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.

Just For The Sake Of Gratitude

This was my dining room a year ago...

Be sure to drink in the following:

creative bricklaying gone bad
carpet into the fireplace
faux wood paneling
exposed pipes jutting out from wall at wacky angles
crack-is-wack vinyl pull down shades that make the windows look super low
acoustic tile ceiling

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?

Dad Labor - The Final Installment

I probably didn't mention that my Dad went home with a nasty case of full body poison ivy. But yeah, my Dad went home with a nasty case of poison ivy. One of the other things he did for me while here was clear the crap out of my yard. Here's a fascinating picture of the side of a dirty garage. You don't give a rat's ass? Well what if I told you that there used to be weeds (probably 85% poison ivy now that I reflect upon it) the size of a box hedge that came about two feet up the side of said garage? Oh you still don't give a toss? Oh Ok.

So anyway - Dad cleared all of it. 

The underneath of this tree was piled with three years of sticks. Gone! Thanks Dad. 

The lawn is cut and the weeds are wacked. This part was a Joe/Dad collaboration. It's really starting to look nice back there. 

So Dad really wanted to try stripping the fireplace mantle, just in case there was something cool under there. I tried to get him to buy a green stripper - but his actual words to the Lowes salesman were "I'd like the toxic chemicals please." Argggggggg. Anyway - after he stripped it for awhile this beauty emerged. All we could say was REALLY? 

Yep - they really did paint the whole thing pepto pink. It's even gnarlier when you realize that the kitchen ceiling was also this color as were the living room walls... as was all the... wait for it...

window trim - which we stripped a tad just to see what was under there. 

So yeah - we're going to ditch the mantle and just give all that trim a fresh coat of white. And that concludes the Dad trip. Thanks Dad xoxo.I needed to get this last installment posted because I have pics of the fireplace project which I started last weekend. So stay tuned!

Ch ch ch changes (finally)...

So there's finally been some dramatic movement upstate. Yay! I know we've only had these walls open for a few months but it feels like a long time since anything major happened. We are nickel and diming our way along donthcha know.
Anyway - the doorway in the dining room (creative bricklaying room) has finally been reopened. It looks awesome. This is clearly how it was intended to be. Across the hall you can see where there was once a matching doorway into the living room. That area is now where the super gorgeous parade of plastics bathroom addition was plopped down. And since it's really high functioning it's gonna have to stay awhile. Dang.
When in doubt, just cover your bad decisions up with fauxtastic panneling. Alright people?

Now turning toward the kitchen - we popped open a window of sorts. Why, you ask did we not just open up the whole wall (or at least a doorway rather than a window)? Well frankly, we couldn't sacrifice the wall or storage space. This is the only wall that a refrigerator could go against, and I really want to at least have bottom cabinets. When the cabinets are in, this will hopefully look less window-y and more bar-ish (though I don't want any kind of counter top overhang coming into the dining room). I feel like this was a good way to split the difference and make it a bit more open without trying to make this area something it isn't... in a word, modern.

Here's a full frontal of said pass through.

And finally - some super sexy insulation. YAY!
Those of you who have never paid a $700 heating bill after keeping the thermostat just high enough to stop the pipes from freezing will never know this level of joy.

This week the drywall is going up. We are actually farming that out. Chester (angry Santa) and his boys are doing it, although Joe and I will be doing all the taping and sanding (which should be epic and take forever and ever amen) in order to save on labor.