Decorating Serendipity

“There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Do you know the experience of seeing just what you need turn up, just when you need it?

I have been enjoying my summer of contemplation, relaxation, and decoration at the house I am renting for the summer, my "Summer Serenity Cottage." The house turned up just when I needed to get offsite from my regular beloved home due to unbearable roof noise and vibration from a bad and ongoing roof job.

The cottage is on the far north side of Chicago, and exploring the neighborhoods and the prairie restoration area nearby has also been highly enjoyable. 

I went for a walk the other day, turned down a section of street I hadn't walked on before, came upon a yard sale, and came out with just the small end table I'd been looking for to complete the guest room! The table was made of wood, and painted a light gray, with a darker tray-table inset, that would harmonize with my coastal-style furnishings. The house turned up, and its furnishings and surrounding opportunities keep turning up!

I noticed before I went on the walk that I had a few $10 bills with me, and almost left them at the cottage as I rarely walk around with cash, but my intuition told me to keep them in my bag, and I did. The people running the yard sale, Grace and Othello, took cash only, so I am glad I listened to Nature -- we are Nature; listened to myself -- and kept the cash with me.

The table was $15, and in my delight that I found it and had cash on my, I forgot to haggle! : ) Grace said they'll have additional items soon -- refurbishing and dealing in used furniture is their side hustle, she said -- and I'll remember to bargain next time!

Next: how to get the table home to the cottage? I don't drive, and haven't done so in over 20 years. I walk. I take Lyfts sometimes, when the circumstances of this newly more complicated service are favorable, and thought about calling for one. But the table was lightweight, I was only a mile away, and I could stop at the local farmer's market or prairie park, or both, to set the table down for a while if I needed to.

So, table tucked under my arm, off I walked, to bring it to its new home!

I did attract a few puzzled looks from people along the way; they were probably jealous of my cute table, right? : ) I've never minded doing my own thing, thinking my own thoughts, or walking down the street with yard sale furniture. (You can see my other yard sale finds for the cottage here.)

I stopped at the Ravenswood Farmer's Market along the way, about halfway home, just before the prairie park, which was a nice and inclusive market the first time I visited a couple of weeks ago, and was again. I set my table down for a while, and bought some peach salsa and a vegan granola cookie from the vendors I had visited before. 

I also saw a new vendor, and she had art!

Decorating the cottage with woman-made art, including my own photographs and other pieces, has been a focus and a pleasure. (Idea for a new post!) This artist, Catherine Elizabeth or "Cassie," a sweet young woman who was accompanied by her fun mother, told me her intriguing process to make her charming pieces: she cuts up old newspapers, makes collages, and makes prints of them. I chose a framed print of a sunny yellow flower in a blue and white vase, which attracted my eye right away and which fit my color scheme of nautical blue-and-white with touches of yellow or green or pink -- yellow for the guest room. 

I put the artwork into my tote bag, picked up my table, and off I went, home to the cottage!

At the cottage, I cleaned the table, and positioned it in the bedside nook in the guestroom. 

A nook needs books, so I added a couple of poetry volumes, and two used books I picked up at another local spot, Uncharted Books, which was an inclusive participant in the Andersonville Sidewalk Sale last weekend.

I layered on the new artwork, some real-life flowers to join the artwork flowers, and a decor bowl, and voila!

Sweet Jorji the cat has adopted the nook as her own, giving it her paw of approval!

[Update: Later, the velvet cotton down-filled pillow and cotton Safavieh rug I ordered arrived. Looked at one way, the classic chevron pattern of the rug -- which I chose to go with the curtains I already had from a couple of homes ago, and the somewhat abstracted pattern of my $1 yard sale vase -- is a stylized wave pattern. I love this subtle nautical reference and its role in my overall Great Lakes decor theme for the cottage. 

I let myself go a little bit madcap in the guest room decor in terms of color and pattern, stepping out from or extending my blue-and-white cottage color scheme to add not only my planned touches of yellow but also significant portions of a very favorite color: turquoise. Part of my decor plan is the plan of no plan: letting the decor evolve and flow!

Jorji approves of the new rug!]

You can see the full story and view of the guest room here, and here's to serendipity, the voice of Nature, and the flow of the new world -- the Golden Age -- reorganizing around us in large and small ways!

Your friend in decorating,

Valerie

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Feel free to say hi via email as well: valerie.beck@post.harvard.edu.

Thank you!