Over three weeks ago, we were blessed with a vacation to Hawaii and upon our return to Seattle, we were blessed with a new home. The very idea of moving into a bigger place made returning from paradise seem a little less painful.
Three weeks went by and only today did I have the enthusiasm to actually decorate.
Our first goal was to get everything into the house and wrap up with our last apartment. We finished that last wednesday.
Our second goal involved us demanding the boxes cease and desist. We have 2 boxes left. They are in G1’s office and the truth is, they most likely aren’t disappearing anytime soon. I can only do so much in a room that I rarely use. It makes more sense for the roommaster to address the boxes full of cords.
Our last goal: moving in. This included making the space our home. For the last few days I had been in a slump and was quite unmotivated to work on moving in. I can’t believe I’m about to pseudo-complain about this, but we had so much space. As G1’s brother put it, we had “put in our time living in cubby holes” and were finally able to graduate to a real house. All of our last few homes had required that we downsize and usually our walls were lined with our belongings, and our closets stuffed to the brim. Looking at our belongings placed so far apart and even in different rooms, was quire discouraging. Where do we start!?
I started in our main living area as we had already made it a habit of hanging out here.
This is what it’s like when you move. Nothing is pretty and for some reason, the way it worked in your last place suddenly seems so wrong!
I knew the curtains would break up the white monotony and add a little bit of flavor to our room. Our plants had always been roommates, sharing one shelf, so naturally, I left them stay together. In our last apartment, we had the above shelf sitting directly in front of a window with the most direct sunlight and it was holding every plant in our house. Since this shelf (still) crammed full of plants wasn’t crammed into a corner, it seemed unnecessary and sparse. A smaller shelf made sense brining all the items closer together and into a cohesive arrangement.
The black-void-of-a-speaker didn’t really have any other living arrangements lined up, so it snuggled right into the bottom shelf. By replacing the large, sparse shelf with a smaller compact shelf, the corner felt cozier.
My favorite books found prime real estate in the living room and made all the other books (who live in the hutch in the spare bedroom) incredibly jealous. Among my treasured books, I chose to include a small tin of cards, two lanterns, a photo from our wedding, and three plants. It’s starting to feel like home!
It’s becoming clear to me why I was in a post-move funk.
And onto the window. I knew I wanted to hang the curtains near the ceiling to draw the eye up and create an illusion of a taller ceiling. I used the curtains and the hardware that we had purchased at Ikea for our last apartment. You can see the post here.
I placed the hardware as close to the ceiling as possible by literally fastening it to the ceiling. BINGO!
This hardware from Ikea is amazing! It allows your to attached it to either the ceiling or the wall and adjust the height of the rod. I highly recommend these.
From the windows to the …..ceiling?
I strapped the curtains on and adjusted them to barely skim the ceiling and used sewings pins to pin their length to barely skim the floor. I decided not to sew the curtains for now – I am always changing my minds and it’s much easier to take out pins than to rip a seam.
Floor to ceiling curtains – check!
Neat and tidy shelf – check!
Finally having a place where your design ideas can be put to use – check!
Well, we moved into one corner of our new place and it really does feel like home. And after accomplishing this one corner, I feel enthusiastic about the rest of the house.
Curtains: JANETTE
Curtain Hardware: BETYDLIG
Curtain Rod: RACKA
Shelf: LERBERG
Seven Six Four 