Thursday, February 19, 2009

I Need A Decorator

Today I would be happy if an interior decorator dropped from the sky and paid me a visit. Carpet colors, that is my decorating challenge for today. I have been putting off this flooring project for long enough..years in fact. BUT I had good reasons. First of all, a little info.. Far Guy and I designed and built this house ourselves with help from family. The only thing we contracted out was the concrete work on the lower level, and the plumbing in the bathroom upstairs ( cause we were in a time crunch. ) In retrospect we were just a little nuts. However providing all the labor has been a learning experience, and it saved us quite a lot of money, and since we were on a pay as you go plan with this house it has been an adventure in choices and saving up for those choices.

Flooring for upstairs was really low on our priority list. Why? Well we hardly ever go up there. What is up there? I gave up my very large office area to Far Guy..he now has a place for his Train set. We have a lovely second bathroom. One huge great room, that is some what split into areas..a bedroom area, an area for an old desk, an area for my file cabinets, and a storage area which is essentially a huge walk through closet..yes you can walk through it. Upstairs is essentially used only by our children and grandchildren when they stay overnight. It is a glorified storage area for mismatched furniture too good to throw out, for goodness sake some of my early junk is now collectible! I suppose I would not need four file cabinets..but they are all full. I wouldn't need a china cabinet that has no china in it only purdy stuff, or an old roll top desk that Far Guy made from a kit that is full of someday stuff..you know I might need something in it someday.

OK.. the entire area up there is knotty pine, walls, ceiling the whole shebang. First of all it took forever to save enough money to buy the boards. Then I had to seal them all, three coats of sealer with a little sanding in between coats, and Far Guy used the chop saw up there..so between my splashing around with sealer and his sawdust..we have just lived with the wood sub floor. It was easy to clean up. Far Guy is all done with the trim..maybe..I am sure he missed something. When the carpet goes in.. there will be no more sawing up there.

The bathroom is under the deer head ..trophy. Boy, Far Guys fancy coat rack has a twang to it, see all the assorted junk...fine collectables.


Did I mention that I hate carpet? I like tile, I have laid all the tile on the lower level..I love it..it is perfect and easy to clean. I scrub it on my hands and knees..or if they get sore..I do my fancy butt scoot cross your legs Indian style scrub method. There is no way I am going to scrub the entire upstairs on my hands and knees or on my butt. I would prefer that Far Guy vacuum carpet.
Now onto the color. Some colors just won't work for me. Black, white, orange, red, blue, pink and purple are all out. Yellow might work..but have you ever seen yellow carpet in a large area? That leaves brown, rust and green and all it's shades and hues. And of course the mixes of beige/brown with flecks of blue, green and brown. The furniture up there is red, blue, and a blue plaid, and a strange retro print of brown, beige and green that appears in a love seat that is a perfect place for a small child to sleep. I have lots of different colors of quilts for the beds. I have no curtains up there..we live in the woods ..who is gonna see ya..a deer? So I need color input..let me hear your ideas and thoughts! :)

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I loathe carpet as well. What about a wood laminate, maybe something darker, that would compliment those beautiful tongue and groove walls/ceilings, which I love! Couple nice throw rugs that are washable or steam cleanable from Chance and gkids.
We have laminate in our great room. Love it!

Anonymous said...

I just love your walls and ceiling. We recently put vinyl flooring in Nalley's office because it is super easy to clean. The newer vinyls look a lot like tile but are much quicker to clean. We do not regret our decision.

Girl Tornado said...

I hate to say it, but I think I agree with DVMs Wife's Life, some kind of laminate would really look nice with a great large area rug (western design?) Other than that, I think a neutral beige berber with browns in it would compliment all the wood up there. You and Far Guy are like my parents, they have always done all the work on their homes themselves -- you should have seen the guest room addition they did in AZ with traditional viga ceiling and all, it was awesome!

Unknown said...

Connie, Personally, I would go with beige/brown carpet. Not too dark because dark carpet shows all kinds of lint and stuff. Why beige/brown? You can bring in your colorful quilts and make a statement with them. I think the wall with the deer head would be a great place to hang a quilt.
I like to stay neutral with my walls and floor and use accesories to add color.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with your old furniture. I love my old stuff! ;D

Pamela said...

i say go with the tile - and get one of those little steam clean w*t J*ts or whatever they are called.

I'm slowly ridding my house of carpet.

Emma Rose said...

The Duchess says she always picks floor covering according to the color of my fur and the size of my muddy paws!
Your room is bee-you-tee-ful!

The W.O.W. factor! said...

Oh my are we two peas from the same pod or what?! Hubby and I have done the very same thing. We never hire out work and we've learned alot and saved alot doing ourselves (I do electrical cuz he's petrified of it).
Since you have a room, as do we, upper level seldom used except kids and hunters...why not go with the C word..carpet...dark rich forest
green! (I say that cuz I've always wanted that color of carpet..somewhere, and never got it.
It'd fit your surroundings.
Our never used upstairs is solid knotty pine too, but over the years and I don't know when it was done, it has darkened sooooo much, I'd love to paint it or sheetrock over...to brighten it up....but I've other demolishing projects first!

Roxane B. Salonen said...

All I can say is, what a beautiful home! The details will fall into place. You have a lot of help/advice here. Good luck filling in the blanks!

Jeanne Estridge said...

I love laminate, but when I do carpet I put in tan/beige. It goes with everything!

Jan said...

If you do carpet I say brown/beige. It's neutral and goes with the wals.

Mary said...

I love tile, also, but my bare feet like carpet. If you like the way the subfloor looks, pick a carpet about that color.

RURAL said...

What a gorgeous room! Love it.

That is all I have to say tonight, I am tirrrrrrrred.

Jen

Anonymous said...

The room is gorgeous! Don't spoil it by putting in carpet! The wood laminate floors are lovely and so easy to clean - you can just vacuum or mop. Put down a few rugs for colour and that's it! (Saves you masses of money and time too.)

We have no carpets here - just wooden floors.

Anonymous said...

We had a subfloor in the studio. The people who we bought the place from never DID put a floor on - not because of your problem but because of sheer laziness. I insisted on a wood floor because of the weaving and spinning that would be going on up there. We got wood tiles from Menards and put that in. You could also get look-like-wood linoleum if you wanted. I really don't like carpet except in bedrooms. Good luck on your choice.