All of you. What started out as “let’s shoot Barb Sofa here to give them some marketing love” turned into “oh dear!!!…is this really the life I want to live???” Turned into. (in a good way). A few weeks ago, I showed you the Alice Sofa here, which I designed virtually for this room. Remember all those balance and tone issues we talked about? Well, it seemed like their solution was here. I still love the Alice sofa, and yet I’m surprised to say that I’m afraid these would work much better here!!! But you might not agree… (social media was mixed at the time of polling). here you go:
Going back and forth on the slider, it’s really just two very different vibes. The green color seems richer, more high impact, more “design forward” in a way, but with that setup I felt other things needed to be changed – the fireplace, curtains, wall color and rug. This balance of intensity in the symmetrical sofa made the rest of the room feel unfinished (many of you had great suggestions about mid-tones and more textiles, etc.). But as soon as I got these two colors here, in a non-symmetrical layout, the room took on a new cool vibe. One that screamed invitation and spontaneity, not to mention better scale and balance.
The symmetry of tone, warmth, vibrancy…openness of layout!! The lack of contrast actually worked the way I knew it should, but I didn’t think it would work so well in Oregon (that airy Scandi vibe worked so well in LA, but here I didn’t think!). Strange, the room feels warm even though it is light? I might need a color scientist to figure out why. And I didn’t buy anything new for it, so I could still make changes to it to make it better (like maybe lighter colored pillows on the dining nook?).
I think it’s just that all the softer colors played into this airy environment, while darker colors might work better with darker walls (something I know, but I was trying to make it work).
In this setup, I don’t even feel like painting the fireplace or adding wallpaper. It sounds absolutely calm and relaxing, with depth but not too much contrast. I mean, there’s always room for improvement (again, I just pulled the task from my inventory and took about 3 hours to relax), but visiting this room again and again over the weekend, I whispered to myself “oh my god I love this”.
With green, it draws you in with intensity, and with blue/pink, it invites you to relax. Brian and I both agreed that it felt more casual, which is more than we were used to. Also, I think the scale of Barbs, which is bigger – she has bigger arms and a bigger back and a bigger base, it works better in this big room. It could also be that I styled it in a more casual way?? No, it’s definitely the colors and layout.
I loved sitting on the blue bar and looking into the kitchen. I love that the blue/gray primitive French cabinet now looks more blue (less gray).
But wait, won’t the dog sit on top of the pillow again?
No!! I mean, that’s literally why I didn’t put the barbs in the first place – I pretty much thought our dogs would climb up and make themselves at home. And they do…but it’s been a week with this setup, and they sit on the couch bench, but not on the top cushion. I think they’re too high, and perhaps the density of the foam (which is true, by the way) doesn’t press down enough like the down feather blend in other sofas?
My only big fear…
Come with me on this. Do you know those women who have the exact same hairstyle they had in their 20s/30s, which now looks/feels outdated? Well, my theory is that they kept the hair that way from when they felt the hottest, most beautiful, and young. I mean, I do (I rarely stray from long blonde, wavy hair). This color palette is almost identical to what we had in our Glendale home right before we moved out. Look?
I actually still love that room, even though there’s something dated about it (it’s from 10 years ago now). We looked at it and agreed that maybe it was the rug, maybe the type of photography (all white, super bright/airy, that is in 2014), maybe the pouf? So my fear is that I’m returning to an earlier era, to a time when I thought I was at the top of my game. I know warm Scandinavian design isn’t what it was then, but it’s always been what I’ve wanted to live in (with a dose of old-world Victorian flair). But another way you look at it is that these are my comfort colors and they are absolutely for me, no matter how on-trend it is (let me clarify, there is nothing “dated” about it, it’s just that it’s not part of what’s super cool right now which is old-world patterns, moody colors and European maximalism).
So, which one will you keep?
For now, we have the long pink sofa and the blue barb flipped to face each other with our tree in the middle (opposite the fireplace), and I don’t like it that much (because they’re not symmetrical, which bothers me a bit). But color wise, vibe wise, tone wise… I like it more.
But didn’t you design the Alice Sofa just for your living room?
sure did. And yes, it seems silly to me not to have them here. Would I like Alice in these colors instead? Yes! But I think what’s also working is the layout that we had before; I didn’t like it that much.
But there is one thing that I don’t like that much…
Brian pointed it out, and I had already realized it; Looking into the living room from the kitchen seems messy unless it is actually styled perfectly. This may be because we have more throw pillows that the dogs throw on the ground or knock them down, and it looks messy. But the symmetry of two sofas standing facing each other is a really neat look to give a feeling of peace to your eyes. I still like it better, but since it’s more generous and non-symmetrical, we have to put things in their places.
more to come. We shot this room with a sectional, and here’s what we got – we got to shoot our home decorated for the holidays two different ways. One for the blog this year and the other for the magazine coming in October 2026. To make them look unique, we’re shooting a green couch for the magazine, which I think will be a lot of fun.
Truth be told, I like them both a lot, but the pink/blue flows better and soothes the need to “fix” the rest of the balance issues (like painting the fireplace, wallpapering the walls, changing the rug). But I’m really curious what you guys think. I’m very close to it and my judgment is, well, so blurred by my own opinions and preferences 🙂 I’m not saying I’m going to comply with the vote, but really curious what you like more (as is) or would you change/add them at all???
*by photos Caitlin Green
