Reclaiming Part of The Guest Room

Here's the deal - on either side of our staircase we have matching rooms. Had our house not been hacked to bits by the former owners, one would have been the dining room (which it is) and the other would have been the living room. Follow?
Unfortunately, the one that should serve as living room had been turned into a bedroom at some point. So it has a closet and an ugly plastic coated bathroom. We've been using it as a guest room slash my office because we have so few rooms done in the house. It hasn't been gutted - so it still has a yucky dropped ceiling and paneling (which we painted to make it more tolerable).
Recently, I had a brainstorm as to how we might make it more living room-like. Our budget? Roughly zero.
Behold: OK, this is not a true before picture. I had already started moving things around, so the room is super cluttered. But you get the gist.

Big console holding the TV right in front of the pretty fireplace. Bed immediately to your right when you walk in the door. CLUNK.


Oh wait, here's another before (pre-console days).

And here is the same view now, walking into the room.

walking in one more step...

Turning to the right where the bed used to be. There you can see my desk sticking out. Now, the TV is on it. Kinda janky, I know - but it'll have to do for now. We need either a flat screen above the fireplace, or a TV cart that can roll out when needed. And I need my desk to be in my office (currently used as the shop). Sigh.


Here's another before:

Here is the wall that the bed used to be against. I'm so jazzed to have this couch out of the dining room where it was sucking up so much space. This still needs tweaking. I should use different lamps, and the end table situation is iffy. There are also some smudges in the paint where the bed rubbed against it.Those paintings are by my old friend Mathew Brannon (hello, solo show at the Whitney). I may hang a bunch of photos on this wall as well. Haven't decided. Stay tuned.


Here's a before for contrast:

This is where the real work happened. I draped the hell out of the closet, and moved the head of the bed into it to create a little sleeping nook. That made the bed (a queen) much less obtrusive in the room. Joe and I also made some great little shelves for reading lamps out of books from Goodwill. I'll post a tutorial in a sec. Don;t ask me why I have that stick over by the fireplace. It's been there for over a year. I'm insane I guess. There, I said it. Are you happy?

I'm having weird camera problems, so forgive the spots.

We can finally admire the pretty fireplace in this room. Both mirrors were "dumpster dives," I found one on the street, and got another from my friend's house-sale for free. The topiaries were also free from the same sale. Oh ps: the great sissal rug is one of two that my aunt Mimi just gave me for free. Hate me yet? It totally makes the room because the floors desperately need to be redone.
Over by the fireplace you can where Terminex tore a bunch of holes in the floor to show us old termite damage. Thanks, Terminex. Don't look at the ugly baseboard heating either please. You're looking! What'd I say?

How hilarious is this picture of me (swoopy bangs) and my little sister? I love it. My Father In-law asked who the boys in the picture were. I don't know what kind of Flock of Seagulls dudes he's hanging out with. PS: could we have looked any more miserable in the shot? 7th grade I think.

Here's the nook with Bernie admiring.

All for now - more later. The little shelves we made are so great. I can't wait to show them to you you.

Other Decorations...

Since I decorated a fakester tree this year, I used real boughs wherever I could. I sent Joe out to pick me up some greenery and he came back with way more than I had any idea what to do with. Hence my window hanging brainstorm.
I used some vintage ribbon that I recently scored from a church basement thrift store ($4 for an entire box!) and some of those sticky, removable hooks.
Exhibit A.

As you can see they are hard to photograph, due to their back lit orientation. The night photos are even a little sucky.

I hung them in all four windows...

I decorated each with a few of the vintage ornaments I got on eBay...

I can not get enough of those glass birds. It's like a sickness. I had to make myself stop finding an buying them.

Aren't these mercury glass ornaments pretty on the chandelier?

On the fireplace I hung a little clothesline where I thought I'd hang my Christmas cards as they rolled in. Did the whole world get a case of the fuck-its all at once? Because I have received exactly zero cards. Am I officially bitching?
Not really. I totally get it. How many have I sent out? coughzerocough.

