Our retro FAIL living room

I have a confession.

But first, I wanted to thank you all so much for your delightful comments on my Knit it in Flag colors pullover! I was really tickled. I think it's going to be really great this autumn, and I think it needs a nice pair of wide-legged trousers to wear with it! Hopefully this autumn I'll be back in sewing mode, but right now I'm in knitting and decorating mode. :)

Now, onto the confession. You're dying to know, right?

Readers, our living room is one big, huge, FAIL. There, I said it.

As I've mentioned, we're only just starting now, after five months in the Golly Ranch House, to really think about painting and decorating. We've made a few furniture purchases since we've moved that we thought would work out, and we've been trying to make our previous furnishings work since of course we can't go out and buy all new (or old) stuff.

Our living room is long, and much more sizeable than the living room in our condo was. When we moved in, it was a catch-all room for things that didn't fit elsewhere. We setup our television in the den, and first talked about doing a more "formal" sitting room for the living room with no television.

Five months in, we realized this was a stupid idea. This was not us. We can only comfortably sit three adults in the den. So friends over for a movie? Difficult. Not to mention it's a small room, so setting up our Wii (which we don't use a ton, but we'd like to be able to when we do want to) or our turntable isn't possible. Dumb.

We considered swapping the t.v. into the living room, but the fact remains that it's the coldest room in the house (a fact that will not change, though will hopefully eventually be improved by lined pinch pleat drapes). In winter I want the option to be able to cozy up in the warm den to watch a movie. This meant a new t.v. for the living room. We struggled for a bit with being a two television household but whatever. We got over it.

But something else was bugging us about the living room, other than the lack of a t.v. and inability to play any music whatsoever, since of course we didn't bother setting up music in a room we never seemed to use. We were trying to cobble together too many things that didn't work. For awhile, we thought "oh no, art and color on the walls will perk it up". That wasn't it.

Eventually, we faced the fact: our living room is a retro fail. So here I am, airing my dirty retro decorating laundry. This is the living room that we hate.

Incidentally, this week I learned there is actually a time of day I can take semi-decent photos in this room, yahoo!

It's not horrifying, no. Sure, any of the pieces on their own are pretty fabulous. But all together? It doesn't work for us. It's awkward and uncomfortable. It doesn't make us want to hang out in it. Here's why.

• The vintage two-piece sofa. It's a great (dare I say downright stunning) shape, but needs to be reupholstered as the color is faded and gross (a fact that wasn't apparent of course until it was bought and put in the living room). We could get it reupholstered for this room, but it won't change the fact that it's just not the comfy couch we really craved in the living room. We want to love it in our living room... and we don't.
• A rug that doesn't work. It's a lovely rug, but not our style. Let's call it a family heirloom (so it's not going anywhere), but it just doesn't work in this room, so it needs to go elsewhere. (Sorry it's rumpled in this photo, you can tell by that and the painter's tape, tape measure, IKEA catalog and laptop what we've been doing in this room lately.)
• Floral Danish modern chair. I love this chair, but hate the upholstery. It seems to bring everything down around it and doesn't match anything we have possibly come up with for ideas, plus the fabric is not in very good shape in the first place and already worn through in one corner. We bought it this summer with the idea to eventually get it reupholstered. Eventually is now.

And the other half:

The awkwardness continues:

• Red/green chair we've had forever. It's comfy, but could also stand to be reupholstered, and having had this chair for at least 12 years, I'm just sick of the fabric.
• Mirrored walls. Okay, this is easy to resolve. We actually like these gold-flecked mirrored wall panels that came with the house, but it's another awkward spot right now for sure. The length of them makes designing around them weird.

(And in fairness, the chartreuse Eames repro chair is only next to the other chair for color inspiration purposes, so it looks awkward where I put it but it's not an actual design issue in the room.)

Like I said, we thought getting some paint up on the walls would help, so we diligently went through two rounds of paint samples, initially staying with lighter greens because of all the green we already have in the furniture and our two lamps, and then trying some darker greens and greys in a second round.

But wait, that photo needs a caption.

Yeah. Yesterday, I came to terms with the fact that I don't want another green living room. I don't want the green lamps in the living room. I don't want the green pillows in the living room. I don't want green walls in the living room. And Mel was in complete agreement.

We did that in the condo, why do we have to do that in the house?!

But if not green, what? How do we incorporate the furniture and decor we own and mix in new things? What needs to get reupholstered, and what just needs to leave the room already?

