Light, Bright Living Room, Part 3

In the last two posts I recounted how, overwhelmed by the plethora of children's toys and adult clutter, I felt compelled to repaint my living room. Fortunately, the Sprout was at the Super Sitter's house for a couple of days in a row. That gave me some blessed time to clear the room, do the prep work, and slather on the paint. Since there are only about eighteen kazillion shades of white, it took me forever to chose a paint color. I stared at little color samples for hours on end. I wanted a bright white but with a hint of warmth to it. Finally, I said "eeny, meeny, miney, mo" and settled on Vanilla Ice Cream (Mayonnaise and Sugar Cookie were close contenders for those of you paint junkies and/or food-names-for-paint junkies).

I've used several different (cheaper) brands in the past, but this time I used Benjamin Moore. I appreciate the staff's knowledge and the customer service at my local Ben Moore store, and I believe they take environmental concerns seriously. I used one of their zero-VOC (including colorants) lines, I think it was the Eco-Spec line. I also painted all the trim a bright white paint that I already had on hand. I was a little disappointed that the walls took three full coats to get the even, light white I was going for.



Of course, re-painting a room means you need to re-style it too, right? So I took a quick trip to IKEA to pick up some photo frames and, um, yeah.... I came home with this pile. I couldn't resist those bold, geometric-print pillows! (Apparently, I couldn't resist a whole lot of other stuff either). I also cleared the mantel, switched out a chair and a rug, and washed the curtains.

Viola! A whole new feel. Here's what the room looks like now. Note the Sprout's "parking lot" for all wheeled vehicles by the front door.





There are still a few tweaks to go. I've got some plans for that mirror over the mantel. And that brass fireplace surround has GOT to go. Someday. Also I'm considering adding some shots of red or green (pillows, art, etc.) to liven it up. But I don't want to undo the bit of tranquility I've brought to this half of the living room.

"Half of the living room?!" you say. Why, yes. Yes, there is another half that is still a work in progress. Perhaps it will get a furniture re-hab and be presentable for blog pictures in the next few weeks. Perhaps. For now I will just enjoy this calm space in a house inhabited by three adults, two two-year-old, and two large dogs. Hey, you take what you can get!

Sources:
Mirror and pillows: IKEA
Couch: Don't remember it's so old, we've had it for at least 10 years. It was our first "adult" furniture purchase.
Chairs, tables and table lamp: Craigslist
Mini-rocking chair: a delightful gift handmade by our friend Michael for the Sprout
Wool Rug: West Elm, moved from a bedroom

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Thoughts? Compliments? Constructive criticism? Bring it on. I'm eagerly awaiting your comments.

Light, Bright Living Room, Part 2

As promised in yesterday's post, here is the "before" photo:



Christmas 2010

Or a more accurate "before" picture might be these taken on a laundry day in June:





Yeah, it really does get that bad around here sometimes!

What you can't see in these photos is the part of the previous paint job that was driving me the most insane! In a misguided belief that we would one day install crown molding, we never painted the gold color up to the top of the wall. This left about two inches of jagged white primer showing. It was driving me loco! That and the laundry and the kids' toys everywhere and the oversize Weimaraner underfoot. Loco enough to clear the room out and repaint the walls.



During:



Come back tomorrow for photos of the completed project. Or, the as-completed-as-it-is-going-to-get-now-that-school-is-starting-up-again project.

Light, Bright Living Room, Part 1

Waaaayyyy back in October, I posted about wanting to re-work our living room. I said, "Our living room is a long, bowling-alley of a space. It's been a design challenge since we first moved in. Most of the time we have furniture clustered in one end and the other end is basically unused. In the six years we've lived here the space has evolved, but it is still lacking in some specific needs: lighting, toy storage, landing strip/coat hanging, and seating." Over the winter, we added some toy storage and coat hanging, but we didn't get any further. Nearly one year later, we still have most of these needs.

