Category: Uncategorized

Downsized Living Room

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you my living room and it was looking a-something like this…

Nowadays, after bidding aideu to the blue couch inherited from college friends (we passed it on to yet another college student… perhaps it will live forever in the dorms of college students) we are working with a whole mess of mid-century modern furniture…

I love MCM furniture, very much. But I abide by a rule I read somewhere on the interwebs that said that you should only have 30% of your furniture in a given room “match” as far as time period is concerned. And the coffee table, couch, and teak-and-wicker chairs in the background are currently making up the majority of the furniture in the room, making it a little too MCM all at once. In the new place I hope to get some kind of modern industrial shelving unit or TV stand to offset the couch and coffee table, and have the chairs I reupholstered in a different room (or different vignette) to break up the Mad Men party.

From a different angle, I moved the pink and tan rug slightly and set up Doug’s cajon on it for an extra seat and to anchor the rug down. Mosey likes to move the zebra pillow and sit on it to chew his dog toys. I think in an alternate world, this would be the perfect spot for a white leather Moroccan pouf (I am constantly kicking myself for not bringing one home from Morocco–I would’ve saved like 75% off Joss & Main‘s asking price).

Here’s a never-before seen angle of the living room, our media setup. It has never before been seen for good reason… it ain’t much to look at. We’re saving up to get a proper media unit with shelves and doors to hide DVDs and video games– instead of our current setup which has video games stashed in those crates (John Derian for Target some time ago) and the DVDs in a separate room altogether. The pull mechanism in the bamboo blinds is busted, explaining their haphazard hang. And the cable cord coming in from the windowsill? I can’t even. I do love the bicycle print we picked up in Lawrence, KS a while ago, though.

The good news is, the light and airy bones of the vintage furniture lend themselves well to furniture Tetris…

They will fit fabulously on the moving truck!

What do you think? Loving the Mad Men look, or do you want a bit of contrast to break up the teak party? Wanna come help load up our moving truck in a few weeks? 

Loving the Living Room

Well, slowly but surely, I’m continuing to make my way around the house for my room tours. Just in time to move.

The living room, while the most energy-inefficient room in the house (several degrees above/below the other rooms, depending on the season) is my favorite room in the house. It’s gotta be because of the IKEA curtains I had my heart set on for quite some time.

Here’s a little secret: with four windows, curtains can add up very fast. These IKEA beauties weren’t cheap at $60 per set (I mean, that’s not a ton but more than curtains at Target would be). Since the windows were so small anyway, I thought a whole panel would look a bit strange on each side of the window. Things would get really heavy really fast. Do you see where I am going with this? I cut each panel up the center and hemmed them, thereby making 8 panels from 4. Making that first big irreversible cut was so hard to bring myself to do! I’am really happy now, though. The bamboo blinds came with the house and I hated them until we got the curtains up, and now I love them. Isn’t life funny?

When we first toured the house we were to move into, I had visions of making everything white to look like whitewashed adobe walls you’d see in interiors of the southwest. So, that’s what we did! I feel that it helps the walls seem cooler and with the numerous but relatively small windows the room has, I needed light to bounce around as much as possible. So, with several coats of white on the walls, I was determined to infuse color into the room using textiles, art, and furniture, and prove to myself (a color addict) that a white room can be colorful!

The mantel proved more challenging than I originally thought it would be, since it’s pretty shallow. I know it looks deep in the next picture, but trust me there isn’t really room to layer objects (like Emily Henderson’s recent video recommends).  Behind that large frame is a little cut-out, with a bumpy, non-functioning outlet in the bottom of it that makes it impossible to use as a showcase for doodads… yep, so we just covered it up. I like the height that the frame gives to the all-white fireplace, and it was a good opportunity to showcase some wedding pictures as well.

These photos are from the time I shot my home tour (in March?) but not much has changed. I have done some rearranging here and there, and I finally painted the inside of the fireplace in with flat black, and we sort-of-but-not-really finished the dresser by the front door. Another post for another time, that.

Sources:

  • Blue couch, free. My, my, my. This blue couch has been passed down through several dorm rooms, to Lisa (my old roommate) and now to us.
  • Gray couch, free, reupholstery, $130. Last summer we drove to St Louis for our anniversary and then made a hop on over to the town where my dad grew up in Illinois (and where my grandma still lives) to pick up this bonafide family heirloom. The cushions (original to the 60s or 70s) were pretty rotted out so we got brand new cushions in a cool gray microsuede we picked up at Hancock Fabrics on clearance.
  • Coffee Table, Goodwill. Refreshed from a pretty sorry state.
  • Sofa table (holding the TV & Playstation), handed down to me when a neighbor passed away [not shown].
  • Side chair, free, plus materials for my first reupholstery project.
  • Side table (gray), got used when our alma mater had a garage sale. Side table (wood), is actually a drum!
  • Entryway dresser, Goodwill–repainted using house paint (the same color as the guest room). Only two of the drawers were usable so I transformed the bottom section into a shoe catchall!
  • Rugs, both natural fiber from World Market. The circle one from 2005 and the jute one from last fall.

