The Upholstered Headboard and No More PTT

Remember in April I was all fired up about turning my daughter's old bedroom into a library guest room? The goal was to transform it in six weeks for Linda of Calling it Home's One Room Challenge™.

Creative Wallcoverings and Interiors

In the midst of that ORC™, I came down with Lyme disease and then, naturally, took a side trip to Savannah. Apart from that, I should have completed my room in the six weeks, but I did not. Regardless of my travels and maladies (long since banished), one design element has had me mired in procrastination's purgatory, unable to move forward. The upholstered headboard.

I love the headboards in these two pics. They are exactly what I want.

Colette van den Thillart via Traditional Home

It had been months and I could not 'pull the trigger' on the headboard order that is "exactly what I want."

And I could not figure out why. Until last week.

Driving home through Concord it hit me like a brick tossed through the windshield.

The old burial ground in downtown Concord, MA.

I do not want a headboard even remotely shaped like a headstone!

I parked the car and walked through the cemetery. After taking a few pictures I stopped, wondering if I was being disrespectful, but mostly I was acutely aware of how short a time we spend on this earth.

Where there's one brick there's usually another. At least that's how my mind works. It crashed through my mental windshield and gave me quite the bash in the brain.

Why have I become so oblivious to the real meaning of "pull the trigger" -- releasing the killing power of a weapon? Not all designers and bloggers use it, but it is widely and commonly used as a metaphor for making, or not, a decision.

Interior design is about the creation of beauty and functionality, to make life better; it is the antithesis of death and destruction.

The design and blogging community is at the forefront of so many life-affirming causes. Show houses that benefit Children's Hospitals, Ronald McDonald Houses, DIFFA, women's shelters, the list goes on. It is a privilege to work in this industry. "Pulling the trigger" has no place in our lives and what we strive to accomplish.

I am retiring this ugly metaphor from my writing and daily language. If you never use this phrase, you are a considerate, sensitive soul. If you do utter or write it from time to time, consider joining me.

Creativity is a given in our business, we can come up with something better. And we will. I will.

Thank you.

Oh yeah, I need to come up with a different design for that headboard.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading,
Linda Pakravan

p.s. Linda of Calling it Home is at it again with her Fall edition of One Room Challenge™. I highly recommend following. This one is really going to be fabulous!