When you have to replace your siding....make lemonade.

Yes, I am mixing up that metaphor, but life may have given us lemons and I am staying positive.

A small piece of siding came off the front of the house, just under a window, and when my husband got some repairman types out to take a look, one of them thought we might need to replace all the siding on our practically new house.  Why?  Because it came primed but was possibly never painted.  Replacing the siding is worst-case scenario, painting the whole house and garage is best.  Still a whopping expense that we weren't expecting quite yet, but hey, it's a chance to change the look of the house, right?

Here's the current color.  Sort of bland and unassuming, but also neutral and modern in feel.

At first I was thinking there weren't many options, but of course that's not true.  There are lots of elements to consider: upper and lower s, house trim, window and door trim.  The more monochromatic, the more modern.  The more different colors, the more traditional.  Let's play, shall we?

First step: tweak the color (warmer, greener), add contrast trim.

Next up, add a second tone to the bottom half of the house.

Or how about using the darker tone up top?

Different color palettes start to evoke different vibes, too.

Modern cottage

Coastal

Or cabin in the woods.

If I had my druthers, I would probably paint the house black.  Did anyone watch American Dream Builders, Nate Berkus's new design show?  There was some controversy over the choice to paint the exterior of a beach house black in the finale, but I personally loved it.  Lauren Liess of Pure Style Home recently revealed that she had gone dark with her home's exterior, and it is pretty fabulous.  

Here is mine dressed all in black, or with high-contrast trim.

Only problem?  As a teardown/ new construction, our house is already out of scale for the neighborhood, and painting it black would be like giving our neighbors the finger.  And we like our neighbors.

I'm not sure what we will do just yet.  I let my husband play around with the paint tool, and here is what he came up with.

So.....There's that.

What scheme do you like?

Making my way back

I don't know what happens in June, exactly.  Somehow all the year-end activities (school field trips, dance recitals, board recruitment and elections for the board I co-chair) simply take over, and when I blink we are heading in to July, season of birthdays.I wish I was one of those laid-back people who just roll through all this, but frankly I am just high-strung enough that the dance recitals and the like really do me in.

But!  I just got a little reprieve by staying home while my fam went to visit my in-laws.  While they were gone I did some major plate-clearing, and got through this reactive phase and in to a more contemplative place.  I'm thinking about shit, yo.

One of the many projects I took on was going through stacks of tearsheets, including a folder labeled "scan for blog."  It made me think about what this should be a space for (if it should continue to be a space at all).  I ended up throwing almost all of them away, as I realized that the only content worth sharing here is my own.  My projects, my process, sources I am liking, decorating tips I find truly useful.  You don't need me reporting on trends or showing you pictures you have seen a million times elsewhere.

When I started this blog 4 years ago, I waited to hit "publish" on my first post until I knew I had plans for at least a month's worth of posts.  After this little hiatus, I did the same thing.  I have written nearly 700 posts on this blog, and before I began again, I wanted to be sure I still had more in me.

I am coming back, weekly, I think.  Maybe biweekly if I am so inspired.

I hope you will join me!

Heather

Visualizing (isn't my husband helpful?)

I am trying to be thoughtful as I complete the final projects around my house that will hopefully (oh, please, dear god!) let me feel finished.  For now.  Among other things, this means not doing things that can't be undone if I am not 99% sure that I will love it.

Case in point.

I have been wanting to give my master bedroom the canopy treatment, much like I did for this client:

This is what the room looks like now, more or less:

I like the idea that a cornice-and-curtains treatment would soften the room in lieu of panels on the windows and balance the height of the gallery wall, across from the bed.

I have left over white linen curtains that didn't get used on a project, and some yellow fabric with a small scale print that I have been dying to use again.

I should just do it up, right?

Except.  

The bed wall is one of the first things you see when you come in to the house (and, for that matter, it is what you see from the street when the shades are up).  We kept the paint from the previous owner, and I don't know the color.  All of this means that if something goes up that requires putting holes in the walls, it is not coming down.  The last thing I need is to repaint this large room because I changed my mind about a little canopy and couldn't cover the holes.  (Though that sounds just like me, doesn't it?)

Enter the husband.

Not sure I like it all the way at the ceiling...how about lower?

But of course the mirror would still hang in front of the curtains.  How does it relate to the cornice?

Some days he is a good sport.

For today, we did not put holes in the walls.  I still like the idea, but the execution needs some thinking.  Fuller curtains?  Narrower cornice?  Valance instead?  With the high ceilings, proportion is key.

What do you think?  Should I tweak this idea or abandon it altogether?

My latest obsession

I have been looking for a large painting for my dining room wall.  (More on that to come.)

In addition to open studios and local galleries around town, I have been obsessively searching Saatchi online.   Unlike the proliferation of on-line print shops (many of which are wonderful in their own right), the Saatchi gallery offers tons of original works, by artists all over the world.  You can filter by many factors, including size, medium, price, style, and orientation.  After inputting my parameters, there were still over 5,000 works to consider, which is either impressive or daunting, depending on how you look at it.  My husband jokingly asked last night if I had viewed them all yet.  Okay, he was serious.  But I "only" looked at about half of them before cutting myself off and admitting that I am, in fact, slightly insane.