When my in-laws recently decided to list the house for sale, I was pleased that the realtor agreed to just use the photos I’d taken of each room for my house tour on the listing. My first foray into real estate photography! If I want to get serious, I’ve gotta get a wider-angle lens, but I told him to pass my name along to any other agents in the office if they liked my photos! 

For a whole house tour, click here, and for other room details, you can check out the guestroom, bedroom, and bathroom!

Paris-Inspired Half Bath

I meant it last Thursday when I said that a bathroom is a good place to take a risk. And I’m going to take a BIG risk today and do something ultra themey. Many designers turn up their noses at themey rooms, and rightly so, as I believe they’ve had their heyday and today’s rooms lean more towards a cohesive “house-story” (I just made that up but it sounds so HGTV) with nods to certain themes here and there.

But you know what? What’s life if you can’t have any fun, and why do I blog if I can’t put something together like this? It has been bouncing around in my head for weeks!! I can see it really working in a hotel, a rental, a public space… anywhere where people don’t spend long periods of time is OK to go a little more over the top than normal, and make it memorable.

Walls: The paint colors are inspired by what makes Paris stand out among so many other European Cities… the more-or-less uniform paint colors on building façades imposed by the Haussmann renovation. Really, look at most photos of Paris (especially the city center) and these tones will prevail. Not to mention they look so lovely with wrought-iron or other dark metal playing off of them. I don’t have paint color recommendations but look for a smoky purply-blue (but with prevailing gray tones) and something pinkish gray-tan (almost a weathered limestone color). I would paint the ceiling of the room (that’s right! Paint the ceiling!) with the purple-gray and bring the color down onto the walls about 12 to 18 inches. I’d paint the rest of the room with the tan. A purple-gray molding along the line where the colors meet (I tried to give the impression of this on the inspiration board) would be a lovely touch.

Floor: I’d go with your classic small hex tile on the ground with gray grout. Gray grout will hide dirt and prevent the inevitable depression felt when once-white grout looks dingy. Additionally, the gray highlights the white classic hex shape. This style of tile has been around for hundreds of years and is not going away anytime soon… timeless is definitely the right word. And, it is so affordable!

Sink: The pedestal sink was inspired by what I saw when I looked at the bridge in the above picture. I thought, “those thick columns would make a killer sink.” Since I’m impatient, I did not find a sink exactly like them, but it’s close enough to make me happy. (Also, yes, every half-bath needs a toilet, but you’re on your own for that one…)

Lighting: Here I have selected two different lights: a 24-inch sconce for above the mirror, and a hanging mini-pendant one for additional light. You’d wouldn’t want to put these too close together, but I like how they “go.” They are very different styles (square vs. organic) in the same finish on purpose. If you get two that are too similar, but slightly different it will look like you tried too hard and didn’t quite get it right. These two both lean toward art nouveau which helps tie them together. They look like they were plucked out over the years and give a good eclectic layer.

Mirror: The lighting and hooks (and sink and door hardware, if you can swing it) would ideally be a dark bronze or cast iron color, so there’s no need to darken up the space with a dark mirror frame. This one from World Market brings the Marché aux Puces look in. Since this is a half bath, a normal mirror will do; no need for a medicine cabinet. Make sure the mirror is not too close to the wall color. Darken or lighten with paint (a drybrush technique would be ok) as necessary.

Cast Iron Hooks: Anchor the light paint colors with dark finishes like the dark aged bronze lighting and these art nouveau cast iron hooks.

Wastebasket: This cute little French Apothecary wastebasket would fit right in.

Art: Skip the Eiffel Tower nick-knacks and look for some more subtle Paris-themed artwork. Things were starting to look really cold in here. Bring in this warm-toned Camille Pisarro print and have your own little piece of the Musee d’Orsay. Art.com can even send it to you framed and matted as shown.

Towels: Dark green is another unofficial color of Paris. From the famous metro entrances to the booksellers’ booths on the Seine, it is a great accent for the tan and gray-purple. For hand towels, stay away from anything too jungle-y, and get the darkest, deepest green possible.

None of the online stores linked to here have provided any compensation for this post; I’m sure they don’t even know this blog exists!