How My Whole House Design Plan Came Together In Literally One Night

Last Updated on December 24, 2015 by Kristi Linauer

Have you ever been struggling with decorating decisions for your home, and then you make one decision, or come across one item in your stash of goodies, and it makes your whole plan start to fall together?

Okay, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever had that experience…until yesterday. And now, because of one very fortuitous find in my stash ‘o stuff, I feel like the whole design plan for my entire house has fallen into place. I swear to you, I’m not being melodramatic. This all happened last night. Okay, so let me back up and start from the beginning.

Y’all know as well as I do that I’ve been struggling with this house when it comes to decorating decisions. I can’t seem to make up my mind on things, or stick with a plan. I just couldn’t seem to make the design come together in my mind, and it was really frustrating to me. I think there are two main reasons this was happening. First, I painted my kitchen green and added gold trim.

Don’t misunderstand me. I LOVE my green kitchen. There are no kitchen do-overs in my foreseeable future. But at the same time, I’ve had a very hard time coming up with a cohesive plan for the rest of the house that will complement my green kitchen. It has made things very challenging for me.

And secondly, I love so many different styles, and so many colors, and so many things, and yet I only have limited space in this house, which is our forever home. There are so many ideas I want to try out (seriously, about ten years’ worth of ideas stored on my computer), that I’ve felt overwhelmed trying to narrow those ideas down to the limited few that will make the final cut. And I kind of feel like this is my last chance, so I really want to get it right. That’s not to say that I won’t ever redecorate my house again. I’m sure I will at some point in the very distant future. But I don’t want to become a serial re-decorator. Once my house is done, it’s done at least for a decade or so. I want to actually be able to relax and enjoy my house, rather than always looking for the next project. So the idea that this is it for the foreseeable future has made it kind of hard for me to come up with a plan and stick with it.

So I’ve been floundering around, trying one idea after another that just didn’t seem to pan out. The bathroom is no exception.

Overall, I really do love the way the bathroom is turning out, but I’ve definitely had some missteps along the way, like the shower curtain…

I really don’t know what my fascination is with that fabric, but I’ve tried it twice now (living room curtains/Roman shades, and this shower curtain), and it just hasn’t worked in either place. So I’m finally over it and moving on. I’ve selected a completely new fabric.

And then there was my attempt at making artwork that I showed you yesterday.

I like the actual artwork, and I had fun painting it, but it just wasn’t working in the bathroom for me. It looked too…something.

Too light? Too washed out? Too small? Maybe all of the above.

So I decided that I needed something larger, something bolder, something in a frame, and preferable something square. I headed to my stash of frames to see if I had one that I could use, and that’s when I saw it — the perfect large, square frame with the perfect mat with the perfect silver leaf accent. And the current artwork in the frame even looked pretty good in the bathroom with the new shower curtain fabric.

The only thing I really don’t like is the glass. I’ll probably have new non-glare glass cut for it. But I love how it looks on that wall! The dark wood frame complements the dark wood on the ceiling and the countertops perfectly. And most importantly, I think this artwork can carry its own next to that bold shower curtain fabric.

And the silver leaf accent around the mat adds just the right amount of sparkle. I think it’s perfect!

I’m not crazy about the actual artwork, though. I might take it out and see if I can add at least some small touches of color, and possibly lighten it up some. I’ve always felt like these paintings (I have two coordinating paintings) were a bit dreary and depressing…and too burnt orange…for my taste.

But overall, I think it’s a good fit for this bathroom.

But here’s the interesting part. As soon as I hung the painting in the bathroom and stood back to look at it, I thought to myself, “Yes! Now that’s a look that complements the design of my kitchen. My whole house needs to go more in this direction to complement the kitchen.” And then, it’s like everything for my whole house became clear in my head. I have no idea how one painting can do that, but it did. I suddenly had this clear vision for my entryway, dining room, music room, and even the breakfast room — ideas that would actually complement rather than compete with my kitchen. All of these ideas started flooding my mind, and a clear, cohesive plan started coming together.

Strange, right?

For example, a couple of months ago, I came across this fabric that I thought might be perfect for my dining room draperies. So this past weekend, while shopping for new shower curtain fabric, I decided that I would also check out this sample and bring it home.

It’s Dwell Studio for Robert Allen @ Home Bella Porte in Watercress. But I need 24 yards of fabric for my dining room draperies, and the cheapest I can find this fabric is $20.85/yard. I don’t think that’s a terrible price for decorator fabric, but when I need 24 yards, that’s $500 just for the fabric. And I’d still need to buy drapery lining. Again, $650-ish for draperies for three windows, including one window that is nine feet wide and would need double-width panels, isn’t bad. But I’m cheap, and I don’t like spending that much money.

But it wasn’t just the price that was stopping me. I also felt that 24 yards of green fabric with a repetitive geometric print in a room that’s really not that big might feel a bit busy and overpowering. So I’ve been pondering this for weeks now.

Then last night, as these ideas were flooding my head, I had this idea. What if, rather than using the fabric for the whole panel, I just used it as an accent on the leading edge of each panel? It would be similar to the way that these draperies from Amanda Carol Interiors are accented along the leading edge with Greek key fabric from Premier Fabric.

And look what happens when I fold this fabric to use as an accent!

Does that remind you of anything? Like maybe my rolling doors?

It’s like it was meant to be!