Decorating ADD

I feared this day would come.

I am a visual person.  However, I find it difficult to visualize things I haven't seen before.  Hence, Pinterest is my decorating savior.  It's so much less likely that you'll be unhappy with the results if you can see a picture of it beforehand.  And so far, I have been quite happy with how most of the projects around our house are turning out.  We've been in this house for over 10 months and I haven't wanted to change or get rid of any of the improvements we've done so far.

If this seems unremarkable to you, that's good.  Count yourself among the lucky, the normal.

I have long accused my mom of having decorating ADD.  When I was in my late teens, my mom bought a couch.  And after it had been in our home for a day, she decided she didn't like it.  So they got a new couch.  About 15 months later, she changed the couch again.  Late-teens-me just couldn't understand why she needed to keep changing couches.  Late-teens-me wouldn't really care what a couch looked like, so long as it was comfortable.  If you ask her, my mom will swear up and down that it was really only two couches involved in this scenario, not three.  I remember three.  Whatever, it's beside the point.  Since then, I have teased her about having decorating ADD.  And I promised myself that I would never be so fickle.

Famous last words.  Just like countless women before me, I am turning into my mother.

And in offense to late-teens-me, I kind of like it.

A couple of weeks ago I was in the kitchen getting a soda out of the fridge.  I looked out into the living room where Steve was sprawled on the couch with the dogs, laughing at an episode of Burn Notice.  I looked into our dining room where Steve's modeling supplies were spread out on the dining table.  And it occurred to me that even though I love the way both of those room are looking, they feel too... old.  A little too formal and stiff, somehow.   When we are home, yes we are quiet and introverted, but we also make fart jokes.  We will lure the dogs down the hallway and then jump out at them when they least expect it just to watch them startle (Indy loves this game- it's like the canine version of peek-a-boo to him).  We've been having 30 second dance parties since before Liz Lemon made it cool.  We wear things around the house that are totally unacceptable in public.  We deliver terrible one-liners with the sole purpose of trying to gross each other out.  We make up songs and sing them loudly (read: badly).  We work on models and laugh at TV shows and let our dogs up on the couch.

Listen, despite our introverted need to be away from society to recharge our mental and emotional batteries, we are weird, nerdy, crass, vibrant, fun-loving people.  And the main part of our house feels like that nondescript guy from your Tuesday/Thursday ride-share lives there with his nondescript wife.  Our decorating would tell you that we are people who value a calm, cozy, sophisticated space.  But there is nothing in either of those rooms to signal how much FUN we have in this house doing nothing in particular but being in it together.

It was a revelation to me.  Pinterest had helped me identify decor and styles I loved, but it didn't help me bring the character of our relationship to the space.  And that's half the fun of going to other peoples' houses, seeing what their spaces say about the people who live there.  Dang.

Fun and whimsy are a little overdue.  But since both of those rooms are moving on towards "done," I don't want to change out anything major.  And I definitely don't want to spend much money.  Steve is generous towards me about finances, but I don't want him to feel like he needs to cut me off before I impulse-buy a fainting couch (Betty Draper, much?).  So I think the easiest way to up the fun factor without breaking the bank will be with textile sand accents.  Pillows, drapes, some kitsch.  The wheels are already turning....

Changing your mind is fun!!