Palette planning

As I now realize that I forgot to mention, we bought a house! It’s a cute little 1950s cottage about a mile from where we were renting, and we’re in the process of getting settled. Aside from the setback of a squirrel finding his way into the attic and scratching, chewing, clawing, dancing, and holding all kinds of raucous parties in the wee hours of the morning, we are really happy with the amount of space we have and how things are going so far.

Over the weekend, we went to a couple places in search of rugs. Home Depot, an interior-decorating-type store, and a discount warehouse kind of place. I found nothing I liked, much less anything I liked that we could justify purchasing. Finally, we gave up and went on to our next errand, which was the fabric store. What I found there was an amazing discount section of upholstery and other heavy fabrics, including one roll of the thick, linen-looking cloth below that I fell in love with immediately. The creamy, sandy background and chocolaty design paired with the fun, intricate bird design made me happy the second I saw it. It was originally almost $30 a yard, which approaches being hilarious, but it was on sale at 70% off! So I bought 2.5 yards, and once I get a carpet pad to go under it (and find a coffee table, and get a pull-out couch/futon for the guest bedroom so that the couch can move out into the living room where it will ultimately stay, and get the last of the boxes and tools out of the living room, etc., etc., etc.), it will be a lovely and busy but neutral centerpiece floor covering for the living room. Once it’s set up, there will be pictures!

The task I actually wanted to accomplish by going to the fabric store was to find some material for a curtain. Kumquat’s litter box is in the closet off of my craft room, which is fine, but that meant that the closet door needed to be kept open at all times. So instead, we opted to take the door off its hinges and put a curtain over the doorway. That way the cat can come and go, and we don’t need to worry about the open door blocking the walking path through that room. Just like the bird fabric above, I found the fabric below in the bargain section- for 90% off! I bought six yards, and planned to not only make that doorway curtain, but also the curtains for the living room- yes, the same room as the “rug” above, but since the orange matches perfectly with our orange recliner and the sandy gray complements it beautifully, the patterns don’t fight each other.

And, finished! In the photo, the tension rod is a bit higher than it will be permanently. I don’t want the curtain to touch the floor, to make absolutely sure that the cat can (both physically and mentally) get in and out, but I want it to look a bit less dumb.

On another note, I’ve started the planning for my beaded leather bag. I like the brown, cream, and white combination, but I’m toying with what accent color looks best. What do you think? Teal blue, or primary red? Let me know in the comments what you think, and I’d love to hear any other suggestions for other palettes!