Note: I hesitate to share these photos because I know that they are poor quality. I took quick snapshots as I was working. I wasn’t even planning to share this story with you on my blog, but because not all of my readers are interested in sewing projects, I decided to give you something different this week. I hope that you will understand…

It all started because I have had most of our beautiful, antique books in a box for two years. This box has floated around the house, occasionally hiding behind furniture; sometimes hiding under a vintage table cloth and serving as a base for Christmas decor, but most recently, the box has just been an eyesore in our hallway, waiting for me. Because we conveyed all of our bookshelves when we sold our previous house, we had to start over when we bought our new house. My husband got some IKEA bookshelves for his study, but my books still reside on our master bedroom closet shelf on my side of the closet or in plastic tubs. But I didn’t want most of the old books to be hidden away in our closet, and so I decided that I would use the corner cupboard (that has been holding our Currier and Ives dishes that my husband inherited from his grandma in our dining room) as a bookshelf by moving it into the living. Originally, I was planning to paint that corner cupboard white and leave it in the dining room, but the height of our living room combined with my need for a bookshelf changed my mind, and I decided to switch the pie safe in the living room with the corner cupboard. It makes more sense anyway because I use the pie safe to hold kitchen items, such as my cookbooks and large serving dishes, large roasting pots, Instant Pots, etc.

And so Friday morning, when I woke up and started the weekly cleaning and saw that ugly box in the hallway, I decided that maybe it was time. I started to second guess myself, however, and posted a poll in my Instagram stories, asking for advice about the switch. Even better than all of the advice about switching those two pieces of furniture was a FaceTime call from my friend, Cheri, who lives in Minnesota (you can find her beautiful home at her blog, This Cottage Life). She suggested a solution to problem that has frustrated me since we moved in!

Now see, our front door opens directly into our living room, and our deck door opens on the other side of the living room. Our living room is a thoroughfare, used many, many times a day by children and dog. The hallway is to the side of the living room, and the kitchen entrance is opposite the hallway. I never could figure out how to make a cozy seating space with all of those factors and had our furniture lined up on either side of the living room. But Cheri convinced me to try to change the seating arrangement by forming a L-shape with the couch and loveseat, saying that we would soon get used to walking around the loveseat. And so, I moved everything around. And she was right!

Now, the room feels so much cozier! Getting a rug that fits the seating area may some day be feasible—I didn’t know when or how we would ever be able to get a large enough rug to fit the other space—and everyone quickly adjusted to the new arrangement. Well, almost everyone. I am not sure that my husband, Ryan, is a fan of it yet, but the children, myself, and even the dog seem to approve. (The last time I rearranged furniture last fall, the dog was at first confused, and then glared at me for days because I moved “his” couch across the room.)

View from the deck door to the front door. The kitchen is through the opening on the left.

After, I got all of that furniture moved around, I did eventually finish what I started out to do—switching the pie safe and corner cupboard. Not only that, but I even moved the pine hutch in the other corner of the dining room, too. But it was too late to get good photos by Friday night. So, I will share those with you in the future.

There are so many projects that I want to complete in this house. And now, that I am finally feeling better most days, I want to tackle them to make the main rooms of our home more beautiful and have more character. I have a long wish list, which may or may not ever happen:

Remove the broken blinds on the living room patio door and hang curtains in the living room around the doors to add soften and provide filtered light and a bit of privacy. (I plan to make this happen ASAP.)
Make a quilted wall hanging to put above the sofa. Or buy prints of wall art. Or have my husband paint a large original watercolor.
Buy a large area rug for the seating area of the living room and maybe some runners to put in the hallway.
Buy a new living room sofa (the one we have is not actually that comfortable anymore) and possibly, eventually, buy recliners to replace the love seat when it wears out.
Paint the little cupboard under the clock a bayberry green and/or move the piano to that spot.
Refinish a vintage telephone table that we have to place along the wall behind the love seat where my quilt frames used to be.
Remove or cover popcorn ceilings.
Replace the ceiling fan in the living room. (A priority in my husband’s opinion.)
Put wall treatments, such as board and batten or bead-board wainscoting, in the dining room or living room or both.
Put a faux fireplace/mantle in the dining room with a large mirror above it to reflect more light as it is a fairly dark room.
Find new lighting for the living room—maybe some wall sconces around the opening to the dining room and some larger lamps?
Replace the chandelier in the dining room.
Repaint the kitchen and dining room. Although the green is tolerable, it feels really drab to me, especially in winter. The green may be okay if we were to add the wall treatments that I already mentioned and paint those white, but I think that walls of a soft white would be a lot brighter. And, seriously, while I like green, I really like blue and white!
Repaint the living room and hallway. I think the walls are covered with original paint from when the house was built nearly 20 years ago, and the previous owners touched it up with a flat paint (instead of what I think is eggshell finish) with a color that didn’t match exactly. It will look so much better once it is all the same color and finish. Again, I want a soft white in these rooms, too.
Stain the pie safe a walnut color and paint the pine hutch white.
Refinish or paint the kitchen table.
Replace the formica counter tops in the kitchen with quartz.
Again this list contains dreams and wishes. If I dwell on them, I get discontent, which isn’t good. Also, the last time I worked on painting a piece of furniture, my MCAS symptoms flared so badly that I am scared to open a paint can again!
So, my main focus these days is working with what we have and being happy with it. We have so much more than so many people in the world that I don’t ever want to take what we have for granted. What I am working now is to keep our home beautiful by daily routines to help keep it clean and orderly (well, as much as I can with 2 children and a dog in the house) and add the handmade touches and plants that make me smile.
I will share more photos of the dining room, kitchen, and the living room hopefully next week. Also, sometime soon, I should share with you the curtains I made for the playroom/schoolroom.
This week is going to be busy with 3 medical appointments, two of which require traveling an hour each way. As an introvert who is perfectly happy never leaving home, except to shop for fabric, books, or sewing supplies, having to travel away from home three days in a row (and with one or both of the girls for the two long-distance appointments) feels a bit daunting, mostly because it throws off routines. At least, we should have beautiful weather, and the younger daughter can’t wait to go to the eye doctor and allergist!
Happy Monday!

The Process of Rearranging Furniture