This has been our struggle for the last few days. And finally, we hit on it. I'm not going to go into details yet, but we're comforted in seeing some examples after countless hours of trolling the Internet for images and ideas to prove that our ideas aren't completely crazy, nor completely out of touch for our modest vintage ranch.

All I'll say now is we're going to mix a bit of contemporary with a bit of vintage. We're going to breathe new life into our older comfy sofa (the green one above) in three ways, and get the Danish modern (don't know if it's exactly Danish modern) chair reupholstered in a nice, bright color. Actually the shape is so cool, it's worth a closer look...

We now know the piece of furniture (once we find one) that will make the mirrored wall work, and how we'll use it to make a second focal point in the room, instead of the strange space it is now. My dad will be in town briefly over Labor Day weekend, so we're enlisting him in installing our new t.v. on the paint samples wall and fleshing out the idea we have for an entertainment center, inspired by a suggestion he made.

In the end, you can see the only things that will actually remain in the room from the two photos I showed above.

Newly purchased plants will get vintage planters. The Danish modern chair will get reupholstered. The Eames repro rocker will stay. My grandpa's painting that's between the mirrored panels (it's only up there currently so it's not sitting on the floor) will be reframed. The bamboo end table and coffee table set will stay for some months most likely, eventually to be sent to their original intended location in the basement (where they will hang with the pink sofa), to be replaced by other solid wood vintage pieces. Everything else shown will get re-purposed in other rooms.

After weeks and months of having no idea what to do with this room, we finally have a shared goal in sight. We have struggled and struggled in this room. Seriously, dear readers, I was growing to hate my own living room! Not now. I can envision almost every single thing I want to happen in this room. I'm so excited, I'm about ready to pop. (I promise I won't.) Slowly over time, I'll share our plans as they develop.

First up? Painting next week. A color I would never in a thousand years have thought I'd paint on the walls in my home, until we made a joke in the paint department of Home Depot and realized we may actually have hit on a good idea: grey. It'll be our neutral palette to bounce off of. Somehow freeing ourselves of color on the walls opened up a world of possibilities for us (who knew?). It'll work, it'll rock with our other colorful plans, it'll be awesome.

And when we're done with it all, hopefully we'll have transformed this retro fail into a retro win. Stay tuned to find out if we can pull it off. I have plans to share every step along the way!

Mid-century dining space for a cat

My dear readers, we're finally getting to the point where we're thinking about decorating projects in the house! I think we're settled in enough now (it'll be 4 months this week) that we can actually start to contemplate things like painting, curtains, and all the dozens of other little household projects around our 1955 ranch.

One issue that needs to be resolved in our kitchen is a place for our cat, Dinah, to eat. Her eating area has always been on the kitchen counter, both in the condo and now in our house. This drives me crazy. It's kind of gross, and also takes up a lot of counter space, but it's been necessary to keep it elevated away from our dog, Pia.

I've been searching and searching for ideas that could work and be vaguely mid-century or at the very least not horrible looking, and always coming up short. I thought a little vintage stool would work, something like kids use to step up to the sink, but they're just too small for food bowls and a cat butt.

{Source: frostline on Etsy}

It really needs to be something tall enough that Pia can't reach (so something like this is cute but not suitable), but big enough that Dinah can jump up on it and not knock over her dishes. I've been looking for months for ideas, and finally just decided I think I need to make my own! And if it's the right height, I may even be able to slide Pia's food dishes underneath it, for sort of a double decker pet dining area, which would mean we don't have to have two separate spaces devoted to that. That would be pretty nice as it's a small kitchen.

Here's my plan: decide what size table top I want. Cut a board to size, sand it, and attach hairpin legs of the appropriate height (I'm thinking at least 12" off the ground). Perhaps ordered from here, or I'll find a vintage set, like these:

{Source: CoMod on Etsy}

Then paint the top in a fun kitschy design and seal it. (More on that in a minute.)

So just where will this kitty dining area go? In the eat-in area of the kitchen. This may be one of your first real chances to see it as I'm not sure I've really photographed it before. Of course, this is completely without decoration so far.

And now an annotated version! You can see some of the plans we have for this space. What I didn't annotate below is to the right of the hutch on the wall will be a newly-acquired shelf for teacups and saucers (a new collection I've just started, squee!), and to the left on the wall will be a yet-to-be-acquired shelf for salt and pepper shakers.

You can see the cat dining area will be on the ground to the left of the hutch.