In the Great Grey that is Portland winter/spring/early summer I especially yearned for greater lighting and brightness in this space. I collected even more inspiration images, because I want to do it right this time (version 2.0). It soon became clear that white walls were a requirement for the the clean Scandinavian-influenced style that I'm drawn too.

The nice thing about being really, really slow to make changes around here, is that by the time I get to them, I am really, really sure about what I want to do. And what I wanted to do was paint our gold living room walls back to white. I mean "wanted", as in "I don't really want to go through all the torture of prepping and painting, but I'm too cheap to pay someone else for what I can do on my own."

And so, the other week my painting project commenced. Come back tomorrow for "before" and "during" pictures.

Now That's Pinteresting

There are a few more vacation photos yet to come, but in the meantime let me tell you what I've been obsessing about lately--Pinterest! And obsessing may be too mild of a word for my addiction.

For several years I've kept file folders on my hard drive of inspiring images from the internet, so when I first heard about Pinterest, I was reluctant to switch over to a different system. However, there have been several times when I wanted to find an image's source and I just couldn't in my old system.

Enter, Pinterest. Pinterest, in the rare case that you haven't heard about it, is a virtual bulletin board where you can "pin" all sorts of images. I am ridiculously in love with it. Mostly I'm collecting ideas for remodeling or restyling places around our house. You can find me over at http://pinterest.com/beesnestdeb/ if you're interested.

I'm sure I'll be using Pinterest images for future blogposts but let me tack on two photos from my latest most favoritist kitchen since a picture-less post is like a hairless cat. Just wrong, all wrong.

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Both photos from Amie Weitzman's house via Design Sponge

DIY Light Fixtures

When we resume our never-ending home remodeling upstairs we're going to need to replace some lighting. While I was browsing the internets for bedroom inspiration earlier, I found these ideas for lighting fixtures that we could build ourselves (and save a LOT o' money).

Here are some light fixtures we could build for our bedroom and/or our stairwell:

--Lindsey Adelman's DIY Chandelier, Clamp Light and Mobile

--Instructable Bare Bulb Designer Light Fixture







--DIY Glass Bubble Chandelier


Hey, readers! Have any of you ever made a light fixture of your own or done anything remotely like this? I have almost zero experience with electrical projects. Am I insane to think I could make something like this?

Master Bedroom, Now

Scanning the room from left to right.







Here's a close up of the picture wall.



The black and white photos were taken by our friend Sarah Grace last spring. Then there's the awesome Ashley G. print that I gave the Wise and Bearded One for our 15th wedding anniversary. The photo in the middle is a favorite that I shot of the Sprout one day this fall. Underneath is a postcard from another Portland artist (I'm too lazy to go look up his name)--It's a portrait of Portland. The vintage print on the left is one Nate collected a long time ago and has been sitting in a box unframed for lo these many years. And the raindrop (of course, it's Portland, isn't it?!) is a new purchase from the fabulously talented Leah Duncan (not from Portland, but Austin, Texas, which is good enough).

What I like about the room:
--I definitely like it better painted bright white
--The wood floors and the wood furniture pop against the white
--The art/photos and the print pillow (also from Leah Duncan's Etsy shop)
--The Mobler chair finally has room to breath; it always looked cramped in our living room
--The flokati looks it might have found a permanent home too

What I am still looking for:
--Those night stands (el cheapo IKEA models) were always intended to be temporary and eventually go to our (currently-nonexistent) guest room. Must find something more substantial with better storage.
--Lighting. I still might spring for the Robert Abbey scissor-arm sconces that I had on my mood board. But I need to solve the nightstand issue first.
--The perfect print for pillows on the bed and maybe an additional piece of art or two to add that graphic pop that I want.
--I need to repot a plant or two to add some real green to the space. Plus I like that house plants clean the air.

