Minimalism and Decorating

interior by Nicole Franzen. Source.

This is minimalistic decor, as a style of decorating. Not what I'm talking about.

Can the two ever be compatible?

In March of 2014, I flexed my minimalist muscles and eliminated over 500 things from my home. (To be truthful, I am still in the process of eliminating them. There are books still in the garage.)

The next month, I spent a great deal of time--and money--buying stuff and transforming it for a makeover of my mother's bedroom.

Recently, it happened again. Everyday, Mom bagged up stuff to remove from the house--and as she was taking that out the back door, I was coming in the front with bags and bags of stuff to transform another room and decorate it.

Do I simply have contradictions in my personality? Are these two endeavours even remotely reconcilable?

It is cliche, but true: minimalism is about living with less. It's about decluttering, letting go, getting rid of stuff. At least to start. The goal, as I see it, is to live only with what is essential to your life whether that's a backpack and good shoes and lots of socks or a modest house, a yard, kids and a dog (and all that goes with that.) It's about buying only what's really necessary when it is really needed. (And then asking yourself, is it really necessary? Is it really needed?) You could say it is quite anti-consumerism. It's about being uber intentional.

Decorating, however, is not anti-consumerism. Not at all. Even in the world of DIY decorating (and maybe especially in the world of DIY decorating) one has to buy all kinds of stuff to make the room work. Line, shape, colour, texture, balance, unity, contrast. These are the tools to create harmony and beauty. A mirror, for example, can't be just any old thing one has on hand. It has to conform to specific dimensions. The frame needs to be a certain finish to either blend in or stand out from the other elements in the room. The shape should be just so.

The gorgeous Trumeau mirror my husband made for my Mom's dressing room during the Fall 2015 One Room Challenge. Most definitely, not minimalist mirror frame!

What brings the two together? Draw a venn diagram. Label on circle minimalism and the other decorating.The intersection? William Morris, of course.

It is quite OK if, for you, beauty is essential.

I believe it is--and, I'll take it even further.

I believe beauty is an essential component of being a minimalist. 

One perfect set of dishes, for example, eliminates many that may be just so-so. One perfect pair of jeans replaces five mediocre ones. A pair of perfect mirrors eliminates ten held onto "just in case." The best drill you can afford, the best couch makes so many other less satisfactory purchases unnecessary. (In fact, I read on a blog somewhere that someone's father had given her the advice to buy the best bed, table, and couch she could afford and all the rest would sort itself out. I wish I had had that advice!) This is one of those lessons you can learn after much trial and error (and money wasted) or you can embrace from the get-go. 

One doesn't need much, (that's the minimilaist part) but what one has--that can be beautiful (the "decor" part). 

Story of a Gallery Wall, Part Deux

Before, before.

from June 2012

Pretty but vapid.

After the Tchotchke Challenge in June, I rearranged the living room and "floated" the couch.

That left the gallery wall looking like this:

I didn't do anything right away, because I wasn't sure if things were going to stay this way or not.

One of the things I realised during the Tchotchke challenge is that I wanted more meaning in my home. I have long tried to live according to the strict interpretation of Morris's maxim; that is, I like my things not merely beautiful, but useful, too. Wanting both beauty and now, meaning, seemed a natural evolution.

In July, it seemed, the stars aligned.

Both IKEA and my photo developer had a sale in the same week. Frames were 50% off and 8x10's were going for 40% off. I decided that I would take down the pretty crap, make the wall more meaningful and get vacation photos that I'd taken up onto the wall.

I bought the frames (VIRSERUM (black) and RIBBA (black and brown))  and worked on the photos feverishly for two evenings. On the third, I went to upload them for developing-- and discovered the sale was over.

I'd already started mucking with the wall, though.

I moved the couch back against this wall when I put down the newly cleaned carpet.
July to December 2013

I have been checking every week ever since.

Last week, I found out that the 8x10's were on sale again and so I started to play. I found some photos I'd thought I'd lost from a trip we took out east five years ago. That was good.

I decided I would mix my photos with paintings I found at Value Village (and other places). I traced each frame onto stiff paper and arranged them on the wall.

Many times.

This is only a small sample. If I counted right, I made eleven discrete arrangements.  Moving paper is easy.

Here's where I started:

 I quickly decided I wanted to make it bigger and go from one lamp to the other.

I experimented with making a straight horizontal line through the composition.

 

I decided I wanted it as random and as jagged as possible.

It occurred to me, as I studied the pictures I took of each arrangement, that, really, a good number of them "would do." I almost lost my way completely and scurried over to my Pinterest board to get back on track. Even after I looked at many arrangements I liked, it was clear to me there was no "one" right way to do it. I did have one or two doosies along the way, though.

Those coloured bits on the brown paper are small copies of the photos I sent for developing. The squares without pictures represent paintings.

 But, fortunately, balance can be achieved in many ways.

It took me more than a couple of days, working here and there. Finally, on Sunday, with my daughter's input, I got it done.

It changed again, of course.

That's my helper there on the sofa. She made an excellent argument for leaving off the plates (the round bits in the pictures above.)

 

The before and after:
(I did not move the wall hanging.)

