Something black.

I notice that all the rooms I am drawn to in design mags and on Pinterest have at least one black element in that seems to sharpen up the space.

Whether it’s minimal or bold, it seems to act as the punctuation mark in a space.

The floor lamp makes this room:

And the chandelier and the lines of the rug here (this is the image that sold me on my english sofa):

via

A lampshade, curtain rod and some skinny frames do it here:

via Pinterest

Black is more of a big player here with the bold rug and artwork, and the otherwise very traditional sofa feels nothing but exciting and bold:

via

Or bam, thank you very much:

via Pinterest

That last image shows you how black can really brings out certain wood tones and give them warmth and intention.  So with all this re-thinking in my living room space (or what feels like thinking about it for the first time!) it became clear that I needed a little black.  So the french doors went under the brush.  But I have a feeling the doors won’t be the only victim.  Hint: Goodbye 90s honey oak banisters!

Just a little side note:

For a few years now, many of the painting I’ve been working on have needed a little black at some point in the process, either boldly, or subtly,  so it’s funny to me that it’s taken this long to creep into my house.  See?

Anyway, we’re almost finished painting– just working on the ceiling (phasing out some awful 90s brass can light fixtures) and the crown molding (beefing it up to help bring the ceilings down a bit).  I’ll share when it’s closer along, but you can see the color a bit in this shot.  Benjamin Moore’s Chelsea Gray is really beautiful in the space, and I’m so very happy I went in this direction, as much as I wanted to go white.  The room is cozy now, because the gray is very warm (i.e. scary/looks like taupe when it’s still wet!) and moody, but not cave-dark, or blue.  OR PURPLE.  Thank the gods for that.

Oh, and I’m phasing out all that tepid blue I have going on.  I want to carry the kelly/emerald green from the dining room bentwood chairs down into this room somehow (since you see them from the living room anyway).  I guess you’ve spied my new-to-me silk curtains!  More on them later.  I’ve also got some throw pillows in the works, but maybe some furniture painting needs to happen.  See below:

Thoughts?  That would do the carrying that’s for sure, but is it too much?  Can’t decide.  I am also considering reupholstering my similarly blue tufted ottoman in some sort of coral.  I need some warm colors in here.  Lots of blue and gray…  all I need is a full time nanny, chef and studio assistant, and we’d be golden.

Peace out.

Kate

A Nursery Update

Well, I got more than I could bargain for on Valentine’s Day.  Baby Boy number two made his debut at 12:29 am.  He almost skipped the Hallmark holiday, but I just couldn’t push showtime fast enough.  The delivery went smoothly, and P is darling.

 

He weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz. and has already gained almost twice as much as expected.  This means I can feed him on demand now (rather than waking every two-three hours), and for those fellow BF moms, you know how relieving that is!

His big brother lets me know every time he is crying, and insists that he is hungry for milk.  It’s cute, and I can’t believe I get to be both of these boys’ mom.  Shucks.

Anyway, since the baby is now here, I thought I’d go ahead and show you some pictures of our Nursery, updated for Baby P.

The bones are the same, but I rearranged the furniture a bit, and added some art for the walls, and purchased new linens, an ottoman, and a new rug by DwellStudio, found here.

 

The owl lamp and shade are both from Target, and the ottoman is from IKEA.  The horse is from Pottery Barn Kids, and is great to entertain L. while I’m tending to the baby.

 

 

I put two IKEA sconces (that I previously had in our bedroom) over the new-to-us credenza, which houses all of the baby clothes and diaper stuff much more efficiently.  Clicking one of them on during middle of the night feedings offers just the right low-light setting.

 

 

 

I have added a little sage green with one of DwellStudio’s crib sheets, found here.  The crib skirt is also DwellStudio, found here.

The furniture rearrangement was a huge improvement to the room.  Previously, we had the smaller white changing table/old dresser right beside the crib, and I never felt like it was balanced.  Now that we have a much bigger credenza across from the crib, the room feels so much better.  Plus, incorporating darker brown tones in the rug and furniture makes the crib look so much more crisp.  I still need to re-do the mobile.

I’m a lot happier with the room now, and it just goes to show how the spaces we live in grow with us over time.

Here are the old pics from the first generation in the space, if you’re curious.

 

The wallpaper is Daydream by Hygge & West

The glider is the Bayside Swivel from Crate and Barrel

The crib is from Giggle.

 

Happy Tuesday folks.  You may or may not hear from me soon- things are going to be equally sporadic around here for a while.

xx

Kate

 

Looking a bit like Christmas around here.

I have been trying to get things in order, so I could post a few pics of what the house looks like for the holiday season.  But of course, with preparing for the new baby, and getting L’s toddler room squared away, I kept it simple.

Let’s just do pictures:

Excuse the crappy lighting.  I made three boxwood wreaths this year for the front door.  I always struggle with the front door, and thought a generic wreath would be a snooze fest, since I was going to do so little.  I used some Swedish looking ribbon, and tied the three together, still simple.  My mom snipped a trashbag full of boxwood, magnolia and holly clippings while we were down South visiting for Thanksgiving.  I had enough to make these three wreaths, and enough magnolia clippings to garnish all of my garland.

