To Chair or Not to Chair...

Perhaps it was the colors yellow and red in this photo that first caught my attention. Add some blue and you've got my color palette at Buttermilk Cottage. When I recently saw this image at apartmenttherapy it hit a note with me. Particularly after reading the text, "Just because you have a small room doesn't mean you have to downsize the furniture. Sometimes going with big or overstuffed items helps to fill the space and pull the room together." This is music to my ears!


Buttermilk Cottage is a good size house. But dividing that space into two separate living spaces (my sister Nancy lives upstairs, I have the downstairs) can really decrease each individual living area.


Lately I've been yearning for a comfortable armchair for my bedroom. I have a small wicker chair borrowed from my dining room there already. You can see it at the bottom right side of this picture. This chair is fine for a quick sit to put on shoes, or to drape a jacket over the back. But I want something soft and comfy, with arms that I can sit in and read on those nights I'm wide awake at 2 AM.







Here you can see the chair and the space where my "new" chair would need to sit. Am I crazy? Would it be way too much? Knowing myself, if I got the chair of my dreams, I'd probably end up wanting some sort of foot rest too. I KNOW there's not enough space for that too! And what about a reading lamp and side table???

I think this is the dilemma of many armchair (no pun intended) decorators--so much desire to decorate more, yet so little space...





By the way, the bedside table/sewing machine base was my grandmother's. I don't know what became of the actual machine, but I'm thrilled to have the base and cherish it.