This one might have been a mis-fire.

Sometimes, it looks good in your head, and then when it’s up and on the wall, it’s not what you’d hoped, you know?

This is our living room, which hasn’t made much progress since I finally got all the boxes out and the wall unit installed.  The sofa still isn’t re-covered, although the upholsterer is picking it up next week, but we’re trying to add bits and pieces here and there.  We’ve hung some art on the wall, the beta fish I mentioned planning to get was obtained (and murdered) since my last post, we replaced the lamps with new ones that are super cooler, and I’ve slip-covered the round side chair.  We also painted and hung the mirror that you could just barely see behind the sofa when I contemplated where to hang the drapes (notice those still aren’t up? try not to judge me–at least the rods are in place).  And painting it might have been a mistake.

I hate admitting that, because I intensely dislike wasted time–and painting a mirror that I end up wishing I hadn’t painted would be a big waste.  It’s not that the paint job is bad–I think it turned out really well.  The silver is bright and pretty and light, which is what I wanted.  But I think maybe I wanted the wrong thing.  Now that it’s on the wall, I’m worried that it’s TOO light and bright, and what this room really needed was a little dark “eyeliner” to keep it balanced.

 

See the edge of the curtain rod up there, in the right hand corner?  See how it puts just the right oomph on the upper edge of the room, and adds a nice contrast to the light green walls and the gloss white trim?  I was worried the black mirror would be too MUCH dark, but now I’m wondering if it was a necessary balance that would have off-set and emphasized the other light colors in the room.

Somehow the way that it reflects light almost makes the mirror disappear into the wall, and I wish that wasn’t the case.  I am loving the fact of the mirror–it’s big and I notice it every time I walk through the room.  Plus, this particular room is long and not very deep, with high ceilings, so the mirror opens out that wall and gives the room a more pleasing proportion.  I want to keep the mirror, I just think it needs more presence–which a darker frame would have given it.  Sigh.

We are currently auditioning fabrics for the sofa to be re-upholstered.  I have in my mind’s eye a deep yellow herringbone, and I haven’t quite found it yet–yellow is always a tough color to get just right, and I sure as shootin’ won’t be re-covering this sofa another time.  I’m thinking we wait on pulling the trigger on re-painting (or un-painting) the mirror back to a darker shade until we know for sure what the sofa will be and see them both in the same room.  Maybe I just have design fatigue from this patio remodel we’ve been doing for four months now–I’m not sure I am even capable of making any more decisions anytime soon.

In the meantime, it is a whirlwind of activity around here as we prepare for 30+ people to descend on the backyard this weekend to christen the new patio and grill out in the summer air.  Can you tell that I’m suddenly realizing that those people will want a tour of our house, which we haven’t shown to ANYONE yet, and that I am staying up late every night sewing bed skirts and curtains and painting furniture?  Sometimes, a deadline where people will be checking inside your medicine cabinets and looking under the beds is just what it takes to get the job done, y’all.  I will be so excited to check some things off the list and then enjoy them for ages to come once this party is finished–the guests are the motivators, but I am the beneficiary.  This mirror can go back down on the bottom of that list, and we’ll deal with it when the sofa’s done.

What do you think–can the mirror stay as it is, or should it go back to black?