The Decorative Pillow Intervention

Yesterday I worked. Today I had a North Shore Princess day. My best friend picked me up at 9 and we drove to Gloucester to meet two other friends for breakfast at Sugar Mags. Then we all went to Good Harbor beach with the dogs.

After walking the dogs I went shopping with two of my friends. I needed a new bar stool because my favorite place t perch in my apartment is at the kitchen bar and this week I noticed that there were dangerous structural flaws in my current bar stool. So I planned to buy a new chair. My best friend (who was driving me around to buy a new chair) had been saying I needed a few rugs to brighten up the atmosphere of the apartment, so apparently I was also shopping for rugs. Not real rugs-since I wasn't emotionally prepared to spend the money on an area rug (and besides--I hadn't measured my living room) but little throw rugs. Fine. I need to buy a chair, but if they think I need a few bits of carpeting I'm game-so long as they're not expensive. I agreed to a small blue and brown rug for $30 and then they insisted I needed a little rug to stand on at the sink--like a bathmat. So we looked at bath mats. They had several that looked like sea anemones (or skinned muppets.) I grabbed one and started chasing one of my friends with it. The Blob is coming for you.."Clearly you like it." said my friends.

We went to lunch and then we went to Pier 1 to look at chairs. This is when they attacked. "A few decorative pillows would really transform that couch." They said. "But the couch is always covered with books and clothes and school-crap." "When was the last time you spent money on beauty?" one of them asked. "You really need to make your place more hospitable-that way you'll feel happier there." "Is this an intervention?" Apparently it was.

I don't care about pillows and colors. All I care about is a nice bed and a comfortable place to sit with my computer.I don't want to own useless stuff--I live in a small apartment. But these were not marketing people urging me to buy these things--these were my friends. It occurred to me that, while I didn't see the need to own decorative pillows they might be right. They might know something I don't know. Just because I don't need decor doesn't mean that I shouldn't take their advice. They are trying to help me--the same way I try to help them when their computers get messed up. Also, they are my potential guests. My space is not just about me--even if I'm uninterested in decor, my lack of it might make other people uncomfortable.

So I bought the pillows and a nice throw rug and let my friends install them. They insisted on cleaning/moving a few other things as well. We measured the living room for future rug purchases and they made a few drape suggestions. While it's not my bag it's kind of nice to be able to trust people to help me with something.

And above all, it's wonderful to have friends who I can go to brunch with and who care about my living space enough to insist that I buy rugs.