Follow Through Friday - Martha Stewart

Well, you never know until you try.

I had seen a picture months ago of a table in Martha Stewart's home, Skylands, that I thought might work in my family room. I had pictured it in this one open corner of the room. It's been in the back of my mind since then, so to get it out of the back of my mind and into reality, I made it a Follow Through.  Here's what I said I wanted to do last week.

I want to set up a table in my family room that's patterned off one I saw on Martha Stewart's site. First, I have to find the picture, then I'll set it up. How's that for specific?

I found the picture. And I still like it.

I love that it's a round table. Love the stools. Love the urn with the flowers. And love, love, love all the books. They just beg you to sit down and learn something. Seeing the picture again made me want a telescope also.

The only thing I have around the house that is part of that picture? Books. Ok, well, necessity is the mother of invention. Let's see what I can do to achieve a similar look.

I found a drop leaf table with rounded edges. Not bad. Nothing close to the urn, but I had actually forgotten that it was in the picture at all. Somehow, I had replaced it in my mind with a globe. Love globes. I am a globe and map freak. So, check that. And I already had in mind the books I wanted to put on it. I have nothing close to the beautiful tablecloth, so I went to the linen closet to see what could possibly work. A quilt?

I put something together in that open corner that, well, we just didn't like. Once I set it up, we all felt a little crowded, and I hadn't even put any chairs around it. (That's funny, I don't remember thinking it looked crowded in the picture on Martha's blog.) Well, my family room is big, but it's not as big as hers. The crowding is really the main issue, but my substitute that I tried for a beautiful tablecloth is not good - and not ironed. But I was just trying to get a feel for things. So, here's what we put together.

The mix, the feel, the crowding is not good for the Harris clan. But you never know until you try.  And all was not lost. I found those inspirational pictures, which made me smile. I found them on her blog, which you can access here: Martha Stewart.  It was fun to take a break and get lost on it for a while.

Speaking of taking a break, I'm going to do that with my Follow Through. I'm taking my youngest to St. Louis next week, and won't be here to post. This trip is actually a follow through of sorts. I was supposed to take her last spring, but it would get postponed for one reason or another. So, nothing new next week, but in two weeks, I'll report on our "I'm about to be a teenager so I listen to some Focus on the Family tapes on the way to St. Louis with a parent" trip.