3 Walls That Have Me Stumped

Like anyone who appreciates pretty spaces, I’ve had oodles of fun creating spaces in our home that reflect our family’s style, interests and life stage.

And by “our family” I really mean “my” because face it, if I let my kids decorate our house we’d have posters of kittens on every wall and Nerf gun targets around every corner. Handy Husband probably wouldn’t even decorate, unless you count lots of computer monitors as decorating, because that would mean putting holes in perfectly nice walls that he’d have to patch later.

But I digress.

It takes time to create a pretty space. Ideas don’t happen overnight. Money doesn’t grow on trees…much to my dismay.

If you’re like me, just when you feel like a space is really starting to come together, you up and move.

Then nothing works in your new space. It’s like trying to complete a puzzle with all the wrong pieces. I say this like it’s a bad thing, but I really do enjoy the challenge of a new space.

Today, I thought I’d whine about have a rational discussion about three spaces in my home that have me scratching my head.

DINING ROOM

Our dining room perplexes me with its two doors, a large window and a petite fireplace.

It’s the fireplace wall that is throwing me off. My furniture is all taller and larger in scale than the fireplace. Plus, we keep stubbing our toes on the hearth. Why does that hurt so, so bad?

I was thinking some sort of gallery wall around the fireplace, but I’m not sure exactly what would make up that collection: plates, baskets, frames? I don’t have a collection of baskets or plates, so that would take time. I have frames, but I don’t know what I’d put in those frames. It seems like a weird place for family photos.

FAMILY ROOM

Next up! Our family room/living room. It is a long narrow space divided by a fireplace.

I went to the trouble to sketch the room’s layout on the back of a piece of junk mail.

Only the best for this blog.

Let’s not even talk about the fireplace. I’m ignoring the fireplace for now.

The wall I’m most concerned about is to the right of the fireplace. I’ve labeled this as the “problem area” on my super awesome sketch.

This side of the room doesn’t really have a purpose. I could add seating, but we don’t need seating. Right now the area is home to a bunch of random things that have nowhere else to go at the moment. The kids use the floor space on this side of the room to spread out their Lego cities.

Since I snapped this picture, I cleared everything out of the area and it’s already looking better.

Sometimes all you need is a fresh start, a new perspective and other annoying clichés to get the ball rolling.

I still don’t have a purpose for this space, but shoving all the decor that doesn’t work in a closet is oddly satisfying!

KITCHEN

Last, but not least, is the kitchen. I affectionately refer to it as domestic purgatory. It’s the room I can’t escape – especially since my clothes washer is also in this space.

This is the opportunity wall. It features a radiator, a wall-mounted space heater, a corner shelf and various timers for the hot water. Try not to be jealous.

The middle part of the cabinet on the right holds our refrigerator.

I’m guessing the only reason you’d install a space heater above a radiator is that the radiator wasn’t getting the job done. Winter is coming…I guess I’ll find out! Woohoo!

I didn’t want to take up counter space for the microwave, so I used my son’s nightstand to hold it instead. His room really didn’t have space for the nightstand anyway. While this solution has been functional, I may have to do something else with the microwave. We’ll see.

On a disturbing note, I pulled the nightstand away from the wall to do a little cleaning and found a chocolate-covered raisin, an acorn and a whiffle ball. Huh. That’s about as random as the topics covered on this blog. And no, I didn’t eat the chocolate-covered raisin…but I did think about it.

Anyway, I’m not sure what I should put on this wall. Since I am keeping my dish towels in a basket on top of the microwave, I think it is safe to say I could really use something decorative, but functional.

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Well, that wraps up this round of “walls that have me stumped.” You didn’t think there were just three walls, did you? Ha! I wish.

This chat has been therapeutic though. I feel so much better after airing my dirty laundry and overusing self-help clichés. The three problem walls already look completely different. Not done by any means, but there’s progress and that makes me happy.

Hey! I have an update to some of these areas! Thanks for reading! 

Problem Wall Update – Petite Fireplace

Living in Ireland – Come See My Kitchen

St. Patrick’s Day Easy Flag Centerpiece