What we want to change in the future:
--Although the IKEA Expedit is a staple in our house, I would really like to not have to use them for clothes storage in here. They visually close in some of the space. I would like to build shelving/cabinets into the knee wall behind the Mobler chair. The closet in here was built for a 1930s wardrobe so clothing storage is an issue.
--The ceiling (not pictured) is really low. Nate and I would like to bust it out this summer, put in new insulation, lighting and ceiling and paint the beams white. That's also why the trim wasn't replaced/repainted--we'll do it "later".
--The crib (not pictured) is taking up a corner of the room, and the Sprout's books are taking up space on the Expedit. She'll be back in her own room as soon as we're done playing musical rooms around the house.

Overall, it's a huge improvement over our previous cramped bedroom. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

What would you add or delete, change or tweak? What do you find essential in your own bedroom to make it a good sleeping space?

Master Bedroom, Before

When I get a little down on how slow our house remodel is going, it's always good to remind myself how far we've come.





Here's what it looked like in September 2004 shortly after we moved in. Note the great shag carpet and the dark paneling. The room only has one windows on the north side so it was imperative to paint the paneling white right away.

When we ripped up the carpet we found this funky old floor cloth. Too bad it disintegrated when we tried to roll it up.



We took up the carpet, cleaned and gave it all a quick coat of paint and used this room as our office/craft room/junk room for the last five or six years. It was high time to fix it right.

Made: Custom Pillow Cases

So I've been looking for some bold, graphic elements to add to the bedroom, and bed linens seemed like a good place to start. But I already had a white duvet cover and brown quilt from the last version of our bedroom, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on bedding. So it was time for some sewing.

I had some green velveteen from a recent trip to Fabric Depot to cover our "reading" pillows. And I was hoping to find something bold, graphic/geometric, with some ochre yellow and mossy green to cover our sleeping pillows. I didn't have a lot of time to shop so I made a quick trip to my closest, favorite fabric store--Cool Cottons on Hawthorne, for you local readers. I'm constantly amazed how this little store has such a fabulous collection of fabric. Despite the fabulous collection of fabric, I didn't really find what I was looking for. But I did find this.

I fell in love with Alexander Henry Matisse "Joy of Life" fabric. It's bold. It has mossy green and ochre yellow in it. And brown. And red and grey and pink and turquoise.

I brought it home and followed a tutorial for sewing a pillowcase. The Hot Dog Pillow Case to be exact. And let's just admit that's an embarrassing name worth a few snickers. I'll wait a bit for you to quit snickering. It's a terrible name but a great way to make a pillow case.

Now the pillows are finished and on our bed and I'll have to admit, I'm not in love with them. They seem a little too busy and maybe too colorful for me. So I'm putting it out there for you all. What do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Should they stay or should they go? Please comment below!

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This picture is a quick, low light shot from earlier this week. I'm hoping to get some good photos of the room this weekend during daylight to post. Unfortunately this morning I brought a sick little girl into bed with me and she promptly puked all over the bed linens. And so the bed linens are in the wash, the Sprout is sick and sad, and I have bigger concerns than styling a "photo shoot". If you are a pray-er, your prayer for her body to heal itself quickly would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Sneak Peak #2: Master Bedroom

This little tripod pot was destined to be mine when I saw it at Pigeon Toe Ceramics. I like to have a few vessels in the bedroom to catch jewelry and watches at the end of the day.



Pigeon Toe Ceramics has a studio and shop here in Portland at 727 SE Morrison Street in the industrial district. Portlanders should definitely check it out for a great place to buy a gift for a friend (or yourself). Non-Portlanders can shop Pigeon Toe On-Line.

Sneak Peak: Master Bedroom

I have an on-going love of terrariums. (I made some last summer. Two of them got moldy and died. One I replanted and it is going ok.) I couldn't resist picking up this little beaut from BrightDesignLab. It's going in the new and improved bedroom!

I want to bring in some more plants and green into the space. Most of our house plants got tucked up on a shelf in the kitchen or moved to my office at work once the Sprout started crawling and walking. Perhaps we can risk putting one within reach now that she is a little older.

