Updating furnishings can be exciting 

Kyle and Gae Graham live a hectic life. Nothing out of the ordinary, mom is a teacher, and pops has an Internet business and day job, just the everyday trials of life.

With two kiddos and a couple of pooches, they simply wanted a calming, relaxing environment to gather around to watch television and visit.

I have known the Grahams since college and was a bit surprised to hear from them since Gae had received a degree in interior design from Louisiana Tech University. However, life had intervened, and she found teaching was a better fit. I understand this completely since my degree is in graphic design and not interiors.

They had recently painted their living room a soothing grey and decided it was time to update their furnishings since the children are in high school and college. I am a firm believer in waiting for children to outgrow the “Cheetos and Kool- Aid” phase before investing in new furnishings.

After finding out their needs and wants, we set out to find the perfect items, which blended comfort and modernity. We decided to keep the room somewhat monotone with varying shades of greys, creams and golds.

“I am a firm believer in waiting for children to outgrow the Cheetos and Kool-Aid phase before investing in new furnishings.”

We always start with larger pieces like sofas or rugs and build the rest of the room around those. We found the perfect mushroomcolored sectional at 4-States Furniture in Texarkana, which set the “tone” for the whole project. The muted paisley rug from Paul Michael in Monroe actually made me “gasp,” which is a clear indicator we should buy it. I found Gae a beautifully graphic “momma bear” chair at Dillard’s (on clearance), and Kyle actually picked out his own “poppa bear” chair while at 4-States Furniture.

We picked up a unique mid-century teak screen at an estate sale and a beautiful brass topped coffee table from J. Brown’s in Texarkana. We always like to mix older pieces with the new to give our rooms a collected and not just purchased look. We found four muted botanical prints from Haverty’s (also on clearance) and added some beautiful metallic pillows to finish off the room. Additional items such as lamps and accessories came from various big box stores and local boutiques.

In the foyer, we bathed the whole room in Sherwin Williams-Warm Stone, added a beautiful console from Briggs & Co., a metal spherical chandelier from S.E. Salvage, a great metal mirror from Paul Michael and a glazed ceramic lamp from Ivan Smith.

These rooms now emanate a cool, modern calmness, which is the perfect escape from everyday life.

Myron Griffing is the owner of Space:

interiors. Contact him at 464-6254.