A Zone Defense

The further I get into my living room project, the more I realize I need to modify my approach. My living room is many things: my actual living room, my dining room, my office, even my storage closet (thanks to a lack of a real hall closet). Due to all those roles, I’m running into some issues treating it all as one space. As I sort, I’m running out of room to pile up things, so I’m breaking the room into segments to make it more manageable.

My three segments are the entertainment zone, where I watch TV and read; the dining room, where I eat and store related items; and the office, where I have my desk and office supplies.

I’ve been flitting between the dining room & entertainment zones as I’ve worked on this room, but now I’m going to sharpen my focus. For right now, I’m focused on the entertainment zone, and I’m going to work on the dining room & office later. And by later, I mean later this week and next weekend. It all has to get done, and the sooner, the better. Doing it this way just means that all my stuff won’t be piled on the floor at one time. Instead it’s a rotating variety of piles, making my progress feel incremental until I’m finally finished with everything.

I want to get this project done and I want to do it in a way that follows Julie Morgenstern’s outline but is flexible to address the needs of my space. I’m going to sort & purge each section as I go, assign homes to most things a zone at a time, but I’m going to wait to go container shopping until I’m done with all three and know what I need for the whole room.

It also means holding off a little longer on the really fun stuff in the One Room Challenge – redecorating my apartment. I’m looking at Pinterest and some of my favorite stores in my downtime, dreaming of what this room could be. And in light of this zone theory I’m trying to figure out having distinct areas that flow together and work harmoniously, likely through cohesive style & materials. I like the clean lines of mid-century modern & Scandinavian design, but also the soft textures and neutral colors I associate with coziness & hygge. In the meantime, I’ll light a (safely located away from the clutter) candle for coziness and good vibes until I can get my whole room to have that feeling.