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Is anybody out there? Anybody reading this? How 'bout just saying hi? It's been awfully quiet in the comments section.

Bedroom Mood Board

Well, I thought January was going to be the Month of the House and there would be lots of blogging about the projects we have going on around here. I may be wrong. They've taken a toll, these latter days. First we had the quick trip back to Indiana for a funeral. Then there was the stomach flu followed in rapid succession by a nasty head cold. All while we were having the floors refinished in our upstairs so the whole house was in disarray.

Finally, this weekend we all were feeling better and we were able to put most of our house back to rights. I can't wait to show you our new master bedroom. It's not done yet, but it is most definitely in progress.


















Here's a bit of a mood board. We're mostly using things we already own, such as:
--the walnut and cherry bed and dresser we bought a few years back
--the flokati rug that is currently in storage because our dogs liked it a little too much when it was in the living room and started gnawing on it
--white and brown bed linens from our current bedroom
--the awesome Mobler "Falcon" chair we scored off of Craigslist

To that I'm adding:
--a lot of white
--the Ashley G print I bought for our 15th anniversary last month as well as some other small pieces of art of we've collected but not had on display
--our new Lemnos clock from Canoe
--a live edge coat rack from the Joinery
--a terrarium, just because I'm in love with them

I'm still trying to figure out how to add in a little color, some sharp graphics and MORE STORAGE. I'm particularly looking for (affordable) small chests of drawers that could function as bedside tables and some graphic print pillows. The fabric swatches on the mood board could still change.

So, blogger-friends, tell me what you think. What's working? What isn't? What recommendations do you have? Have I stayed true to my inspiration rooms? Do tell.

Inspiring Bedrooms, Part II

I've not just been collecting images for the bedroom remodel, I've been collecting "projects" too. These have a 2.326% chance of actually being accomplished, but....a girl can dream, can't she?!

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This project from inPost is an IKEA hack to take an ugly Rast dresser and turn it into a modern piece. We need more bedroom storage so I like the idea of having nightstands that double as dressers. I love the Dwell Studio bedding too, but I have a feeling it's not in our budget!

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And, as I love all things Denyse Schmidt, I thought the Proverbial Quilt was a lovely idea, but I wasn't "in love" with it until I saw All Buttoned Up's version. Oh. My. Goodness. It is Gorgeous and it has a quote from my favorite band of all time: Over the Rhine.

This quilt says:

Cast me away
From yesterdays things
In deed and in my memory
Sweeten the taste of the past, (of the past)
And make just a little more time for me

Inspiring Bedrooms (or Finding Order in Chaos)

Our life is a bit chaotic right now. Last week the Wise and Bearded One's grandmother passed away. While we are sad for the hole she leaves in our lives, we rejoice that her desire to go home to be with Jesus was finally realized. We were able to rearrange our work schedules and spend several days in the Midwest with our wonderful family.

And now we are back trying to pick back up at our jobs in the middle of busy deadlines and while we were gone we had a guy refinishing our floors upstairs. We were hoping he would have it finished by the time we returned but he is still not finished. So we have tired people, upstairs "stuff" strewn everywhere, laundry from traveling, and toddler toys scattered all about our main living spaces. To top it off the Sprout has came down with a stomach virus and kept me pretty much glued to the couch holding her for a great deal of time today. From the couch I have an excellent view of all that is disorganized, messy, and out-of-control around our house right now. It's making me a little crazy. Many times today, I had to remind myself to breath and let it go.

Since I can control very little about the current reality, I will dream about how great the future master bedroom will be. We've been planning for quite awhile to shuffle some rooms around to make the house work better for us, and when the Housemate and the Little Housemate joined us we knew it had to happen sooner rather than later. One of the room shuffles is to empty out our upstairs office/workroom/studio (aka Craft Hell) and turn it into our master bedroom. It is much bigger than our current bedroom but has the disadvantage of being up a steep, creaky flight of stairs that make a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip a bit daunting. Now that the Sprout sleeps upstairs we see the advantage of sleeping closer to her so we won't have to climb up steep, creaky stairs in the middle of the night to comfort a crying toddler.

