Projects and Lions and Bears, Oh My!

I believe I am skipping too many days between posts here, which is happening because I haven't had a chance to take photographs so I can illustrate what I'm talking about.

I have a lot of projects simmering - lots to talk about. My major project is my daughter's room, but I am also collecting items for my son's room, on the lookout for a console table and low bookshelf for the living room, I'm scouting a dining room table, my office needs attention, and I need a new mirror for our entry way.

Each of those rooms has received a new little trinket or two over the past several months, and I need to get my shutter clicking. I suppose that will be my decorating goal next week: putting it all in pictures!

It's hard to believe that we renovated our old house and then immediately sold it. I hand picked every stone, tile, cabinet, etc., for our old kitchen (I do not think I handpicked that ground beef that's morphing into spaghetti sauce):

We made our master bathroom over, turning a small space into a small retreat:

Remember what I said about my habit of taking photos of just pieces of a room? Sorry about that. Anyway, we did the same with the hall bath:

It's funny how we took elements out of that home and into this one, and they just don't translate seamlessly. The art in our old master bathroom is in our new master bath, but it's not singing to me. Another project.

I once had a fully decorated living room, with little vignettes that made me happy:

Then we sold that house, and bought an empty box.

That was how we found the living room - a blank slate, waiting for us to make it home. We brought in all our things and painted.

We knew many of the things would be changing, but boy - we didn't realize how much! Toddler twins have taken that room nearly back to the blank slate. But as they get older, we are slowly bringing things back in.

A couple other early house pics:

This table, shown in my master bathroom, has had a lot of lives in this house. It's currently my nightstand!

The jewelry boxes below aren't arranged like this anymore:

And we've certainly taken down the Christmas garland from our first holiday season.

So here I am, knee deep in projects, hopefully a little better with the camera compared to back then, if only I get around to taking some current shots.

Stay tuned (please!).

New Kid on the Block

At least to me.

I love it when I receive a catalog from a store I've never heard of before. That happened today, and I'm sitting next to a happy little book from Giggle, a new (?) baby products retailer.

Most of the items in the catalog are too young for my nearly two and a half year old toddlers (and are certainly inappropriate for my eighteen year old). My sister is pregnant and due in December, but I think the catalog companies all think it's me, since I'm getting baby product catalogs and free formula samples and whatnot lately. No, I am not pregnant. Yes, I am sure. No, I don't know what's up with the catalog folks who apparently have not accepted that my factory is permanently closed.

But I digress. Giggle has some adorable ideas, that I WOULD look into if I were having a baby. Perhaps they will bring out a line of puppy items. Hmmm. For now, enjoy a few pieces of baby eye candy with me, if you will.

All images from Giggle.com.

First up, this crib. It's so modern and groovy (I don't get to use the word groovy that often). Looky see:

It's smaller than a regular crib, so could be of use in a vacation home or at Grandma's house, especially considering that it folds!

And it comes in cool colors:

How many times have you heard someone say, "I have a taupe crib?" Exactly. Very original. Unless it's gray, and not taupe, but I have a feeling the answer is the same.

I have always been staunchly anti-diaper pail. Well, at least staunchly against the ones that suggest you leave a poopy diaper marinating inside for up to a week and then empty it when it becomes full. Ew. I prefer to dispatch smelliness to an outdoor or garage garbage can immediately. Of course, my distaste is probably because I'd never encountered such a fun looking one:

For that, I might have gotten off my high, diaper clad horse.

Now here are a few things I could still use. Not sure if my husband will agree to get rid of our existing booster seats, which we rarely use, just so I can have fun with this one:

It doesn't hurt that it comes in orange, one of my favorite colors. And further doesn't hurt that it also comes in a crisp green, another of my favs.

That? That is a pretty booster seat. So modern and clean lined, too.

I know this is a lot of pictures, but I'm not sure I can stop. I'm also loving these training pants (should my toddlers ever decide they have even the slightest interest in being potty trained):

And that's it. Really. Well, except for this adorable table set:

And an against the norm bassinet.

I swear I've never heard of Giggle before, and I didn't receive anything to showcase these items (I only have a handful of readers, who would give me anything?). This is kind of pathetic, considering how many photos I posted, but perhaps Giggle will pay it forward one day.

Or come read my blog. :)

The Craigslist Dance

I am obsessed with very fond of Craigslist.

I check the site every day, making sure to hit three pages: Annapolis, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Occasionally I check Richmond, VA, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Philadelphia, telling myself that for the right deal on the right piece, I'd drive (history is proving this to be a lie, however).

I actually have a bad track record on Craigslist. I see plenty of deals, but what I tend to get in the car with is junk. Enough junk that my ultra frugal husband asked me to stop buying used items and to just spend money on something new that I would keep.

