William Morris Project — the “Starbucks Lounge” (formerly known as the office)

I spent some time over the past two weeks clearing out clutter and finishing what we now affectionately call “the Starbucks Lounge” because it reminds me of some of the early Starbucks that we visited with comfy chairs and a general coffee house look.  Since most of our reading is now done on digital devices (computer, kindle, ipod, etc.), we have no need for bookshelves for our reading place (and in fact, my decluttering involved donation of four bookcases and their contents).  This room used to be my office.

What we love about this room:

1. The Art Wall — I’m blessed to have a “personal collection” of art — my daughter is an artist, one of my dearest friends is an artist, my father-in-law was an artist and his grandfather was an artist (skips a generation?)  My uncle was a photographer and some of his work will be on display in my living room once that’s complete.

2. The mismatched, accumulated-over-time look — the couch and coffee table came from the living room, the two wing chairs came from thrift stores several years ago and have been in use in other areas of the house.

3. The coziness — the walls are the same color as most in our house (as we bought it) but the color changes appearances in different light (you can see that in the photos).  It’s a warm color (called “Starbucks,” coincidentally) and though I find it a bit dark in some rooms, for this room, I love it.

4. The cost — so far, we’ve used items we already had elsewhere in the house so we haven’t spent any money.

5. The simplicity — As I’ve said before, I’m an aspiring semi-minimalist.  I’m not interested in white walls and sparse furnishings, but in having ONLY things that I know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (ala William Morris).  To prepare this room, we boxed and removed everything; decided what purpose we wanted the room to serve; decided what items would be required to fulfill that purpose; and removed everything else.

Still to be done:

1. Some kind of window valance

2. Patching and touching up paint on leftover holes from the previous hanging artwork

3. Converting french doors to barn-style sliding doors (DH is doing this and currently has one door up for testing — we’re DIYing it rather than spending the $600 for the hardware we wanted.