Until now.
Going back in history -- when we were married in 1972 I inherited my bedroom suite that was lovely hard rock maple in the Early American design. I had a dresser, chest of drawers, night stand and beautiful four poster canopy bed sans canopy. This was our beginning.
When we went to purchase furniture for our first apartment we carried the theme through and bought a BUNCH of Tell City Early American furniture. It is well built furniture and we still have it and we use most of it.
However, something happened along the way. Oh, I know what it was == they quit making Early American furniture as it fell from favor. I was grossly out of style but hey, this furniture wasn't going to fall apart anytime soon. So, we tried to incorporate different styles over the years but we either found new homes for those items or went back to buying pieces that, while not technically Early America, did blend well. Maple was a thing of the past but cherry was quite popular so we have a good deal of that.
Fast forward to the move to our current home. The space here is different than our old house. Fewer rooms but larger spaces which meant that our little drop leaf maple table was dwarfed in our breakfast/dining area. So, off we go to the Amish furniture store to choose a new table. It is large, it is cherry, it is lovely but it is dark. We bought a sideboard to complement - black -- black tends to be a good transitional finish between older and newer furniture and styles.
We also bought some new furniture from the Amish store -- a sofa and two chairs -- don't ever buy anything you sit on without being able to sit on it. The chairs are fine, the sofa not so much. It is cherry furniture with dark brown leather cushions. Operative word -- brown-- dark brown.
We also have two chairs that are brown Coach leather. They are really pretty and lovely to sit in if you want to watch tv on the ceiling or have no intention of speaking to the people on the other side of the coffee table because they recline very far back. But, I am keeping them because -- well, because.
So, I have it all arranged in a "pit" sort of arrangement with a large coffee table in the middle with chairs and sofa surrounding it. And what do you see?
A sea of brown.
Dark brown.
So, my design sense is stuck somewhere in the 70's along with avocado green and harvest gold so I resorted to pinterest to see what to do about an all brown room. I tried to get my husband to replace the uncomfortable couch but I got "the look" and just moved right along.
So, after all of that explanation, here are some photos of what I did.
 |
| unadorned chairs -- yes that is a crayon box on the table -- don't judge me -- I have grandchildren |
 |
| I added two white throws as per Pinterest -- they are really nice, very reasoable, from Target |
 |
| enter two stripey down pillows from Pier 1 -- they were having a nice sale -- still have to cut the tags off |
 |
| sofa with old ticking striped pillows -- I made them -- they are comfy to sleep on |
 |
| bringing in two brightly colored embroidered pillows from Pier 1 along with light beige throw from my cousin JLSHall |
 | ||
| added two delightfully fun fuzzy pillows also from the Pier -- throw in a couple of pieces of mail that needs to be thrown out |
So, tell me -- have I successfully diluted the brown? My husband had to compromise-- throw pillows (on sale) or a new sofa (not on sale but doesn't matter -- way overpriced either way). He was ok with the pillows as long as I don't put them on his chair. After I do a bit of picking up and re-arranging I will take another photo from another angle and see what you think