In my defense, the items don't seem like junk when I hop in the car, but I seem to be unable to tell sellers that I don't want their wobbly table/wobbly chair/tattered younameit, and the next thing I know I'm driving back home with a piece of crap tied to my car with twine.

I can fix this. First, I need to get a Craigslist backbone. It is not a crime to disappoint people, who know very well that their items are junk and probably howl with laughter before my tires leave their driveways. Second, I need to increase the amount of money I'm willing to spend. For some reason, I have it in my head that I need to spend $100 or less when shopping CL. There are quite a few gorgeous items on there for quite a few dollars more than $100. I'm not even sure where I got that number.

I told my husband that I'd make a compromise. I cannot give up Craigslist, or brick and mortar thrifting, and sink wholly into the world of new retail purchases only. I think I'd break into hives. So I'll be more discriminating about what comes home from Craigslist, or The Salvation Army, or any of my varied consignment shop haunts.

I will follow new rules.

Rule: No buying items that do not coordinate with anything I own. In the least.

I think the lines of this table are gorgeous, but the table is too small, even with a leaf, for use as the dining room table I need. It also requires refinishing, which brings me to the next rule:

No buying what are essentially new projects until I finish a few of the projects I already have going.

I think this sofa is amazing, but I'd want to reupholster it. Big project, and I'm not ready.

Rule 3: Stick somewhat to a sense of style your husband can appreciate.

I know that this settee is gorgeous, but it would be beyond him. Too traditional, too floral, too too. I do believe in mixing and matching pieces for a transitional look, but I think this piece might be too large to pull that off. If it were a chair, that would be another story.

Last rule: Don't procrastinate.

This gorgeous midcentury chair (one in a set! Whoo hoo!) is unlikely to still be available after a week, which is when I'd generally get around to contacting the seller. If I wanted these chairs, I'd need to act today.

But I don't want them. I don't think. I think I'd want a different fabric on them, and, well, see the rules above.

Again, I'm a work in progress.

Nightstands For A Little Girl

For some reason, I've become fixated on having unique side tables for my daughter's bedroom, and at some point that fixation narrowed down to a desire for tray tables.

No, I have not figured out how to keep a tray table from snapping closed on my toddler. First, I need to FIND the tables, and then will commence the worrying about the snapping closed thing.

These tray tables have proven to be elusive. Either they are too utilitarian:

Or too fancy for a little girl:

I'm hoping to find something simple, with clean lines, in white. Unfortunately, this one is sold by a store in the United Kingdom, a place we are not even thinking of visiting until the twins can walk unaided through an airport.

Also, the sides are slightly higher than I envisioned. There are others, but they are not quite right. Too modern:

Not white (although for the perfect one, I could paint).

The table doesn't necessarily have to fold... I like this:

That table seems very utilitarian, too, given that it's usually in a hospital or medical office, but again, I'm envisioning it painted white, sans wheels.  I like this one, too:

Again, painted white.

The main issue with all of these, however, is that I need to buy them from a brick and mortar store, to assess the aforementioned probability of snapping closed, pinching fingers, or otherwise causing issues.

I haven't run into it yet, but the hunt continues. I suspect that while I track down the tray tables, I will come across something else I like just as much or better, and will go with that. We'll see.

Think Pink

Or not.

When I went on the hunt for photographs of girl's bedrooms using strong color, I noticed an unsurprising trend: people really like pink for little girls.

Not that I have anything against pink. In fact, I like the color, particularly when paired with orange:

That's quite a headboard, isn't it? But I digress.

Nothing against pink, actually like it, but I do feel sorry for the little girl who doesn't care for it. It is very difficult to avoid. Google "Little Girl's Room" and you'll see what I mean.

Sugar and spice and everything nice, right? Pink is definitely associated with girls. Ironically, my understanding is that pink was originally a color reserved for baby boys. Who'd have thunk it?

My little girl's room will have little pink, however. At least to start - I'm sure it will creep in there somewhere, both because there is no way to avoid it, seemingly, and also because again: I do like the color. The main colors, however, will be yellow, green, orange, and blue, and the blues are taking their place as the second main color. The term "awash in blues" is pleasing to me, so maybe I'm subconsciously adding it in.

Hopefully as well as some others have.

There's that pink again, huh?

So we shall see.

I Could Do Better

One of my hurdles when decorating a room is showing it off. Seriously - I'm a slightly less than adequate photographer, and I tend to rush through taking photographs without properly staging a room. Case in point - take a look at the windows in the main image of this blog. That's a snapshot of my dining room, and the drapery rings are all askew. I should have straightened them out, made sure they were evenly spaced, etc., but no - I just whipped out my camera and started clicking.

