By Linda Jennings



Believe it or not our homes often speak volumes about who we are and how we feel or at least how we once felt. What in the world am I talking about, you ask? Well let me give you some scenarios and see if you fit into any of the scenes.

When was the last time you updated a room in your home? Did you change a rug, get new drapes or curtains, paint the walls or do a wall treatment? Maybe you got a new easy chair or maybe a new sofa, did you also get new lamps and end tables or a coffee table? Why ask all these questions?

We often get stuck in a rut, we "just live with" the paint color on the walls or the picture that is old and faded or damaged by the sun's rays that has been in that one spot since the day we first hung it. We may know that our sofa is old and out-dated, not to mention uncomfortable but we continue to "just live with it" instead of finding a new living room set that fits us now.

We often don't like the style, color, texture or weave of the carpet we have, but again we "just live with it". Often our carpets have worn spots, or stains from high traffic or pets and we may shampoo and clean them, but still not be happy with the way they look. Or we may have down a different type of flooring and long to put carpet in its place.

How many of us long to start over, going from room to room, making the changes that we know we want to make but for some reason have not done so yet? Many of us would rather live with what we have rather than change, because we are afraid that once we change a room's color or furniture or design style someone may criticize our choices or even worse we may not like the outcome ourselves. Others of us just don't know how or where to begin making those changes. There are two favorite websites that I like to check out when I am looking for something new and different for my home www.bearlycreative.com and www.bearlymadeit.com

From personal experience, I can tell you that often time the toughest part is getting started. We recently redid our living room. It had paneling that had been on the walls since the early 70's and the paneling was pulling away from the wall in places. The pictures on the walls were nice pictures and many were family heirlooms that we didn't want to get rid of, and to say the least we were stuck in a rut. We had often talked of removing the paneling but kept putting it off using one excuse after another for not following through with our wishes.

Finally we had a family meeting where we sat down and each voiced their opinions on what should be done in the living room. We all agreed we wanted the paneling gone and we set a specific time frame that we wanted to have everything completed. This included repainting the living room, re-hanging pictures, re-arranging furniture, shampooing the carpet just to name a few of our goals.

As we began to remove the old paneling, we were dismayed to find that there were problems we had not counted on behind the paneling. There had been structural patches that had been made and covered up by that paneling that we had long since forgotten. But we knew we needed to continue with our plans, we just had to adjust the timeline to include the repair of the wall before we could do the painting. Another option would have been to texture the walls with a texturing compound or possibly covering the wall with a different type of wall covering, such as wall papering or any number of different options that are out there for you to consider.

Once we were finished with the painting and as we were re-hanging some of the pictures we decided to try different pictures in different places from where they were originally. And some we agreed should not be put back at all, but found new homes in other rooms. This was also true of the many figurines and vases that had adorned the end tables, coffee table, display cases and entertainment center that had been loaded down with collections of one thing or another.

We also ended up getting rid of two chairs that were worn and faded and rarely used due to the discomfort when sitting in them, there was a floor lamp that did not go with the style of furniture we were going for and it had been a hand-me?down from years gone by. We ended up buying a new chair and different lamps for the end tables.

I say all of this, to point out that we can get out of our ruts and we don't have to "just live with it". You can change your furniture, you can get new dishes, you can get a new dining room set, and you can paint that bedroom and get new bedding and sheets. It is often time just a matter of finding what you want and getting started. The perfect places I have found online to look are www.bearlycreative.com and www.bearlymadeit.com