So what you see hanging there now is one Halloween card (my MIL is a card addict), a birth announcement (shout out to my cuz Katherine Odessa and her newest bambino Dove), and a Thank You card. I'll give it another week before I cave and take it down.

In the fireplace is a thanksgiving decoration left over. more church basement madness. Am I an old lady for digging on the dried flower arrangements? Are they too harvesty?
Whatever.
Then I decorated the top of my farm cabinet with these silver goblets I've had out for the last month or so. I brought them out for a bridal shower I threw awhile back and kept them out for Thanksgiving drinks, and now I'm still loving the sparkle. Laziness may or may not have also been a factor.
That's a cotton branch you see over on the left. On a recent day in the city I noticed that all of the delis had started stocking them in the flower section. Don't you think cotton would make brilliant bridal decor? I have no idea why I hadn't thought of it before, coming from Memphis and all. Anyway, I love love love the way cotton looks.

I stuck a few ornaments in the bird's nest too. Is it too hokey?
I'm feelin kinda more is more lately.


Here is all of that great vintage ribbon I bought for $4. I tossed it under this cloche and it created its own pretty display. When I took this, I was making my chandelier crystal ornaments - those aren't actually hanging off the side anymore.
The base (and the two cool topiaries that are flanking it) were scores from my friend Dawn's amazing house sale. I'm getting realy into recycling beautiful things betwen friends. I'll do a post coming up about the great pieces I have that I can't use and plan to give away to friends. Let's share y'all. I'm kind of over buying new things at the moment.
Anyway - behold.

Oh and if you are looking for the most ghetto way to hang a wreath, look no further, for I am here to answer your prayers. Simply tie two wreaths together with icky vinyl ribbon (the kind you would use to wrap a car for someones sweet 16 in Jersey) and throw them over the door so one hangs inside, one hangs outside.
Viola - magic.
Looks perfect with the fugly home depot special door dontcha think?


Yes, yes I know that I'm always saying how you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shidt - but really, I just did it for the nice piney smell. I even decorated the ugliest stairway known to man with garland. Just be thankful that I only took one photo of this masterpiece.

The end.
Happy freezing Sunday!

Pretty Ebay Crap

As the economy continues to scare the bejezus out of just about everybody, there is an upside. People are selling fabulous stuff on Ebay for great prices.
I barely have ten cents, but still couldn't pass up this puppy.
At a store, this chandelier would have definitely had another zero on the end.
It's crazy heavy so I couldn't do a better Price is Right for you. Sorry.
Enlarge.
I love this chandelier. It looks like it was buried in the dirt for 100 years and somebody just dug it out. I hope that when I go to get it rewired, it doesn't come back shiny and new looking.
It reminds me of an uncut diamond. Exhibit A:
So cool. I love it.

Oh I also got these rosettes for the upper corner of the doors that we need to trim out eventually (sigh). I'm going to strip one and see if it uncovers some more of the detail. It's got millions of layers of (gotta be) lead paint. I bought 12 of them.

The dangerous thing about shopping is that it makes you feel like you've made progress when you absolutely haven't. Have you ever bought something like one of those yoga blocks and that completed your overall involvement with yoga?
No?
OK.
Me either.
It was just a hypothetical question OK?

Essay Contest: Win a Victorian

Should I do it? Maybe a bunch of us could collaborate and win it for a vacation spot.
Regardless, what a cool way to sell a house in this market.
In general, I have found it best to just keep drivin when passing through Alabama. But I've been hearing more and more cool things about Mobile lately, so maybe it deserves a second look.
But let's be honest, this house is free, has a new roof and an updated kitchen, a gorgeous exterior, and it's old as hell - why am I even pretending that I wouldn't jump on it.
Drool.

Stuff I Would Buy This Week If Any Of My Freelance Gigs Paid On Time And I Wasn't Totally Broke

Ok - so my consumerism probably needs curbing anyway right?
But I thought I'd post a few finds that I'm coveting for the Hudson house just in case you want to scoop them up yourselves. Why let my savvy shopping skills go to waste eh?

First: this awesome blue stripe rug from Pottery Barn - great sale price check it out from 19.99-39.99 right now!