I noticed this again when I went into my daughter's bedroom to take photographs of the window treatments there.

I spent a lot of time making a decision on those panels, and hunted down the plantation shutters for days. So why wouldn't I artfully arrange them all to ensure my photograph looked as nice as I think the finished product does? That little turn on the panels, showing the lining, drives me bananas. I need to work with how they are placed on the rings so that doesn't show.  So staging a room before photographing it will be one of the things I work on as I move through finishing my house, as will brushing up on my photography skills. I'd like to be just as pleased with the photos as I am the rooms in real life.

Anyway, back to the windows in my daughter's room. :)

When Pottery Barn recalled the Roman Shades because of a possible choking hazard, I went on a hunt for window blinds that literally had no strings attached. I decided on plantation shutters, and the quotes for shutters online were considerable, although not out of the question. Before I had a chance to think about that too much, I happened upon these on Craigslist (the previous owners were removing them from a child's room where they'd installed them for the same purpose I needed them). They were the perfect width, but not the perfect height, which was fine by me. The gap at the top reminded me of the old transoms above the doorways in rowhouses in Baltimore.

There is a duplex in Baltimore that is our family home; my grandmother lived in it; currently my uncle and aunt share it. One day I hope to post photos of it here. It contains all the classic Baltimore rowhouse charms: transom windows in every interior and exterior doorway, stained glass exterior windows, marble front steps, gorgeous millwork. So I went with the shutters that left a gap, as a little homage to my extended family home.

The panels were decided on with the help of a group of friends. I thought I wanted a strong pattern, but then opted for a solid since it provides more flexibility later on. My daughter is only two - I am sure as the years go on she will bring her own ideas to how the room should look, and hopefully these panels will transition as she grows.

There are two windows in this room, and you can see a sneak peek of her big girl bed which is now fully assembled. I followed Feng Shui rules (with the help of another friend) and placed the bed against a windowless wall. We'll see how committed I am to Feng Shui and if it stays there. I also still have to decision placement of the art.

And again with the non-staged photograph, here are the two windows (with flung open shutters on one and messy blankets on the footboard of the bed):

The room is a work in progress, and so am I.



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So What's a Coastal Style Colonial?

In my first post, I mentioned that my house is a Coastal Style Colonial. This description is actually only half of how I describe it (when I'm asked, which is generally only on decorating and design focused message boards). My house is a Coastal Style Colonial with an incomplete Charleston Entrance.

Really. I didn't make this up. Well, mostly I didn't make it up. :)

I came across the term Coastal Style Colonial when I started looking at different house plans in an effort to determine how our front elevation and overall curb appeal might be enhanced. What I found is that the term Coastal Style generally refers to a house that has a raised foundation and living areas situated above a pier type foundation (you know, the houses that appear to be on stilts) or that otherwise are not ground level. Very often, the living areas and kitchens of these houses are actually one floor above the bedrooms, the point being to provide the most expansive views to the public rooms of the house (you know. For the parties!).

In our particular house, our bedrooms are above the living areas as in a traditional home, but we have a raised foundation (as in, our basement is on the ground level and contains our entrance, the living areas and kitchen are on the second story, and bedrooms are on the third. It's a tall house).

So I'm sure about the Coastal Style. What I'm iffy about is the Colonial. The exterior of my house is classic Colonial: a rectangle. The interior is anything but. Colonials generally have a center hall entry with the living and dining rooms (or some rooms) flanking the center hall. My house has a contemporary layout, but the rectangular box feel is so strong from the outside, I just go with Colonial.

Now the Charleston entrance. Popular and named for houses in Charleston, South Carolina, a Charleston Entrance means your front door is actually on the side of the house.

With a Charleston Entrance, you generally see a faux front door that leads to a porch. Following the porch will lead you to the actual main entrance of the house.

Hopefully the second photo makes it clear - the front door is actually on the side of the house, in the middle of the porch.

I describe my entrance as a incomplete Charleston because it does not have the porch. Our front door is on the side, but the builder either ignored or was unaware of easement constraints that prevented the construction of the full porch (the porch would have to be wider than the easement from the property line allows). The previous owner, the house flipper, attempted to define the entrance by adding a portico over the door, but the portico is also in violation of the easement. Luckily we have a great next door neighbor who didn't object to granting an exception, and we paid our fine to let the portico remain standing. Our neighbor (did I mention how great he is?) has already said he won't object to the exception we'll have to apply for when and if we decide to construct the full porch.

I'm not sure what we'll end up doing. We have to replace the siding on our house, as well as the windows, so we'll make a decision about porches or not at that time.