 



One more:

I love the strength of it.

Linking to Work It Wednesday at Happy Housie.



Another Way

I had not moved my couch in fifteen years.

It sat along this wall, in roughly this spot since we plunked it here when we rescued it. (I can't even remember where it was when we found it. It had originally belonged to the mother of my mother's third ex-husband. I love the couch, not its history.) I will not block my window.

I have always wanted to float the couch, but I know there's not enough room: that back wall is only fourteen feet.  Still, with the furniture mostly cleared out so my daughter and her friends could have a sleep over on blow-up mattresses, I decided to try putting the couch another way.

I tucked the chairs into this corner.

Obviously, the "gallery wall" is in the wrong place and there's far too much matchy matchy wood, but I like the idea.

I moved the poang chair to the dining room and I love it there. My husband and kids are actually coming into the dining room and plunking themselves down to visit. (A mixed blessing, sometimes)though I've enjoyed it a couple of times as a place to read while someone is busy watching TV in the living room.

The TV is the elephant in the room. I would love to locate it elsewhere in the house--but there is no other place.

This arrangement is perfect for watching TV.

This was taken from behind the couch. The "fireplace" is behind me, the window is to the right)

I love sitting by the window. I used to sit in the chair that was there. That is my spot--but now I can have someone sit beside me. Last night it was my daughter for a while, then my husband and I sat and read with the dog between us. I realised then that we rarely sit in this room at the same time unless we're watching a movie--and then we sit on different pieces of furniture.

I am not sure I will keep things this way. It looks weird to me--like everything is off kilter. Ignoring the fireplace, even though it's totally faux and isn't all that attractive anyway feels like turning my back on all things good and righteous.

I'm not at all sure what to do.

Linking to Pancakes and French Fries so all can have a say.

June Challenge: Cleaning Week 2

Organizing my nightstand a few days ago was just part of my effort to Spring Clean the bedroom. We have original wood floors up here--and no budget for a carpet. So, twice a year, I like to remove everything from under the bed, move the furniture around and give the floor a good vacuum.

It feels fabulous to do that!

I also cleaned the shelves above my desk. This is a task I should do every year just because they do get so dusty, but I often don't. This year, I was motivated by two things.

1) The Ikea lights above the desk stopped working properly ages ago. I have been meaning to figure out what's wrong with them for ages. I purchased a new NON light a few months ago in order to test things. After a lot of light bulb changing and plugging and unplugging, I discovered that the portion of the cord which holds the switch in both lamps is defective. The lights themselves are fine. I am hoping IKEA will be able to replace just the switch cords for me.

 

The light on the right worked--but only intermittently. It would blink on and off while I was working and it was quite annoying.

 

I took the switch cord from the new NON light and used it for one of the lamps.

 

 

2) Nester's accessory-free challenge. Without the usual tchotchkes it was easier--and more necessary than ever to wipe the shelves down.

 

 

I also found myself doing some unexpected de-cluttering. On the radio, I heard about someone trying to establish a library for the people who live on a First Nations Reserve south of our city. It is a particularly violent place with its youngsters involved in gangs. So, I found myself putting aside a few books for that.

I find it somewhat amazing that I can comb the shelves and find things I know we can do without--especially after donating hundreds of books earlier this Spring. Still, it was quite gratifying.

I've also spent the last three or four days cleaning and tidying the house to make it presentable for a home tour. That was fun!

Project 27: The Small Drawers.

This one came about because I organized the top drawer of the white dresser.

These are the cards we use for card games, Uno, Skipbo and your generic decks, in both bridge and poker sizes. There are cribbage boards, too, of course (though we still need to teach the kids to play crib). These used to be the main items we kept in the top drawer of the white dresser. But we don't need them there any more.

I like to call this part of the organizing process the "shuffle" because essentially, all you're doing is shuffling your stuff around. But it isn't always a simple thing to do--especially when you are dealing with a very disorganized home. The organized people tell you to take those items to their new home and leave them there until you're ready to organize them. I think this is a good strategy in a situation like this where you're working on a small scale. And I was lucky I already had something to put them in.

But so often, especially when I am organizing with my Mom, the new stuff to be moved in has to mingle with old, not-yet-decluttered stuff and the inevitable chaos that ensues is immense, especially when you consider that this is happening all over the house.

Things sat like this in the living room for a very long time.

One of the reasons I kept putting off this easy project was that this is one of the last bits left over from homeschooling.

Things have gone well, though. One of my son's teachers told me that "whatever" I'd done, I must have "done it right" because my son was able to "get what he needed" in order to learn the material.

I am grateful to that teacher.

So, there was absolutely zero emotional charge to re-purposing this handy little drawer unit.

 

 

One of the things Aby taught in her Organizing Fundamentals course is that one likely needs to re-organize whenever there's a major change in one's life. As I have been dealing with closing the homeschooling chapter of our lives, I am grateful I am dealing with the stuff now, instead of years from now. It's a great feeling to be creating a house we can live in now, instead of living in a home full of stuff I'm afraid to face.

I'm linking to Jules at Pancakes and French Fries for the William Morris Project, because that's what this was, even though it's late.