Again, sorry with the bad angles and generally crappy photo.

Onto the inside of the house:

We put our Christmas Tree in the dining room.  It just feels really nice when it’s up on this level of our house.  Our living room is a few steps down from the kitchen and dining room, and so I like to be able to see the tree when you walk into the house.

This year, I decided to use ALL of my left over paper and ribbon from various Christmas past instead of buying new and coordinating stuff.  It’s a little bit of a mishmash  but I kind of like it like this.

Our tree is this way too, always.  No matter how much I used to love those color coordinated trees, I can’t refrain from putting all of my special ornaments out every year.  So I focused on using red bulbs throughout to keep the tree cohesive, but it’s not theme-y or color coordinated at all, and I’m completely happy with it, no matter.

My “centerpiece” for the dining table was pretty simple too, just a bunch of boxwood and holly, and some bric-à-brac.

I put a nativity on the buffet.  Not even sure why I am so insistant on displaying this nativity every year, but it reminds me so much of the one I would see at my Grandparents house every year, so it tugs at my heart strings just a bit.  My mom gave me this one years ago, not sure if there is a story behind it. But it’s simple, and not too garish.

I plopped my “teacher balls” in the bronze dish on the counter.  I never realized that those gold foil covered stupid chocolate balls were the staple teacher gift, until my neighbor came over and joked about how her house is filled with too many damn “teacher balls” as well.  Stupid, they should just give you the 20 bucks spent on the candy instead.  The stockings are hung over the shelving, and I garnished some garland with holly and magnolia leaves, and plopped two hurricanes on each end.  More effort next year, maybe.  

And yeh, the vintage sailfish.  Pretty short story.  He was too big for L’s toddler room, but fabulous and quirky, just like I like it.  So he got hung over the piano and all is well.  Still looking for that awesome/weird/science-y/interesting “thing” to put over L’s credenza in his new room, but the sailfish goes here.  J doesn’t like to inquire about the SIZE of big purchases that he makes on ebay.  No big d.

And I displayed only my Merck Family Christmas Santas here.  I love how kitsch these things are.  Nothing better than a huge sailfish and some glass Santas, right?

While I’m playing show and tell, I moved the art, since the sailfish displaced some of my favorite pieces.  Here they are on the opposite wall, which was giving me trouble for weeks, until Mr. Huge-o Sailfish arrived, and solved the problem for me.  It’s not ideal, something still feels weird, but it’s better than nothing, or the big left over green and pink painting that I was sick of looking at.   Nothing Christmas to see here.

We got a couch, and put one of the dining credenzas down here to house more toys and tv cord shit.

And I finally found some damn lamps that fit the space.  Pay no attention to that poor red painting that has yet to find a home.  Any takers??

My mom gave me those old brass sconces that weigh a million pounds.  They were in the basement, under a pile of books.  Someone came to the house a few days ago and told me they would be “just great” if I spray painted them some cool “pop” of color (Um double “ew”).  And from that I concluded that she and I could never be friends, clearly.

I got that great navy pillow from Ikea a few months ago too.  Thought it would bring some navy of the rug up into the furniture stuffs.  Everything is too much of that robins egg blue, so I’ll figure out how to phase some of it out eventually.

And since this is no longer about Christmas, and has become about my difficult living room: clearly things are a bit too prissy because of the BAD not ok-ness of the wall color.  I’m leaning towards painting the room white. But I think I just like the idea of a white room, but might be super bored by it if I actually do it.  Maybe just actually getting a good gray or cream would be a safer bet, and molding, lots of molding.  No clue, so it stays purple-awful-I-meant-to-be-gray for now.  This room strangely gets the least attention in my thoughts about what I want the room to be.  So it’s my most fought space.  I can’t get the right mix of clean lines, traditional, with a side of quirk.

And back to Christmas:

The rodeo clown is ready to open up some presents, and L. is eyeing that bottle of Scotch.  Me too, me too.

Happy Christmas to all!  I’m off to bed.

Kate

We Finished Something!

So, we finally completed the dining room China Cabinet.  It’s always the details, isn’t it?  Those take the longest: trim, paint, caulk, PUTTING THE TOOLS AWAY!

When I last left off, we had this:

We had to resolve a few trim issues, because of course, our ceiling is not level, so installing crown molding to look level to the eye, the right side had to be shimmed from the ceiling a bit, which meant all sorts of other complicated stuff to weasel around.  All I can say is thank god for caulk.  We made sure to remove the molding carefully, so we could reuse it when it was time to put the crown molding back in.  Thought we might have better luck reusing (not to mention the savings!), instead of searching for the perfect match at one of the big box home improvement stores.

Corner blocks were used because it was the easiest solution for all of the uneven-ness in the ceiling.  We couldn’t miter the corners because the right corner was where we adjusted a bit to level things out, using shims against the ceiling.  Since that miter wouldn’t be even, the corner block obscures the adjustment well.  Hard to see, but here it is up close:

The molding was looking awfully frankenstein for a bit:

 

But thanks to caulk and paint

Here it is now!