But this is normal, right?

Oh, just some printouts of pieces I am considering, taped to the wall.

Totally, completely normal.

Moving my daughter into the guest room

Working with parents on their children's rooms, I've noticed a wide spread in attitude about involving the child.  Some basically feel that it is their house and their money and therefore they need to love the room, too.  Others believe that their child should have free reign--after all, it is their room.

There is no "right" or "wrong" on this.  Like I wrote about here, it's all about being honest with what works for you.  But in this case I do believe there is a happy medium.  It's called "presenting options."  If you gather your child's input (what colors they like, patterns that make them happy, what kinds of activities they most want to do in their rooms), and then present them with choices that meet their needs and your own, everyone wins.

My two girls have shared a room for as long as they can remember.  Lately my 5 year old has been struggling with bedtime and keeps my 7 year old awake, so we are considering moving the older one to the guest room in the hopes of creating smoother nighttime routines.  The room is "finished," and while it is colorful enough for a kid, it is a bit grown up, and it seems wrong to move her in there without making any changes.  While I do not want to spend much money in there, I would want it to feel a bit more like "her" room.

There are some parameters, naturally.  I would not like to paint, though of course that would be the lowest-cost way to make a big change in the room.  The furnishings and new bedding would stay.  So, I like the idea of swapping out some of the textiles and/ or art (currently this, this and this) to make the space more fit for a going-on-8-year old.

I've been playing around with the idea so that, if we decide to move her, I'll be ready to talk through her input and present some choices.

I like the idea of connecting to the orange in the girls' existing room down the hall.  These two schemes would swap out rugs and pillows and use some extra white Ritva curtains panels with tassel trim added like I did here (scroll down).

These two actually get MORE colorful and push the eclectic bohemian feel even farther.

But, knowing my daughter, who will only ever wear monochromtic outfits, I have a feeling we would hone in on the blue and white palette and keep things very focused with either the existing red (curtains), or a focus on yellow (from the wood tone of the desk in there).

This last one feels most like her.  It is fairly monochromatic, she adores stripes, and the girl on that pillow has glasses just like hers.

While I actually hope we can keep her where she is, I look forward to transforming the space together eventually (even though my 5 year old will want equal treatment in her room.)

Is't it amazing how much you can change the vibe of the room by changing just the textiles?

Occupational Hazard: Starting Over at All Times

My love of wicker and rattan knows no bounds.  Seriously, I should live in Florida.  From my wicker shelves in my college dorm room (so cool, friends, so very very cool) to my ongoing obsession with Peter Dunham's Marilyn chair, I just can't get enough.

Occupational hazard: I am constantly finding great pieces that tempt me to start over (before I have even finished in the first place.)  Whilst searching for a Queen size (and budget friendly) replacement for the Land of Nod headboard in my last post, I came across a number of darling pairs of bamboo, rattan, or wicker headboards.  where were these when I was doing my girls' room?

here

here

here

here

here

I want them all.  If I wasn't already on the second iteration of my girls room in 4 years (including building and then reupholstering the headboards) I would consider one of these sets for sure.

I guess I need a beach house to furnish on the cheap.

Working from an inspiration room

Land of Nod

We all use inspiration photos as we figure out our design schemes, especially in this day of Instagram and Pinterest.  But how do we interpret that inspiration into our homes?

I'm working with my brother and sister-in-law on their new house, and for their 18 month old daughter, they love the look of this space from the Land of Nod catalog.  Since it is from a catalog, we could simply copy it, right?  

Well, no.  (I mean, where's the fun in that?)  Our space has mauve carpeting, oak trim, and it lacks the multi-paned windows looking out on sunny palm trees.  Plus, we are possibly going to use my sister-in-law's childhood furniture, which has that sort of 70s french look, AND we bought fabric for their old house that we saved once they decided to move.  We can use this for curtains:

So how do you get the vibe of that room in a different space and with some pre-determined elements?

To me, it's all about creating a sense of whimsy and a bright, fun mix of color and pattern, but remixing the original elements in a fresh way that works for our space.

This one is probably truest to the inspiration, with the wicker headboard, prominent chevron upholstery, "frame" bedding, and a fun floral, jut moved from the rug to the pillows.  (The Elephant hamper is in there because I have an extra.)

If they want an upholstered headboard for snuggling, the whimsical wicker can move on over to a chair.  You can't tell from the photo, but those euro shams are covered in tiny little hearts, and this one has the actual bedding from the inspiration, along with glass ball lamps.

Finally, this one goes a little more boho.  My sister in law is partial to anthropologie, and to me this takes the Land of Nod room and puts a bit of an anthro spin on it.

These are all really "sketches" as we get into planning, but good for direction, no?

What do you think: do these do enough to evoke the original, taking into account our constraints?

How do you interpret inspiration images?