Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Experimental Stages of Decorating

I am truly addicted to decorating. I know I climbed out of my mother's womb thinking, what a horrible color on these walls. I was rearranging furniture at 10 for my Mom and by the age of 12, her friends were calling me for help. I have had decorating masterpieces and in the early years, some decorating nightmares. Let me share one with you.

I have been blessed to have two great men in my life...one I divorced and Tom, who is still my DH. The first one, Ed, was a funny man but liked the brown bottle a bit more than he liked me. But Ed was there for my formative years and the poor man went through a lot. Perhaps that is why he liked the brown bottle so much.

One of my decorating adventures involved a can of red, 2 step epoxy paint. Now this was in the 70's long before Al Gore was enlightening us on the environment and heaven only knows what kind of chemicals I inhaled during those early years of my decorating education. I set out one day to paint a lovely old claw foot tub this beautiful red. When I was done, I had paint left over. Well, like anything great decorator, I walked around trying to decide what I should paint with the left over paint. Voila, a toilet...what a great combo.
So I commenced painting until every part of the toliet and the seat were the same beautiful red. Now coupled with the newspaper print, (yes, real newspaper) that I had decoupaged on the walls, this was a pretty snazzy bathroom.

A few hours later, Ed came home from work and headed to the bathroom. I was already off and running on my next DIY (do-it-yourself) project so I paid no attention to him. Until I heard the roar from the bathroom and I went running. Well, to make a long story short, the red paint bonded very well to his skin but not quite as well to the toliet seat. Ed sported a bright red ring around his bottom for a couple of weeks as nothing known to man would touch it to remove it. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. Ed didn't laugh until about a month later and then even he had to admit the humor in the situation.

Now why am I sharing this with you? I want you to have fun with decorating. Have an idea, try it. If it works good for you, if it doesn't it was a learning experience. Are there decorating principles that will make a design better....yes, there are. But don't get yourself too caught up in the rules, have fun first and then polish it as you polish your skills set. Happy Decorating! JoAnne

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Blogging...what is this new fangled form of communication? Why does it work because everyone keeps telling me that people don't read anymore, but they must or blogs wouldn't be successful. As I pondered on it, I realized that blogging is simply blabbing....on paper. Everyone knows, I have always been good at blabbing so bring on the blogging.

My firm, One Day Decorating, is all about creating beautiful spaces and helping others to build a new career and follow their passion. This blog will be my attempt to share color, decorating fundamentals, "I never would have thought of that" ideas, interior redesign, staging, business skills, inspiration, marketing for dummies, and more! I might even share an occasional photo of one or all of my grandkids, After all, it is my blog and I can do whatever I darn well please. :) Thanks for joining me and let me know what you think. JoAnne Lenart-Weary

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