New House: Breakfast Nook

Our kitchen is just big enough to squeeze in a breakfast nook. The previous owners filled the corner with a tall table and stools. This was clearly not going be repeated as toddlers and stools are risky business. You can just barely see it in the photo above--apparently I wasn't even impressed enough to snap a picture. (aside: ugh, purple dining room, ugh.)

Remember, we started out with an IKEA Docksta table (the Saarien tulip table knock-off) and the cheerful Tree of Life print Roman shades:

Our next fun project was to really make it a nook and build benches to maximize seating and create more storage since there's no real pantry. 

Framing it out (and trying to fit the dog bowls in somehow)

Storage currently includes wine and coffee. Of course. 

The fun part really comes with the finishing touches: Blue gingham oilcloth...

Covering thick foam cushions. Wipeable and possibly Ford-proof! He'll be sitting over here once Eleanor starts sitting in the high chair in a shockingly short period of time. 

A fun industrial lamp fixture that I found on One Kings Lane finishes it off. It's fire engine red, which doesn't come through very well in this photo:

I think it would look perfect with some pillows to lean against like this:

I am ever optimistic that Ford will choose to spend more than five minutes sitting at the table with us at supper. Since it never plays out that way, pillows would be a very, very tempting item to throw on the floor. Then we'd ask him why he did such a thing and he would just look at us with a straight face and say "I don't know why, Mama. I just did."  And that, friends, is how it is. 

New House: Guest Room Evolution

This project was slow to evolve from vision to nearly finished, but with our first house guests here this week (the MM's parents), we had to wrap it up! My mama played a big part in creating a gracious (albeit small) space. After spending a few nights in the room after Eleanor arrived, she had a good idea of what we still needed to make it welcoming and comfortable.

This room is definitely an example of repurposing what you already have. The Dellarobia wicker headboard is actually an old footboard from a bedroom set that my great-grandparents bought when they first married. It's followed me to college, Jackson Hole and Charlottesville! The bedside tables are mismatched--the white wicker one was in my bedroom growing up. The other is an old humidor. But they're the same dimensions and the bright, similarly dimensioned lamps pull it together. I found the retro tole one at a consignment shop in Cashiers, NC last summer. My mom thought it was goofy, but I love it in this room. 

The dressing table used to be in my parents' bedroom and came from an estate sale. The gold mirror hung in our living room in Missoula. This space doubles as my desk when we don't have guests.

I have a slowly evolving gallery wall in here, but I'm still searching for a small figure drawing or something abstract. Gold frames pull it all together.  My dear friend Rachel's interpretation of Degas' bather has also followed me back and forth across the country, but its colors remain some of my favorites. Most recently, it was in Ford's room in Missoula:

While I didn't snap any "before" shots of the downstairs bathroom, here it is ready for guests with pops of grass green, coral and a cheerful print I picked up on our babymoon in Savannah last November. I'm still looking for a cute narrow shelf to replace the wire mesh one here, but they are hard to find! 

With luck, I'll have a few more projects to share in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

New House: Wallpaper!

Remember this? Check out the after below the jump.....

While You're On Vacation....

I haven't actually watched This is Forty, but that scene from the trailer when Leslie Mann's character is accusing her husband (Paul Rudd) of hiding out in the bathroom instead of dealing with their kids made me laugh. Hasn't every parent done that or something like it for a few minutes of blissful, silent alone time? But when those noisy little people, shedding dogs and husbands who cannot remember that you're pregnant and significantly wider front-to-back than usual and keep bumping in to you leave, suddenly the silence isn't quite so golden.

Ford and the MM are on their way to Wyoming to see his family, my parents took Isabel the dog with them to North Carolina, and I am back at work storing up vacation days for maternity leave. My mom's attempt at cheering me up was, "But you can put away all the Christmas decorations in peace!"  Awesome. Merry 2nd-8th days of Christmas to me.

I will put away all the decorations and do have some fun events planned for the weekend (spa day and ladies brunch), so let's not get the idea that I'm going to be completely miserable, even if I'm missing the Mountain Man and Munchkin. One project among many is downloading about 3 months worth of photos from my "real" camera and sharing more updates here.

We are trying to check a few more house projects off our list before this little girl arrives, including putting the finishing touches on a basement playroom and wallpapering our teeny, tiny entryway:

Serena and Lily

The basement is getting a fresh coat of paint next week, and I'm hunting for cheerful cotton dhurrie rugs to brighten up the floor. 

