Blank Canvas

In most creative pursuits, I'm not actually very creative. Can't draw, can't paint, can't sing. But I do enjoy designing a piece of furniture or an addition to the house. And I like having the freedom to decorate a new room. That's my kind of canvas. Not that I've had any training in interior decorating. I'm probably not very good at it, from a pro's perspective. I just like to do it, and when the project is finished, I usually feel that the outcome reflects our (or at least my) style, taste, and function.

So I decided that the dining room, which we actually use as the piano room, since it's rare that we entertain by hosting formal dinners, needed an overhaul. It's the first room people see when they walk in our house, and it has remained a hodge-podge of miscellaneous furniture, even after almost ten years of living in this house. All the other rooms on the first floor have been updated recently, but for the longest time I just didn't know what to do about the dining room that wasn't. Finally, I had a vision of what the room should be! Within a day of that vision, I emptied the room of all furniture--except the piano: it's kind of big and heavy.

I had a blank canvas on which to fine-tune my vision and start creating the "new" room. The empty room gave me such energy, such excitement!

Well, my husband also saw a blank canvas, but for a different purpose: he needed a place to prep for their fishing trip.

Almost immediately, the room was populated with storage bins of camping supplies, with all the supplies removed from the bins and organized on the floor. The meals that my husband prepared in the food dehydrator were carefully packed, labeled, and placed on the piano bench. The tent was fully assembled so its condition could be checked and the seams could be sealed.

Talk about a hodge-podge! This was not exactly my vision for the dining room.

I just laughed, because I knew the usurping of "my" room was temporary. Eventually, the tent was disassembled, and the supplies they needed to take were packed in their backpacks. The rest were placed back in the bins.

Now back to creating that vision on my canvas...