musical chairs in the great room

I've never been particularly known for my patience. It's just not a virtue that comes naturally to me. But I'm working on it.

Though I nod in vigorous agreement when I read decorators and fellow bloggers espouse the value of decorating your home over time, and not rushing to buy everything just to fill it up, when faced with a fairly empty home, I practically scream, "Let's get it finished already!!!"

So that's why I haven't posted any photos of our "great room" until now, and it's an act of great patience and discipline to do it. You see, virtually everything in the great room is currently a stand in. Here's how it all began, and where it's heading...

At the final walk-thru (above). Green walls, burgundy shades on the chandelier, and no furniture.

Move-in day, with boxes everywhere, and not enough furniture to make the room cozy.

Enter my old flip-open Ikea dining table, circa 2001, with a set of four Danish modern chairs I scored at the Rose Bowl flea market for $100 (total, not each... I tell ya, I'm getting way better at this flea market thing). The chairs will get some new upholstery and a little touch-up oil soon.

Getting the Danish chairs means that wishbone chairs won't be a part of our future, at least not right now. So nix those from the mood board I posted about here.

Also, that table, the gorgeous Big Sur from Crate and Barrel, is a little too pricey for us. So we'll be getting an unfinished farmhouse style extension table soon, and then we'll have lots of room to host Thanksgiving dinner.

As for that light, it FINALLY arrived (only 6 weeks after ordering it), it's crazy complicated to assemble, and I'll show you all about it in a future post.

Next up, dealing with that chandelier, since we had to have something tolerable in the meantime.

Those shades had to go.

Fortunately, they were easy to pop off. Much better. (Hint: You may see that chandelier again, after a little spray paint, in our bedroom, which is badly in need of a new fixture.)

So that left us with a very livable dining area, but a sad and bare "living room" space around the wood stove. We have a sleeper loveseat on order, and it will be here any day now, but we'd need something comfy in the meantime.

Time for a game of musical chairs!

Remember those brown leather chairs from up in the family room?

They're now residing next to the wood stove, and the futon is serving as a temporary couch in the family room. The "coffee table" (above) is borrowed from the guest room, where it is the desk chair and supplemental storage.

This is definitely a "use what you have" moment. But we just wish it didn't require schlepping furniture up and down stairs in order to rearrange.

Because I can't help myself, we've also hung a few things on the walls.

These letterpress prints of rock climbing gear are my favorite, made by Michelle at Quail Lane Press on Etsy. We've bought lots of her stuff to hang around the house. (And she's super nice and packs things really well to boot!)

The glare makes it a little tough to see, but that's another one of Michelle's gorgeous prints, of the gondola at Squaw Valley. A woman after my heart. Her piece de resistance is this amazing hand-drawn letterpress map of Lake Tahoe that will soon get a prominent wall location upstairs. Stay tuned!

So even though it's not where I'd like it to be, the great room, if not yet great, is at least getting good. But there are a lot of changes in store, like:

• The walls will soon go from green to Benjamin Moore "Swiss Coffee" (matched to Olympic no-VOC, of course).
• The area by the wood stove will soon get a fantastic secondhand midcentury modern chair that's currently being held hostage at the consignment store until we can find a vehicle big enough to fit it, and the new mini loveseat will be arriving soon.
• The dining area will get the big new table, as soon as we can pick it up (same problem as the secondhand chair), and the fab new light fixture.

And once all that stuff happens, you know I'll tell you all about it. Because it's not like I can keep it to myself.

How have you coped with "in between" home decor? Have you found creative ways to repurpose pieces from around your home, to avoid new purchases? Please tell us all about it!

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xoxo,