So am I the only one that rearranges a room or tackles a project as soon as their husband leaves for a deployment or goes to the field for training?
Jerry left bright and early yesterday morning and after going back to sleep for a couple of hours, I got up, made my coffee, then started cleaning the house before running to cover a story for the newspaper.
While I was cleaning our family room, I had the sudden urge to rearrange it. The only problem is that it is shaped oddly and we have overstuffed furniture. However, I have always disliked how the furniture was arranged in it. It’s the last room in the house that I never really “put together” since buying the house in 2013. I kind of threw the furniture in here and thought, “I’ll just figure it out later”.
Well, later is now today (or um technically yesterday). I decided to rearrange the family room (and inadvertently also the breakfast room).
After I started moving everything around, I took a break and ended up finding this really cool room planner online. It let me enter the dimensions of the room and add furniture (where you can also change the furniture dimensions to match yours).
So here is the original layout (along with an actual picture, which is old, but it’s the only one I could find because I forgot to take a before picture):
And here is how I have chosen to lay out the family room now (along with an actual picture). Notice I moved the armoire along with a room divider (both of which were in the breakfast room) into the family room. It made the breakfast room kind of cluttered and honestly they didn’t belong there, lol:
The Panorama doesn’t do it justice so here are a couple of different angles (don’t mind the mess, I am still organizing):
I still am not sure I am completely happy, but it’s definitely better than it was. Before, there was just a big empty space between the couch and the TV. It made the room seem “cold” and uninviting. Now it feels more warm, welcoming, and intimate I guess you could say.
Now all that is left to do, is resurface the fireplace to match the bar wall and get new curtains. Oh, and plants, definitely need plants!!!
Is there anything you would change? I would definitely love the advice because I am out of ideas!
Looks nice, good job
Nope I do the same thing.
one year when my hubby went to AT he came home to a kitchen that had new wallpaper and curtains, a bathroom with new wallpaper, shower curtain and throw rugs and I bought a new sofa while he was away…no, you are not alone.
That’s awesome! I wonder why we do it? I am assuming to keep busy? Our minds way of saying “nope you don’t get to just sit around and be sad” lol. Sometimes it’s just easier to get stuff done when they aren’t here, I love my husband but sometimes he’s a distraction =)(and I do mean that in a good way).
Mine retired from the military at the end of 2012. I think you are right, it keeps us from getting into that funk that can happen when they are away for extended periods.
I rearrange ALL THE TIME. ;) I would try to move the love seat in front of the bar stools so the couches are facing each other — change the direction of the coffee table and then move the chair into the place where the love seat is & move the end table next to the chair on the left side between the chair and love seat. Not the best set up for watching TV, but better for conversation and I think it would flow a bit more, although it looks great the way you have it.
Thank you =) I actually did try that as well, but there was no room to walk at all between the barstools and couch. It made it to where the barstools were unusable. The freaking corner fireplace screws everything up! LOL. If that wasn’t there and it was moved to a different wall, it would be sooooo much easier to arrange things. This room is just so awkward. Our actual living room (which is at the front of the house) isn’t as bad but no one ever sits up there, unless we are having a Super Bowl party then every TV in the house is on lol.
Yes, the new layout looks great!
I just recently realized that I do this too. Kind of funny. It’s like a burst of energy to rearrange things. Lovely living room, the odd shape is very charming.
This brought back memories when my husband deployed the first thing I did was deep clean and move everything around. Maybe it was just my way of keeping busy.
Lol! I love this, and I do the same thing! The last time my husband went out of town, my mom came to stay with me and we painted the trim in our house. Whoever owned the house last painted all the trim the awful dark brown, and the house just looked so 70s. Now it’s white and I’m happy. I always find big things to do to keep me distracted, plus it’s fun to come up with different ways to change things and see how long it takes hubs to notice. :)
Hi Bridget! Love your voice as a writer. This was a fun article to read :-) The secretly redecorating is something I would totally do!
i always do this when there’s no one around to help me move anything!! i love your rearrange! what a cool program you found. your house is beautiful!
My honey is not in the military, but is frequently on wacky hours for his job and I do something very similar. No, I don’t have the gumption to rearrange a room, but I will majorly clean, organize my schedule, and, mostly, marathon watch a television show he would roll his eyes at. We all have our therapeutic activities ;)
Your rooms look great! I think if I was in your situation I’d do the same thing. Projects to keep me busy!
You are definitely a woman after my own heart! I love to decorate and redecorate a couple months later. I tend to do it while my boyfriend isn’t home. Since he’s not a decorator, he’s more likely to say how he doesn’t see the point or that he can’t visualize what I’m describing. This way I fill my decorating need and he’s happy with the outcome once he gets home from work because he doesn’t see all of my random ideas along the way.
I feel like all living rooms these days are shaped funny. I’m trying to figure one out that has hardly no walls and where a would be is a large sliding door.