 

We used Benjamin Moore Simply White for the filler pieces next to the cabinets.  That tone matches the Ikea Lidigno fronts almost perfectly.  We used Ultra Pure White for the crown molding, since that’s what we have everywhere else.   A piece of decorative molding was added along the bottom edge, to obscure the puck lights:

And for hardware, I chose a bar knob in polished brass from Lewis Dolin Decorative Hardware Inc.  These were only $6.65 a piece at Knobs4less.com.  I like that the brass adds traditional flare while the modern simplistic lines are still pretty sleek.  I will definitely order from knobs4less.com again- fast shipping, and I really lucked out with the product- they are heavy, solid, fabulous looking pulls.  Can’t wait to replace the pulls in my kitchen!

 

I love this room now.  Well, minus the cheap chandelier that needs to be replaced ASAP.

I’m almost able to say this room is exactly what I want it to be, and that’s a damn good feeling, after months of on and off working on this cabinet.

As a reminder, here is where we started three years ago when we moved in:

 

Why almost?  Well, like I said earlier, I’m still waiting for that perfect chandelier (at the perfect price) to come out and bite me in the ass, and I’d also like to find two more of the exact same vintage bentwood chairs on CL, which is all needle in a haystack action.  I also may buy those cute little round cushions so that these chairs score higher in the comfort scale.

Big enough difference, right?  Although I know you are wondering why we ever ripped out that wood almost Italian/tiki bar feature.

 

Kate

 

 

 

 

 

A Little progress to be made.

After we leveled the lower cabinets with shims, we (honestly “we” because my favorite diy duty is watching the success or failure of the bubble and reporting my findings) had to make a template for the marble countertop, since we were going to install it ourselves.  I know scary.  All I could imagine was the uh-oh moment of it not fitting, after hauling it home and spending all the money on the chosen slab.  Imagine me screeching about a tiny little bump in the cardboard cut-out, and how that made the whole template WRONG.  Needless to say, the dude at the granite store was very pleased with J’s template, and we were pretty confident this could be done ourselves.

Well it’s one thing to cut your own template and deliver that to the Granite and Marble Fabricators.  It’s another thing to have to deliver and install the thing yourself, after hearing how marble is particularly fragile and can easily crack on delivery if it isn’t laying flat.  We thought we could slide the thing in the back of our CR-V with the seats down, but it took procuring a flat bed trailer to make sure that the stone was in fact laying flat for the drive home.  Let’s not forget to mention the importance of dodging any potholes on the way home…  I spent a lot of time biting my nails on this one.  But we just hoped for the best and tried not to think about all the money down the drain if we ended up with a slab of marble broken or cracked.  But I tried to remind myself that it was the fact of SAVING on all of the installation costs (just having the granite guys have to put the stone in the back of their truck would start at 350 dollars!) is what made us be able to afford the carrera marble in the first place.

It arrived safely, and weighing about 200-300 pounds, it only took J and his friend a few minutes to lift it nicely into place.  It fit perfectly.  Template accuracy is key here, so I screech.

A little Clear Silicone Caulk sandwiched between the top of the cabinets and the underside of the marble, and a little around the edge, and it’s secure.  I took these pics before the silicone dried clear, so the white you see in these pics is basically invisible now.

It’s a very nice slab, it’s got a good amount of gray veining composed very evenly across the countertop, and it reads overall very marbled and not too white- which I knew I wanted to avoid.  I think it’s just the thing.

J. got the filler pieces in and the baseboard before the marble was installed, but we’ve got lots of painting to do and molding to add.

L. loves to help.

Apparently specialty glass places will NOT cut plate grooves in my glass shelves, so that’s a bit of a hiccup.  They wanted to charge upwards of $750 for four shelves of glass with plate grooves, and won’t cut the grooves themselves.  We are going to live with them as is for a while, and next time we’re down south, we can take them to my mom’s glass guy, who does that shit for like 5 bucks.

I have a bit of an upper respiratory infection that I’m trying to sleep off, so that’s about all the progress that happened in this house.  Hope everyone is dodging the September common cold crapface non-fun.

Have a great weekend!

 

Kate

 

Before and After: Kitchen

Here is my “big” recap, with before and after shots of our kitchen.  Of course, I didn’t actually take any care in the before phase of this kitchen, so all I have to work with are three or four pics my husband took when we were having our inspection right before closing on the house, and some random cell phone pics.  But the contrast should still be captured between before/progress/and after.

Here is the main wall of the kitchen during inspection.  Note the WARM TONE everything, including fake-y gold hardware, and primary blue wall outlets?

And here it is once we moved all of our clutter into the space.

Then for phase two, aslo known as Phase-not-vomit-every-time-I-walk-in-this-room, I painted the cabinets a light dove gray (that I later realized read as a dingy white), added wallpaper above the cabinets, replaced the sink faucet and all the gold hardware, painted the ceiling, and all the dark molding white, and replaced the bulky wood blinds with roman shades.

