Decorating the Girls Room

I have many posts to get to (Santa, the tree, etc.), but short on time. The girls stayed in Illinois with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days while Dave and I headed home to Minneapolis so Dave could work. Meanwhile, I got a few days to focus on decorating the girls room as a surprise for their return on Saturday.

I actually remembered to take a "before" picture of the completely un-decorated room.



The layout is actually pretty functional for now, so that won't really change. It's all about what's coming in. Remember the new campaign dresser? That's going in (the hardware is all cleaned up, making a huge difference). Plus the raspberry "velvet" that I ordered online and that turned out to be more of a microfiber or faux suede. Curtains are made, lamps have been found, progress, progress, progress.

Can't wait to share the "after"!

Happy Accidents

I've been slowly but surely thinking my way through design for the girls' room, and in the process I ordered a great looking and super inexpensive cotton pile rug from Overstock.com. I was inspired by this photo from Domino (We inherited a similar shade of blue on the walls and I already have raspberry microsuede for headboards and love the total effect)



as well as an outfit that Clio loves to wear which includes a white top with black stripes and a red sequined heart and a tiny floral print skirt (which in my mind translates to Liberty of London for Target bedding or accessories, though of course I missed my moment on that and would have to shell out for it on ebay one piece at a time. I never do things the easy way, do I?)




So I was really excited to find a 5x7 black and white bold striped rug for only $100.

Now, I was initially skeptical about ordering rugs online. You can't feel the pile, you can't really see the color, and the pattern could show up much more (or less) pronounced than it looks in photos. But I ordered one for the basement with great success, and found that I was hooked. There is just so much VARIETY on overstock, the prices are uniformly reasonable, shipping is fast and practically free, and you can search by size, color, pattern, style, material, and price point, which is really tremendous.

Well, fast forward to last week when my black and white striped rug arrived, only.... it was BROWN and IVORY. Damn internet. Seriously, under no circumstances could this rug be considered in the black family, and the color scheme just sort of felt muddy and, well, wrong in the girls room.

But guess what? Inspiration struck and I tried the rug in our bedroom, where I must say, it looks fabulous.


Don't you think? I have been using an old sheepskin rug in there, which I was kind of digging, but my grandmother's white upholstered boudoir chairs will migrate back into the bedroom when the living room loveseat arrives, and that will all be a bit monochromatic for me. The fun thing is that I NEVER would have thought to buy this rug for this room. So much brown. So much strong, graphic pattern. Just proves once again that more is more.

I won!

You know how people in design magazines (home or fashion) are always talking about finding the PERFECT authentic designer whatever on the curb and bringing it home to love? Kate Bosworth is on the cover of Lucky this month, and the story includes a photo of a vintage Michael Kors skirt that she got in Detroit (or somewhere random) for $15. And while I have to wonder just how vintage Michael Kors gets, I can relate to her sentiment that "they didn't even know what they were sitting on." One woman's trash is another woman's design magazine nonchalance.

Well. I'm coming to the end of my decorating budget, and I had JUST been complaining to Dave how I never fid what I am looking for for a steal, when I found exactly the right 70s campaign-style dresser on Craigslist for $75. Not super cheap, but also WAY cheaper than a new dresser or a great vintage dresser in a store. I immediately called the phone number only to be told that it was going up for AUCTION. The upside: I would probably get it "even cheaper." The downside: I would have to wait more than a week, and risk losing out on it altogether. As the week progressed, I was the only bidder, and the price was a cool two bucks. And I realized: they didn't even know what they were sitting on! There was some action in the middle there, but guess what? I won. Oh, yeah.

Final price: $35.
(plus tax and commission, making the actual out of pocket cost around $42. Oh, and bonus: its from the jobs foundation, which works to maintain living-wage jobs, so its almost like making a charitable donation, to boot.)

It will probably go in the girls' room (but it may end up in our room, who knows?) I'm thinking of painting it white, nicely offset by those brass corners and drawer pulls. Won't that be cute with pale blue walls and raspberry headboards?

Look at me, creating yet another project before I have completed the dining room curtains or even begun the headboards. But it feels like it might just be coming together.

Next up: hauling my butt out to Plymouth to pick up the dresser. I sure do hope they help load up the car.

