Design Choices

News flash: I am not an interior decorator.

I love design magazines.

I spend hours on Pinterest and Houzz.

I've read about a gajillion "Top 10 Decor Tips" articles over the years.

I can mostly tell when a room doesn't work....and sometimes even come up with ideas that would make it work better.

But when push comes to shove?

When I'm standing in the store and my whole family is shrugging their shoulders as I ask, "Well, what do you think? This shade of aqua or this one?"

I get a little panicky over my design choices.

Maybe if I were in those fancy stores with interior decorators on stand-by to help you choose between $10,000 Sofa A and $10,000 Sofa B, it'd be easier.

But I'm not. (I'm too scared to even go into those places!)

I'm fretting in the aisles of TJ Maxx, Target, and Home Depot.

I'm nervously making offers on Craigslist and hoping the pictures live up to the item.

I'm rooting around in my attic thinking, "Hmm...this could work!"

It's not that I'm cheap, per se. I'll be buying top of the line mattresses (comfort matters!), but throw pillows that cost as much as my first car?

No.

I just can't.

Frugality + A very specific vision for this beach house = Sometimes feeling like it's never going to happen.

But it also forces me to get creative. And pull together a look that is less "polished" and more "collected and eclectic."

Currently I'm hand-wringing over slipcover fabric.

There is some very beautiful fabric out there. Some patterns and colors that I just drool over.

But at $150 a yard?

Or in a delicate linen?

These are not the choices for me. I mean, who wants to come back from a wonderful morning at the beach only to have heart failure when the kids plop their sandy, wet, sunscreened selves on the chairs?

After much searching, I finally found a really cute, very hardy, and great-priced fabric. Here's the sample on some of the aqua things I've already purchased:

 

I really like it the way it looks. Do you?

 

It's Waverly Chippendale Sun N Shade Fretwork in Mineral.

 

Not only do I need to make sure the color works, but I need to see if the pattern works with my other patterns and textures.

 

I just bought the big tan colored rug (at a great price, but I can always use it at my house if it doesn't work for the beach house). I absolutely adore the smaller rug with the blues and greens (and need it to pull all the colors together). And I could not pass up the coral lamp! I think it all works together: 

 

 

Here's the downside: While the fabric is an indoor/outdoor, and is very durable (while still feeling nice), and another website says it can be spot-cleaned with soap and water.....it also says, "dry clean only."

 

Ummm.....dry clean and beach house just do not go together!

 

For that matter, dry clean and slipcover just do not go together.

 

So, I'm going to wash my little sample and see how it fares. If it shrinks a little, or wrinkles a little...I can live with that.

 

If it twists into an unrecognizable blob?

 

Sigh...I might end up in one of those fancy stores, yet.

 

Godspeed, little sample.

 

I'll let y'all know how it goes...

 

~Betsy xoxo