Decorating with an Outdoorsy Theme

Room Decorating Tips

I need some help with some decorating ideas.

We are turning our greeting room into a fishing atmosphere greeting room.

I have die-hard fishermen and hunters here in our home. My husband and two boys live for the outdoors.

The rest of the house, except their bedrooms, is girly. I have no idea even where to begin.

I am on a budget, but would love to do this any way possible. I'm sure they would sacrifice some of their fundings too.

Please help with some ideas.

Sandy

This is a tough question because I don't know the dimensions of the room, your tastes or your budget.

So, I'll take a middle of the road approach which I hope you can use as a jumping off point.

For a greeting room with a masculine outdoorsy feel, I think you want a fairly reserved look that your guests will find inviting. If you were doing a game room or bar, the singing bass on the wall might be OK; but not for here.

First pick you color palette. Paint is the easiest and least expensive way to do over a room.

Browns, muted greens or blue greens and perhaps a touch of red would create the look you want. If you have any pieces you want to feature and not change, such as a painting or a sofa, build your color selection around those pieces. If there are other items that you cannot afford to change (like carpeting), be sure to work those into the decorating scheme as well.

Once you have your wall colors, think about the furniture, floor covering (if you are changing that) and accessories. Using the brown, green and red palette as an example, pick coordinating upholstery.

You can have the furniture recovered or purchase stretchy slipcovers. Some look so nice you can't even tell the difference. If you have the furniture upholstered, have a few throw pillows made at the same time (two for the couch and one for one of the arm chairs - you don't want things to look too symmetrical and formal).

I envision a brown, green and red plaid for the couch; and a deep red with widely-spaced small green dots (or vice versa) for the arm chairs. Tie-back drapes (not too frilly) should coordinate with the upholstery. A bold checkerboard pattern in a heavy fabric would look nice.

I would order two throw pillows in the arm chair fabric for the sofa and the third in the checkerboard fabric to go on one of the chairs.

If you have a lot of family photos of the boys on their hunting and fishing trips, consider a photo wall featuring these. Have the photos enlarged and printed in sepia tones to tie them together with the rest of the decorating.

Or scan them and use Photoshop or Print Shop to do this yourself. The frames don't have to be identical; in fact you can achieve more visual interest and a homey feel if you vary them.

For step-by-step directions to convert your photos to sepia prints, for color photos read Everything New is Old Again.

To convert black and white photos to sepia, read An Antique Look for Your Black and White Photos.

Scout flea markets and garage sales for frames that coordinate with your decorating scheme. This is also a good place to shop for pieces for the other walls.

One or two prints or oil paintings are all you probably need. Look for table and/or floor lamps with a hunting lodge look - perhaps weathered metal with faux parchment lampshades. They needn't match, just coordinate; so these could be flea market finds as well.

Finally here are some ideas for finishing touches to your room decorating:

Drape a hunter green afghan over the bare arm chair.

Place a fishing tackle box on the floor and fill it with rolled magazines.

Place a few hunting/fishing theme books or magazines with striking covers on the coffee table.

If there is more wall space, you could do a grouping of vintage fishing/hunting equipment: two old rods and some lures, perhaps a rifle, whatever fits that the boys are willing to part with!