One Thing Leads To an Other – Home Décor Glow Up Gallery Wall, Bedside Table, and Plant Display

I wasn’t planning on giving our bedroom and home office a makeover this past weekend, but one thing led to another, and I believe I have successfully executed a little Home Décor Glow Up. The aesthetically pleasing self-care I needed this month. Here are five helpful tips that finally helped me get shit done around the house.

1) Have your home get in such disarray it causes a negative impact on your mental health

2) Visualize the perfect movie montage of joyful cleaning to get in the mood for your next big project

3) Address what isn’t working, and find a solution aka The Power of a Pivot

4) Become incredibly irritated by another thing that is 100% out of your control and be pushed to regain a sense of control through a little retail therapy

5) Be a micro-hoarder in the name of sustainability and find ways to repurpose items.

Read the full post and view Before & After pictures after the jump.

1) Have your home get in such disarray it causes a negative impact on your mental health

Surprise, surprise – January has just not lived up to all the hopes, dreams, and expectations that I placed on its feeble shoulders. I did not magically become the person I always imagined myself to be, and suddenly all my life’s wishes didn’t automatically manifest into a windfall of opportunities and recognition.

Instead, I’ve been getting over the holiday hangover. My body is adjusting to being weaned off weeks of crappy food. I’m scrambling to tie up 2019 loose ends while working on developing a solid 2020 foundation at work. And the lovely but now depressed, fully glistening Christmas tree stood in the corner, mocking me with the hours of takedown that would eventually need to be addressed.

No routine. No baseline to find my footing in fostering the best version of myself.

Just chaos and indigestion.

To help turn around the downward trajectory of my mental health, I made it my goal to put away all the Christmas Décor this weekend. I put on RuPaul’s new show ‘AJ and the Queen,’ which is 90’s camp with Lifetime network-level drama and a PSA for self-love and acceptance, and got to it. The TV show was the perfect background noise for hours of Christmas ornament organization, and over two-days, the tree was undressed, disassembled, and stowed away in the attic. The house is free of all snowflakes, red, green, and nutcracker baubles.

2) Visualize the perfect movie montage of joyful cleaning to get in the mood for your next big project

Now with the Christmas decorations put away, I had to address my home office. It’s the room in the house where all things are thrown when one does not want to address the responsibilities of adulthood, like folding laundry, putting away Christmas presents, and mail, for example. I pulled out my journal and wrote down how I wanted to approach my office. I decided on the music I would play ( a She & Him Spotify radio playlist for the cheery disposition), the mug I’d drink my coffee out of, the time of day I would focus my efforts so the sun could flood the room with natural light. The next morning, I woke up excited to execute my visualized cleaning movie montage. I put on the music, opened the blinds, and tackled the chair. You know, the place where clothes are either too clean for the laundry or too dirty for the closet live.

I’m getting in the habit of hanging up my clothes after work to eliminate the need for the chair. Cause let’s be real: If you’re going to wear the clothes again off of the chair – wouldn’t they look better being pulled from an area of the closet after having been hung up; instead of dug out from the layer cake of clothing on the aforementioned chair. Just a thought I’m working through myself.

3) Address what isn’t working, and find a solution aka The Power of a Pivot

One of the items in my home office that I was ignoring was a Native American rug that my dog had thrown-up on, for the second time. At the beginning of December, I went through the lengthy and delicate process of removing her vomit from the rug. Basically, carbonated water and dabbing at the stain repeatedly. I don’t trust using any stain remover on the natural dyes and wool-like yarn, so rinsing the area is my only option. Then when Lou puked on it again just a week or so ago, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to have to go and clean another vomit spot. It made me realize I have too much respect for the craftsmanship of this rug to have it disrespected by Loulou’s indigestion. So I decided to turn it into a wall hanging.

Yes, our desire to place this rug on the floor in the first place was a little short-sighted, but I’m happy to admit when I am wrong and pivot. The small Native American rug on the floor was a bad idea. Like myself, I find that people tend to endure a bad idea because they are too caught up in everything else to admit that it wasn’t the best idea – or spent too much time/money on a bad idea and aren’t willing to budge.  

I cleaned the other stain and then found two large binder clips to hold up the rug. Then with the rug in place, I moved around other art to create the perfect gallery wall.

4) Become incredibly irritated by another thing that is 100% out of your control and be pushed to regain a sense of control through a little retail therapy

Now with the beautiful gallery wall, the other sore spots of the room stood out. My bedroom has been lacking a legitimate bedside table for the last 7+ years. Instead of what you imagine should be a nightstand, I’ve been using a green lamp with a circular glass table in the middle that has been mildly sufficient. It worked as a place to put my evening tea and a collection of jewelry pieces. Yet, my other bedroom essentials like my journal or nighttime reading material would spill over into other areas of the room, creating little microcosms of chaos. I’ve endured the lamp. Endured being a very dramatic adjective to describe my existence with this piece of furniture.

After a highly annoying day, the details of which do not need to be embellished, I finally could no longer live with the lamp’s awkward, inefficient existence in our bedroom. Inefficiency is one of my biggest pet peeves in life.

For months I’ve been window shopping for the perfect bedside table. But an add to cart, 5-7 business day delivery, and at-home assembly purchase would not quench this irritation. No, I needed instant gratification. So I headed to Home Goods to see what was available, and thankfully in the bathroom section, I found the perfect table for our bedroom. It’s mid-century modern design, and 100% wood construction was exactly what I wanted.

I removed the awkward green lamp table from our bedroom, put the new bedside table in its place, and voila – glow up for the bedroom and my well-being.

5) Be a micro-hoarder in the name of sustainability and find ways to repurpose items.

The main reason I had kept the inefficient green lamp nightstand for as long as I had was for its unique late sixties / early seventies sculptural base. I love its funky little design. Now, faced with the fact the lamp’s fate was for the curb or Good Will, I was struck with inspiration – this would be perfect for my money trees. I returned to where this all began, my home office, and moved a few things around to find space for the lamp. I removed the lamp rod and cut the fire hazard electrical cords to create the perfect home for my plant babies. The lamp helped to bring them closer to my working space, and woo woo science says it’s essential to have plants close to you when working around electronics. Plants reduce stress, boost creativity, and increase productivity. My only plant babies right now are two flourishing money trees – now, if only their abundant leaves would translate into an even more abundant bank account. 

In conclusion:

One thing indeed led to another, and all week I’ve been waking up filled with joy looking at my space. It was not my best week, but having a beautiful space definitely made being a human a little easier. Organization and designing spaces is one of my secret talents (personal shopping is another), and there have been so many times I wish I took a before picture because I’m proud of the “after” look. Fingers crossed, I get better at capturing my home’s little glow up moments. I can’t 100% relate to those ultra-perfect pantries and interior design Instagram accounts, which makes me think maybe you can’t either – so hopefully, my five tips for getting shit done around the house feels more attainable than purely aspirational.

Below is the explanation I connect with most surrounding the card that is in featured image:

The reversed Nine of Swords can also point out that you are incredibly hard on yourself, putting yourself down or engaging in negative self-talk. So, when the Nine of Swords reversed appears in a reading, ask yourself why you are so hard on yourself. How are you putting yourself down, and what is the source of your depression? What can you do to make yourself feel better? You may need to make a more conscious effort to quit the negative self-talk and replace it with positive reinforcement for a job well done.

On a more positive note, the Nine of Swords reversed can show that you have already worked through this period of worry and depression and are making a recovery. You may have come to the realization that things are not as bad as you made them out to be, and you are beginning to relax and calm yourself about what was once a terrifying situation. – Biddy Tarot