Thursday, September 29, 2011

Distressed?

Distressed means upset, distraught, troubled, concerned, worried, anxious, unhappy, bothered, in pain, suffering, anguished and tormented.
Little did I know at one time that furniture too could be distressed, why I myself have been, heaven knows in distress, for years! LOL!
For any furniture décor novices out there the meaning of ‘distressed furniture’ is furniture that looks weathered or antiqued or as some prefer to call it Shabby Chic.
When we moved into this home our last destination, back in 1998, as I so fondly think of it, meaning our little retirement home, I felt that a homey softened beachy look would be an appropriate décor for this tiny cutey in transition.
This little darling was a fixer upper and we went at it with loving decisiveness inside and out.
But due to Hurricane Charley back in 2004 we had to start the process over again and now we had a new concept on what we had in mind, at least I did, and Hubby gave me free reign on the decorating.
Being this was our fifth home together over at that point, of 33 years of marriage in 2004, and that I had not screwed up previously I decided to go this time with the coastal cottage distressed looked, which is a relaxed homey style.
Although, a few people thought we bought damaged merchandise, not understanding the concept. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about coasters if someone spills anything or scratches in moving things around it all just adds to the patina!
Yes, there are scratches and burns and nicks all over our furniture but purposely there and well placed.
And to many people’s surprise the cost for this look is higher than regular furniture, but at the time it was after the devastation and we had been insured and to be true and honest prices of furniture did go up in price since we had last purchased it many years before but still for a small home we had a budget of 15K and that is what we spent just on the furniture, not paint, art, bathroom fixtures, floor tiles or carpets, which at first both bedrooms were carpeted but later we tiled the master like the rest of the house. To this day I am not sure that was too much, but I am happy with my choices for this tiny five room home.
If it wasn’t due to the fact that I wanted to be back into our home faster than anything, I may have waited to go here and there to perhaps an antique dealer or shows or what-have-you but no I wanted to be back inside our home and out of the 240 sq foot trailer we were living in alongside of our home!
For years when our sons were young we loved camping and we went often using tents, pop-up-campers, and trailers and a fifth wheel over those many years, but somehow spending too much time for the wrong reason makes you not have the same affection for the concept.
No more camping for me!

Over these last seven years we are still tweaking what we want at a much smaller budget of a few bucks here or there.
We do go to home shows and at times I do see things that are speaking to me, as a woman, but I tease and to many a horrified face I say, we redecorate after hurricanes and so perhaps next time.
Too weird, I am sure for many of you to understand but one thing living through a devastating hurricane does when it destroys things you held near and dear it teaches that sentimentality over things is an exhausting wasteful past-time.
And so basically we all have to learn that we cannot change what has happen and to laugh at its possibility of happening again and DON’T GET ATTACHED TO INANIMATE OBJECTS! Besides; I think that would hurt…bud dump bum…

On that little bit of a lesson on how to get over your attachment to things, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

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