Every home has that one thing everyone has stopped seeing. For the mom behind Arrow Hill Cottage, it was the living room rug. She says it is at least 10 years old, and at this point she finds it embarrassing because of how badly it is disintegrating. Regular viewers have heard her say so many times.
She had even made herself a promise: before she rearranged the furniture again, she would buy a new rug. Then came the hard part, which was actually choosing one. It turned a quiet rainy fall weekend into a two-day reset of her living and dining rooms, and it shows how a single small decision can hold up a whole house refresh.
Here is how the weekend went at the cottage.
The Rainy Day That Started It
It was officially fall at the cottage, and she says the family felt blessed by all the rain. The summer had been extremely dry, almost drought-like, and now, just before winter, everything was greening back up and the leaves were starting to turn. Since the start of August, when her boys began football, the family had been at one or two or even three games every single weekend, so they were barely home at all.
A rainy day looked like the perfect chance to give the house some love. She had not swapped the living and dining room spaces in quite a while, so she decided it would be a fun change of pace. Her husband started by changing out the light fixtures, which they had also done about a year and a half to two years earlier, and then he agreed to help move the furniture.
The Rug That Took Forever to Pick
She looked online. She looked in different stores. She says she had a really hard time committing, and thinks she was over-analyzing it and building it up to a bigger deal in her head than it needed to be. That stunted her ability to make a decision. Then, at the 11th hour, right before it was time to rearrange, she found a rug. In her words, it is maybe not perfect, but it is better than what they had, and that was the goal.
The old rug got demoted to the porch, the garage, or possibly the garbage can, and she says she will see which. Her husband and their boys, who she calls strong teenagers, helped shift the table in front of the fireplace and unroll the new one. There was some friendly teasing about unfinished projects, including the pile of wood waiting on a shelf and the garage, and a little bit of silicone caulk to deal with. When the room came together, the reaction from the family was a long, impressed “whoa.”
She says it never stops surprising her how one new item, or turning the furniture a different direction, can change the way you see a whole space.
Making the Room Work
The thing she loves most about having the living room on that side of the open space is the access to three large windows and the view of the backyard. She calls them living canvases that are always changing. This summer the family built a partial deck around their pool, she put down pavers for the picnic table, and they finished a fire pit area. They did not get as much done as they hoped, but she says they made really good progress.
Once the rug was down, she and her husband tweaked it. The table sits right in the middle of the three windows, so the rug needed to slide a bit to center under it. It took some extra effort, but she says it looks stunning in that spot. Then came the fall colors, with a mustard yellow she says speaks fall, spread evenly around the main level along with the red table.
The Table They Put Off
She decided it was finally time to deal with the dining table they had put off for so long, and wondered whether they were overthinking it the same way she had with the rug. So she asked her husband to put together a simple base for the tabletop. He agreed, though she says he was not real happy about it, and she loved the result. Now the table fits four chairs without any pesky legs in the way.
The table legs themselves came from a salvage shop the couple visited on their 15th wedding anniversary trip to Kansas, which makes the piece extra special. While he worked, she made a sausage tortellini soup for supper, and the family ate their first meal at the new table. On Sunday came church, then a brunch of sourdough waffles with whipped cream made with Greek yogurt.
Fall Touches Without the Clutter
Decorating for fall is a little tricky for her, because it can look cluttered if you are not careful. She tried to disperse colors through the space, and she likes pumpkins because nothing is wasted at the end. You can eat them. On a sunny Sunday, a perfect 75 degrees, she gathered natural materials from her own yard for the decor and took a last look at her garden. It had sat without attention for two or three weeks, and the fallen tomatoes had been visited by critters. She says she is sad to see the season end but that it fits this busy season of life with the kids in sports, and she plans to bring in and freeze what she can.
The best find of the weekend came from the Habitat for Humanity Restore, where she and her youngest son hunted for fall art. A print of an Amish barn dance caught her eye, with cows in front that made her giggle. It was signed, and her son looked it up on his phone and found the artist is a grandson of Grandma Moses. The print came from a New York gallery, has a label on the back, and cost only $25. According to the website he found, it is worth between $200 and $300, but she says the value does not matter because she loves the art.
When it was all done, she says the blue of the chairs pulls out the darker blue in the painting, the lanterns add candlelight, and the table sits farther right than ever, which makes the fireplace easier to reach from both rooms. The takeaway for anyone stuck on a small decision is the one she learned herself: pick something that is better than what you have, and get on with the fun part.
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