Design Dilemma

You know, ever since I've been on my own and able to decorate my own apartment or house, I've suffered from design dilemmas. I go through these phases.. One day I absolutely love shabby chic, then the next I love the primitive feel, and now... well, now.... I'm starting into the contemporary phase. So my house is so mish mosh of everything. How in the world do you bring it all together?

This post started because my DH and I took down our Christmas decor and I was left with an empty mantle and shelves. Yeah, I know, that would be a dream to decorator, but to me, who is lost is in a decorating identity dilemma, well, quite frankly it sucks.

I set out today to find two lamps for either side of the mirror above the fireplace. We have two overhanging type desk lamps that faced the light down. It was super bright and would blind you, so we rarely turned them on. I decided that I no longer liked their crescent moon shape and brightness, so off to Home Goods I went.

I love Home Goods. It's such an awesome store. I had my toddler in tow, so I didn't spend time going up and down every aisle. I was on a mission to find two lamps and storage baskets for the built-in shelving on either side of the fireplace. They have a huge selection of baskets, but a very low quantity of each selection. Since I have a total of eight shelves that are roughly 40" wide, I knew that what they had wouldn't work. Let alone that the minimum width was 12" and our shelves are 9". Yeah, just another thing to drive me crazy.

So off to the lamp section I went. They have some of the most gorgeous lamps. I love the crystal lamps with cream drum shades, but not for my living room... Or what about the silver lamp bases... oh they are awesome, but once again, not for my living room. Come on!! I have brown leather sofa & love seat, brown cedar chest, brown and black entertainment center, genuine hardwood floors, and nasty brown (or should I say orange) outdated pine paneling. The beautiful crystal and silver bases just wouldn't work in this house.

Off to World Market where I found absolutely no lamps that I would even consider. The basket area was full of exactly what I wanted, but not in the size (width) that would fit our 9" deep shelves. Uggg.

Next stop was Kirklands Home Furnishings. I got half way through the store when I spotted these two cute little up lights. They were rectangular in shape AND on sale for $19.99 each. SCORE!!! I loved that they were unique of them. They have a canvas insert and the lamp part is a black base with brown rattan just kind of swirled around. I loved them. So I asked if they had the floor lamp version. Of course they are sold out. So I'm anxiously waiting for those to come back into stock so I can prop one on either side of our entertainment center.

Here's a picture of the floor lamp version of the two up lights I got. This picture was taken from http://www.alfresia.co.uk/ This is the floor version that I want to put on either side of the TV.

So when I started Google searching the lamps, they popped up as contemporary organic style. Out of curiosity I had to Google images of contemporary organic design to see if anything jumped out at me.... NOTHING.... I mean yeah, it looks clean and nice, but it also looks cold and heartless. So I'm not sure about this whole style thing.

I'm still on the search for the 9" wide rattan baskets to line my shelves. I found with the open shelving, my toddler gets into everything and so it ends up a mess anyway. Besides that, it just looks throw together instead of thought through. There's no design to it at all. I need to zen it up a little.

So now I need to just find my style.... Are there any helpers out there????

My living room dilemmas to conquer:

* Wall AC unit

* Pine paneling

* Shelving / mantle decor

* Organization of the coat closet

* Matching end tables and coffee table

* New table lamps for the end table