First Look at My New Home Design & Spring Decorating with Texture & Fur

Mar 3, 2017
5 min read

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that we have sold our primary home of 12 years. Our house is selling as furnished; but don't worry, not furnished with my MacKenzie-Chlds collection, LOL! In any event, we are set to actually be moved out in less than 2 weeks. We're headed into what I call our "transition home". It's a house that we already own, and we will live in it for the next 3 years until The Mister retires. Then, we're on our way to our dream house on the west coast in beautiful Summerlin Las Vegas! Even though I know that 3 years will zoom right by, decorating is my thing, so I'm excited to make the transition home my own. The Mister has to keep reminding me that it's not a permanent space, so I should be a bit more practical when it comes to our purchases to redecorate this house. I admit, his practicality is always a sensible balance for me, so I've compromised to keep the hardly ever used living room furniture that's already in this house, which is a is dark brown, leather sofa set. Now, this is a big compromise for me, as I already found and planned my designs and color palette around a new white, luxury sectional that I picked out (Right HERE). Now, I'm sure you realize that white is not dark brown, so I had to figure out a way to work my designs within this compromise. So, instead of making the existing sofa set the focal point in each room, I will split the set up between the living room and the sitting room and make the main accessories in each of these areas the focal points. Decoratively, I'm only recognizing this sofa set as functional components of the rooms, like the walls and the floors. This alternate view of the re-design, given the materials that I have to work with, will ensures that I do not lose focus of the soft, shabby chic color palette that I had already planned for these spaces. So in essence, none of my good works and planning will go to waste ;-) Actually, I'd say that by being flexible in this situation, I inherently added an enhancement by bringing in the color rose gold. I had not planned to incorporate this color before the compromise to work with the dark brown set, but the hint of rose fares so beautifully with the dark leather.

I tend not to be a modern style decorator when to comes to my own home. I have to have additions of cozy and whimsy, and I absolutely love to mix patterns and textures (probably the exact reason why I am a MacKenzie-Childs enthusiast ;-). I'm also not a buyer of complete sets of collections to place into one specific room or space. I insist on the Oh my whimsy! affect by way of mixing and matching patterns in a single space for dimension and character. This is how I make it "my style". If by chance I do purchase the entire set of something, you best believe that I will split the set between multiple rooms in the house, which ironically brings the decoration scheme together as a whole. This lays the floor plan for visual interest because there is a pattern that repeats ever so delicately and selectively in each room, leading the eye and connecting the visual flow of the home design. Although the whimsy is the the fun and the unexpected in the decor, I want to make it clear that it is at the same time very planned and intentional.

I have successfully completed and included in this post the design layouts for the main downstairs area that you can see upon entering the transition house. Notice the focus and balance created in the living room with the bookshelf centered between the two furry benches and the two frames of wall art. The eye is drawn immediately to this centered and balanced area, even though the two large sofas are in the room. Purposely, I included furry accents via the benches, the accent pillows and the throw. Although we are headed out of the cold months and into spring, the little elements of fur will be relevant year round because of the textured interest it offers in these areas. The fur is also balanced by a healthy dose of soft floral patterns, blush pinks, creams and yellows within the room's complimenting decorations.

The floral patterns, the black & white Courtly Check pattern and the textured fur fabrics create a natural path into the sitting area where I have incorporated the other half of the sofa set (the chair and the ottoman). The rug pattern is different in this room, and the layering of the very detailed octagon rug over the shaggy rug makes this ensemble the focal. However, each room is still tied together by the threads of texture, fur and soft colors against the deep brown leather. Right behind the sofa chair is the bar connected to the backside of the kitchen counter, where I was able to nestle in a couple of rose gold bar stools under a trio of suspended Courtly Check hanging lights. I love that these stools are metal and sleek in design, a contrast from the soft, textured and patterned materials. This adds just a sprinkle of modern design into my comfortable and cozy scheme for an unexpected blast of abstract pop!

I'm looking forward to our time in our Ski Lodge house (a.k.a. the transition home). I hope that you, too can find ways to incorporate some of these textures and visually stimulating ideas into your home, new or old. The key is to recognize and involve the Oh my whimsy! details in each space, no matter what your decorating style.

I have linked each item from my design layout for your ease in shopping anything of interest to you. I can't wait to show you the actual decorated spaces once we are moved in. Oh, and by the way, I'll have to let The Mister know that I should get credit for also incorporating in the runner and the octagon rug that we #AlreadyOwn into the sitting room ;-) Practicality vs. Esthetics...That's us!

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