Anyhow, I've been collecting images and ideas for our master bedroom for a while. Here are some of them:



White + Wood + Graphic textiles = Happy Deb










I think these next two rooms look suitably masculine for my husband's taste. I love the lamps that pull out from the wall.














Clean-lined midcentury furniture and I love the vintage maps.



















This room doesn't have my White + Wood formula but I think it's a good counterpoint to the above images for a bit more of a feminine flair with the yellow print pillows. I kept this one because I love the "&" pillow and the collection of personal art above the bed.

So I'm planning a master bedroom that will have:
--white walls
--wood floors, wood furniture
--graphic textiles
--meaningful art

I can't wait to start bringing some order out of this mess!

The Project I Forgot to Blog

I was looking back through the year's worth of photos and I realized with chagrin that sometimes I do a project, take photos intending to blog about the project and then never actually write the blog entry. Some sorry sort of craft blogger I am!



My favorite completed project this year was this quilt. I blogged about it multiple times from its inception to completion. But I intended to blog about the Sprout's nursery in it's completed form with the quilt in place and that never happened. Perhaps I was waiting for a chance to take better photos. Perhaps I wasn't entirely happy with it and wanted to tweak it some more so I could enter it on some fancy-schmancy parenting website. Perhaps I just was tired and went to bed. I don't remember. But here it is now, sneaking in before the end of the year.



For the Sprout's nursery we took over half of the large, sunny south bedroom in our upstairs. Several years back I painted the walls a pale blue-green and all the old paneling a bright white, and we put random odds and ends of furniture up there and used it as our guest room. When I was pregnant with the Sprout I had no energy or motivation to repaint the room so it is still a blue room. Ideally, I would love to paint it all bright white. I feel like children's toys bring so much color and life to a room that I need to remove as much extraneous color as possible.

Color comes in through accessories too. Check out the lamp shade over the rocker. I scored it at this funky thrift store/junk store. It is covered in red postage stamps and black rick-rack. I sort of love it.



This chair was the only brand-new non-IKEA purchase in the room. It was not supposed to be pink. I ordered the "Lamb" colored rocking chair on an impulse from a website. Who would have known that "lamb" didn't mean soft white-grey-wool but pink fleshy leg-of-lamb?! Ugh. I got it on a major sale so I couldn't return it. Hence, we are stuck with a pink rocker. And have I mentioned here that I really hate pink?! The pale yellow afghan that my sister crocheted and the Heather Bailey Pop Garden pillow really help cut the pink for me.

I love the simple (and cheap!) crib from IKEA and I have a long-term love affair with the Expedit cube shelving units. They occur repeatedly in our house. To keep it all from looking too IKEA we brought in some original art, a few vintage toys, an old flokati rug from another room, and an ugly bedside table/drawer unit that I intended to paint a poppy bright color when I got around to it. Still hasn't happened.

The room has a vague bird theme. Um, so vague, that it probably only exists as a theme in my head. I love this little vignette--a Rachel Austin original painting, the Pigeon from Moe Willem's series of children's books, and this little owl from Chet and Dot that I picked up at Crafty Wonderland.



The weird part about blogging this nursery is that it does not currently exist. When we invited the Housemates to move in this fall, the guest room/nursery was the obvious room to give to them. So the Sprout moved out and is currently sleeping in our other upstairs bedroom that was our office/studio space but is in the works to become the master bedroom. And then we're going to play musical chairs trading rooms around the house and do a basement reno and eventually, someday, the plan is that the Sprout will get this room back as her own. Based on the rate in which we move around here, it could be a while.

I think that's why I wanted to blog this little nursery--it was a sweet corner of our world for a few months this year.

Here's to creating more sweet corners in our home in 2011.