Serena and Lily

Land of Nod

PB Kids

I made peace with the ugly purple carpeting. It's soft, in fine condition, and figuring out the furniture shuffle and selecting new flooring was giving me some serious anxiety.  So the carpet stays and two of these toy storage units from IKEA have been a great investment thus far:

I've also been adding new artwork to the children's bedroom:

Letterpress U.S. map with state flowers via Thimblepress on Etsy

 

Found on One Kings Lane

1canoe2 letterpress prints just ordered from one of my favorite Missoula shops, noteworthy* paper + press. Luckily these are still things that Ford begs to do, even when it's dark. Or wet:

What you don't see is the complete meltdown he had when we called time after his 10th or so trip through the puddle.

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

New House: Merely Window Dressing

I have been waiting to share these photos for a few weeks now and just realized that I forgot to photograph one of my three "window dressing" projects. Curses. Anyway, I'll share the other two and just say that the right curtains and shades are never just window dressing. They really make a room.

First room evolution, the kitchen:

Our first look at the house

Fresh paint:

And finally...

Roman shades! And that new faucet and big, deep sink. It all makes me happy on a daily basis. I found the material at Ufab's Charlottesville store.

Second room evolution, the living room:

First look at the house:

The morning light here is so pretty, it's hard to see how frightful these polyester curtains really were. See-through, didn't hang to the ground, flimsy curtain rod...

Fresh paint and bamboo roman shades (and we ditched that flimsy metal chandelier all together):

And finally, the linen curtains from Ballard that were backordered for so long:

Even though they cost a little extra, I'm glad I followed Phoebe Howard's advice and bought the 108" panels to hang at ceiling height. It emphasizes the height of the room.

Now I just need to order my trim. I think it's going to be this Greek key from Lewis and Sheron:

I found some lighter weight linen panels from Serena and Lily to hang in both upstairs bedrooms too.  They make both rooms feel "all cozy," as Ford likes to say when I tuck the blankets around him at night.  For another post on other evolving rooms!

New House Art

Have you ever commissioned a piece of art? Until recently, I'd never dreamed of such a thing.

Marc Ellen Hamel

Seth Clark

So many design blogs, internet mags and tastemakers encourage collecting original art for your home, and in principle I totally agree. But when it comes to actually settling on one piece vs. another and swallowing the price tag, I have trouble making the commitment.

Bob Bransley 

Furbish Studio

So it was going out on a limb to think about a commission, but I knew that I wanted something large scale and abstract to go in the dining room in our new house to keep all the antiques and silver from feeling too fusty. And I knew I didn't have the financial resources for a major investment.

Enter my childhood friend and former summer camp-mate Clare Wilkinson, who was setting up an Etsy shop to sell her bright, happy abstract paintings and was taking commissions. Clare and I shared ideas and examples I'd saved to Pinterest via Facebook message (the artist/patron relationship in the digital age). We talked about the look and feel of the room and colors and I love. Then a few months later, a big cardboard box arrived in the mail from Chicago.....

I did a little jig when I pulled it out of the box and we hung it on the wall over the old church pew. I get a glimpse each time I walk from the kitchen to the living room (about 100x a day) and love it more each time I stop to look.  I've even caught the MM giving it a studied glance here and there.

It was such a pleasure to work with Clare and I highly, highly recommend her if you're looking for something personal and want to support an artist launching her own business. Here's her post about her artistic process (recognize anything?) and here's her Etsy shop.  Thank you, Clare!

S'more House Photos

At least the rooms that are mostly together. Several weekend trips this month mean that we're chipping away at house projects bit by little bit.

The living room. Still waiting on curtains, a gold mirror for the mantlepiece, and reupholstering the red club chair in something more terra cotta....

Kitchen with the IKEA Docksta table. Still waiting on roman shades and building bench seating around the table for a breakfast nook (out of view in this photo)

Dining room with the new lantern fixture! Note Isabel hiding under the table. This smart old girl knows to stay out of the way. Still working on a better lamp for the buffet/chest in the corner.

Master bedroom. Still need to hang curtains and art. I'm totally nuts to want a four poster bed to fit in here, right? Someday...

Ford's room. Again, totally lacking artwork and curtains. Ugh, we'll get there. Probably not while he's asleep, which is realistically when we have time to do these things.

In other news, we had lots of fun in DC: