Getting serious

It's past Christmas, I can switch back to talking all-day-all-night about the new house, right? Right?

As we get closer to actually moving in to this gorgeous place, rooms are beginning to take shape. Decorating ideas are popping into my head at odd times. On my commute. In the shower. When I'm trying to fall asleep. I've become way more interested in reading design and decorating blogs, getting amped up for my own design and decorating decisions.

In preparation, I've added a House Tour to the blog. Look up there under the banner, you'll see it.

I've also decided to start talking about my decorating ideas. You don't mind, do you?

I am in love with this wallpaper. I have been matching paint chips to it for weeks. This has greatly interfered with my ability to wrap presents on our dining room table, but, I can't help myself.

My original idea was to put in a chair rail in this room:

... and have the wallpaper above the rail, and a solid paint color below (gray? beige? cream?). But then I did some pricing and learned that would be a $1600 job. Turns out the one wallpaper to speak to me from all the sample books was the extremely fussy French imported wallpaper. Of course. So, I bought a three-dollar sample of the paper, and put on my thinking cap.

The thing about me is, when I fall in love with something, I don't give up. My plan now is to copy the wallpaper onto the walls, by hand, with a paintbrush.

If you're thinking, Good lord, this girl is crazy. I mean, COME ON. With a paintbrush? you might have a point. But this is me. I do crazy things like re-upholster couches. I considered stenciling for a little while, (even CRAZIER) but then I found this page, and the whole thing suddenly seemed a lot more manageable. Turn the wallpaper into an overhead transparency, project it in place, and trace the lines? Okay. I can handle that. I'll turn my entire room into one giant paint-by-number.

Before I even met The Wallpaper, I'd had a palette in mind for our downstairs. I felt very put-together and self-assured, and enjoyed stringing along sentences like, "well, I've chosen a palette..." and "my palette has warm grays and creams with pops of amber," to my husband and my mother and anyone else who would listen without rolling their eyes.

And when I met the wallpaper, well, it was love at first sight. Those colors-- the warm grays and creams, pops of amber and green and blue-- those are going to carry throughout the entire first floor of our house.

I just love a plan.