Before /After

I recently had the privilege of working with a really great couple who have a vacation home on one of our city's great streets near the lake. They spend very little time in Chicago-a few weeks in the summer-yet when they are here they love it. And why not? They are in a great location in a great city at the greatest time of the year...remember how nice summer is in the city? (sigh!).....but anyway...

Initially they were looking to replace the living room sofas and possibly the window treatments. The Mrs. dearly loved the window treatment fabric and was not going to easily part with it. However, despite the fact that it was a lovely Clarence House fabric, it was over 25 yrs old and was showing it's age. We began the fabric search thinking to replace the beloved fabric with, if not the identical fabric, then a close relative.

Showroom after showroom failed to produce an acceptable facsimile of the original Clarence House fabric and it was with a great leap of faith that my client decided that if she couldn't have the original, she would go with something entirely different. For my part I was hoping that she would cross that line as I really feel strongly that if you're replacing, why not REPLACE!!? Change the look, the feel and the mood of the room. Don't be scared now.....I know, when you're comfortable with something it's hard to picture anything different, but OH! it's so fun to get that whole new look while still keeping some treasured pieces.

As you can see from the photos, the drapery is new in both fabric and style, as is the layout of the room and we added not only new sofas but also 2 new chairs and an ottoman. We've also added quite a sizable mirror, but they did keep some pretty impressive pieces that they love-the grand mirrored coffee table and Stickley grandfather clock to mention a couple.

So when you are inclined to think you'd like a change but are afraid that involves changing everything and spending a great deal of money, remember you can keep most everything if you are willing to make one MAJOR change that will affect the entire look of your room.

Vignettisizing

I'm pretty sure that I made up that word-vignettisizing-many years ago when attempting to describe to a client what we were going to do with a niche of shelves in a wall in her entry. I wanted to make the niche interesting and pretty and not just a catch-all for stuff she didn't know what else to do with.

I think that display areas are a tricky thing for a lot of homeowners, which is too bad because they can really make or break the overall appeal of a room. There are a few tricks to making bookshelves look great. In general you want to follow these few simple rules:

-use the '3' rule-place 3 exact items on one shelf-i.e.

3 potted plants, 3 glass apples, 3 carved boxes-you get the idea.

-stagger the shelves. for instance if you are using mostly books and you do not have enough books to completely fill all shelves (an interesting look all on it's own), then place most books at one end of one shelf, at the opposite end on the next shelf, on their sides on some shelves and standing upright on others.

-add at least a little bit of greenery: ivy works well as does philodendron.

-vary the size of objects you place on the shelves.

-add a few family photos, if possible in varying size frames.

The thing about interest in these spaces is to play for a while with what you have. Putting things in and then moving them around is the way to figure out what is going to be most pleasing to you-and that's the important thing: that you like what you're looking at and that it has some meaning to you. For instance, my fiance has his shelves filled with only books and family photos. It's meaningful to him because he loves to read (and believe me, he will NOT put a book on the treasured shelves if he didn't enjoy reading it!) and he loves his family.

So take some time to fill your shelves with things you love in a way you love looking at them-and if it doesn't work the first time, don't be afraid to play some more.