WHEN THINGS DON'T QUITE GO AS PLANNED...

So, I had a vision for my living and dining room redo.  I had planned on Revere Pewter walls as a backdrop for my beautiful drop cloth covered furniture, wonderful modern trellis, chevron or striped area rugs, perhaps adding a few coastal elements and some brass accents...ya know, since brass is back in style and I already have some lovely aged brass in my home due to it's historic age and all.

Sadly that vision was thwarted thanks to dear ol' hubby.  He said NO to gray walls!  He said gray is too institutional, cold and industrial.  I said oh no, no, no, gray is so sophisticated, warm and friendly now.  I even showed him my painted samples of the lovely Revere Pewter I had picked out, but he said NO and that's final.  What a meany!  He wanted beige, the beige buckhorn by Colorplace that was in the dining room...and since we had plenty of it leftover, that's what he got.  Yes, I am a nice, loving and accommodating good wife like that.  Admittedly I like it.

After saying no to the gray walls he also downed my drop cloth furniture.  He politely said, "I think you did a great job recovering the loveseat in that drop cloth fabric and I know you have plans to recover the sofa too, but I really think it's time we get new furniture...We need something darker.  I was like darker....No......and then we went furniture shopping.

On the way there all I could think about is what type and color should I choose.  Waaaa, I don't know what to do.  He completely ruined my plans.  Then it hit me, how about gray furniture.  Yes, that would be perfect...only they didn't have any gray furniture that I liked.     Waaaaaaa!!!

In the whole store they only had two sets of furniture that either of us liked.

They had this lovely light tan, NEUTRAL set that I liked:

and they had this lovely RED set that he liked.

Guess which set we got...come on, guess....Yep, we got the RED.

I was leaning toward the tan because it's neutral and not so in your face, but he LOVED the RED!  His argument, "the tan is too light.  It won't hold up to dirt and stains good enough."  So, once again I conceded.  I know, I'm just so nice like that.  I'm such a good wife, right?

It actually is very beautiful and looks great with our new beige walls.  But what about my design plans?  They went by the way side and now what in the world am I going to do with these beige walls and red furniture that I was totally NOT anticipating?

What do I want in the way of curtains, an area rug, yada, yada, yada.

So guess what I did (after I called the furniture store only to find out that it would cost me $125.00 for them to come get the red set and exchange it with the tan set), I did what any self respecting woman, who is not paying $125.00 to some ridiculous furniture store would do, I put together a little Olioboard to help me achieve the right look for my room.  This is what I came up with...

What do you think?  I added a lot of golden beige tones to counteract some of the red and I think I am going to like it.  The hounds tooth area rug is to die for.  I can't wait to get it all lined out.

So now you know what happens at Beyond the Portico when things don't quite go as planned...YOU GO TO PLAN B!!!  Whatever that happens to be, hahaha.

I hope to be back soon with some updates and pictures.  Until then, ciao.