The Moose is Loose.

What’s white, has an awesome rack, a mischievous smile and always looks like he knows more than he’s letting on? If you’re thinking that sounds an awful lot like you, Carrie, well….   Ok, seriously, people. This_isn’t_about_me (but thank you for thinking I have an awesome rack! ;-).

This riddle has to do with the newest member of our family – Barnaby! WHO? Barnaby the Moose, of course!

As we begin to imagine the finishing touches on our living room, we knew we wanted at least one piece that would be a conversation starter. Unfortunately for Barnaby, the conversation is pretty short – we think he’s fun, he was a major bargain, so we brought him home! End of story.

But what you may not realize that is that although Barnaby looks pretty cool right now – in a few months he’s going to look AWESOME when he’s hanging out with a new dining room chandelier and we compliment his physique with some awesome gray walls.

Until then, we’ll just have to tease you a little with some Barnaby close-ups. What do you think is his best side?

Feeling Moody!

Some of the best ideas in the world aren’t original – they are borrowed and adapted from other ideas. In my work life, I’m a big fan of borrowing good ideas from other cities that I think will work in our community. So why would things be any different when it comes to this blog, right? (Commence head nodding.)

That said, I’ve noticed that a lot of home decor bloggers use a little tool called a “mood board” to help develop and inspire their vision for the eventual re-do of their space. Back in the day (ok, I just revealed my age with that humdinger), we talked about “inspiration boards” – a literal bulletin board where you’d post magazine clippings, phrases or images that inspired you to achieve whatever goal you were working toward. Pinterest has taken the inspiration board to the virtual level – and you know we all LOVE Pinterest! And a mood board basically puts a series of images onto one “board” – showcasing how all of the elements could work together.

So now that I’ve finished your history lesson on mood boards, let’s talk about the one we’ve created for our living room. Here’s the deal – when we moved into The Duckling we knew that our furniture in the living room was a temporary solution. Why you ask? Well, mostly because the fabric was Finley tested when we bought this set 7 years ago and it failed miserably. We promptly relegated the remaining loveseat and chair to our family room on the third floor of our old house, where it barely saw any use. Now that Finley is on it again every day, it’s definitely seeing better days.

Our second reason for an upgrade is that the seating we currently have is a loveseat, a chair, an ottoman and a rocking chair. If we’re lucky and people don’t mind perching on an ottoman, that’s seating for 5 (usually with Finley sandwiched in the middle of the loveseat). Since there are three of us in this family, that means we can only accommodate two other people in our living room – and at that, it’s not exactly comfortable.

The bonus of these challenges is that we get to imagine the possibilities. In addition, we’ve also been imagining what we might want to do in terms of a color scheme in this space. We have a black and white theme in the adjacent dining area, so it needs to be complimentary. Plus, we want wall colors for the space that will make it serene, but not your standard beige.

Lastly, we knew we needed to find another solution for our television and accompanying electronic components. While I didn’t mind the sofa table as a temporary solution, I am not a fan of staring at the electrical cords that hang down behind the table.

So all of that in mind – this is what we’ve got so far for a mood board.

We’re going to replace our current love seat and chair/ottoman with a couch and chair (recliner, if we can) – something low profile, and fitting the more mid-century modern feel of our house. Our goal is to mindfully mix the mid-century modern that we love with the more classic, mission style feel of some of our other furnishings. I think it’s going to work, but I guess time will tell!

The color scheme will be a light gray on the wall, with a darker gray accent on one wall in the dining area, on the wall above the fireplace and on the back of the bookcases. Accent colors in the decor will be red or yellow – we’re still debating this.

We’ve already started making some purchases, but we’ll wait to reveal how things are coming together until we’ve got more in place. As is the case with a mood board, this post is meant to inspire and imagine!

What mood is striking you these days? Are you ready to freshen your surroundings?