Next Up: Headboards

I can admit that I am better at starting projects than finishing them. Better yet at dreaming them up than actually starting them. Which is why Dave has told me in no uncertain terms that he will not help me cut the plywood for the girls' headboards until after I have sewn the dining room curtains. (12 yards of beautiful chartreuse silk has been hanging by clips for months now. In past rooms, I have pinned up curtain fabric and then never took the project further, but my sister-in-law, a designer and maker of beautiful curtains, has asked me to please not do that to this fabric.)

Still, it can't hurt to get a visual, right? Oddly enough, I'm no perfectionist when it comes to this kind of thing--I'm more of an eyeballer--it's more to get an idea of the right scale and shape.




Cute, right?

I'll use the raspberry "velvet" that I ordered online online to discover that it was more of a microsuede--not great for the living room chair for which it was intended, perfect for headboards in a little girls' room.

I'll share photos if the actual headboards ever make it to fruition.

In the meantime, enjoy these rare shots of Clio hamming it up.



An actress, perhaps? Believe me, her crocodile-tears performances are already Oscar-worthy.

A Trend

I have a post in the works, one in the What I Learned From Decorating a Rental series, that talks about using what you have. In it, I list some of the things I am drawn to over and over again: the color orange, shiny things, chinoiserie, campaign furniture, bird motifs, and so on.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to hunt down the perfect wallpaper for my dining room accent wall (tricky in part because the dining room is chartreuse, coral, and teal, and looks into the living room which is more or less orange and brown, but nicer than that sounds), and I found myself noticing this chrysanthemum in a bunch of supermarket flowers I used for a dinner party.


It kind of reminded me of the shape and texture of the chandelier.


And as I started looking at wallpapers with big, round, petally flowers (mums, peonies, magnolias), I started to notice a theme around the house.





It is likely no coincidence that I recently read an old post on Little Greene Notebook in which the designer is selling off her stock of fabric and mentions her love of stylized flowers. I did not at that moment go, wait a minute, I love stylized flowers! But I suppose it is no wonder that I love her blog when she loves stylized flowers, did an entire post on campaign-style dressers, and picked the very same Domino inspiration-photo of raspberry headboards in a pale blue room for a blog post that I singled out to guide the design of the girls' room.

At first I thought, the chandelier is new, the flower itself is new, all these wallpapers are things I am looking at right now: trend. But in fact, I have been digging stylized flowers for years now.

The tour:

A velvet pillow from Urban Outfitter, circa (approximately) 2000 and in and out of the living room since then.


Linen fabric purchased in 2000, used to reupholster a pair of vintage 50s cane-sided armchairs. The fabric left over is in consideration for use in the girls room (Oh my, it just came to me: Shower curtain!)

Chinoiserie headboard and armoire, purchased by my parents a long time ago, inherited by me in 1999.


Hand-blocked pillowcases from ABC carpet and home, purchased for said headboard around 2001 (I wanted an entire set, but the pillowcases were all I could afford! Now in the guest room but, sadly, disintegrating)


The Dwell Studio for Target bedding chosen to update said headboard, 2007 or 8 (I was so desperate for this bedding that, when it sold out immediately in Brooklyn, I had my mom pick it up in the Twin Cities and mail it to me. Don't I have an awesome mom?)


Anthropologie Eternal Blooms hand towels and vintage Magnolia prints in the girls' bathroom, purchased this year.


Isn't it funny when we have a thing but don't see it? Look around your house: any themes you weren't aware of?

I guess I better officially add stylized flowers to my list of love-it-forever decor.

Unless, of course, recognizing it is the first step in moving on. Hmmmm..... in that case, what's next?

What I Learned From Decorating a Rental

By the time we moved to Boulder, I had been a homeowner for 10 years, living for 5 years in each of two Brooklyn homes. I took decorating them very seriously (despite an utter lack of budget). When you're settling in to a place that you own, there's this idea that you need to get it just right because it is permanent. Of course, the upside is that you can do whatever you want without asking permission: Calypso Blue living room? Sure! (Did it in Park Slope when Dave moved in). Paint the vinyl tile in the kitchen? Of Course! (Did it when we moved out of Park Slope). But there is an inherent freedom in decorating a rental. It is temporary by definition. In Boulder, we knew we would be in that house for one, maybe two years before moving on from Colorado or settling down and buying a place there. While I knew that it didn't make sense to invest much in decorating a temporary place, I'm also not a person who can just live in an unfinished space, so I went to work making it feel like home using (mostly) things that I had.