The biggest changes we made were replacing the (peeling!?) stove and adding a microwave above and in turn, raising the cabinet, replacing the gray laminate with butcher block countertop, adding a farmhouse sink and new faucet, and adding beadboard.  Once that was all done, I realized that the cabinets needed to be darker, so I painted them Benjamin Moore’s Fieldstone Gray, added molding on top, and transformed the cabinet above the sink into a open shelving.  We replaced the small light fixture with a more appropriately sized pendant shade flush mount as well.

 

 

We also made this blank side of the room

much more functional with cabinetry and open shelving.I have all of my baking supplies in one area now, and it added great storage.  We continued the beadboard (from the backsplash) across the entirety of the space:

 

Going from this:
To this:

 

is a huge improvement for our little home.  Everything is so much more functional and not vomit-inducing, and I really did gain a lot of storage with the small changes.

L. approves.

We also added a pull-out pantry where we had previously shoved this small Ikea billy bookcase beside the fridge:

We were able to take full advantage of the small space, and making the ugly refrigerator at least feel more “built-in.”

It slides out, and now I have a proper pantry in a small eat-in kitchen!

Also, replacing this peeling monstrosity of an oven, and crapshoot of a “hood:”

was exciting.  The guys from Appliance Land came in, pulled the old (let me repeat, peeling!) stove out, and replaced it with this shiny clean new double oven.  Installing the microwave wasn’t that bad either.

I know there are a lot of things we could have done differently to open up and “update” the space a bit more, had we chosen to completely overhaul the space.  But we didn’t want to spend $7,000-10,000 dollars to do so, because we knew we could make it work, using all the original cabinetry, painting it, and making minor adjustments to customize it to work best within our tiny budget.

It was also very important for our family’s needs that we still have a small space to eat in here.  So that really limited our layout options, and it made sense to just work with it the way it was, keeping the costs at a bare minimum.  L. and I spend a lot of time in this space during the day.  Excuse this dark picture.

As I mentioned, I’d like to eventually get a new refrigerator, since this one definitely takes away from the room.  It’s no show stopper.  But it is still functioning, so we’ll keep things as is for a good while.

While we are on the topic of appliances, you can see that we decided to forgo the trendy stainless steel finish for our oven and microwave (the two appliances that we did purchase during this re-do).  I have never been a fan of the stainless steel look and I didn’t want to choose a finish based on an overrated trend aka “granite countertops and stainless steel are the way to go for your kitchen update if you want to please future buyers.”  I decided to trust my gut, and hope that the overall scheme in the room would be pleasing enough without having to rely on a trend.

Mainly, I like the look of white appliances over any other because it seems far more classic and timeless to me, especially in reference to the other design choices I made for this space.  The farmhouse sink, the beadboard walls, and butcher block counters really wouldn’t have worked with the heaviness of stainless steel.  But trust me when I say I did have to fight the urge, knowing that most people register an “updated look” for a kitchen with stainless steel, however mundane, and I did want whatever money we spent to go towards improving our property!  OH, and also for the fact that our WHITE appliances cost more than the stainless steel versions, simply because for our chosen model, white wasn’t readily in stock, since mainstream America buys stainless steel.

But, although I see the trend falling out, time will tell.  I feel very confident with our choice of white, especially because today’s white appliances are very sleek– the surfaces are much more glassy, and not the molded textured plastic-y surface of the past (like my shitty refrigerator that will hopefully be later replaced with a sharp glossy new white one!).

Here is a blog post from theKitchn, questioning or claiming that white may in fact be the new stainless steel!  Funny, and of course I happen to agree. The cool chrome handles on the Samsung fridge that theKitchn discusses at the bottom of the post is really attractive.  This is definitely something I’ll be on the lookout for when we are in the market for a fridge (one day…).  I love how the chrome handles dress up my oven and microwave and tie in with the other hardware, pots and pans displayed on the open shelves.  We originally chose the Gallery Pro Series from Frigidaire specifically for the chrome accents and handles on the white appliances (and because the glass top of the stove came in white instead of black).  The chrome made the appliances feel updated and dressy.

If we don’t find a fridge with that feature, I will likely purchase some refrigerator door handles/hardware.  I’ve been seeing these all over the place, and think they are a great way to dress up a fridge.  Like this example from Lee Valley Hardware:

Ok, that’s all there is for the kitchen update, completed for now (of course, until we get around to adding under cabinet lighting!).

P.S. We found a beautiful piece of carerra marble for our built-in china cabinet at a stone yard on Tuesday.  Looks like the countertop will be ready for us to pick up on Monday, so J. will be free to install it that evening.  Pretty sure it’s going to look fabulous!

Ah– also, did you catch that picture where you get a peak into the dining room?  Here is a full view again:

I need to replace this cheap as shit chandy with a decent one, since everything else in the space is starting to make it really obviously crap looking.  I mean, what can I expect, it’s pressed metal crap-crap from China that came with inconclusive instructions filled with misspellings.  Before, everything else in the room was crap too, so it was all good for the chandelier to be crap.  I’ve got my sensors up on Craigslist and Joss & Main for a reasonably priced one (still no idea what kind, style, and finish?!).  But for now, I’m thinking should I a. just craigslist this when I find a new one to replace it, or b. go to the effort to spray paint it for the mean time (white or oil rubbed bronze or something?) just so it’s less terrible, or will spray paint not even help?  Is it worth the effort or no?

