Update on Reno

Our mast bathroom is finally complete. Done and dusted. After waiting for 9 months for our "greige" tile, we settled for cocoa brown. I do like it. I like all our choices,mand I'm loving the finished product. Especially using the space.

Lights from Restoration Hardware.

Faucets are Delta; sinks are Kohler.

Mirrors from Pottery Barn.

Quartz Counter Top from Home Depot.

Shower Doors from Home Depot online.

Heated Towel Bar and Shower seat are online purchases.

Our back hallway got a new coat of paint: Benjamin Moore, Stone.

The Powder Room is also BM Stone. Tile was installed a number of years ago. Mirror was a TJMaxx find from years ago--a quick substitute when the Nordstrom's mirror was too big for the space.

Library Light fixture is also from Restoration Hardware.

Minding the Gap

There is an awkward gap between the mirrors I recently hung in our master bedroom.

Thinking, the right chandelier or sconce would eliminate the gap and add some interest.

-source-

All the above choices are from the same source as our greatroom sconces over the fireplace.

bellacor.com

Quorum International Madelteine One-Light Corsican Gold Sconce

The Painter, Finally

All we needed was a rainy day so Lenny could set aside an outside job and show up at our door. Preferably two rainy days in a row. Yesterday he called me at 7:30am and asked, "Does today work for you?" Yes!

Logic would have said, "No. My husband is hospitalized and I'm stressed." I said, Yes!

Lenny showed up at 8:30am and began work on our winter ice dam damages--great room ceiling (20 ft. high) and two small wall segments, the entire master bedroom, and one wall of the garage. As soon as I could manage it, I was on my way to the hospital to be with CA.

After a long day away I returned to a completed great room, master bedroom ceiling and baseboards, and a primed garage. Disarray, sure, but real solid progress. Today it will all be done. A very bright spot in our current medically stressed-out world. Very bright.

Benjamin Moore, Captivating Teal.

 

I think we'll love the color. It'd been the very relaxing Benjamin Moore's Sea Mist, but we've gone one tone darker to Cativating Teal.

Next project will be freshening the doors on our first floor, and finally getting our peninsula's face and legs painted-- Bejamin Moore's Aura, Dove White.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found Objects

 

We purchased this cabinet on a whim from a now-defunct local furniture store the summer we moved into our home--2001. CA was especially captivated, thinking we'd use it in the master bedroom for our television. That never quite worked out, and t.v.'s soon got flat and light-weight, and wall-hung.

So, this cabinet resides in our greatroom, holding Christmas china, candles, passports, random luggage tags, and foreign currencies (In VERY small quantities, Mr. Robber.)

The amusing fact about this cabinet is that we moved it around from place to place over the years, until one day I noticed something kraft paper-ish sticking out underneath. Upon investigating, I found that a backsplash had been wrapped and taped to the bottom for shipping, and was never mentioned at time of purchase nor discovered until years after.

In situ.

I didn't want it attached, thank you very much. So, it landed on a basement shelf where I would, on occasion, pick it up, note it's heaviness, and replace it on the shelf. Somewhere along the way I had the brilliant idea to repurpose it into a coat-rack/key-holder, and had our handyman(men) drill for hooks and then hang it securely (it is heavy!) in the back hall. I love it! It's functional and lovely. Extremely functional. Classes up an otherwise dreary pass-through from the garage.

Detail.

More detail.

 

Life Lessons Learned: Upholstered Furniture

 

When you furnish your first home(s), buy the best upholstered furniture you can afford. Even a bit better, if you're daring.

These chairs and ottomans used to be the same, except for radically different upholstery. One chair and ottoman resided in our previous familyroom, and the daring upholstry had been influenced by a half dozen trips to Santa Fe in the late '90s and early 2000s. The other set we purposely bought for this greatroom when we moved in, and it was a red-floral-fruit chintz. Our 2 three-seater couches transitioned from the old familyroom and we purchased a two-seater for our library here--all the same style-brand. I believe they were Flexsteel, a middle-of-the-road priced brand but unbelievably durable.

 

They all look quite different now, but originally staying with the same style allowed us to move them between rooms, and finally to reupholster and re-style the pieces when we redecorated 2+ years ago.

I love that the two ottomans fit nicely between the legs of this Pottery Barn console table. Actually, they were each 35" wide but we had the upholsterer cut them down to 33" to fit. My brilliant idea!

This Chippendale-style sofa is Ethan Allen (my vision of "the best" almost 30 years ago). It used to be cream with a country-blue cross-stitch every so often. Now it resides in our loft (guest space). The bright insets on the pillows were made from a fabric sample.

There are two of these wing-back chairs in our morning room. They used tho be cream and country-blue checked and with the above sofa sat proudly in our former livingroom. One was reupholtered to a horrendous purple linen for a brief and ill-conceived moment.

That Bombay Trading Company table came from an estate sale ($75) and will soon be painted.

So, upholstered furniture can live almost forever. If you find something pleasing and most of all comfortable, buy it, use it, store it, reupholster it. We stored some of this for almost 10 years before repurposing. And, two sofas traveled to Colorado when our son's family returned from living in Europe.

 

Birds of a Feather

This is one of my favorite fabrics we've used in our Huge Project. These drapes are on our French doors leading from our Morning Room--which should be east facing to actually qualify, but doesn't. It is where we perch each morning to ease into the day with coffee and various forms of media, print and electronic.

 

I digress.

 

Anyway, these draperies are on th French doors out to out deck and screened porch. So, the bird theme connects inside-outside. Sigh...

 

 

With all those lovely fabric birds, I've been careful to not overplay birds in our open great room and adjoining study-diningroom. But, as I searched for a lamp, nothing quite worked for the faux vintage-shappy chic 1/2 table I found at Interiors Anew in our study. Until I spotted this birdie's fraternal twin in a darkish teal, which could have worked with these drapes and our Venetian Rose paint.

 

 

But then I saw the more desirable sister, in a good green. Love, love, love her. CA? Not so much. Whoops! I do love, love, love CA. He doesn't love the bird lamp.

 

She came with a natural-colored burlap hat, but I felt she deserved a more special shade so the hunt ensued. See how much the painted walls shift color? This is a never-before observed down-shift. YUK!

Better.

 

 

Continuing... Every time I walked past the lamp aisle I kept picking up this brown faux-alligator, gold-lined shade. Needing to own it. Knowing it really wouldn't work with any existing lamp, in any room. Except, last night I could no longer resist the $9.99 Tuesday Morning bargain. I just needed to bring it home.

 

When I tried it here CA was disbelieving, more than doubtful, so I got more convincing. This works! And then, I realized it does work. I love, love, love the combination in just this setting.

 

 

Refinished Corian

Almost 13 years in this kitchen. I've done a lot of cooking, entertaining, and projects.

It became clear that our peninsula counter was insecure. Not shy! But, not safely balanced and braced.

It's taken awhile to figure out and line up the appropriate contractors, but once the carpentry work was done, the Corian guy came in and re-caulked the seam between the counter top and backsplash, and polished everything to a better-than-new finish.

 

In the early Fall, we'll have the painters in and everything will be BM Dove White. Before then, we'll have 6 Fun Kids here for a lovely visit, so we'll paint AFTER their stay.

 

Study-Dining Room

This color is difficult to capture. 

I've tried in by night...

And, I've tried it by day...