Bar Halfway Done

So I've painted the bar with chalk paint. Once I finished all the coats of paint, it was time to wax it. Waxing was really difficult, mainly because I couldn't find any consistent instructions on how to do it. It seems that every person has their own way of doing it. After doing one side of the shelves and the shelf above the cabinet base, I decided it wasn't worth it to wax the rest of the built-in, just the parts that would receive heavier use. I'm completely content with this decision now, but if I change my mind, I can always wax the remaining parts later.

The last part to this are the cabinet doors. I've ordered these handles for the doors:

I ordered them from Liz's Antique Hardware which looks like a shop I will definitely need to visit if I'm ever in LA. They have not arrived yet, but once they do, I'll decide which way I want them to face. I'd like them to be vertical, instead of horizontal as shown, but I can't decide which direction I will do. We'll have to wait and see!

In the meantime, I went ahead and installed the shelves and started to fill them up/attempt to style them.

Here's my progress before it got dark:

And I made a few changes after dark, mainly adding a lamp, hoping it would help with our lack of light:

I don't think it worked. The light that the lamp produces is trapped by the shelves. I think the only way to solve that is to do glass shelving or a mirrored back. I think we'll live with this for a while, see how it works for us and just enjoy it as a function space before doing anything else.

Now, I plan to make it much cuter, but I'm still finding some things packed away throughout the house. I have the perfect piece of art for behind the humidor, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I'm beginning to think it might still be at my in-laws from the moving weekend madness. I want to corral the bottles on a tray or something that defines that area as it's own little space. 

The pink blob you see on the second shelf is a stack of hot pink linen napkins. I want to get them monogrammed sometime soon...I'm thinking of doing something fun like gold thread or white thread. 

I also plan to paint/paper the back of the bookcase, but that's not happening right now.

I think this paper could be cute to use this wrapping paper on the back wall of the built in:

I think it could be fun to switch it every so often, with the seasons or mood changes. I think I could do some solids colors or various prints. We'll get there...slowly.

In the meantime, Phil and I are trying to decide HOW to light the den. It's just soooo dark, even with the new panelling. Neither of us regret taking down the florescent lights, but we're both tired of the room lite only in one corner. Today we discussed putting one, maybe two of this chandelier in the den:

PROS: Let there be light! And it would make the room feel more grand, I think. Oh, and it would light the room.

CONS: This room gets REALLY warm. The sun sets on it every day and there is nary a tree or branch blocking that direct sunlight. So we'd kind of like to put a ceiling fan (I know, I know, they are usually ugly) in the den to manage the temperature. But if finding a decent ceiling fan is tough, finding a ceiling fan with a light kit that is also moderately attractive feels impossible. These are the only ones that we've liked:

This coppery one:

And this huge one (diameter is 63"....only 3" shorter than me):

I just don't know. For aesthetic and light reasons, I'd like a lovely light fixture. But I'd also like to go a day without sweating while watching television, which makes me want a ceiling fan.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to light this room? There's not a ton of space for lamps in the places that need light, but I can't figure out what kind of lights need to go where. We'd also like to avoid having to do any extensive and expensive lighting changes, but that may be our only option.

Here's pictures of the room in its currently dim status, if that helps you help me:

and the darkest area, leading to the hallway/basement access:

Any ideas on how to add some light to this room?

Made a Dencision?

I'm really liking this pun. I'm just so indencisive about what to do in there (the den, for you people who don't get this fabulous pun). With the arrival of the new rug, this is what I'm thinking:

So I'd like to cover the sofas in a crisp indigo blue. All the fabrics I've found so far are too...nautical boys room. I want to find a really beautiful crisp color. Then I want to spice it up with some pinks and aquas and maybe I'll even throw in some green. I'll choose all the accessories later, but for now I need to find whats going on these sofas so I can have some slipcovers made!

But while I'm looking for that perfect blue....I'll also keep my eyes peeled for a fun color to do this with:

Contrast lining! If I did that fun dotted fabric for the curtains, wouldn't it be fun if I lined them with a fun color? It would need to be pale since we get some intense light...but because it's just lining, it could also be really cheap and lightweight. I'll see what I can find - maybe a crisp robins egg blue or a good peach, etc.

This weekend is fabric-hunting weekend! I'll let you know if I find THE ONE.

Bookcase Bar Progress

Nope, it's not done. This is merely an update on an unfinished project, written perhaps so you won't lose hope (and I won't either). I took your suggestions into consideration (conveyed mostly over gchat, text message and in person) and chose to go with a more neutral color...a greige, if you will.

Now Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan only comes in 30 colors, but it has a really lovely finish and when you put a wax finish on it, it's even nicer. Or at least that's what they told me - I haven't gotten to the waxing yet. You can mix you own color out of their options, but I was worried it would look too shabby chic (as most stuff painted with chalk pain tends to) and well, I'm too lazy to add color matching to this already tedious process.

So I chose this guy. French Linen.

In the store, it looked much more beige than the other grey choices but I reminded myself of the difficulty I had with greys for the front room. What looks grey at the store looks lavender at home. And I finally realized that what looks grey at home looks beige in the store. So even though I hate beige and this paint wasn't cheap, I went with it.

And it's great. Perfect. It blends in so well with the fireplace stone and its a few shades darker than the front room so I think has a nice cohesion to it.

 (This photo allows you see the new rug in this room...along with our really nice collection of upholstered sofas.)

 The photo above is after like...2-3 coats. I bought the paint last Monday and I think I've painted for at least an hour each day since, but I'm STILL not done. It's a very thin paint so it takes multiple layers.

Earlier today, after another coat or so, I took this picture:

Ugh. I'm sorry these are so low-quality. But at least you get an idea of the color. And also, if I keep showing you bad pictures, you're more likely to be impressed with the final result, right? About an hour ago, after I took this picture, I painted over that white spot at the top, and finished all the other touch-ups on the actual built-in.

 Watching paint dry.

Now, I'm trying to finish all the shelves and the cabinet doors. This is hard. Why won't they just paint themselves? I just ran out of paint (which is why the only progress I can make in this moment is to write about it), so I need to go get some more tomorrow. Maybe I can really knock out the shelves tomorrow night. I probably won't have a chance to put the wax finish on until Friday, but if I can have everything painted by then, that would be ideal.

I won't have a chance to look for fabrics until next weekend. In the meantime I hope to present a clearer idea and options for the upholstery. And then you can give me your thoughts, again. I'll work on this and hopefully update soon.

Den Changes...What color to paint the built-in?

I guess nothing is as permanent as change, especially when it comes to my house ideas. Since I posted the first Den Decision Option, we got some more family hand-me-downs that are changing my whole idea for the space. This rug is the "culprit."

And when I say "culprit," I mean that in the best way possible. I really like this rug. It BELONGS in the den for several reasons:

1. It's very large, and so it make sense to put it in the biggest, most used room
2. It's very soft and feels good to bare feet, unlike the sisal rug I was planning to use. And the most-used room needs a soft rug, right?
3. The only other place to put it is in the front room, and it competes with the yellow sofa. I'm just not sure I could make those two work together. Or that I want to try.

But, this means I have to ditch my previous idea. This rug doesn't need the room to match it, but it does need the other elements in the room to embrace it's beauty. I just don't think the black/white stripes will embrace it properly.

Oriental rugs are kind of difficult for me. I grew up loving them and I love so many of them that I've seen in homes but I've never had one available, so I've never thought about them in terms of my design. And now, we have 3. And lots of carpeted rooms. So as a result, I'm a little confused about what, exactly to do with them.

So, in my attempt to make this rug SHINE in this room without being too matchy-matchy, I've decided to go with a navy or dark blue sofa. I've ordered lots of fabric samples in those colors, and hopefully they will arrive tomorrow. I'm thinking of something like this:

So I've pretty made my mind up (for once) on this. BUT what I can't decide is to do with the built-in bookcase aka "bar area." Sadly, this is what it's looked like since we painted the den:

So, I felt like I should do some labor on Labor Day so I decided to plan out the layout of the "bar," so that I could figure it everything fit appropriately. It did! Here's the "rough draft:"

Sorry for the poor photo quality. I always take pictures after I've been working on the actual project and I tend to get shaky hands...need to try to get better about that. Don't worry, the bottom part will be covered by the cabinet doors so none of that stuff will show...(and most of it will go in the basement after these projects finally finish. After I set up the shelves at the heights I needed them, I finally finished priming all the wood. I just need to choose a color and start painting.

I want to paint it a contrast color...something different than the walls. I'm just at a loss as to what color to paint it. I'm thinking an almost-black navy...much darker than the sofa. Or maybe a pale aqua? Or a blush pink? I'd also like the do the back of the built-in a different color...unless you think that is a bad idea.

Any ideas of a good color for the bookcase that will complement the white walls and navy sofas?

Master bed/bath in Technicolor

For some reason, I tend to neglect the master bedroom the most in terms of design. Design probably isn't even the right word. It really just gets no attention...not to say I haven't thought extensively about what I want for it...but I just can't come up with any decisions.

So I've recently decided that the master bedroom is the best place to put this rug, which has recently been living in the den:

and some of my favorite details:

My father-in-law gave us this rug and it's never been used (to my knowledge), so it's in spectacular shape. Now, I know navy oriental rugs are not really on-trend, but it's too high quality of a rug to not be used. Since it's been in the den, I've spent way too many hours looking it and I've discovered so many neat components in the design. I love the peachy blush pink and cool celadon found in parts of the design. I began to think about a pink and navy bedroom. I liked that idea, but I couldn't think of a way to pull it off in that room without it being too matchy matchy.

And then......I saw this:

Elizabeth Bauer's apartment in New York City, seen in Lonny.

Now I had seen this room before, but I hadn't really SEEN it, I guess. At least not thinking of how I could use it to inspire our master bedroom.

I'm not sure I can really express how much I LOVE that sofa. Obviously, I have a thing for stripes. And apparently for striped sofas. But this is just too fun. It's mostly cool colors and yet it just feels so....warm. I think that's because it's velvet. And if you look closely, the lines are kind of raised in different colors, so there is another dimension of texture. SO when I saw that, I thought of this chair, recently purchased at an estate sale and currently feeling very lonely in our basement:

Wouldn't it be soooo cute in this velvet stripe? It would be the perfect place to snuggle in the morning while I'm still groggy, but need to get out bed. Anyone who's seen me in the morning knows what I'm talking about. The stripe I'm considering is by Designer's Guild and is called Cordellina (Ocean colorway):

So then, I'm thinking that I would either paint the walls a crisp, light aqua OR paint the walls a really fresh white and then paint the ceiling a really crisp light aqua. I've been dying to copy Suzanne Rheinstein's use of grosgrain in her foyer:

Pictures from Mark D. Sikes...more pictures of her fancypants home in that link. Y'all, that is GROSGRAIN. Trimming out every piece of molding. I love it so much. 

We need to add some crown molding to master bedroom (and every other room, for that matter), so I would need to do that first, but then I think it would be super cute to put some navy grosgrain ribbon along the trim like this. Of course, our molding will never be that fabulous, but we can make it work. Then, I could also do it in the master bathroom, and instead of doing crown molding, just do ribbon instead.

So that brings us to this:

(this photo is from the realty listing. sadly, it does not normally look like this.)

The tile in the bathroom is a hard color to describe. Sometimes it just looks like your standard almond color, and then other times, it looks kind of green...almost a pale pistachio. Once I saw Elizabeth Bauer's apartment, I decided her sofa and bedding would inspiration for the room, but the wallpaper in her bed area is my inspiration for the bathroom. I'm thinking I'd like to wallpaper the wall (just the top 3ft...the rest of the wall is tiled) and the ceiling of the bathroom. I think it'd be a fun way to bring some drama to a simple bathroom. We will most likely re-do this bathroom, but it's the lowest priority on the remodeling list so it probably won't happen for some years. Also, I think it would take less than 2 rolls to do the walls and so I could choose a pricier wallpaper that I wouldn't be able to use in a bigger space because of the cost.

So, these are some of the wallpapers I'm thinking of. I want to start with the wallpaper for the bathroom because I want that to be kind of crazy and the actual bedroom to be more calm.

OPTION 1

Linnaeus from Designer's Guild. Love the funky topiaries, love the large scale of the print, and I think the color would be so pretty. Plus, right now I'm currently reading a book called The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession and in this book, the author talks about Linnaeus (A Swedish Botanist). Apparently Linnaeus knew he was amazing at botany and was so prideful that he used the third person in all his notes and diaries so that it would be easy for his students to write biographies about him. When I read the section about that, I laughed out loud. I'll save you from my feeble attempt at a literary review, but this wallpaper is very pretty and will remind me of the pompous botanist (who we can all thank for organizing plant species).

OPTION 2

Scene Indigo by Prestigious Wallpapers. Pretty park scene that has all the neat elements of a toile but in a cleaner, more modern way.

OPTION 3

Sussex Downs by Sanderson.

I love this one for similar reasons. I love that it's a scenic print, but so much looser and less formal than traditional than the typical blue and white toile.

OPTION 4

Aspen by Sanderson. 

I like this for the same reasons as the others. It introduces more colors, but is monochromatic so it doesn't get too crazy.

OPTION 5

Shibori by Scion.

The only geometric of the bunch. It's probably the most true to the the inspiration pictures, but I think the blue might be too bright for my taste. I'm going to order a sample so I have a better idea...unless y'all veto it before I get that far.

So, what do you prefer? Is there a pattern you really love? I welcome your thoughts. Actually I want them so that I don't spend $ on something no one else likes, except me.

The oriental rug from a family member arrived today, along with the 5th (and final?) sofa, so hopefully I'll have some thoughts and photos on that later this week.

Den Decision, Option 1

Well, we've had an action-packed month. Phil went on a 8-day "vacation" to the hospital with meningitis (don't worry, he was never contagious). It's a long story, but he's home now and starting to feel better. Guess this means he has a free pass on being my handy-man-husband for a few more weeks until he's back to 100%

So as a result, our house looks....the same. Actually, surprisingly, it's somewhat cleaner. When he was in the hospital, I would come home every night and do some unpacking/organizing/cleaning/etc. I FINALLY caught up on laundry (but the secret to that is that he was wearing hospital gowns and not clothes, so I had fewer clothes to wash). Anyway, during all this time, my mind has been going crazy with different rabbit trails for ideas for the house. The minute I decide "oh, I'll do [insert idea here]," I then come across some new fabric/inspiration picture/furniture arrangement that makes me totally change my mind. OR, even better, one of our loving family members gives us another item of furniture and things get switched up in my mind. So not all the rabbit trails are bad rabbit trails.

Well, the den should be the highest priority, but it's the room that has me the most ambivalent. I've liked this idea I had of black/white/greys/greens/reds for that room, but I think our (free, beautiful, high-quality antique) oriental rugs are dictating a different direction. They arrive this week, so hopefully I will know where to put them.

Oh and by the way, as you will soon see, we obviously did not go the route of the Lee Industries sofa...long, boring story, but basically, we now own 5 sofas and we paid $200 for all them total...so we're just going to slipcover some of them.

If we go with the original color scheme, I'm thinking that I want both sofas covered in black and white stripes....something like these:

I can't find the source on this one....working on it. 

from Vogue. Pretty sure that is Carolina Herrera. 

Then I like the simplicity of this one from Moth Design

I love the subtlety of this one, but I don't think I'm brave enough to do a mostly-white couch in the most-used room. I don't need the sofas to look exactly like the ones above, I just want the fun/classic look of black and white stripes.

So there are three fabric options I'm considering for the sofas in the den:

OPTION 1 - Thick Black and Cream Stripes (stripes are about 2.5" wide)
 I have not felt this with my own hands yet, so I'm unsure of how durable it is.

OPTION 2 - Thin black and cream stripes (stripes are about .25" wide). Durable enough for upholstery. Most expensive per yard.

OPTION 3- Stripes that aren't of equal size....cream background, black stripes (black stripes are about .5" and the cream part is about 2"). This one is also durable enough for upholstery. Also, plus side: the fabric weave is a little different in the black parts and for some reason it is REALLY soft and yet still sturdy. Least expensive per yard.

So to help you help me make this decision, these are the other [potential] components of the room:

And the bookcase at the back of the room (as seen in the picture below) I would probably paint a glossy charcoal grey and paint the back of the inside red....

So, with all that info, what do you think? Which fabric do you think would be a good choice for the sofas? I haven't decided how exactly I want to use the pyne hollyhock....I'd love some crazy roman shades with simple cream curtains with some black pom-pom trim....but that may be a little too crazy.

There is also this fabric to consider for shades or curtains... I'd like to use it on something like that, if that helps your decision :)