Happy New Year!

Deb

Summer 2010

Oh. My. Goodness. I can't believe it is July already. Really I feel like this is my first week of summer. I know that school let out June 18 (really late this year) and then we had one quick week of scrambling and packing before we left to visit our families in Indiana for a week. And whoooshh! Here we are in July and I feel like my summer is just beginning.

Since I live on the academic calendar, summer is when I make my version of New Year's resolutions. Here's my admittedly-ambitious list for this summer:

-Paint living room trim
-Clean and organize office/studio
-Deep clean the basement (where the dogs reside, ick!)
-Learn to sew from Japanese sewing books
-Learn to sew knit children's clothes (already making progress on this, stay tuned)
-A secret art project that I've been mulling around for a while--you'll see it if it turns out
-Continue purging/organizing my wardrobe, including the search for a Uniform Dress
-Find and perfect a great black bean burger recipe
-Eat more fruits and veg (green smoothies, baby!)
-Lose 15 pounds (There, I said it. Now I have to do it)
-Exercise 45 minutes at least 4 days per week
-Sign up to run a 5k
-Get back into biking and sign up for some longer group rides (50 miles or more)
-Create play space for Silvie on our property--swing, sand box or table, and a teepee are what I have in mind
-Build our community by having friends over and getting more involved in church community

Alrighty, then. Commence summer!

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If you have any recommendations for favorite healthy food, please comment. I'm especially looking for quick-prep summer food. Thank you.

Guest Room #4

Although there are still things that I would like to do to "finish" the guest room, I'm calling it quits for now so I can work on other (fun) projects. It's already had two different sets of guests use it so I'm going to say it is done for now. I like the way the wall color and bed linens turned out. I also like the fact that I spent very little money decorating the room.

I reused some old canvases to paint a colorful design to hang on the walls. I'm not entirely pleased with them so I may keep my eye out for a different art solution. I reused the old lamps that I had in the room by painting the shades with the wall color and gluing on some trim. They look pretty good when the light is turned off, but when it is turned on you can tell that I applied the paint unevenly. Oh well.

There are a few things I would like to do eventually: 1) paint the little side cabinet fronts white to match the walls and maybe put glass knobs on it like the old dresser, 2) paint the floors, but I resisted because Nate is convinced we'll strip the old fir floors eventually, 3) buy an easy chair or two to sit in the corner so guests can read and relax in their own space.

I found that West Elm had a neutral all-wool rug on sale so I snatched up one for the guest room. I like it so much that I might move it down to the living room where we desperately need a new rug (old sisal rug + food + spilled drinks + dirty dog feet = yucky). The dogs happen to really like the new rug as well. Here's a snap of the Crotch Biter and the OCD Dog at rest.

On to my other fun summer projects: sewing some flirty skirts, designing and planting some new garden beds, making some jewelry, framing some prints....oh my, the list keeps growing and the amount of available "free" summer keeps dwindling!

Guest Room #3

Anyone who knows me well knows that, despite my longterm boycott of Walmart, I have a soft spot for another big box store... Target...ahhhh bliss! Target brings contemporary designer pieces down to the place where my pocketbook can handle them. My house is full of linens and accessories from the Modern Home and Global Bazaar collections.

So, when the guest room needed snappy new linens I headed down to Target. Not once, not twice, but three times. In the harsh flourescent lighting of the store I have a hard time telling which colors will work with what I want to do. So, as my dear friend Stacey taught me, I buy all of the options, take them home, look at them under natural light in the real room, and then make my selections. Thank goodness for Target's return policy!


I also wanted to include in the room this old green wool blanket that I got from my Grandma Shirk's sale, a fluffy white duvet cover that Stacey gave me, the green bird coat rack that I loved at Anthropology and the three watercolors that I brought back with me from Ecuador. Now I just have to figure out how to put this altogether in the room.

P.S. To be used correctly, "Target" must be pronounced in the manner of the French.