And you know what? Just by easing up and playing it fast and loose (SO not my usual style), I learned some great lessons that I have brought into our new, "permanent" home. The main thing, of course, is to trust what you love and to try not to worry too much about what it is "supposed" to look like. Believe me, this was a HUGE lesson for old rule-follower me.

I started this post a month ago with so many "lessons," I got kinda overwhelmed. So lets consider this the first in a series. Who know is there will actually be a second.

Create Drama
Most rentals don't have much in the way of dramatic architecture or fabulous features. Create them! In Boulder, the girls were sharing a pretty tiny room, and to create visual interest and give a bit more separation to their sleeping spaces, I hung a $19 mosquito net from Ikea over Clio's bed. Instant drama.



While our new house has loads of light and great space and good, simple choices in fixtures and is really nothing like a rental, it is something of a clean slate: white or gray walls, pale wood, no flourishes, doo-dads or whimsy. The dining room and kitchen are one big room in the middle of the house, with somewhat awkward lines. The room, where we spend an awful lot of time, needed drama. To anchor the space, I turned to Ikea again and hung this enormous chandelier.




It's not to everyone's taste, but it's hard to deny that it offers some drama (a real conversation-starter, too!) Now, I love coming in the front door and catching a glimpse of this around the corner of the stairwell.


I love sitting underneath it's largeness. I love that Eleri calls it "Big Ball" and that Clio says it looks like snowflakes (I think so too.)

And it didn't even take all that much to convince Dave!

Structural Improvements

Dave and I have never really been ones for making improvements to a house of any lasting nature. I think we think we're all DIY, yet the first house we chose to buy together had just been renovated and the next was brand spankin new. I'm hoping we're staying put for a while, and because we set aside a little budget to decorate, we decided to invest in some strategic upgrades. Like having an electrician work some magic in adding a chandelier in the middle of all the can lights in the dining room and tiling the backsplash in the kitchen.

I had never seriously investigated tile before, though I do know that the first time I went online to look around a bit, I chose a gorgeous limited-edition gold-leafed tile that retailed for about $200 PER SQUARE FOOT. In Boulder, our friends Amy and Justin did a gut renovation of their kitchen, and when deciding on tile they went for an option more in the $2/SF range, and Amy installed it herself. Our backsplash is 2 feet by 12 feet, and we settled on $5/SF for our budget. I found some tile outlets in Plymouth, MN, and away we went.

And get this: we came home with tile the very same day. You may or may not know Dave and I well enough to know that this is nothing short of a miracle. With no advanced research, we went into the field, visited three stores, and MADE A PURCHASE. Truly amazing.

Here's the thing, though. There are about 3 options for tile in the $5/SF range if you do not want white subway tile. (We are certainly fans of white subway tile, it's just that we needed a little more life back there.) We found these pretty glass tiles in the perfect shade of green, but I was almost positive that I did not want squares.



When we came across a glazed ceramic hex tile for $5.20/sf, it was only a matter of deciding between the smaller and larger sizes and the "moss" or the "milk." I found a birch cabinet in the store, plunked our countertop sample down, and proceeded to stand about 10 feet back while Dave switched samples back and forth. (Sometimes I do this thing where I turn around or go around the corner so I can "walk into the room" and let the material take me by surprise. I swear, it works.) Here's the penny tile from the same line.

(I will also point out that Home Depot had similar penny tiles for twice as much money. Home Depot! And they did not have the fabulous hex.)

And here's Dave with the small moss hex tile.


I loved the moss color, but ultimately felt the larger tiles were better and they didn't come in the greenish tone. Ultimately, viewed from a distance of 15 feet, we realized that the small tile would just read as a wash of color, whereas the larger tile would read as a white wall with a delicately drawn honeycomb pattern, and the answer was clear.

Install is tomorrow.

Related to this. We had been discussing some under-light cabinets, and realized we would have to put them in before the tile, so we scrambled and headed out to an electric wonderland where we picked up some stainless steel 40" xenon lights from counter attack. (get it? clever, no?) THEY went in this morning, and now I can actually see the dishes I am washing!





I never think of these practical things. I'm all: wallpaper! upholstery! let's make headboards! And Dave's all: wouldn't it be nice if these things functioned? Or, it's broke, let's fix.

We make a good team.

Now, if we did it ourselves, that would really be something. But that's the other thing about a nice, brand new house: it makes you nervous to go messing around.