For the long weekend this week, I've basically decided to do nothing other than read, watch films and do nothing. Things have just been far too hectic for the last while and I've been getting overwhelmed so it was time to consciously spend time doing as close to nothing as possible and leaving all the other stuff behind. I did have a small burst of energy this morning however and so I spent a half an hour moving some furniture around. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and I wanted to see what it would look like.
'Scuse the mess in most of these photos - as this was a spontaneous rearranging of furniture the photos are honest to goodness candid ones. This level of mess may be very stressful for some of you to see but for me, it's such a big improvement on how I was in my old place (and getting better all the time, actually) that it feels pretty good. And excuse the quality of photos, some even blurrier than my usual.
This is the end of the living room beside the balcony with the couch (also guest bed) and my two armchairs. I really don't need two armchairs but one is the final one from the three-piece suite I took from my parents' house and although I hate the cover (I will get it recovered one day), I really love it to sit in. The other chair is one a friend gave to me when she was moving a few years ago and needed to downsize. I'd always admired it when I visited and couldn't bring myself to refuse it. Anyway, at some stage I thought it would be nice to have an armchair in my bedroom, to curl up in and read, and to free up a bit of space here.
Here are another two photos of the rest of this room. I deliberately took them in such a way that you can easily see where one bit ends and the next begins - it's a nicely sized but not huge room and although I could do with getting rid of some more stuff, I'm not quite there yet. One step at a time.
The nice cabinet hasn't quite been finished either and stuff is a bit higgledy-piggledy in it. I plan to paint it red but got sick and tired of painting last year and put that on hold. Also started dithering between bright red or dark red. Opinions on that issue welcome. (It's actually a fairly flimsy, pretty damaged piece that I bought for 20 euro second hand so I'm not feeling any "painting would be such a mistake for this beautiful piece of furniture" issues at all.
And this is the middle part, which functions as my work space. You can see the table (the stuff on the table is mostly stuff I moved out of the way to be able to move the chair), and the edge of the will-someday-be-red cabinet. Next to that is my writing desk (with red floor protector for the chair to sit on), and beside that you can see the armchair. That should all give you an idea of the amount of space.
However, since I was still toying with the idea several months later, I decided it was at least worth trying.
This is the still-unpacked side of the bedroom, on the other side of the bed. As happens, over the course of the last six months or so the neatly stacked moving boxes seem to have attracted a layer of stuff on top.
I know I'm going to be fairly busy for the next couple of weeks but I think once we get into May, with hopefully less rainy weather, I'm going to move these boxes out to the balcony and paint/varnish the cupboard before unpacking it all. There has been a bit of a change of plan though and it's one of those things that proves yet again how you sometimes have to live in a space for a while before making final decisions on things.
Over the winter, however, I realised that these cupboards back onto heating pipes of some kind next door. I put a thermometer in them for a while and they were regularly over 20C, which is just too hot for decent food storage. So, now I'm thinking the jars will go into the cupboard in the bedroom, and the material, yarn, and other crafting supplies, currently still in boxes, will go into these built-in cupboards in the hallway.
Even more reason to varnish or paint that cupboard really well - at the moment the wood is completely porous so if a jar ever leaked (it happens), I'd never get the stain or smell out of the wood. So, that's the plan for now. We'll see how it works out.
One final photo now, of the living room after moving the blue armchair into the bedroom. I'm not entirely happy yet and suspect I'll end up moving this chair around a bit until a find an angle that I like. Or maybe I'll give up on having the footstool there at all (although I do love to use it).
By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the couch could go lengthways along the wall rather than the window (I'd need to shift the desk an inch or so to the left to make space) but there is not enough room to have a chair opposite it without blocking the door out to the balcony. No "after" photos of the bedroom or the other end of the living room yet though. I want to wait, live with it a while and maybe even get photos of a neat and tidy space to show you. So that's it for now. Would love to hear what you think of it all.
4 comments:
Love the red couch and also love the look after you moved the chair...it makes an amazing difference in the perception of space and flow! Is it an option to match the red of the couch to the paint for the cabinet? And maybe pick that same red out in some wall hangings or more carpet spots?
It's a small area to work with but has a lovely light, airy feel throughout. Great to see a look inside the other end of the blog!
I want to recreate the same kind of red/white/black theme in the hallway that I had in my last place. Just never worked very well in my last place because I never got around to painting over the horrible terracotta colour on the walls. Thankfully all the walls here are white. So, I had already hung the Igor Levashov tulip poster I have (this one, it's a much brighter red than it looks on my monitor here), as well as the keep calm and carry on poster someone gave me. And I have a red lampshade that I will be using there. The only furniture is a black cupboard (you can see the cupboard and the lampshade, sort of, in the second picture in this old post: https://livingthesimplelifeiwant.blogspot.de/2013/11/hall-before.html). And I have another frame with three photos of red roses that a florist once gave me as a thank-you gift.
The hallway leads directly into the sitting room. It's quite narrow, just the width of the front door. When you open the front door you're looking down the hallway and directly at the cabinet I want to paint. So red just seemed the perfect choice. Apart from the fact that it would be a vibrant, lively colour, which is what I wanted to have in my new place, I thought it would tie the hallway in nicely to the sitting room. It was when it occurred to me that the couch is also red that I started having doubts, and wondering would it be too much red. I wasn't even thinking about any of that when I ordered the floor protector, just thought the red was nicer than the lime green one. :)
I could always paint it yellow, which would also be vibrant and lively, but I'm inclined to stick with my first instinct for red.
I actually preferred the 2 armchairs in front of the sofa as it creates a cozy conversation/reading space and the sofa fits the space well along the balcony windows. Matching up the red from the sofa is a sound idea - it's a very nice red, sort of a medium tone, bright instead of dark. I've been in my condo for 22 years and I'm still rearranging!! There may come a time when my daughter moves out (please God!) and then I will be able to fix up her room as a spare bedroom/hobby room so I'll be able to expand a little.
I love the chair remaining with the sofa. I would paint the cabinet red, a dark red or a red that would go with the sofa, blend not match.
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