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Writer's pictureLizzie G

Measure, Measure, Measure



I am often asked if I think a certain item will look good in a person’s home. My first response is always, “Well, have you measured that space?” The answer is almost ALWAYS , “No.” Can I just say right here, There is NO WAY to know how anything will look in your home without measuring?!


There. I fell a lot better. Now that we have the emotion of this out of the way, let’s discuss why this is SO important and HOW you are going to be a PRO at this from now on! Measuring your space is the organizing and decorating equivalent of checking for bank account balance before buying stuff. It is just WHAT YOU MUST DO unless you want to overdraft your account, right?


Let’s consider an example. You just bought a new house that’s bigger! Yay, right? Well yes, in some ways, but then you realize the furnishing of this bigger house is gonna cost you some BIG bucks, unless you get creative and do some estate sale shopping. HOW will you know what will fit? YES! You guessed it! You are going to MEASURE AND write all those measurements down in the notepad of your phone, on a paper and tuck it in your wallet, I don’t care where, just write it down!


I did this when we bought our current house. Yep. It was bigger than the historic cottage we lived in for fifteen years. I had one sofa and two living room areas. What to do? Well our daughter had a hand me down sofa that she actually hated. I don’t know why because it was a name brand, a beautiful neutral tan shade, nice rolled arm style and I liked it! I started wondering if it would fit in my second living area….hmmmmm. What do you think I did???? YES! Again, you guessed it! I MEASURED my space and asked Abi to measure that sofa! And GUESS WHAT??? It was, and IS, PERFECT for our spot! It’s where we hang out by the fire every winter. It’s cozy and just absolutely perfect and even better the price was perfect too! FREE for the picking up and transporting here! Win-WIn! Another example in this same extra living space needed a rug. We had a big rug I had had custom made for our old house living room. The color and short shag texture were perfect to go with the new FREE sofa! What do you think I did next to see if the rug would fit? YEP! Again, you are right! I MEASURED! Did you know some rug stores will only charge you a fee per linear foot to cut and bind a rug to a different size? It’s fairly cheap too! So, for this living space I got a FREE L shaped sofa, a rug for the price of having it resized and bound, and while we’re on this room, I’ll let you in on a little secret about how I pulled the rest of the room together! I had an old antique table my grandmother left me that I put on one end of the sofa as an end table. The other end I used an old antique footstool! There was a bit of space between the end table and fireplace hearth and it just needed something. If you haven’t been to any estate sales, you more than likely will become a fan if you read any of my stuff, fair warning. I saw some photos on the estate sale website and really loved a pair of floral chairs but it looked like the fabric was more gray in the photos. I decided to go anyway to check them out and a few other things I had my eye on. How SHOCKED was I when I walked into that house and saw the floral chairs from the photo actually had the EXACT same tan as that FREE sofa! I was IN LOVE! The floral chairs had a very reputable designer manufacture tag under the seat cushion and the price was a fraction of what they would have been brand new! But….are you wondering what I was wondering?? Would they FIT??? And HOW do you think I figured that out? RIGHT AGAIN! I MEASURED! My hubby brought the truck and after a few eye rolls, loaded them in and took them home. How tickled was I to see this cozy fireplace living room look so pulled together and feel so cozy?!?! I'm beyond pleased not just with the price, but also the look and feel of the space. And it ALL came together because I did what???


M E A S U R E D ! Do whatever you have to do, order on amazon, grab from hardware store, borrow one, but GET a tape measure to keep in your purse (and I also keep a larger one in my car!) When you’re organizing and decorating a new space you simply MUST keep on with you if you want pulled together, organized, beautiful cozy spaces! For Function AND Fashion, Lizzie G

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