This post was most recently updated on June 5th, 2011
You get the picture, lol.
Have you been there, done that?
Well, that’s been the scene in our small main floor tv room/den over the past 36 hours.
If you’ve been following along here, you might remember that we’ve been finishing off our basement which means that a lot of furniture is getting moved around here.
- Room A (the “Living Room”) is getting new furniture which is being delivered today!
- Room B (a small main floor TV room/den) is getting Room A’s hand me down furniture.
- Room C (the new large TV room in the basement) is getting Room B’s. Have I thoroughly confused you yet? Sorry. Now you are just as confused as me!
First off, you need to know that Room B is pretty small. It has two-story cathedral ceilings which makes it feel a little larger, but dimension-wise, it’s pretty teeny weeny at about 12×14. Despite that obstacle, I was stubbornly convinced that I could stuff an over-sized couch, two beastly chairs, and large media armoire in there. No sweat.
No matter what arrangement I tried, the open doors of my armoire hit a chair. The only place you could actually view the TV was from the sofa. I don’t know about you, but five of us huddled on a sofa watching a movie doesn’t sound like it’d be much fun after 5 minutes.
Exhausted and peeved, I sat in one of the beastly chairs to collect my thoughts.
- Option A: Buy new furniture for Room B. No, hubby would never go for it.
- Option B: Use new furniture intended for Room A in here. Forget it; not at all what I’d envisioned for either space.
- Option C came from a little voice in my head that I was trying to drown out. It whispered, “Mooooove the armoire out of this room. Mooooove the armoire out of this room. Mooooove the armoire out of this room.” 🙂
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| Pic taken last Christmas. |
Nooooooooo! Not the armoire!
I love my armoire, and it’s the newest piece of furniture in the room, purchased at Pier One 2 years ago. I am not a fan of seeing TV equipment when you don’t have to, so I love having the option of closing the doors.
As I’m arguing with myself, I had a perfect sight-line to the front porch where a new console table purchased at Christmas-time (also from Pier One) was sitting. It caught my attention. Hmmmmm. Maybe. Just maybe that might work. Well, I thought, I guess I can try it just to rule it out.
So after some pushing and pulling and carrying and grunting, I managed to move the big armoire out of the den by myself, and bring in the console table from the porch. I disconnected all that electrical “stuff”, and then plugged it all back in again. (She pats own shoulder). All the while, I was hoping it wouldn’t fit properly.
I couldn’t believe my eyes, it actually looked OK. Not “armoire OK”, but OK. I actually was starting to like it. The best part: being able to see the TV from any angle, and any seat in the room.
What I learned from this (exhausting) experience is that sometimes you have to be able to slay some sacred cows in order to create a great space. My sacred ‘decorating’ cow in this case was my stubborn belief that TV equipment should be behind closed doors. But once I let go of that, and tried something new, I ended up creating a space that was not only pretty, but functional too.
After all, what kind of room is it, if it doesn’t ‘work’?
Until next time, happy decorating.