It’s Thursday, ya’ll.

Kate

September Starts

So I had a smallish goal to start blogging again, come September, so long as I felt inclined (not forcing it).  After a year of quietly thinking about this little corner of the web, I assumed a “purpose” would be crystal clear to me now, or I’d at least have come to know whether this place at least holds a purpose for me.  Of course, my main intention has always been for the blog to help me direct my own goals, studio, interests, etc. and hopefully make some sort of cohesive sense out of all of my everyday.  But if I am being honest, it hasn’t.  And maybe that’s ok, because a. I just need to give it more time, or more likely b. I’m just not the cohesive type.

Either way, I’m going to keep at it, post when I feel like it’s worthwhile, and aim to present meaningful content when I have enough time to gather my thoughts, and otherwise continue to share things that we’re doing around the house, what’s happening in the studio, and tidbits of family stuff.

 

This time around, I seemed to skip straight to the certified baby bump phase, which is ok, because no one appreciates the “just looking a little tubby” phase.  Muscle memory is an amazing thing, (yes I just informally made a reference to my uterus).  And if you can’t read L.’s pj’s, here’s a close up:

 

So lots have been going on around here.  I’m almost half way through this pregnancy already.  Aside from basic narcolepsy, I’ve felt great for the past month.  So, with the impending February due date, we’ve been working on our to-do list a lot lately.  Well, after taking a good 2 month break from anything diy (aka first trimester).  I’ve got a handful of projects to share, once I get around to taking adequate pictures (adequate being the key term, as in not pinterest pictures, just regular ones).

We finally completed our kitchen, minus the under-cabinet lighting situation.  The molding is up, the gray is painted on every cabinet surface, and you better believe it makes me happy.  It’s not chef-worthy, and it’s a small space, but it’s mine, and my husband did it all with his hands, and what little spare time he has to give, and there isn’t a seam or nail that isn’t placed perfectly.  I’m telling you, the man doesn’t cut corners.  He accomplished everything I wanted, well beyond what I expected.  The last thing to happen, eventually/maybe one day, will be to get a new refrigerator.  But since ours is functioning just perfectly, it just is not in the numbers right now.  I’m picturing a shiny new side-by-side or french door fridge down the road, but for now, it’s the only eye sore in the room.  I’ll share more pics sometime this week, just to close that chapter.  I’ve posted about that little bland room so many times, I have to show some before and afters for fun.

http://www.fancygoods.wordpress.com

I also finished my LONG overdue Chippendale Chinoiserie Chair project.  I had to redo the first cushion, because it was way to big (followed some upholstery website advice a little too literally), and got around to making the second one- so we could say goodbye to the kitchen towels laying on top the raw foam, foam that now dones plenty of jelly and peanut butter stains.  Cushions are hard though.  Seriously.  I put this project off for so long because I just never felt like I was in the right frame of mind to tackle the sewing.  I had to get the welting task taken care of too, to cover up the staples, after finally deciding on a bright navy blue spray paint for the frames.  With all this work, these damn chairs have no location in this house.  The color scheme really doesn’t go with anything, and they certainly don’t work in the kitchen, for the long term.

But they are in here now, because I have no idea where to put them otherwise, and I have no actual chairs for the kitchen (indecisive).  I sit in one of these for at least 2-3 hours of my day, because this table is where L. eats his meals and draws in his highchair.  They are comfortable so it works.

 

They do look great, especially with the welting details and such, but I don’t care how sick I get of this orange fabric, this shit is never changing.  I don’t have the energy to fear for my eyeballs each time I break a needle on my sewing machine. I can’t say enough how glad I am that it’s crossed off the to-do list.  

We’re also in the middle of the built-in china cabinet project as well..  J. and I are very different people when it comes to this kind of stuff.  He will spend an hour prepping a wall to paint it, as in dusting, sanding, priming, masking, moving and covering surrounding furniture and floor, before even getting out paint or a paintbrush.  Me?  I just glob that shit on there, painting in the dog hair and cobwebs.  No big deal.  My wall will look ok, so long as it isn’t near his wall, which will look as smooth and perfect as a baby’s butt.

Point being, this man is taking his time on this china cabinet project.  He’s working diligently, but he’s not just tacking up the cabinetry and calling it a day, he’s installing the china cabinet with under and inside cabinet lighting, like on a switch, like professional shit.  I’m all like, oh just skip this step, it’s too hard, and is taking-to-much-time-WHINE I just want to see my cabinets up on the wall.  He’s all, jedi yoga master, patience is my middle name as I learn all of the symbols for direct current.

But per usual, he’s right, and well, I am just impatient.  Here are the cabinets in mid-progress.

