Stools and rugs: revolving door, part 2

Let's get serious for like a sec. I want to be a good steward of finances and this green earth, so there's a slight crisis of belief that sails through my thoughts sometimes as I look to tweak things to perfection in our home. Patience and confidence are the top character qualities I hope to draw from in making decor decisions. A room is not going to come together over night, and often when I push it to, the design falls flat because it lacks the collected/cultured look that makes it feel genuine. So I rearrange and remove and add until there's an actual feeling cultivated. Like, "Hey, I want to spend time in this room. I want to look around and learn from the books and the art and the sunshine. I want the people I love to be able to enjoy this too." And then I sell the old rug and feel even better. ;) Anyway, the thing is there's definitely something to be said about surrounding yourself with beautiful things and people. Keep your head on straight- don't obsess, but recognize and appreciate it. And I'm also saying don't settle. God is the maker of creativity and we're made in his image, so art and beauty should move us. Mediocrity has rarely made a difference. In anything.

So you guys. I've had 4 rugs in my 5 Mile Rd. living room in the 7 years we've lived here. Is that normal? Every time I see a rug at a flea market, I check the price. ANY rug. Size, color, pile. None of this matters. I love rugs. And have we talked about lamps lately?...mama likes a good lamp. But reign it in, this is about rugs. Here is the last post showing the LR (rug from West Elm, sold it. Loved, but just too big for my micro living room. And golly professional photos are clutch..ee), and the first rug (from Ikea, still have it and love it). Then there's this ivory Moroccan wanna-be. I still have it, but it got so mangy so fast...what am I gonna do with a mangy rug? Just having a hard time saying goodbye.

{Target}

{West Elm}

{Ikea}

And now. My friends at Ecarpetgallery (they don't know we're friends) sold me this one. I wanted the age and the texture and the imperfection of a vintage handmade rug. This is it. It's a new antique, if that makes sense. Like made one million years ago, but never used. Maybe it's not quite that old..unless God made it..?

{Ecarpetgallery}

I mean, I love sun, but what the heck? Trying to take pictures here! Mr. Sun, you're throwing off my iPhotography groove.

I've also gotten a vintage kitchen rug this year, and for the girls' bedroom, and the upstairs bathroom...I'm on a roll. A rug roll. Rollin' out the red carpet... 

Okay, here's the kitchen rug, older than these very hills and bought at a flea market in Massachusetts..or New Hampshire. Those pint-sized eastern states have me confused. 

{East coast flea}

The girlfriends are getting book shelves in their bedroom soon. I'll take pictures and you'll see the rug I got for them from a different seller at the same flea market.

Love Seats

We'd been living with a larger-than-life red couch in our basement for a while (first new furniture purchase of our marriage back in 2003), which was not ideal since our house is smaller-than-life.  I was trolling good ol' Craig's List for two matching love seats/settees for the living room, thinking we'd shuffle the main floor furniture to the basement, sending Big Red to happier hunting grounds.  I was super excited to find these quirky mid century guys in Minneapolis, and after a rigmarole trying to arrange for pick up, we finally got them the day before G's birthday party (I'll do a feature of her party some time..).  With so much extra manpower sitting around, Andrew had party guests help rearrange the furniture.  Resourceful, that's my man.  The pink sofa and chair from the living room went to live in the family room, and the red couch got a spot on the lawn for a good week (where it was rained on, dried out, and rained on several times), before making its way to a more permanent storage facility.  

Right now I have a piano bench draped in a wool camp blanket sitting in for a coffee table (the old table went downstairs).  Not ideal.  But I want to have a 3'x3' ottoman made and upholstered with the blanket.  I think the ivory wool would be a good bridge between the gap of natural jute in the rug and the simplicity of the furniture/color palette.   Plus I love the touch of bright blue, yellow, and poppy.

Have we talked about the chair?  There's a story here too, but it might be boring so I'll use as few words as possible.  Had a rocker ordered when pregnant with Oliver 9 years ago, found out it couldn't be upholstered in the fabric we chose so canceled the order, used this baby from my dear grandmother for all 4 kids, either keeping clothed in its natural brown faux velvet, or draping with with a quilt..or dropcloth..or sheet (keeping it generally pretty classy), after Winston was born decided enough was enough, let's get something nice, found this fun spool glider on Craig's List that was also clothed in some pretty rough fabric, picked some new (painfully expensive..but awesome) metallic ivory linen and had it reupholstered.  Whew.

I also hadn't realized how many transformations our living room has had in the 6 years we've been here.  I may have a problem.  It's evolution.

Photos by Photograph Social.

The Living Room

I try not to make excuses for my shortcomings.  Alright I lied.  'Words of affirmation' is one of my top Love Languages, so I try to eek out as much encouragement as I can, even if it's back door-ish.  However, I have been working on this manipulative way of receiving a complement- not to hone the skill, but to tone it down.  That being said, I think this post is worthy of a little 'pardon the picture taking skills.'  I usually apologize for my shoddy camera, but this time I used my mom's good one.  I have no more excuses.

