A Trend Reversal

Oh, the ubiquitous painted Furniture.  For the past few years, DIY painted furniture has been everywhere.  It makes perfect sense: new casegoods are expensive, vintage ones are often dingy, and painting them is much easier than stripping, sanding, staining and generally restoring the wood to full glory.

In Apartment Therapy's round up of best makeovers of the year, many of them were actually make-unders, where wood pieces were stripped of all embellishments and returned to their natural state.  Like this one.

Also this and this.

I have to admit, I think this is going in the right direction.

It has been interesting to watch all that trendy painted furniture turn up on craigslist.  Have you noticed?  Some people clearly understand that a bad paint job devalues a piece of furniture, but others are actually charging up for the time and materials, even using the makeover as a selling point.  "Annie Sloan Chalk Paint" now shows up in search terms and headlines.

While I think there is still (and always will be) a place for some painted furniture, I've been glad to see the natural warmth of wood return.

I'm curious: would you buy painted second hand furniture if the paint job was decent?  Or is that something you would only do yourself?

Client dining room

There's nothing quite like getting photos from afar that depict a room you put together all put together.

  Remember this New Jersey dining room? I gave them three looks, but this is the one they chose: 

Well, the room pretty much looks JUST like the design board.

The red roman shades, farm table and bench were existing.  We brought in a rustic armoire for storage (and to ground the space), a transitional chandelier, a natural rug banded in red, and a set of fabulous mustardy-camel dining chairs with a modern, graphic trellis print.  My original plan suggested painting out the yellow walls for more of a cream ivory, and while I do think that would make everything a bit airier, I sure don't mind the yellow in the end.

It never ceases to amaze me how a room can come together with just a few well-chosen pieces.

Next up: starting in on the basement!

Bohemian Bedroom, two looks

Yesterday I showed you three looks for a client living room.  Next up: the bedroom!

For this room, I gave her two looks that are quite different (though both work from a base of charcoal walls, white textural bedding, and glass bedside lamps.)  The existing furniture is simple, clean-lined, in a mid-dark stain.  The bench will go at the foot of the king bed, and the window is across from the bed.

Soft and romantic

Bold and modern

What do you think?  I did the bedrooms first.  Based on the living room look, I bet you can guess which look she chose.  

Out of respect for my clients, I do not share sources without their express permission.

Bohemian Living Room

Thee living rooms were the most fun to put together.

New client, a recent transplant to the area, great taste and a house with great bones.  She is off to a good start with some solid pieces--in the living room, a casual-modern gray sectional, a bleached-wood media cabinet, a black and white abstract painting--and brought me in to help pull it together.

Based on the color palette in her existing kilim, I gave her three fun choices.

These were a joy to pull together: one of those designs that make me want to start over in my own home.  Occupational hazard.

What do you think: do you have a favorite?

Happy Monday!

out of respect for my clients, I do not share sources for designboards without their express permission.

Small Measures

Frame a collection!  This one from OKL featuring tassels is an amazing antique with gorgeous handwriting and that perfectly out of place blue skein, but you could make your own.  Or try buttons, like this.  Unique, personal art.

"Bed curtains" for the four year old

This year for Christmas, my 4-year-old daughter had a VERY specific list:

1. A Rapunzel doll with the plastic hair, the kind you get at Target (in the checkout aisle)
2. A remote control puppy
3. Sparkly shoes that light up (aka Twinkle Toes)
4. "Curtains for my bed."

Yup.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

To make things cheap and easy (shocking, I know), I sent my husband to Ikea on his way home from work one night, to pick up a pair of $20 netting tents.  Yes, a pair.  My girls share a room, and I am simply not free-wheeling enough to tent just one in a pair of beds.  Crazy, I know, but I'm okay with it.

Flash forward to Christmas day and Eleri was SO delighted with her bed curtains that she insisted we get in the car THIS INSTANT and drive home (8 hours) from Springfield to install her prize.  When we still did not accommodate her THE INSTANT we did walk in the door some five days later, she about had a meltdown.

When they were up, the verdict was, well, meh.  They were different than she expected, she said, but she guessed they were okay.

Apparently she really wanted a full four poster with proper curtains that close all around the bed.

I wonder where she gets these ideas?  (Fancy Nancy, I'm looking at you.)

I'm a bit meh, too.  But the truth is, the girls will bore of them soon, and I have other plans for that room anyway, and really, NOT spending hours leading up to Christmas trying to make proper coronas is just fine by me.  I made some of these instead.  Show in the coming days.

Tell me: did you ever ask for home decor at a very young age?

New!

Happy New Year!

Every year, I make a photo book of our year as a gift for all of our parents and grandparents (and, of course, for my girls, too.)  I always love the process of sorting through a year's worth of photos and organizing them into some kind of story of our life.  This year, I noticed something that took my by surprise:  I had a pretty unhappy year.  While there was nothing major to bring me down (thank goodness!), I was aware looking through the documentation that I was very absent in 2012 (literally: hey, why wasn't I at that event?  but also in an absence of presence, as in, even when my body was present, my mind was somewhere else.)  When I was present, I was stressed.  I was also a little selfish, maybe.  Or self-centered.

Last year, I wrote here about the crazy path of our lives over the past many years, and toyed with the mantra to choose joy.  Sifting through a year's worth of memories, I realize that I didn't live my mantra.  Maybe not even once.  Not even a little bit.  Not at all.

So.  How about trying again?

After a week off (really off, little work, no blogging, no blog reading, no design anything, actually), I came home to a pile of magazines and catalogs and found myself inspired, with a million idea for my home, for my clients, and for the blog.

But--this is key!  I think I'll ease into it.  I think I'll also tone down my own expectations with a mantra that goes something like this:

Choose just a little happier.

Manageable, right?  I sure hope so.

One thing that is making me happy these days is the velvet leopard throw pillow my Mom was kind enough to give me for my birthday, from Arianna Belle.  Our guest room is at the top of the stairs, and every time I go up or down I poke my head in there and smile.  (If it's dark, I turn on the light.  I'm weird.  I know.)

Sometimes it's the little things, right?

How about you: feeling inspired for the new year?