AT Cure - Week 4

Eeek! Did week 4 really take 3 weeks!


Alas, it did. The focus is the living room. A room in my home that never seems "right" to me. It's too dark with a hulking fireplace and wood paneling. I would like to paint the wood white, but the hubs won't hear of it. Sigh.


So, the tasks:


1. Clean up living room and related closets. Done. Surprisingly, there was very little clutter in this room. It always seems cluttered to me because there is too much pattern for my taste. The chairs have a patterened tapestry-like fabric, the rug is very busy, there's the brick fireplace surround, and the aforementioned wood paneling. I am thinking of taking up the rug and just having the light beige carpet for a while, just to see if it helps.


2. Repairs are being taken care of this week. Not really, no.


3. Declutter all books and media. I did manage to reduce my book collection by about 25 percent, as recommended. But I kept a shelf of books that my mom gave me that I haven't read yet. If I don't read them in a year, I'll get rid of them. We don't have too many DVD's, so I kept them all. The CD's were a surprise. I have been using iTunes since 2004, and I really thought I had the majority of my CD's ripped. Not so. Try half of them. So, I ripped the rest and moved them all to the basement for storage. I don't really want to get rid of the "hard copies" and I have room to keep them in an out-of-the-way place. I am thinking of getting an external drive to back up my music and photos.


4. Cancel 75 percent of the catalogs you receive. I did this about two years ago, with great success. I get very few catalogs these days, and only the ones I actually order from.


5. Empty Outbox. Every week I drop off a box at Goodwill after grocery shopping. I'm pretty current.


6. Confirm what you need to increase or decrease color in each room. The color agony continues, but with progress to report. See below.


7. Identify what you need to increase of decrease softness in each room. Most of my rooms seem pretty balanced. The foyer and kitchen are the only ones that are a bit "hard". The kitchen is going to stay as-is. The foyer probably will too, since there is little else I could practically do.


8. Cook three meals at home this week. Done and done.


9. Send out your invitations. Yeah, right.


More on the topic of color. I spent a great deal of time looking through magazines and catalogs to identify the color schemes that I'm drawn to. Time well spent, as it happens. I always thought I was drawn to disparate colors that have nothing to do with each other, but, on further analysis, I'm drawn to the same two color schemes over and over again. One is cool, the other is warm. Now I realize that my whole house doesn't have to be one or the other; that some rooms are better cool and some better warm. This is an enormous relief!


So, what are the two color schemes?


Cool: soft blue, white, seafoam green, with green plants and natural wood tones
Warm: yellow or gold with orange and red accents, black, sage green, dark wood


Applying these to my home, I came up with this:


Kitchen (warm): limestone counter, terra cotta floor, honey toned cabinets, pale yellow walls, green plants


Foyer (warm): pale yellow walls, white trim, dark wood furniture, dark red accents, houseplants


Living (warm): pale yellow walls, dark wood furniture, sage upholstery, red and orange accents


Office (cool): pale blue walls, white trim, dark wood furniture, bright yellow accent


Bedroom (cool): soft blue walls, white trim, white linens, chocolate brown furniture, seafoam green accent, lemon yellow accent


Bathroom (cool): seafoam walls, white trim, limestone, nautical blue accent


Fortunatly, I'm already pretty close to these color schemes, in most cases.


On to week 5...