Second: this bed skirt in ticking blue. This is about as un-precious as you can get with a bedskirt (which in case you are curious is a GOOD thing in Hallie's book of upstate decorating). A Queen is going for 39.99 - final sale yo.
They have a few other great sale items right now but you're all perfectly capable of a good browse without my supervision. My work here is done.

Dad Labor - Installments # 3 and 4

Since another weekend has gone by filled with proj-ing, I figure I'd better get the backup of posts from my Dad labor extravaganza series up. Both Dad and Joe have been bugging me about when I'm gonna post the shots of the stone wall they built. It was brutal work and they were (are) pretty damn proud of how it turned out. Here are a few during pics. 

Note Dads headband. The sweat situation was not a joke. They don't have humidity like this in Montana. But seriously I think he wore it because of a secret longing to look like Keith Richards (ala Pirates of the Caribbean). 

The deal with this section of the wall is that a car crashed into it before we  bought the house. The wall has been standing for a hundred years and it's one of the first things we noticed about the house when we stalked it on MLS. We love it. Now it's even more special. Ok barf. But seriously!  

Now all it needs is the cement cap (not our first choice but that's whats there - so we need to match it. Note the cap on either sides of the menfolk. So anyway - tadah!

Where was I you ask? Um... I think I was upstairs hiding under the bed because the prior three days of hard DL had kicked my lily ass. 

And now for part 4... So last Friday during Dad week. We drove down to Brooklyn, picked up Joe and a moving truck and then filled it with stuff from our apartment AND our storage space. We also stopped by a friend's new apartment and picked up this...

She's going through demo and let me dumpster dive. Isn't it gorgeous?  I got the sink and faucet and everything! It will look great in our downstairs bathroom (someday).

Then we went by the used refrigerator dude in our hood and grabbed a fridge to make the whole camping experience a little more civilized (we'd been living with a dorm fridge till then). Not too gorgeous but hey - it cost $180 and it isn't too much of an energy sucking behemoth. So it'll do. It really sets off the skanky counter top and scabby linoleum(s) nicely I think. I got that groovy breadbox for a dollar at a Hudson "trash or treasure sale" the next day.

So yeah - then we* drove the full truck of stuff upstate and THEN unloaded it all into the house. My poor Dad... that was just day three!

*ok in the interest of full disclosure I'll admit that I was strangely absent during much of the unload. There's a rumor going around that I was hiding under the bed again. But I will not confirm or deny this sort of nonsense. 

The Bargains Of Last Weekend

Hi all! As my freelance gig continues to kick my arse - my postings are getting less and less frequent (but hey more pithy!). I offer as evidence - these awesome photos of my winnings from garage sale-ing my way up the 9 towards Hudson last weekend. Ordinarily I would have posted them immediately, but I've been too pooped. Anyway, In my continuing campaign to create a cozy campsite for Joe and I so we can start sleeping over at our construction site/house, I have been piecing together bedroom stuff from here and there. We aren't going to spring for the big move till like June-ish. So none of the NYC furniture is up there yet (unless it fit into the back of a Camry).

Anyway here are my winnings - I hit a garage sale in Redhook that turned out to be a woman clearing out her antique shop because her landlord was selling the building.

I got this Victorian crib/daybed for $30 including the mattress. The stripey fabric its covered with was mine. nice no sew styling huh? It's really comfortable because its so springy-bouncy.


I hung some temporary curtains while I was at it.

These awesome antique-textile pillows were...... two for ten bucks. I know!

That rag rug cost me $20. I swear its a little less darling in person - more primary colors and less pastel.

I got each of these lamps at Goodwill in Hudson for $14 Then I bought the shades at Big Lots, next door for $10. I have some antique French crystals that I'll replace the drops with. The current ones are a little too clean for me.
Yep - they have marble bases... I know!

Oh - ps: that's my attempt to make a blow up bed look cozy. I can't wait till theres a real bed up there. I know that the room is looking dangerously Shabby Chic - which is so not my goal. So I'll have to balance things out with a Metallica poster or something.