Your Decorating Hotline

As many of you know, I’m in the midst of a major move – from Arizona to Washington - and in addition to the weather and views out my window, one of the major changes is in my home. After sharing some of the favorite things about my Arizona house not long ago (you can read Cindy and my comments about our homes here), now I have a whole new place to adjust to and make my own.

Choosing a House

When we found out we were moving, I came up to Seattle to house hunt. As you know, often a piece of furniture is purchased to fit a specific wall space, a specific room or to work well with another piece of furniture. When you change homes, it’s sometimes hard to keep those arrangements. Room sizes differ, window placements are different, etc. But, there are some things that are “must-haves” and we had our list.

New kitchen view.

I have a “bookcase wall” of 5 bookcases (requiring over 14 feet of uninterrupted wall space!), we have a large screen TV needing at least a 5′ corner, we have a king bed and a monster armoire that’s tough to get upstairs, we need a workable home office space, etc. Home after home was eliminated because one of these major needs wasn’t met. Then I found the perfect place and am now beginning the process of adapting our existing furnishings to a new environment. Luckily this time we’re working with a larger home rather than trying to shoehorn into a smaller home, but it’s still challenging.

New living space with room for 4 bookcases and TV space to right of fireplace.

Biggest drawback to our new home? Stairs. After 10 years without any, going up and down multiple times a day provides a definite workout. I’d forgotten how things stack at the base of the stairs waiting for someone to carry them up. Stairs, yuck. (Luckily the movers muscled that armoire up those stairs!)

A Few Before Photos

Accessory central.

I’ve written/shown before how I tackle decorating my wall of bookshelves (read my bookshelf decor tips here). I like a mix of accessories and books for a lively and interesting wall. However, this is definitely accessory overkill. We had lots of high potshelf ledges in the old house and none in this house. So, lots of extra doodads – guess that will inspire me to change things out occasionally. And all those boxes are books. Hmmmm, maybe it’s time to edit?

The office space in this home is outstanding! It might be my favorite room in the house, which is good since I spend so much time in it. It’s spacious and bright and has a delightfully green view out the windows. But…..there’s no storage in the room. Lots of storage in the home, just none in this room. So that’s my first challenge – figure out a way to attractively store unattractive office stuff. Here’s a sneak peek ‘before’ shot.

My office space - I get to look out this big window!

What am I going to do with all this stuff?

I’ll continue to share my journey as I figure out what goes where and how to make old pieces work in a new home. Have any of you gone through this challenging exercise recently? How did you solve the “what goes where” questions? Any tips for us on how to make a move easier? I’m all ears!