 

We’ve got a ways to go, but he moved an air duct (see that bronze duct to the left, against the white shelving), did all the electrical, built the cabinets, and it’s now all attached and leveled and ready for the finishing touches.  ”We’ve” (because I’m lots of help) got the baseboards and crown molding to put back up, a piece of molding to tack in to hide the puck lights under the cabinet, and the filler pieces to fill in the gaps on either side of the cabinetry (so it actually looks built in).  Tomorrow we are going to a Granite/Marble yard to pick out something fabulous for the countertop (!).  We found a place that will let us bring in our own template, where they will cut the stone, and J. can install it himself.  This will save us at least 400 bucks, which means we might actually be able to afford a nicer counter than we originally thought.

I’m trying to decide between a nice Marble (if we can find a piece our size) like this:

via Granite Gurus

 

Or an interesting white granite that has some neat veining in it, since I don’t want to go too white on white on white:

via jlfstone.com

 

Or a Soapstone:

via Granite Insider

 

I also spent a good while trying to find the perfect shade of green for my bentwood chairs.  The mint wasn’t meshing with the dining table (or the very light blue walls?) but I absolutely love this emerald green.  And per usual, I went out spray painting while it’s sprinkling because I am no jedi yoga master of patience, not worrying too much about the finish.  Lesson learned, and although I decided it would be best to not spray paint while it’s RAINING ON MY SHIT, I decided to also hand over the torch, and J. used some steel wool magic, and more of that patience to get some lovely glossy emerald green goodness out of these old chairs.  They look delicious.  Plus, spray painting while pregnant– probably not the best idea, even if you hold your breath.

 

 

See that gloss?  Steel wool between coats of spray paint makes that happen, and apparently spraying from the perfect distance.  This is always my problem.  When I spray stuff, I get either too close, and you get those fugly drips, or I’m too far away, and the paint particles have half dried by the time it hits the object, resulting in a sandpaper roughness.

 

But these are glossy glossy.  And they are greatness.  I am now on the Craigsearch for 2 more bentwood chairs, so that I have six to fit around the table (when it has one or two of the leaves in), nixing the whole head of table chairs.

I love these quirky cushions made by Australian company Castle, and I just might get them eventually.

via Castle

Ok, that’s all for now.  Go in peace.

K

Shuffling stuff

Oh my, it’s been crazy town around these parts.  Last weekend we stopped by an Estate sale on our way home from a typical Saturday family excursion.  Well, the quick drive by turned into at least 4 days of shuffling and moving things around to make room for all of our finds.  We now have a lovely master bedroom suite, a new dining room table, server, and china cabinet.  My studio is also piled high with at least two end tables, a coffee table, 8 dining chairs, my old dining table, and we have an entire additonal bedroom suite currently sitting in my MIL’s garage…  I know, this is not ok.

A mess, but it’s a great mess to be up to my elbows in beautiful furniture while listing the old “filler furniture” pieces on CL.  What happens when you find lots of just the right thing for the next house, at amazing/give away prices, but a large portion of it needs to go into storage?  Now we’ve been talking about getting a storage unit anyway, because we’re slightly overloaded with various paintings that haven’t sold “yet” [aka. read never and J. won't let me un-stretch old-old paintings] so it’s not like we’ve just run into this issue solely by way of the Estate sale.

So tell me, is it crazy to jump on the right stuff at the wrong time, and end up having to get a Storage Unit in the upwards of $50 bucks a month until we are in that next house?  I mean, we are talking about me, who plays Craig’s List Musical Dining room chairs every three months, who buys and sells various iterations of the living room side tables/coffee table on the regular, and is guilty of scouring CL on the daily for the current “need.”  Sometimes I just can’t walk away from a deal, either from something I know is worth more than the seller is listing it for (that I know I can make a profit from), or the off chance that I’ve found that forever little something that just won’t fit in my small current townhouse living scenario.  I’m trying to convince myself that this is ok, it’s not a sickness.  I’m telling you, this furniture was a steal.  But I’m officially in Furniture Hoarding to the Max territory.

Anyway, here is my new table:

This thing is so versatile– three sizes, as it has two leaves.  When it’s at its smallest, the base becomes a full circle, which looks amazing.    We bought it from the original owner’s family, and I couldn’t get over the pristine condition.  The protective felt table pads basically lived on the table, as there isn’t a scratch on the surface.    Excuse the silly blocks on the right corner of the server, L. loves to participate in styling up the digs.

We have two servers– one longer and this one, the shorter of the two, along with a lighted hutch that can be placed on top of either for china cabinet action.  In a larger dining room it wouldn’t be overwhelming to have all three matching pieces in the space (says the girl who hates contemporary matching suites!) because the look is so timeless in vintage furniture.  Plus, I like a dining space that commands that kind of formality.  But, for this house, I still intend to install the built-in China cabinet in the niche and store the shorter of the servers and the hutch.

It’s obvious now, my bentwood chairs need to be painted.  And I’m going against my original plan– I’m going to paint them green.  As advised by my most favorite and conveniently-very-color-savvy friend, I think I will pull a Mint green from the Chinoiserie lamp, to add just the right pop of smart color.  Like my mock up below:

 

Minty goodness will break up all of that wood-wood-wood going on.  Good?