Do you like our ceiling fan? I hate that we need them but we desperately do since we get no cross-ventilation, so when my dad was visiting he replaced two of the ugly ones the house came with and added one in our bedroom. Yes, I'd rather look at an awesome mid-century chandelier, but I also want to be comfortable. :) I had to look at about 100 ceiling fans before finding this one, but in the end I think it's actually pretty nice above our dinette table. I think it helps that it has lighter blades than you usually see.

Oh wait, let's go on another tangent for a moment here... there's one more photo for you, which will definitely be the subject of discussion on the blog in the future. See our nice, light-colored baseboards and trim? (Though to clarify, what you're seeing as 'baseboards' on this wall is our crazy 50s baseboard diffuser for our heating system that no one else ever seems to have seen anywhere.) All the trim and baseboards are painted. That's right, that means it's wood... painted to look like wood.

(Don't mind the ugly dustbuster in the background, I need a less obtrusive place for it.)

We know some of the trim was painted white in the kitchen at some point in the past (they didn't bother to paint the baseboards behind the stove and fridge), and now it's painted to look like wood. I know, it's crazy! Stranger still, a few pieces of trim in the house are indeed stained wood in a similar tone, not painted. So I'm not sure if those are original or were replaced at some point in time.

It really is a conundrum for us. We're totally not going to strip all the trim in the entire house, but it definitely needs major touching up. And while I like it 'wood tone' I'm not sure I can in good conscious paint it... well, paint it tan-ish. Does anyone really do that (other than the previous homeowners)? So the discussion on whether or not to just paint it white will come up in the future (and of course will involve headaches like what to do about the back door, broom closet door and all the trim around the pocket door between the kitchen and hall). Stay tuned for more on that subject...

Anyway, back to the cat! I'm debating on what to paint on the top of the table. Overall, the kitchen colors will be aqua and red. The walls will be aqua, and eventually that part under the chair rail will feature a Bradbury and Bradbury wallpaper (though for the time being, it will probably be painted a darker shade of aqua than the upper walls... we may save the wallpaper for a year or so down the road when we do a bit of renovation and re-do our counter tops and the tile walls in the kitchen). There will be colorful cafe curtains on the big picture window, and lots of fun and colorful things on the walls.

Right now, I'm considering trying to reproduce something like one of the designs from vintage Dutch decals that I've been loving so much lately. I adore this girl in particular, although I know the table will be more of a rectangle shape, so it couldn't be this alone:

{Source: Tias listing, via Pinterest}

But then I've seen lots of great designs that have a mid-century vibe that are inspiring me, like this cat illustration I spied today on Pinterest via Ruth from No Pattern Required. (Incidentally, you should totally check out more of these on Orange You Lucky, her illustrations are fabulous!)

{Source: Orange You Lucky, via Pinterest}

I'm looking at works of mid-century illustrators I love like Mary Blair and Jim Flora, and finding new illustrators I'm enjoying like Jim Whittamore and Sol Linero. All to decorate a mid-century inspired dining area for our cat. Pretty funny!

I haven't bought the supplies yet for this project and need to think pretty seriously about the design, as it needs to be something simple enough that I can draw it onto the table in pencil and then paint it in, kind of like a paint-by-number, as I'm very detail-oriented but I'm not a natural painter.

What do you think? Crazy idea? Fun? Any suggestions to make the perfect mid-century dining space for Dinah? What would you do?

Starting to style our den

How it is that I thought once we moved, things would calm down and I'd have more time for blogging?! Well, we're getting there, but not yet. I don't even have a place to setup my 'blogging computer' (i.e. the computer that has Photoshop), so I had to temporarily set it up on the dining room table. Ugh!

But here I am with my first mid-century decorating post! Most of our free time that hasn't been devoted to unpacking and settling into the new house has been devoted to thinking about and hunting for furniture. I've been a woman possessed. We were volunteered (or as I jokingly say, 'voluntold') to host Mother's Day for Mel's family, so we're trying our best to have things at least halfway decent around here before mid-May.

The first piece of furniture that actually allows us to start the decorating ball rolling is the mid-century daybed we purchased for our den. It's the smallest bedroom, at the back of the house off our kitchen and dining area, where we put our television and where I'll have a desk for days I work from home (if it fits—that will partially depend on the size of credenza we find with for the TV). It will be our hang out, casual room.

We were having a frustrating time deciding what direction we wanted to go in for this space. Part of that is dictated by trying to cobble together furniture and accessories of course, and last weekend we seriously struck out in the sofa department. Then Monday night I had a brainstorm... wouldn't a plaid sofa be fun? Because it wasn't difficult enough looking for a 1950s sofa, now I had to look for a 1950s plaid sofa? Right.

