Today, Joy and I went to Pop’s to make some changes in his house. We have been shopping and planning and shopping…and today, we put it all together.

BACKSTORY: My Mom loved to decorate. And, whatever she wanted to do was fine with Pop. He was always so indulgent of her decorating whims. One of the last things she had done was to move his recliner out of the den, and replace it with another couch. This caused them to not be able to watch TV there, and this was not Pop’s favorite arrangement, but, he kindly let her do it the way she wanted. However, he was ready to have his recliner and TV moved back into the den. Now, for those of you who did not know my Mom, she was a very elegant decorator. She loved gold, and flowers, and and lots of shiny, sparkling things! She liked symmetry, and matched sets of furniture. Traditional Elegance best describes her decorating style. Now that she has moved to Heaven, Joy and I really wanted the den to be more to Pop’s taste and for him to feel comfortable there. We would never want to change all the things she has done in her house. She has an absolutely gorgeous Living Room and Dining Room that we all want to stay just as she left it. Because it feels like a hug from her just to walk into the rooms…and that is very comforting.

The den has these 2 huge open areas on either side of the fireplace. So, that’s what we started with. We found 2 large urns, some padded leather boxes, and a horizontal candle holder. Because we are such fine shoppers…we managed to find some wonderful silks at Pier 1. These stems were $2.60 each marked down from $8.00!
Since we bought 22 of them…it really saved us some dough! Adding some red spiky stuff, they came together very nicely, we think. So, we did that x 2.


Many years ago, I happened upon this Austin Sculpture. It features 5 children hanging over a fence…3 boys…2 girls. It was such serendipity…because that’s the same as their grandchildren. It has always been one of the favorite pieces of both she and Pop, and has always been out on display. Pop wanted to keep it out, and so we worked that into our room scheme. Here is the sculpture:

We found this neat iron leaf piece, with matching candle holders, large and small. Thinking that this looked quite appropriate for the season, and for his den as well, we purchased this at a well-known chain store. And so the mantle looks like this:

Yes, I can see now that it is just the tiniest bit off center…I’ll go right back over and fix that!
This then, is the finished fireplace wall. We were very pleased, Pop was jumping up and down and shouting, “Way to go, girls!” And I’m sure Mom was stopping every angel that passed, telling them, “Would you look at my girls? I taught them everything they know! Would you look at what they did for their Daddy! But they better not mess with my Living Room!” 🙂

To the left of the the fireplace, is the wall behind the couch. We bought this piece of art and hung it there. I still need to change the lampshades.

We got rid of one of the couches, bought a new rug, a recliner and a new lamp with red shade. The boys helped him get a new TV, and get it set up. Next we are tackling the kitchen…But, not this week!