BUT, what I lack in artistic flair, Andrew makes up for in spades with his wicked good woodworking.

Let me show you the evolution of this room:

The room beyond the room.  This was right after we bought the farm in 2008.

 

   Rebuilding after tearing out all lath + plaster.  Looks hopeful, right?

That door was made of plywood and plastic for an entire year.

Early 2011.

Early 2012 I think...

And now.....

I'm thinking of taking out all goldenroddy accessories- not because I don't like them, I just don't love them with the painted wood color and the pink furniture (in our house back when we bought it, last seen here).  Thinking of this rug, or something like it with that Moroccan vibe.  And I L O V E the slipper chair, so it'll find a new spot to nestle into around here.  I also want to paint the dining room.  Though I love the color (Ben Moore's Berkshire Beige) it's obnoxious with the living room color.  I'm thinking a charcoal next?

I love the hardware, color, storage.  So many of my favorite things all wrapped up here.  Andrew's craftsmanship can tend to make me crazy (perfectionist to the maximum, unlike his 'getterdone' wife), but the end result is well worth the 4 month process.  Wasn't that nice of me, Honey?

Now here's some mad photography.  Lessons, anyone?  Okay, in all seriousness, this Tobacco Caramel candle from West Elm is one of the most melodious scents in the world.

Do I get props for capturing so many angles?  And leaving that book under that chair and not even caring?  It's called art, people.

One of my favorite thrifted finds- this mid-century coffee table snatched at a *crazy* church rummage sale for $5 (marked $10, but Andrew knows how to work the church sales).

Do you want to reach into this picture and kick that book a little farther under the chair?...or just put it away.

Off topic, but during all of the rearranging, Oliver's school desk got moved up from the basement, and is now in a bright and cheery spot under the south DR window.  The desk and chair were my father-in-law's when he was little- love the sentimentality!  I painted the chair pale purple, then taped off the lower part of the leg and sprayed it gold.  The girls have already defaced it by applying pencil/pen/crayon alloverit.

I love this paneled wall.  And I'm still beholden to Edith

Coming soon...

...a double reveal!

I had my 20 week ultrasound a couple of weeks ago- Andrew wanted to find out the gender, I wanted to be surprised in January.  We ended up bringing home an envelope holding the secret, and when my sister and nephew are home from Utah in 2 weeks, we'll have a 'Gender Reveal Party'.  I'm actually really excited, though I'm usually an advocate for old-fashioned surprises.  I think it will be the perfect compromise- finding out, but with more pomp than the dimly lit ultrasound room can offer.  So, that's the first reveal.

The second will be a full living room unveiling when things are put back together- SOON!

Major and minor projects

I've been doing some refreshing around the ole casa- mostly because Andrew has this going on in the living room:

Yes, the LIVING ROOM is behind the plastic.  This furniture is currently lazing about in our dining room...the table is up against the window to the left.  It's just so cozy, I don't know if I ever want my living room ba-- I couldn't even pretend that was true.  I'm so sick of tripping on furniture, food, and small children packed in like sardines that I'm about to throw that couch over that wall.  Kidding about that, too.  But seriously.  Andrew is putting up wainscoting and installing a built-in, glass doored bookcase in that room on the other side of that curtain.  Slow but steady...steadily slow.  I feel a little bad for nagging him daily about this project because he's so busy at work, too.  Then I stub my toe on one of 85 pieces of furniture crammed into a 12x12" space and tell him get to work.  Sometimes I remind myself of a Proverbs wife.  But not the one in chapter 31, more like the dripping faucet one described elsewhere in the book.

On to my little projects...that Andrew is also about 50% of.  Oops.  What can I say, he's a wizard.



I had never liked the stairway/entry/hall wall color after we painted the banisters/risers , so I've had it in mind to repaint.  I was about to go over these verses I had penned above the window in the landing...so I thought I take a picture for posterity.  Love those beautiful words. 

So you're thinking I just painted it white, huh?  I did.  Benjamin Moore Seashell White.  Here you can see the new color over the stairs, old color still in the foreground.  It looks about 1,000,000x better than the old bickering walls and stairs combo.  I didn't hate the original pale chartreuse-y walls, just when they were next to the greenish grayish of the stairs.  Did I completely over-explain myself so that at one point you thought you knew what I was saying, but then by the end were completely confused?   

Hi guys.  Hi Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.  This idea is a double steal from my favorite design blog- Little Green Notebook.  Jenny put this print up in her laundry room and accented with Rustoleum's Safety Red.  Andrew (surprise), printed the picture on a piece of 11x14" paper and cut a piece of MDF to go under it.  I spray painted the frame (that I already had!) and used a spray adhesive to bind the MDF to the photo.  Whammy.