And here is to hoping someone comes and hauls that orange china cabinet out of this house ASAP, because, like I said: up to my elbows.

 

Kate

P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S

Things are coming along in the final kitchen projects.  Almost all of this molding is up on top of the cabinets– and we’ll be filling, sanding, and then painting it in Fieldstone.  This time, we bought primed molding, so this should help save us a little time.

Excuse this next photo- it was taken on the late night.  Everything is a little green/yellow.  We always forget to white balance!

This side was tricky, because the cabinet bumps up (above the microwave).  J. installed a cleat that will get filled, primed, and painted, so that the edge of the molding could go in, and look much more finished in profile view.

Of course, this molding will stand out a lot less once it’s all painted gray, but I’m pretty psyched.  Excuse my cook book fiasco.  The doors WILL go back on after the molding is completed.  Think I can convince J. to “quickly” add some sort of shelf, like he did to the open shelf on the other side of that cabinet?  It would be so much better than those stupid wire racks.  

For those who are interested, this is what the cleats looked like before the molding was installed.  So, basically, the cleats are secured down into the tops of the cabinets with screws, and then the molding is nailed onto the cleats (not the actual cabinet).  P.S. We seriously need a Nail gun!

I’ve seen similar diy molding jobs where the builder-grade cabinets have been extended 6 in. + (or to the ceiling), to make them appear taller (i.e. The Lettered Cottage).  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia has a great post on this concept here.

My ceilings aren’t very high, and I liked the airy space above the cabinets… and the proportions aren’t problematic in my kitchen.  Therefore, we decided to just add the molding directly above the cabinets, instead of adding height with decorative molding and space above the cabinet doors.  Know what I mean?  I think it all depends on how high your ceilings are, and if you feel like you need to build them up or not.

Here is My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia’s great visual:

http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com

I’m still trying to decide if I should, however, go all the way to the ceiling with the cabinet that bumps up above the microwave.  I like the look of staggered cabinets, and think that it could be a nice break in the row of cabinetry across our small kitchen.  But, I’m waiting to see the rest of the molding up before deciding.  Opinions on this, anyone?

In the meantime, I’m quite hopeful that the new molding will make the added IKEA pantry (that juts out to the fridge depth) fit in with the rest of the cabinetry.  Obviously, that whole pantry needs to be painted Gray as well.

And how did I trick myself into thinking this Kitchen was “just about” finished?!

Happy Wednesday!

 

Kate

And the Chair Saga continues….

I cut the foam, a while back, so we were living with this for a while:

I was ok with this because making cushions is scary and I avoided it for as long as I could.  The pillow is not there for pretty times, these things aren’t daily-marshmallow-soft-sitting-reading-the-paper-comfortable, and I live in this spot because feeding L. consumes like 4 hours of my day.  Fun.  Not.

But then I finally got around to making one of the T-cushions.  It was not a good time.  But the two sources I called for making a T-cushion with velvet welting, wanted my first born child in exchange.

Now, just to be straightforward here, I am pretty unsatisfied with my results, because the whole thing needs to be more tightly stitched- then the cushion will fit tighter, and not droop over the front of the chair, and it won’t have that little crinkle wrinkle on the top.  BUT, I did not have heavy duty needles, so my needle kept breaking (because sewing is hardcore), and giving me a minor heart attack each time, so I had to down a bottle of wine in the process.  Stress.

So see that top wrinkle there?  And the way it’s a bit more square than it should be?  It’s because I had to sew it loose-like.  And once I muster up the courage, I will turn it back inside out and tighten up my stitches, and it will be all happy time and rainbows.

The navy blue velvet welting is really good, although my dad (who was visiting for the weekend) said the chairs looked “Saudi Arabian.”  I have no idea what that means, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the feel I was going for but oh well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion PLEASE TELL ME IT ISN’T SO!

I’ve also made an executive decision that the chairs must remain navy blue.  I probably decided on the upholstery fabric, whilst looking at the navy chairs and since I’m a visual person (to a fault), I couldn’t get the navy out of my head.  But, I’ll go with a brighter navy blue hue, so they don’t read black like the current blue does.

After I do that, then I can put the navy welting over the staples, and call this Chronicle of Musical Chairs DONE, because I am never ever ever going to make these T-cushions again.  Unless someone buys me an upholstery sewing machine, and a bigger house to fit an upholstery sewing machine.  No really, I’m never re-doing these chairs.  I’ll sell them if I’m sick of them.

P.S I HAVEN’T EVEN MADE THE SECOND CUSHION FOR THE OTHER CHAIR.  Tears.  Really.

So, I started by cutting up my foam to fit the chair.  You should make it 1 inch bigger than you need, and sew the cushion one inch smaller than the foam, because that’s what Chris says to do.  Go watch his youtube videos at diyupholsterysupply.  Actually, don’t bother reading the rest of my post, because you can probably find his professional advice far more helpful and full of smarts.

