Trading Spaces
Nov. 12th, 2003 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guywithmonstersOnly it's just me in our house and I don't have a $1000.
I've been procrastinating starting the slipcover for the sofa for days. I really need to get a jump on it if I'm going to be done with it and the chairs in time for our holiday party. Our sofa is an 80's "paint splash" pattern monstrosity with matching chairs. The arms have an exaggerated curve and the back cushions are too rounded. They're very feminine somehow.
I'm going to cover the sofa in a charcoal corduroy and replace the back cushions with a bunch of pillows (like this). I'm hoping the change in the top profile, the fabric and using a piping in the same fabric will update it. The walls have a great suede finish in the color you're probably imagining when I say "suede" - a warm, medium brown. Like a horse. The trim is white and the fireplace is black - Mr Bear wants a "safari" theme but I'm toned him down to a "inspired by an old men's travel club".
We're planning to do the chairs in a leopard (he's desperate for an animal print). Maybe with black pipping to give them some visual structure. Im excited to "get rid" of the ugly paint splash fabric but the amount of compromise and negotiating this is taking is making me crazy.
He wants everything to be brand new and match perfectly - like you're living in a Seman's. I want it to be more funky and lived in. I can't bear "theme art" and he's been forbidden to buy another framed poster at the mall. We live across the river from Manhattan from crying out loud. We could support an actual person working as an artist for a little more than the "assembly line painting" would cost.
Sorry, it's just eating at me. It took 5 months to get a paint color he was OK with. I've never lived with someone before and decorating together is more time consuming than I ever imagined.
I feel like I have no room for error or experimentation. I've always been a "try it and see" person about my living space. I want to make it express me and my world view. I want to play with the space so it feels fun. I'm not feeling like I can do that and it's making me anxious about starting the slip covers. I know I can make them fine but now I'm nervous and afraid of failing - as if ruining a few yards of fabric really matters.
This is probably less due to Mr Bear's being a control freak (though it's REALLY helping things) and more about my need to please. And my fear of disappointing and losing him - as if he'd leave me because a slipcover didn't come out right.
The weird part is he's either REALLY fussy or completely leaves the choice to me when it comes to design stuff. One of my friends says he's learning to trust my sense of style and is still getting used to it. I,m hoping that's it. It's a nice thought.
Sorry to vent - I just needed to get this out so I could get beyond it. Ok, slipcovers here I come!
I've been procrastinating starting the slipcover for the sofa for days. I really need to get a jump on it if I'm going to be done with it and the chairs in time for our holiday party. Our sofa is an 80's "paint splash" pattern monstrosity with matching chairs. The arms have an exaggerated curve and the back cushions are too rounded. They're very feminine somehow.
I'm going to cover the sofa in a charcoal corduroy and replace the back cushions with a bunch of pillows (like this). I'm hoping the change in the top profile, the fabric and using a piping in the same fabric will update it. The walls have a great suede finish in the color you're probably imagining when I say "suede" - a warm, medium brown. Like a horse. The trim is white and the fireplace is black - Mr Bear wants a "safari" theme but I'm toned him down to a "inspired by an old men's travel club".
We're planning to do the chairs in a leopard (he's desperate for an animal print). Maybe with black pipping to give them some visual structure. Im excited to "get rid" of the ugly paint splash fabric but the amount of compromise and negotiating this is taking is making me crazy.
He wants everything to be brand new and match perfectly - like you're living in a Seman's. I want it to be more funky and lived in. I can't bear "theme art" and he's been forbidden to buy another framed poster at the mall. We live across the river from Manhattan from crying out loud. We could support an actual person working as an artist for a little more than the "assembly line painting" would cost.
Sorry, it's just eating at me. It took 5 months to get a paint color he was OK with. I've never lived with someone before and decorating together is more time consuming than I ever imagined.
I feel like I have no room for error or experimentation. I've always been a "try it and see" person about my living space. I want to make it express me and my world view. I want to play with the space so it feels fun. I'm not feeling like I can do that and it's making me anxious about starting the slip covers. I know I can make them fine but now I'm nervous and afraid of failing - as if ruining a few yards of fabric really matters.
This is probably less due to Mr Bear's being a control freak (though it's REALLY helping things) and more about my need to please. And my fear of disappointing and losing him - as if he'd leave me because a slipcover didn't come out right.
The weird part is he's either REALLY fussy or completely leaves the choice to me when it comes to design stuff. One of my friends says he's learning to trust my sense of style and is still getting used to it. I,m hoping that's it. It's a nice thought.
Sorry to vent - I just needed to get this out so I could get beyond it. Ok, slipcovers here I come!
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-12 10:03 pm (UTC)It took me and Bob 2 years to find a sofa (1954 Ed Wormley for Dunbar), several months for a wastepaper basket for the bathroom (a vintage aluminum ice-bucket), and we nearly broke up over the wire and marble crucifix that hangs over our bed that my sister made me for my 30th birthday to protect me from vampires (Bob's Jewish).
I don't see how anyone could be disappointed by a slipcover-making boyfriend--he'd better hang on to you.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-16 08:24 pm (UTC)The slip cover turned out better than I expected. I just need to do two more back pillows and a throw pillow. We're falling into a pattern of going with whatever one of us is passionate about and working it in. Usually it's me but I'm trying to really go with his feedback. It's like those projects they gave you in school where you had to create something using three given elements and whatever else you wanted.
A crucifix to ward off vampires is an excellent present.