And then I saw this online, the same night. Here's the original picture from the shop:

Source: An Orange Moon, Chicago

A vintage daybed, similar in style to the case study daybeds, but about a third of what the repro ones go for and in great condition. It also fit the hard-to-fill bill of no arm rests for our cat to scratch and ruin. It was in a shop in Chicago, An Orange Moon. The next morning I called up and sight unseen, I purchased it and arranged for delivery (the same day, how awesome is that). Even though 20th Century Fox had wanted it for some project, it was ours. Ours! That was surely the Vintage Sofa Gods working for us.

So now I have to style our den around this most awesomely wonderful plaid daybed. Right now, the den is kind of a yucky mustard yellow in desperate need of painting. (And semi-gloss. The entire house is painted in semi-gloss. Why oh why? Our friends' Sears kit house in Chicago was also painted all semi-gloss.) And there's no floor covering for the cold ceramic tile (not original to the house, the previous owners probably put it in in the 90s).

Here is the sofa, flanked by lamps that won't stay in this room (and don't even have actual lampshades yet... we stole those off our bedroom lamps since we haven't had a chance to order two matching ones from Moon Shine). The vintage laminate end tables we've been meaning to re-purpose elsewhere (likely the basement), though they work pretty well with this daybed for now.

(You can see there's a little patching to do on the wall behind the sofa.)

Here's a closeup of the awesome, slightly nubby fabric. In this photo you get a better shot of the lamp that won't stay, but more importantly, it kind of shows me that I'm not sure I love light green with this, either.You can also see that the closet doors and trim are honey-colored wood.

What color do we paint this room?!

Now, in spite of the fact that we bought essentially a brown sofa, brown and earth tones are not my favorite colors at all. And if we're not careful this room will veer into 60s/70s territory when I'd like it to stay more 50s. My mom and I were discussing a light buttery yellow for the walls, but I worry the sofa won't pop as an accent piece and it might not be enough color. Also, I can almost guarantee that whatever lamps we have will have fiberglass shades which warm up the room and it might just be too warm with light yellow walls. That being said, we do want to stick with something that's not too bright. We had so many bright bright bright colors in the condo we're ready for a change.

Mel says I'm on a blue kick, which I know is true, as I plan to paint our bathroom a light blue and our kitchen/dining area aqua. But I did see this one similar daybed styled against a turquoise wall...

Source: Vintage Ground / plaid mcm sofa

And I do kind of like that... hm. How many blue-based rooms is one allowed in a small ranch? But it got me to thinking, it could be a great Southwestern-inspired 50s den.

The room also has 2 corner windows, which will make window treatments somewhat of a challenge. Because the placement of the sofa can't change and the cushions have to butt up against the wall, I think sill-length drapes of some kind will be in order, possibly with a cornice or valance shaped around the corner. And we'll also keep blinds (those these ones will eventually go as they're in bad condition), because the windows look out to the alley. I know drapes with blinds were a perfectly appropriate combo in the 50s.

With blinds I'm not sure if the drapes need to close (I believe those are called 'draw drapes'). I'd love to go with vintage pinch pleat drapes but all the ones I see are too narrow at the top to close, so they'd just have to hang along the sides. I'm not sure that would look good with the blinds unless there was something covering the blinds hardware, in which case I'd want it to match. I suppose I could buy 2 vintage panels that wouldn't draw close, and cut some of the length off to make a matching fabric-covered cornice.

Does that sound crazy? Even though I know it was sometimes done, I can't wrap my mind around drapes that don't actually close, though. Let me tell you, drapery has been giving me lots of headaches lately!

Are we a bit crazy to try and hone a 1950s Southwestern vibe in this room? I did get the idea from Mel's grandmother's home decorating book from 1951 (oh boy, I have to share some things from this book soon!!). It mentioned a Najavo rug and that got me to thinking... Mel and I do love the Southwest. The room would definitely have to retain a vintage vibe, and not be all Kokopelli-ed modern and cheesy (50s kitschy, of course is a different story). I could incorporate my grandfather's art, and the plaid daybed would fit right in. Great ceramic or wood lamps... perhaps souvenir pillows from states in the Southwest... It would give us a fun but relatively narrow scope to focus on for this cozy space.

Decisions, decisions. What do you guys think? Any suggestions for wall color, or accent colors in general? Drapery ideas? What would you do with a sofa like this?