff we have on hand and see if anything will suit those purposes, either as is, or with modifications.

  
  

  When I get a chance to take more photos, I will post pictures of the items/icons that are going in this bedroom and explain how I have made the particular choices for the room. (yes, even those blue walls!) It is by far my most complete and detailed vision in the household projects so far, mainly because it is my own space and I have free reign to do anything I want there. But I don’t intend to stop with this space…I have plans forming for the rest of the house, too! 

  
  

  Furnishings (more projects)

  
  

  My master plan for this bedroom is going to involve a lot of modification of things I already have and the construction of one or two new pieces. Oh yeah, and the purchase of a bed. I haven’t got a bed. (note of explanation: I have been spending the nights in the living room in the rocking chair or on the daybed, and sleeping in Bernie’s room on the good mattress after he leaves for work in the morning. We absolutely can’t sleep together. It just doesn’t happen and we both end up grouchy and cranky if we try. With my sleep disorder, I never could keep normal hours anyway. This is part of the reason why I am working on my very own bedroom. in other words, we have a rather unusual marriage.)

  
  

  A key piece of furniture I plan on building is a low storage bench that will run along the length of the bed and also serve as a step/sleeping platform for the dogs (they need steps to get on and off the bed, so they don’t hurt themselves jumping so far – that is how a lot of toy dogs end up with broken bones or worse!) It will be painted in the dark blue of the baseboard, the top padded with part of an old foam mattress I have sitting in my living room right now, upholstered with the dark blue fabric I picked up last weekend – a damask with an ivy motif – and stenciled on the sides with a rose and ivy garland in a two-tone metallic. Should be gorgeous and functional as well.

  
  

  I also plan to upholster the top of an old chest I have, using the same foam and fabric, to go under the window at the foot of the bed as a window seat. This chest has been with me since I was a baby. It was actually a discarded piece my mom picked up for my room when I was born, and even though it isn’t anything really special, it is a nice storage unit and a very versatile size and shape. It was in my shop as part of the fixtures for 12 years, was in the living room for a while, and now it is in Bernie’s room.

  
  

  I have a small rocking chair, one of my personal treasures, that my mom used for rocking me as an baby. It is going to go in the corner of the bedroom, but it needs to be refinished and reupholstered too. I may build an ottoman to go with it. I have another piece to reupholster, a seat to go at my vanity. It is a really ugly square naugahyde covered storage footstool thing that used to be with my mom’s sewing machine. I nearly threw it out, but since I have no seat to go with the vanity, I decided to transform it. More later on that. (can’t tell you everything at once) And I have a unfinished mahogany table/plant stand that needs to be finished. It, too, has a story.

  
  

  So I guess when I am done with the walls, It will be time to move to the garage to build strip and paint furniture, and the sewing machine for fabric work…

  
  

  But now, its time for me to get some rest. Tomorrow I get to play with faux finish glazing, and maybe I will even find time to go out bed shopping!

  
  

  Bye for now!  Thanks for visiting!

  
  

   

  
  

  I want to mention a movie I watched on cable the other night. I will post the link. It was really powerful stuff. Intensely good acting, powerful thematic material and imagery. Based loosely on a real character and real events. One of those films that sticks in your mind for a few days after…

  • 10:44 pm
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