Project 23: Plan the Vegetable Garden

When we first built our vegetable beds, I bought two very useful resources; a book, Guide to Canadian Vegetable Gardening,* by Douglas Green,  and a special edition of Mother Earth News magazine.

The magazine had an article on crop rotation. In that article, it grouped the vegetables by family. I'd never seen anything like it.

These are the family groups:

A. Onion family: onion, garlic, leeks and shallots
B. Carrot family: carrots, celery, parsley and parsnips
C. Sunflower family: lettuce, sunflowers, and a few other leafy greens
D. Cabbage family: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale and many other leafy greens as well as rutabagas and kohlrabi
E. Spinach family; beets and chard
F. Cucumber family, cucumbers, melons, squash and gourds
G. Pea family: peas and beans
H. Grass family: corn, wheat, oats and rye
I. Tomato family: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and potatoes (though I have a not never toplant tomatoes with potatoes. I don't remember why.)

So, planning our vegetable beds was a simple matter of figuring out what we want to grow this year and making a list.

Next, I grouped the seeds into the families above. They are very helpful for planting in beds. I allot one bed per family.

Then, I consulted the crop rotation diagram I made in 2011 and figured out where to put my vegetables and I made up a new chart for this year.

 

This is what I gave my husband when he asked me where I wanted things planted.

While I was having fun doing the planning, my husband and son dug out the odd numbered beds (as it is an odd numbered year) and amended them with compost. We should have added peat moss, but we were lazy this year.

So, almost on schedule, we planted the vegetable beds. (Of course, by "we" I mean my husband.) I suppose it doesn't matter that much if the planning is late--as long as the planting isn't! In case some of you think this is late, we live in climate zone 3a. The traditional date for planting here is the May long weekend (around Queen Victoria's Birthday) which we just had.

We're in the midst of a bit of  drought at the moment, so here's hoping all goes well. Linking to Jules at Pancakes and French Fries for the wonderful William Morris Project.

*This post does not contain affiliate links.

The Basement Walls: Done!

And to think this all started because I wanted an empty cubby!

I started rearranging, purging and prettifying the basement in February, though we didn't actually start work on the walls until March.

I was enrolled in the Organize Your Creative Space Class at Simplify 101 and the Photo Freedom class at Big Picture Classes. I got the idea that I wanted to organize the Big Open Area in the diagram below into a back up scraproom area.

As I shuffled things around the make that happen, my husband decided we should finish insulating the basement. That meant repairing and patching the concrete, framing and putting up insulation, and then putting up wallboard on two and a half walls. (The area in pink below.)

This diagram is not to scale! (I hope you can read it.)

Wow. Looking at that, I realise what a big job it really was. No wonder it took 3 months and a bit.

Phase 1:
a) The Area under the Stairs.

We insulated the Laundry Room/Pantry area of the basement in October of 2011. I'm not exactly sure why we procrastinated this part. Maybe because it is just so full of stuff we didn't want to deal with it?

You can see where the white wall board stops: my husband didn't think to line it up with where the insulation stops. That caused a minor hassle trying to attach the new wallboard.

He and my son took Spring Break (the last week of March) to frame and put up the insulation and wallboard.

I like this shot I took after painting the area under the stairs ocean blue because you can see all the way into the "games room."

b) The Games Room

This started as wasted space. It held a lat pull down machine no one had used in over 15 years.

I sold it. I wanted it gone so badly, we even delivered it to a small town forty five minutes north of us.

With that space empty, we set it up as a "games room" for my son so I could work in the main area (where he had been) getting rid of stuff.

Then, after about a month, we moved him out again so they could get to work. There were a lot of pipes to figure out how to go around and deal with over in this part.

Part of the south wall. That black pipe is my kitchen drain.

Part of the east wall. The wall o' shelves start right at the right edge of this photo. Those white pipes are the intake and outake pipes for our High Efficiency furnace.

 

Here's a blurry shot of my two workmen!

They went around the corner a bit.

Things stayed like this until my husband had another week off at the end of April.


Phase 2:
The Wall O' Shelves

I started working on the shelves in February.

Should I show you what I started with in January? It is a wee bit embarrassing.

Things were a bit better by the beginning of March. At least I could get to them!

Just before we took them down in late April, I made up this info graphic to help me figure out where to put things back.

I made one for each of the four columns of shelves. They were very helpful, as a matter of fact.

My husband and I had everything down in half a day.

The window had been covered with black paper. I hadn't even realised there was one there.

After my husband patched the walls and welet it all dry, the wall went up fast.

We used scrap pieces of wallboard going into the corner. They're behind the shelves, anyway.  My husband figures we saved about $100 doing that.

I painted the shelves outside over the course of a few days.

Sorry for the blur. This was taken from the window on the stair landing. That's the last of the snow on the ground back by the garage.

And here we are, today.

I will be putting the curtains back up after I get them washed.

I purged a lot and I sold a lot to make this happen. I went through every. little. thing. We also moved the furniture around. But that? That is a story for another day.

For now, it's done.

Linking to Jules of The William Morris Project at Pancakes and French Fries.