When we first bought our house I adapted the Better Homes and Garden mentality. You know what I mean...everything had to match, I needed the perfect color scheme, and most of all, I needed everyone who walked in to leave thinking, wow, that is the perfect home. In the meantime, I just grew to hate it. My perfectly balanced color scheme was bland to me, the matching furniture and accessories drove me crazy! Last year we redid the basement and the family room moved from the front room of the house down there, along with the kids' play stuff. The front room became mainly my room - my office, craft area, and the dining area where my friends sit and knit with me. And then the perfectly balanced scheme annoyed me even more as I tried to keep all that yarn and fiber and office stuff stowed away so as not to break the perfection. I realized that a lot of the stress and moodiness I felt when I was here was probably due to the fact that I felt like a visitor in someone else's home. I'm an eclectic and random sort of person (that's an understatement, I know) and why should the place I spend so much time in seem so foreign to that nature?
And so, last summer, I finally snapped and on a whim painted over the dark green walls with a yellow that shocked my husband a bit. Of course, that left the scheme of things a little wonky looking, and so over the last year this front room has been a work in progress. My main issue was that my obsession with fiber was taking over. And I wanted things to flow without completely matching. I rearranged, I redid, I bought a piece here and there that spoke to me, like the copper lantern from Inspiration Hardware, and pulled some out of storage, like my great grandmother's vintage books. I added little touches of inspiration that came to me. Evan gave me the shifty eye when I announced my intentions to accent with black. He told me the room would look like a bumble bee. But when the black curtains arrived and were hung, he decided it wasn't such a bad idea. And when I told him I was going to let the fiber be my decoration, he gave me a pitying look that clearly said, "You've finally lost it.". I think he still thinks it's odd, but maybe not so out of place as he imagined.
And now, after all this time, today, it is my room. My dream room. My dojo. I went a little snap happy with the camera, I admit. I had to record for posterity the exact moment it all came together. And here it is, for your viewing pleasure.
The entry area. Tidy baskets to hold shoes and outdoor gear, a shaggy warm rug, a bench to sit, and my shelf, which I love, to pull the look together.
Just opposite the door is the Learning Wall. My kids are not in preschool, we do a form of early home school here. And I want them to know that their work is just as important to me as my own work, so I proudly display it on this piece of wall, just by the hallway to their rooms. The quote says "You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. ~Clay P. Bedford".
This week we're learning about how seeds grow. They've learned all about germination and have planted their own little plants to see it firsthand.
Above the doorway to the kitchen is the Inspiration Wire. This holds all the things that we're loving at the moment that inspire our creativity and happiness. At the moment there are several drawings, some spring flowers we put together, and a quote, which reads "Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~Abbé Dimnet, Art of Thinking, 1928"; it reminds me to keep it simple.
My favorite feature of this room I think. My photo wall. This is a huge collage that spans the length of the room filled with my favorite moments from the last year. I'm talking the crazy pictures people normally don't display, not the studio shots.
Why do I love this wall? This is the wall that firmly establishes my love of the fiber arts and ties it into the room and decor itself.
Look closer. Interspersed with the fond memories are some of my favorite colorways brought to me by the good ladies of HC. Those pieces of knit are more decorative and colorful to me than any painting I've seen, and I loved the idea of incorporating them as what they truly are...art.
This whole picture spoke to me, I couldn't just take the colorway, and so Ryann of Woolen Wishes is forever immortalized in this one!
On to the creative corner. This is, as they say, where the magic happens. This is where strands of fiber become colorful hanks of yarn, and where that yarn becomes knitted art. My yarn and fiber and wheel and needles are proudly on display, part of the decor and feel of the room.
In the other corner, my desk. For those who aren't familiar with the story of my desk, you can see that here.
Last, the little touches that really make it mine. The bowls and baskets of yarn and fiber throughout the room, along with their knitted counterparts in frames.
Simple pieces made by me - the magazine holder made of an old box covered in fabric, the cushion for my desk stool, a table runner and matching chair pillow from some old fabric and bias tape, the glass jar of "daffodils" made from the kids' hands one day.
And the kids' favorite part of the room, the desk where their own creativity happens. I like to think that now, in this room where I've put so much of my own creative energy, maybe theirs will be inspired just a little more.
I love it!! It is definitely an expression of you and what is important to you! Can't wait to see it in person. Wish it was soon but guess it will have to wait for the right time! Love you!
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