The front "formal" living room, do these even exist in new homes? Seems they are a staple in older houses, like the one I live in. The scene I picture is ladies wearing fancy dresses and men in suit and tie, smoking cigars and sipping Old Fashions. A complete Don and Betty Draper gathering (
see Mad Men). (Or like a scene out of the board game Clue.. you know.. in the foyer, by the butler, with the rope?) Is this what architects had in mind when drawing out these house plans? I have no idea, but like the scene above, these stuffy rooms should be a thing of the past. In my opinion, you just shouldn't have a "sitting" room you don't actually ever sit in. (Besides, we can't afford to buy a circle skirt, a 3 piece gabardine, a bottle of Evan Williams, and a can of maraschino cherries every time we want to use that room).
But, Houston House had one in her plans, and here she is right in the front of the house the day we moved in:
Initially when house hunting (or home roaming), we planned to use a bedroom as an office for hubs to work from, being the work-at-home salesman that he is. However, when we landed this house, I just couldn't bear the thought of an unused space, and one front and center like this room is. So, mission make this room an office began.
And it began with drawings. Lots of doodles from my brain. Yes, this is how my free time is usually filled. Tons of random scribbles of what I want spaces to look like. Since I was a kid, I've been doodling house plans and room layouts. My barbies were not shopping at the mall or on movie date night with Ken, they were decorating their dream homes and shopping for accessories.
As you can see, I had a vision for bookcases and builtins... ala my talented dad of course. Then I got to thinking, I want something wowee wow about this room. Offices can be so hard and so boring with all the supplies, papers, calendars, etc... I thought let's make it more than an office, how about a cozy library feeling? And so my sketches went down this avenue.
First was to remove all the wallpaper from the formal sitting room. Hubs and my dad took care of this task, and they still spoke to me afterwards. If you haven't removed wallpaper before, it's a pain. But really, this stuff had to go... grasscloth... in peachy yellow... with a shiny coat.
Ohhhh yea, que the '80s syntehsizer solo.
On to paint. I was flipping through a Ballard Design magazine and noticed a chocolate and cream office, and decided that's the route I wanted to go. At the protest of hubs and most everyone else telling me no, this color is too dark, it won't work (except for my "aunt" Bonnie, aka my second mom, uber talented interior designer, and life long friend of our fam- who agreed I absolutely
must do it), I picked out a few rich chocolates that I wanted to try.. and I started painting.
And painting. And painting. Geez, going dark with your paint not only takes a brave soul, but also a worker bee. Three coats of paint later, and 3 coats on all of the trim and molding, the painting finally has ended. The builtins are in progress, but I can already see that I'm going to LOVE the contrast between the creamy white and the chocolate walls.
Hubs and I are so excited that this room is coming along, and that the formal front living room is now dead. And it was killed by the lawyer... in the library... with a candlestick... (or a paintbrush).
