A very green solutions to your home - repurposing your own furnishings.

Purse and keys in hand, my sister, Gina, asked if I was ready to go shopping now.  It was early morning in her house in Maryland and as I looked around at the disorder of the family room, I said, “Not so fast, we have work to do here first.”

I was spending the weekend helping her to get ready for an upcoming family occasion and she was prepared to do whatever it took to have her house “company ready.” For my part, I have been dying to get her lovely brick colonial organized for years.  This is called perfect timing in the decorating business --  a captive client and an anxious decorator.

Now to be fair to my sister, she had just spent the better part of a month de-cluttering and made tremendous progress before I came.  I gave her that instruction so we would not move clutter out of the way.  This is a very important first step to any redecorating project.

Since my sister has the largest house of us four kids, she adopted most of my parents furniture when they downsized from their Brooklyn house.  I took a moment to walk through all of the rooms, observing everything with a calculating eye and realized the daunting task ahead of us.  Quick, I needed a piece of paper.  I wrote the following words as my goal for the day.  “Going from Early Immigrant to Old World Charm.”  That’s it. We had a focus and direction that would work with her eclectic collection of furniture from my parents. It also gave her laugh.

She had plenty of furniture but it seemed to be in the wrong places or shoved up against the walls, and the rooms had no balance.  We spent the better part of the morning shuffling furniture around.  She had very large potted plants that were scattered throughout her home, so we moved those into her sunroom.  Sometimes the most obvious solutions elude clients. Collections always look better en masse as opposed to sprinkled throughout a home.  

We moved her tan colored oriental rug from her formal living room into her red dining room.  Somehow that rug looked dull in the living room but rich and warm in the dining room against the red walls.  Simple solution there.

We created a new seating area in her large family room by moving a black leather Bergere chair and ottoman from the lost corner of her formal living room to its own special reading spot; adding a table, good lighting, a throw and pillow to create a cozy ensemble.  Please note that when her husband got home that evening, he made a bee line to that chair and plopped comfortably down.  That is the ultimate test of good room arrangement.

Gina has the most exquisite collection of antique maps that were stacked on the floor of the dining room along with boxes of old books.  We decided to turn the mostly unused dining room into an inviting library.  I styled her two wrought iron Etageres with books and mementos and lined the walls with the framed antique maps.  

When we were done with repurposing all of her current belongings, we took a walk from room to room and made a list of items that she needed to purchase.  The list was not long and it will be great fun to find things like a great pair of lamps for the living room, a pair of comfy reading chairs for the library and more wall art.  

She and her husband were amazed at the way it turned out.  Mostly using their own belongings but in new ways.  

My motto - always shop the client’s house first!