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Recently I was digging around in my photo box, where I found some old Polaroids I took of the Treehouse. I’m not sure when, but I’m guessing anywhere from 12 – 15 years ago.
Above is a photo of how the Treehouse looks now. Below is how the Treehouse looked then:
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Pretty much devoid of colour in them days! I was still too nervous to paint the walls, and especially a non-neutral of any sort. For some reason, I avoided bright colours.
Man, did that change.
Here are a few more before and after pics, except swapped so it’s more like after and before. Because I’m weird like that.
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Back when I lived in Neutral City, this place wasn’t even CALLED the Treehouse yet. I was working in a Human Rights advocacy job, and it was exhausting work. All I wanted to do when I got home was sleep. I think that’s why I had such a sleepy colour scheme.
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Incidentally, the black “built-in” bookcase in the photo above is something I invented out of this black entertainment centre and another tall bookcase I had. I had the ideal living room niche for bookshelves, so with a few extra pieces of wood, cut to fit on top and in between, then painted black, I had a faux built-in. (Putting the pieces together was when I discovered that the walls are no longer flush.)
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Yes, I like my gear around me:
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I wrote about my Mission Control awhile back. This is what the living room looked like before I HAD a Mission Control Pretty much a huge waste of usable space, except for the light the window provided to the plants, which I suppose is something:
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Oh, by the way, that is not my current feline overlord, George. This is my very first black cat, Sabbath.
Yes. Black Sabbath.
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I recently slipcovered these chairs after 8 years of procrastinating:
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In the “before” Treehouse, all that overstuffed furniture and the long coffee table ate up ALL the floor space in the living room. I’ve learned THAT lesson about small spaces: if you want a room to look bigger, keep the furniture airy and light, not only for the floorspace, but also because the more light that can flow through a room, the bigger it looks.
I also noticed in the before photo, the little balsa wood Chinese musical instrument sculptures almost disappear in the frame cluster on the wall, but when combined in their own sculptural housing, they become an independent work of art on their own. These belonged to my stepmom when I was a teenager, and I badly coveted them then. She surprised me by giving them to me when I left home. They’ve been with me in every home I’ve had since.
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I also have the Mural that Ate My Dining Room now, and as I have mentioned several times, I am in love with this oversized artwork my mom and I created:
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Here is the dining room before, when it was still a room I rarely used:
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I made the fabric hanging on the wall out of leftover decorating fabric from the living room. It was all great except for the fact that I forgot to pre-shrink the fabric before I started sewing. Because it was pieced together, the fabric shrunk around the seams the first time I washed it, and it never lay flat like a proper wall hanging again.
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More dining room.
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There you have it! Just a little view of how the Treehouse has evolved in the 16 years I’ve been here!
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Even if we are in the same place for many years, our tastes evolve, and so do our needs. Everytime we make a lifestyle change, the role we need our homes to perform also changes and must be adapted.
Don’t be afraid to start somewhere and shake up your space. You might even find your re-arranging has an impact on your own life. And that can be a fantastic thing!
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Dodie Goldney
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related posts by Dodie Goldney:
Manifest Headboard (bedroom)
Art Therapy for Grown Ups (kitchen)
The Mural That Ate My Dining Room
The Grass is Always Greener Where You Water It (living room)
Procrastination and Perfectionism (living room)
Mission Control (living room)
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