Shelf in Marg's room: my idea.  Manpower/brainpower to hang it: Andrew.

For some reason Margot's bedroom color gets all funky-yellowed in pictures, so I like to tweak it beyond reality.



I added this fun pom pom trim to Margot's lamp shade.  All by myself.

Painting over those Bible verses made me think I want to put more up everywhere...just been thinking of good places and passages and the like.  Having God's word around the house is the charge I need in the day to day grind of motha hood.

Edith B. Holden to the Rescue!

Oh that I would remember to take 'before' pictures!  After stripping my living room walls nearly bare in order to sweeten the impact of the stairway gallery, I have found a solution! 
The inspiration started last summer when I gussied up the summer kitchen to be a little garden-esque room.  (Although I took everything apart and down for winterization purposes, I'll take pictures of the space soon to give a visual.) 
Backup again-- when Andrew and I were newly married, my mother-in-law would give me her home decor castoffs- Christmas decorations she didn't  use, books, table linens, etc.  One of the books she gave me was The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  It was of little consequence at the time, but last year when I was scavenging through my things looking for anything  to put in my outdoor-ish living room I found the book.  Edith B. Holden (B. Holden...isn't that a little funny??) put so much love and talent into the paintings.  And the journaling is practically sweet music- a collection of nature facts, poems, and thoughts.  I started disasembling that darn thing straight away!  I pinned pictures and poems across the wall right above the pink sofa that lives out there.  The wall and ceiling of the summer kitch are bead board painted a glossy white, so it all looked pretty cunning, I must say.
Forward to yesterday (confusing), I wanted to do something kind of unconventional for the living room.  As in not more framed pictures.  And then it came to me!  So, without further adeu, the living room reveal:

This adorable slipper chair was an anniversary gift from Andrew's parents.  The brown rocker was a hand-me-down from my grandma.  I'm hoping to have it recovered someday.  The fabric hunt is on!

Awfully beholden to you, Edith.

My in-laws got me this Norman Rockwell book for Christmas- the most amazing, detail-rich compilation of his art and biography.  It was a maroon color this morning.  By this afternoon it was cream...after I covered it with a piece of canvas drop cloth I had lying around.:)  I guess Ma and Pa T. are playing a pretty central role in this living room sprucer, too...the book, the chair, THE book.  Yes, they're amazing.

This shelf is on the wall to the right when looking into the living room from the dining room.  My cousin Megan sketched the sheep picture for me, the turkeys are salt and pepper shakers from a garage sale I think.  The donkey is actually my brother Isaac's, but I'm keeping it real safe for him.  I do love quirky animal displays.  The Webster's Universal Dictionery was a freebe at a garage sale, with the cover haphazardly taped on.  I ripped that puppy right off and there you have it, the heaviest book known to man (it's seriously like 10-12 inches thick!...not exactly light reading).  Looking at this picture now, I feel like the shelf needs work.  Humph.

Here't the view from the living room looking toward the main entry door.  Oh look!  There's a baby!

My favorite little lamp, happy as usual.

main floor

It worked! Here are some pictures of the kitchen, dining and living rooms. Note my beloved William Pahlmann book flying high in a place of honor.

The door next to the hutch there is a secondary door that we don't use much. It's original to the house, so that's cool. Hopefully we'll get some trim around it soon...

View from the end of the kitchen peninsula. I went with a cream paint color in the kitchen and living room- Benjamin Moore's 'white chocolate'- just because I wasn't sure what color we were going to do for cabinets, and I thought cream sounded both warm and fresh. I'm not thrilled with it now...it looks a bit stark. Andrew wants to put built in book cases in the living room, so that'll cover up some wall space.

Here's a closer look at the shelf bracket detail. We fell for Erika Powell's brackets, so Andrew came up with a variation for ours. This kitchen was such a process of evolution. If you recall, we spent the first year in our new house using the laundry room as a kitchen. We then progressed to counter tops, lower cabinets, and a sink on the main floor. Things just happened as we thought of them or needed them or Andrew had time to build them. "Oh, we should put something in the corner. Should we do a shelf through the window? How 'bout a cabinet that the shelf sits on?..." You get the idea.

Since we're doing most of the reno ourselves, things are still just slowly coming together, but that's better than coming apart! Andrew installed the shelf through the kitchen window and the glass tile a couple weeks ago. What a cheerful addition to my morning cup of coffee- sunshine bouncing off the iridescent citrus squares. Don't be too jealous, I'm usually brought abruptly back to reality with the waking of a baby girl or two...:)

There are still many unfinished edges and lacking details- as in, only 2 interior doors installed so far...on the loo's, thankfully.:) But we'll get there yet. Rome wasn't built in a day...or a home remodeled in 3 years??

And you can see better pictures of our kitchen and others that Andrew has done here.