The Grey Cycle

Moving to Florida and buying a new home can be daunting! As you navigate your way from a home with delineated spaces to a home with an open floor plan, it can be exhausting trying to figure out furniture placement in a space with few walls. Often there is confusion or disagreement about furniture and colors for the space. However, over time your home will change as you settle in, upgrade, and expand your decorating horizons but we don’t want to waste money making lots of mistakes or just getting it done. So often in the world of decorating homeowners ask themselves, “Where do we start?” Let’s take a peek into a Begonia Model in which the homeowners started with grey but broke the cycle of grey by adding color somewhere in the heart of The Villages.

• Too much Grey
The homeowners purchased the house with gray carpet, and grey vinyl. They purchased a grey sofa, a grey entertainment buffet, and brown and grey occasional chairs. When they felt overcome with grey they decided they needed someone to help them break the cycle of grey. I find that the homeowners stay in a comfort zone when they shop. So if they are using grey, then everything they buy is grey. Finally, they turn around and realize they have too much grey but we have to start somewhere so we usually add color to the grey.

• What Color
In this Begonia the homeowner expressed a love for navy blue and navy blue looks great with grey. We began to introduce navy blue into the space but being budget minded we only added things into the space rather than starting over.

• Furniture Placement
The furniture placement had to stay the way it was because the TV was already mounted to the wall and the recliners that they owned were not wall hugging and needed lots of space to recline. We did not want to buy new recliners or pay to have the TV moved again.

• New chairs
We moved the brown and grey chairs from the living room into the eat-in kitchen area and purchased new accent chairs for the living room. The new chairs were a very light grey tweed material with a light navy blue strip. They added much more light and life to the space.

• Windows
It is important to treat the windows in a space so that it will feel finished. If molding is not in the budget, then stationary side panels or curtains will do the trick. The side panels provide several things in the space. They add softness and sound absorption which in a home with all hard surface flooring is a plus. When the walls cannot be painted a color or the homeowners just like white walls, then side panels will add much needed color. These side panels came from a local retailer and were very reasonable.

• Hot color pop
The living room and dining room currently have grey carpet. The homeowners knew that in a year they would be installing some type of hard surface flooring and would need an area rug for the living room. We added a rug now so that the space would have a hot pop of color. The blue rug with the white leaf pattern looks amazing against the neutral sea of grey carpet. There is no coffee table in the space so the rug not only added color but helped the room feel a bit cozier.

• Sofa wall
The homeowners already owned a fabulous round mirror but it was hung in the wrong place and not reflecting light. We moved the round mirror over the sofa in the living room so that it could reflect the light from the sliding glass door. Once the mirror was hung it came to life and added so much light to the space. We added hurricane wall sconces to each side of the round mirror with remote control candles. The room looks amazing at night!

• Art
The room needed at least one piece of art over the two chairs. The homeowners chose a blue heron water color by Gene Rizzo. The colors are perfect in the space. Though we are missing the strong focal point because the TV is on the wall between the windows, the heron gives the eye something to focus on rather than the black TV. The room looks finished and complete with seating for seven.

• Eat in kitchen
The two brown and grey chairs that were in the living room were moved to the eat-in kitchenette that was not being used for anything. The kitchenette became a cozy coffee nook that was perfect for the homeowners. We added a large arched mirror to replace the window that is absent in the Begonia. Also, we added a 5×8 area rug to define the space and have a soft surface for resting feet when sitting. Finally, a sunset water color painting added a note of interest to the space.
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Before and After Pics Below