Well, I didn’t have an awesome electric knife to just zip zip that crap, so I used an X-acto blade, deployed all the way out- to make it as long of a knife as possible.  It was not easy or fun.  But, I made my cushion pattern, and just cut the foam as close as I could, to make it as symmetrical as possible (foam one inch bigger than cushion, remember).

Then I used spray adhesive to attach batting to the foam.

I bought this stuff at Jo-Ann’s.  Bring a 40% off coupon, because it was like 15 bucks before the discount, which is a lot for glue and diy.

Now, since the foam should be one inch bigger than the cushion/cushion pattern (aka this big piece of drawing paper), I had to cut the fabric out WITH seam allowance- since my cushion pattern was for the final size I wanted the cushion.  So I just added tape, that was about 3/4 inch, which was going to be my seam allowance.  This is probably a dumb way to do this.  P.S. I folded my fabric over, and cut two layers.  One for the bottom, the other for the top.  I know, this is like Quantum Mechanics.

Then I cut my sides and zipper panels.  Fancy sewing all-knowers call this the boxing strips.  I call it the sides.  But you also have to make zipper strips- which will have a folded edge for the zipper to run up and down.  So you cut a wider side strip (or boxing strip) and then cut it in half.  I just placed it all down, and ironed the fold over, and made sure it was the same width as the non-zippered side or boxing strips.  STILL WITH ME?

Ok, see that fabric piece under my wrist?  You have to press 2 inches or so under on the ends of the boxing strips.  Because you’re going to lap the boxing strip over TOP of the zipper strip to cover that zipper head and the end of the zipper.

Then you topstitch the zipper to those two panels with a zipper foot.  Pin, it’s important!  All that stuff will shift down because fabric stretches.  If you don’t you’ll have to remake the whole thing 5 times (like when I made my couch cushions-  thank the gods for my husband who took a few weeks of Home Ec.  because I would never have finished my couch without learning about the basic but necessary step of PINNING).

So, then I pinned the sides to the top and bottom panels.  If you measure everything right, then it will all line up and such.  I cut little notches in the middle of the top and bottom pieces, and the boxing strips and the zipper strip, to line it up for pinning.  You also want to cut little notches into the corners at the boxing strip and zipper strip, so that when you are sewing, you can turn your machine and match the corners.

Then I made the welting.  I made it with a zipper foot, and I made a lot of it, so I didn’t have to switch gears 500 times while doing it.  If there are too much switching going on, this is when I screw up and sew shit inside out or backwards.  That leads to lots of drinking, which may lead to crooked stitches.

Anyway, this was where things got sticky, because velvet is thick, and going through two layers of velvet isn’t crazy, but adding the two layers of upholstery fabric, and you’ve got a mess on your hands.

First, I sewed the welting to the top panel, then more welting to the bottom panel, and then I added the sides to the top panel.  The last part is to turn it all inside out, making sure the zipper is partly open, and add the top/side parts to the bottom panel.

I’ll leave the last pic out, because the bad words, tears, and anxiety might reach through the interwebs and ruin your day.

To get sharp angles with welting, you have to clip the seam allowance, so you can turn at 90 degrees as you sew.

Ok that’s it for cushion talk.  I still need to make the second, and I need to re-stitch my first cushion closer to the welting with a heavy duty needle, so that it’s a bit tighter fit for the foam, but all in all, we’re off to an ok start.  But I’ll come back in the next 3702482 or so weeks and show off the final outcome that will end this particular CraigsList Chair chronicles.

I can’t believe it’s already Friday.  Last weekend “we” (J.) did a little of this:

That turned into this:

Look how nice and shiny the finished panel side is!  I love it so!  J. really takes his time, and finishes things right.  If it had been up to me, there would have been finger prints and dog hair all mixed up in a crap-shoot because I’m not patient enough for this kind of stuff.  The blackboard painted side looks just as nice, too, but we haven’t used it yet, so I haven’t had a chance to take any pics.

I love all of the little still-life set ups I find after L. is done arranging his toys on the table top.

None of it really makes logical sense (obviously), but there is still a very subtle organization and deliberate order to the little swells of chaos.  Probably one of those things only a mother could love.

We also went to this really great park called Clemyjontri, that has an amazing array of jungle gyms, sensory activities, swings and a carousel.  It’s primary goal is to provide a place where all children can play, especially those who use wheelchairs, walkers, or braces.  There is so much to explore, and I think we’ll be returning a lot over the next few years!

So do you have any big plans for Mother’s Day weekend (obviously the celebration should encompass an entire weekend)?  My only goal is to take it easy and enjoy the little goofy gus who made me a Mother!

I thank my lucky stars every day that I get to use every last ounce of energy being L’s Mom.  To be fair, some days I’m most thankful after he’s fallen asleep wrapped in my arms, tuckered out from a busy day!  But on the many occasions where he randomly runs up to me in the midst of playing to smother me in a hug and poorly aimed wet gummy kiss, I have to say, he makes it pretty easy to feel blessed.

Hearts and Butterflies,

Kate