I have lately become an avid fan of the cable tv show, Trading Spaces. On the show, two pairs of neighbors trade houses for 48 hours for the purpose of redecorating a room in their neighbors’ home. The hostess of the show, along with one carpenter, and a designer for each home and a $1000 budget/each for the redecorating are also part of the show. The results of the redecorating are then revealed to each couple at the end of the show. Most of the time, the people like what has been done. However, a few times I’ve watched, the homeowners have actually cried because they hated it so much. I like watching the show because the designers do some pretty neat tricks that can add a lot to a room with little money. Watching Trading Spaces (and the BBC show that inspired it, Changing Rooms) is sort of like leafing through magazines to get ideas.

Yesterday, having been inspired by my watching the last couple of months, I decided to rearrange the furniture in our living room. It all started with the purchase of some lined drapes for our west-facing living room windows. I really prefer the clean look of mini blinds to drapes, but we have been living with incredible heat from the west windows letting in sun for entire summer, and something had to be done. I have been looking at drapes for a while. They are not cheap. I came across some yesterday at a little odd-lots store here in Minco. The price was excellent, but they had only one pair of the drapes with the valance to match. I came home and put up the drapes on the west window. They fit, and look pretty good. I used the valance on the north window without any drapes, since I only got drapes for one set of windows. But at least now, the windows are somewhat coordinated, and the sun problem is at last solved. Eventually, I plan to cut off the bottom of the drapes to make another valance for the windows with the drapes. But, I digress . . .

With the new drapes and the inspiration from Trading Spaces, I decided I had to rearrange the furniture. The drapes are a part of the equation because with them, I felt it was necessary to have a sofa centered in front of the window. I have wanted this all along, but it seemed impossible. And, with the mini-blinds, it didn’t seem to look so bad to have the sofa off-center. So after several iterations of various furniture arrangements, I still thought my task was impossible. Then I had to leave to go judge a cake contest. Mark assured me he could arrange the furniture in a “cozy” and appealing way while I was gone. Hmmm? When I returned, he confessed it was harder than he thought. He fled to his office and left me with the task again. Two hours later, when he came home, it was done. Our large sofa was centered in front of the west window, and the coordinating love seat was centered in front of the north window. All of our other pieces of furniture were also arranged in an appealing way. Mark was really happy with the overall change. He has since said more than once that he really likes the new arrangement. This experience made for a very satisfying afternoon. Hopefully, it won’t take me 6 months to finish the alterations to the drapes and to make the new valance.