I never showed you my poster. I’ve had this gigantic IKEA frame lying around for an eternity and couldn’t figure out what to do with it. I finally decided to pull together some of the amazing images from my 35mm pendant lamp so they can be seen in another light, so to speak. I had it printed and foamcore mounted at Kinkos. I love how it turned out. As you can see I have yet to hang it!
Here are the images I used:
Now I want to go on a trip!
1)Insanely expensive Dwell Studio Sheets 2)Tattooed Men by Mimi Kirchner 3)Dying of cute 4)Rugs USA 5)Apartment Therapy 6)Tattooed Man Doll by The Black Apple
I’ve started off the new year with a nasty cold so the only thing it seems like I have been doing is sleeping. In between naps I’ve been trying to keep myself busy with *something* and that something has been deciding what to do about our bedroom. This year I’ve decided that I want to make some major progress on the home front, instead of being lazy about it as per usual so it’s been on my mind a lot lately. We made the decision last year that we would swap bedroom locations from its current location downstairs to the extremely large and spacious suite-like room we have upstairs.
Take a look at this post on Making it Lovely about redecorating a reader’s bedroom as our room upstairs is almost identical in terms of layout…mainly the sloped ceiling wall along one the side of the room. Here’s the finished room. Nice! I showed it to Jefe and he loved all of the black, and blue color on the walls so that’s where I started. I pulled the images from stuff I have pinned on my Pinterest boards. I don’t know what’s up with the tattooed men…something about them tickles my fancy. AND they match the color scheme!
I’ve been feeling very “blah” lately. Anyone else feeling “blah”? Is it the weather perhaps? I’ve been doing a lot of sitting-on-the-couch-watching-Bones-on-my-laptop and neglecting a lot of things that I should be getting done. Feels good, actually. I’m only slightly guilty.
One task I can cross off my to-do list however, is buying and installing the new light for the entry way. I got it from Schoolhouse Electric Co. down in Portland and have been fantasizing about this light for a long time, but now that it’s installed my life isn’t magically complete. Funny how that happens! It’s a vast improvement over the 1970′s glory that has been hanging there for the six years we have been living here, and I think I am going to buy every new light fixture for this house from them.
I still have a lot of not fun to look at projects like installing trim and painting doors which I’ll try to tackle this weekend. And like a lot of people this time of year, I keep buying flower bulbs that need to be planted (curse you Costco and your bags of tulips!)
I also have a bucket on my kitchen floor that is housing a second attempt at a sourdough starter using “wild yeast”. It’s basically a mixture of organic grapes, flour and water. The first time I tried this I opened the bucket halfway through fermentation to see if it was working and I didn’t get the lid back on right so I messed up the bucket’s groovy fermenting environment. I ended up with a righteous bucket of mold. Lesson learned! DO NOT OPEN THE BUCKET.
I had a three day weekend and managed to get a lot done. A lot of orange things.
Isn’t this hideous? We’re going to be re-carpeting the upstairs sometime soon (yay!) so I decided that it would be a good time to repaint everything because who cares if I get paint on the carpet? I have decided that this room will be white, sort of like this room, but not so frilly. This room has sloped ceilings, and is really cozy so I think it will be really lovely once it’s all done. I managed to clean out the closet and get the first coat of primer on this weekend. Progress!
Another round of the Pumpkin Spice Macarons – with an epic fail. Macaron explosions and lopsided shells. I know what caused this, so it’s all good.
The weather was awesome, so a lot of yard clean up happened. These are crocosmia seeds. Crocosmias are usually planted via bulbs, and I am curious if I can grow them from seed. We’ll see.
I painted some frames that I want to turn into mirrors for the entry way. I was looking for a red that had a tinge of orange, which is a little hard to find in a spray form. This color is called “Pimento” and is a little too orange. I think I’ll try to spray it with a thin coat of red and see what happens.
Overall the weekend was super productive! I wish every weekend was a three day one.
Prepare your self to be overwhelmed by dark and brown. I am entering Making It Lovely’s Social Makeover Contest because our “social space” needs serious help. It’s a little embarrassing actually… but what the hay. Here it goes! Pretend that you have just walked through the front door, and into the living room:
Brown as far a the eye can see. It was an accident, really. The walls were painted right after we moved in about five years ago, then we bought that sectional for another room and it wouldn’t fit up the stairs (I SWEAR I measured) so we had to use it down here, broken apart no less. Classy! Last year we got the wood floors installed and I haven’t had time to repaint the walls. You’ll see paint swatch patches throughout this tour on various walls as evidence that I was at least thinking about repainting.
And then there is the fireplace. Oi. We also have overflowing bookcases, an IKEA LACK shelf held up by a cat post, and if you look carefully…on the floor in front of the left bookshelf you can see my wood juggling pin collection.
Now you are standing in front of the fireplace in the far corner so you can see into the dining room. You can also see the where the sectional connects to its other part. It’s like the poor thing is cut open with it’s guts exposed. Or it’s private parts. Avert your eyes! The student desk is from Jefe’s childhood and my Jim Flora album cover collection is hanging above it. We also have the clock wall minus one clock (broken) and an awesome mid-century chair I bought at a flea market that needs to be reupholstered. It’s partner is hiding out in my sewing room because it just can’t stand all of the brown going on.
We are now on the right side of the fire place. One of the problems of having such a dark wall color and curtains is that it seems like we are in a cave. I wish I would have lived in the house a little longer to get a sense of the light before I painted, but I was eager to make my mark on my new home. Another issue we have is that there is not a good spot for the TV, other than the corner, which is odd. Note the exposed light fixture connection we have yet to deal with on the wall next to the TV. I do love that you can see the SHAG seriograph hanging in the hallway. I would actually like to move the clocks here…you would be able to see them from more than one spot and there is a lot more room to expand the collection.
Dining room. I do love the view into the garden. Two of my favorite things are in this space: my grandma and mother’s (now mine) Frankoma Political mug collection (collecting must be hereditary) and the 35mm slide light fixture I made. More about that here, here, and here.
View of the dining from from the kitchen. I have another student desk that acts as a plant stand, and you can see some of by Eva Zeisel collection on the bookshelf. Most of it is packed away from when we put in the floors and I haven’t drug it back out. You can also sort of see my army of flute playing pigs salt and pepper shakers. I started out with one set and now I am up to five. Yes…another collection.
You have probably noticed a lot of IKEA on this tour, which I think is typical for a lot of people. These rooms are were we spend most of our time either on our laptops, watching tv, reading, or eating. Sometimes all at once! They are also filled with my favorite things and it would be awesome to be able to showcase them in a better light.
So there you have it! Wish me luck!
