Lucy's Den {Before & Plans}

One of the fun things that has come out of this blog has been having friends invite me to help them with their decorating projects in their homes.  It's brought me in touch with old friends I haven't connected with in years, and I love that.

One such friend is Lucy.  She and I first met when we were both lifeguarding at a local pool one summer (back in the late '90s I think??? my gosh, that sounds like forever ago!).  I remember her as being super athletic and disciplined with her exercise regimen--and I'd be willing to bet neither of those things has changed :)  She's also just a wee bit older than me, but was so nice to me--I remember the high school me appreciating that.

Anyway, fast forward to present day, and she now lives in Richmond with her husband and two cute kiddos.  I was so excited when she asked me if I'd be up for giving her some ideas for window treatments in several rooms in her house.  Her home has great bones and Lucy has some really beautiful pieces as well.  Needless to say, I have been having some fun!

The first room we've been tackling is the den.  The room doesn't receive a lot of natural light, so Lucy and her husband wanted to make sure whatever window treatments they chose would not jeopardize the light the room did get.

The large blue oriental rug is obviously a big focal point in the space, so I wanted to suggest something that would compliment it.  The light blue wall color also needed to be taken into consideration.  We considered doing a printed drape, possibly in a darker blue, a taupe, or even a red pattern (The rug has some touches of red in it), but ultimately decided on a solid panel.  Going with creamy white linen drapes keeps the space feeling light, but also adds some warmth and texture without competing with the rug.  We are very excited to trim out the drapes in this pretty blue scroll flat tape.  They don't need the drapes for privacy in this particular room, so the roller blinds will be going.

The color in this image doesn't reflect the actual color, which is much more ivory/creamy.

Source: ikea.com via Anne on Pinterest

This trim is so classic.

Source: lsfabrics.com via Anne on Pinterest

Since we ended up saving some money by using Ikea drapes, I suggested we brainstorm some new fabric combinations for sofa pillows.   Lucy may be second-guessing that decision given the number of emails we've exchanged with different ideas :)  She's been very patient!  

We thought about going a number of different directions but ultimately felt like the dark blue in the rug needed to be repeated on the sofa.  It seemed like red was the other color that jumped out at you from the rug, so we decided to bring a splash of that up to the sofa too.

I also recommended they relocate the pretty mirror above the sofa to the fireplace mantle (not shown), and replace it with a series of bird prints that would fill out the vertical space.  I actually own this set of prints myself, though I've yet to use them.  They are so pretty and so affordable!  I got the idea to frame them in these Target frames when I saw how Holly Mathis used them in her office.

Here's most of what we have planned together.  I don't have Photoshop, and I'm actually pretty new to even using PowerPoint (seriously, I am the opposite of tech-savvy), so don't judge.

And here's my best effort at showing you how it will look once it all comes together.  Only much better than this crazy looking rendering :)

I hope you enjoyed this little peek.  I think it's so fun to see what other people are doing in their homes--such a great source of inspiration! Stay tuned--Lucy's a very reliable blogger, so I'm betting she'll share the 'After' pictures with us :)