You plan, you paint, you organize. Then life steps in and messes everything up.
Your carefully laid out accessories get pushed aside for kids' toys and your new sofa slipcovers are forever wrinkled and askew.
What can you do when your decor just won't stay the way you pictured it would be?
Well, you have to work with what you have and your current circumstances, so creating organized chaos might be the answer for you.
The picture display in our feature photograph is a good example of what I like to call organized chaos. The photos are all of different sizes and don't seem to be hung in any particular geometric pattern, but they work in this room. If you find your tidy bathroom is always getting rearranged by others in the house, then decorating with a messy touch might be the way to go. If, for instance, someone places the soap dish on the ledge beside the vase and horse statue in our feature room, no one will be the wiser. The room still looks decorated and inviting. This room has a casual, lighthearted feel to it, which will make your job as the family decorator a little easier than a formal bathroom might. As well, it's easier on the budget when you can work with the picture frames (or whatever) you have instead of trying to match them all up by purchasing new ones. The black and white photos and white frames are what make the overall vignette attractive and cohesive.
If you love to cook and find your kitchen counter is forever cluttered with spice bottles, flavoured cooking oils and utensils, don't fret. Use your countertop as a spice-display area and have your utensils at the ready by setting them in open, countertop containers. Everything does not always have to be put away behind closed doors.
If you love to cook, then spend less time cleaning up and more time enjoying your kitchen by celebrating that fact. Install an overhead or wall pot rack, purchase a magnetic spice unit that attaches to the wall, have your knives on display on a magnetic strip and enjoy the chaos a little.
If your kids are at the age where their toys are strewn about the living room, make a designated play area in the room where they can play and enjoy being kids. Who cares if there are toys in the family room? Celebrate and enjoy this time with your kids, because they grow up very quickly.
You can paint a co-ordinating yet different wall colour in the play corner and store their toys in an adult-styled storage unit such as a cedar chest, which will look good when closed yet can house toys at the end of the day. Or, create a chalk-wall area in a similar fashion using chalkboard paint and let the kids write on the walls with erasable chalk. Chalkboard paint comes in many colours, so it can co-ordinate with your decor and no one will be the wiser.
Paint their wooden table and chair set to match your decor to help it blend in with your room. In a few years they will grow out of this phase and you can have your room back. During that time, relish the mayhem.
Pets can be another decor undoing but the pros of being a pet owner can outweigh the cons. Again, make a space for them. Cover your furniture if you have pet-hair issues, and throw down a couple of throw rugs if they are slipping on your glossy hardwood floors. Purchase decorative dishes and feeding stations that celebrate our four-legged friends and the messes they bring into our homes. Prepare the mudroom for wet dogs shaking off the rainwater and tracking mud into the room. Life is messy. Enjoy it. Now is not the time to purchase that white sofa you've always wanted.
If you're in the middle of a hectic time in your life, then rethink your decor and get rid of items that need dusting regularly. Save them for the quieter years when the kids have grown up and moved out. You'll have plenty of time then to relish and enjoy your collectibles.
For now, give yourself a break and store them away. Believe me, once you lighten your housework load you won't even miss these items and you'll be thankful for the extra free time.
Decorating using organized chaos is just a way of giving yourself permission to be a little messy.
connieoliver@shaw.ca
