My Biggest Design (or renovation) Mistake So Far

Happy 2010 everyone. Since everyone seems to be looking back at the past year or so, I'm wondering if there's anything you did to your house, either decor or reno related, that you'd change if you had the time and money to do over again. I ask because there are choices that I made that were super duper dumb, and I thought I'd share just in case people were considering making similar decisions. Please email me yours - the criteria is super loose. Just share your "what I know now" knowledge with your fellow homie bloggers. Feel free to create your own post and send me a link, or email me the description and photos and I'll post it for you.


Here's mine: picking wood flooring with a beveled edge for the kitchen floor. Sure, a painted floor DOES look historically accurate. and sure, the beveled edge adds tons of interest. But it also ads a gross ditch to collect dirt and dropped food etc. This ditch always looks dirty despite mopping and vacuuming. To remedy it we will be caulking the ditch to lessen the depression somewhat, and painting the floor a much darker color than the cream it currently is. But if I had it to do over again, I'd chose a smooth surface. This was such a bad choice - and it's funny because I was so adamant about it. I just had to have this floor! So embarrassing.

Here it is unpainted:

And here it is primed:

I have made lots of other silly choices (which I'll post as the week goes on), but this one was the most flat-out frustrating. Please tell me I'm not alone and that you, too have screwed up here and there.
Please?

UPDATE: Here's a great, totally helpful response post from Decorno - one of my very favorite blogers. Thank you so much for this lady!

Sometimes I'm Slow

How did I not know about Saipua before tonight?
This has to be the drop dead, prettiest floral design I've seen in forever.

I would love to take one of their flower arranging classes. They also make soap, if you're keeping score. Love those industrious Brooklyn gals.

Alas - that is not where my next $250 will go. But I do love to spend these frigid, wintry days dreaming of how I will while away my time - when I finally become a woman of leisure.

Sleep Nook How-to

Here's a picture of the final product of our little sleep-nook project. As ramshackle as out pad is, we still get a lot of visitors. Friends come up from the city often just to unwind and chill out. We love that, and want to make it as comfortable as possible. That's why we have a big, huge bed smack dab in what will eventually be the living room.

The first thing I did was drape the hell out of the (circa 1950/1960's) closet that had gobbled up a nice chunk of the floor plan. I used a staple gun and tons of Russian linen. Just kidding. It was actually a bunch of Ikea curtains (but they are linen and were made in Russia). Have you noticed how everything is Belgian linen this and Belgian linen that in the design world these days? It's friggin linen people! Anyway. I covered all of the crumbly plaster closet walls with it. Though my flash is acting wacky, its a nice greigy, nubby vibe in there now.

My goal: to not have guests lying in bed going "Oh my god, they're making me sleep in a friggin closet!"
My cost: $0 - Joe got these a few years back from The Apprentice, and I've been hoarding them for a project like this ever since. Thank you mister Trump! I still have a few which I think I'll sew into pillows.

There was only about 10 inches of space on each side of the bed - so bedside tales were an issue. I knew it wouldn't be officially cozy if guests couldn't read in bed...

So then I remembered an old Apartment Therapy post about making shelving out of books.
I also remembered that AT readers lost their minds over it. Because like, BOOK MURDERER!! Or some shidt.

Why look, there's one of my beautiful little shelves now.

And there's its partner. As you can see from this view, the spine was broken on this book. I found a pair of big, sturdy, matching books at Goodwill for a total of 50 cents. They weren't the prettiest ones there, but the dimensions were right and the fact that they were a matching pair clenched it.


As you may have guessed, this was a super easy process. First, Joe drilled pilot holes in the bottom of the book. Then he attached a bracket. We could have gone prettier on the brackets, but I wanted an invisible look so we went cheapo.


The books are "Who's Who of American Women" edition 2 and 3 (1964-65). Neither of my grandmothers were in them. So as far as I am concerned, they are crap.


Just kidding. You should know that I LOVE books. My father has an amazing rare book collection and I am an avid reader. So calm down. But listen, I got these at Goodwill where they'd undoubtedly been sitting for years. I feel no guilt. I think these will be admired more here than they would have been there. And don't get me started on how many brand new books are pulped each year, you Kindle loving heathens. Aye, aye, aye.

But if you just HAVE to stage a Peta-like rescue mission, shoot me an email. I'll give you our street address. Just come and go quietly in the night, so Bernie doesn't bark, K?

Here's an action shot of Joe screwing it to the wall. He put a 2 x 4 behind the drapery so that the shelf wouldn't suck my draping job in too much - and also so that it wouldn't fall right off of the crumbly plaster walls.


Here's the ugly underneath. We cut a slit in the draping, to hide the bottom half of the bracket.


Then I topped each shelf with these little bedside lamps I got for free from my friend Dawn's house sale (I helped man the sale and got lots of unsold goodies at the end). I bought new shades at Lowes for $6.50 each. They aren't my dream shades or anything, but they work wonderfully here, I think. Soft, cozy glow.

Ta-da!

Other side:

Viola - a cozy sleep-nook open for visitors.

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.

Shower Pictures and Furniture Pruning

Joe and I did so much fun projing this weekend. I can't wait to show you some pictures. But for this morning, I thought I'd post a few shots I took of the living room all set up for a bridal shower I threw a friend about a month ago (as a lapsed blogger I have a big backlog of pics to roll through dontcha know).

These pictures show what's still wrong with the room as much as they show what's right.
In this one you can see that I finally got a great corner china cabinet (I'll post more about that soon too). You can also see that there's a couch on the right hand side of the room. It has to go. Makes the room feel crowded and cluttered.

Nuther couch view. Ick! But look how pretty the table looked with all the favor bags and sparkly silver.


You can also see the cool farm cabinet in the right hand side of this pic. Again, another big item that is just sucking up space in this room and needs to move. In fact, pretty much every room in our house could benefit from 20% less furniture. I'm pruning like mad at the moment. But with few finished rooms, we have had to cram a lot into a little. Thankfully, that's finally starting to change.

Oh how cute is this? I found a bridal knife at a friend's house sale. It was more like a bridal sword. Kinda scary/pretty in a 50's housewife kind of way.


More views. I make a mean tea sandwich btw.

Why do I have this many tea pots?


How much better is this view with the couch cropped out? What does belong over there, imo? An upright piano. But I'm still scouring Craigslist and Freecycler for the right one.

I am in love with these goblets. ps: that's my Mom's china pattern. I'm lucky. Who was picking a simple platinum band in the late 60's/early 70's? No one, that's who. Most moms were into gaudier things like orangey brown floral patterns.

Gotta love my makeup industry friends who kicked down fantastic cosmetics and skincare goodies for all my guest's goody-bags.

Promise to post proj pictures tomorrow. I hope you'll love the changes we've made (we sure do).

Who has the November Issue of InStyle??

I was completely obsessed with the apartment of Molly Sims when it was profiled in InStyle a few years back.
Member this?

I even have a link to Kishani Perera's blog over there on the right (she's the awesome designer who did it). It was on her blog that I read that Kishani had just revamped Molly's home office and I'm dying to see the spread.

I know everyone has had it up to here with Ikat - but the Ikat pillows in the pics (Kishani has a few images on her blog) look puuuuuuurty. Kishani has rigged her blog so I can't re-post any pics here. I get why she did that -but it seems like it would be a better idea to post them with a watermark or something - so she'd get credit but everyone would repost all over the bloggisphere.
KWIS?
Anyway - who has it and is either willing to give it to me (merry Christmas?) or scan it?
Anyone.... anyone...?
xx
H.
ps: I'm not sure if I want InStyle or InStyle home - if anyone knows - please, do tell.

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!