Have you Rue-ed?

You know my growing obsession with dark walls, and the new issue of Rue had just the medicine for this grey Monday morning.

Bathroom by Windsor Smith

Jolene Ballard and Amanda Malson

Cozy chic retreat

I saw this house over on Full House and fell in love.

The new office: Mom's house

As mentioned previously, the office moved from the green room to here. This was the office in its interim stage.

Those pictures were hung up years before by the decorator when there was nothing else here. This is the rest of the play room. 

 The foosball table will be moving to the lake when the basement is finished! I don't know why, but that excites me, apparently.

Last weekend when I was home I moved the picture wall from mom's new office corner...seen here, again...

To the mostly empty wall above the bookcase...

I began by laying everything out on the floor and pool table, added in all of my parents diplomas, awards, etc...

Then I picked a corner and began nailing. 

I started this project at about 7 pm, and (as we can tell from the lopsided pictures) kept pushing through till I quit around 10:30. When I left Monday morning the office part of the playroom was beginning to take shape. We took the two lamps from other parts of the house, I put together the bulletin board and we finalized the fabric choice for her desk skirt. Tune in to see how I put it all together!

P.S. I am often tempted to wait until the end of these projects to share them with y'all...you know that amazing before and after post...BUT I have decided to keep it real and show you the chaos and process it takes to put a room together, especially for a DIYer like me who wants to be hands-on with every project. Lucky for me I have an amazing family who puts up with it all!

Lampaholic

I have a thing for lighting. Growing up I loved coats, purses and shoes...I couldn't have enough of the perfect accessories that fit all the time. But lamps have taken their place. Here are a few of my favorites these days.

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Overdone or not, I still love it!

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In my 1, 200 sf apartment I have 12 lamps.  Did I just admit that?

Basement Bathroom Scenarios

Forgive me as I use this as a communication tool to show my parents what I am thinking for the lake house basement bathroom (you can see the demolition/expansion here) . This bathroom will have to serve up to 10 people at full capacity so we are out to maximize the illusion of spaciousness with a wall-mounted sink (plus we can handily store stepping stools beneath for future bambinos, PLUS (as mom and I discussed yesterday) we can just fill the second sink and it could be the baby pool. Just kidding. 

Above: American Standard's Vitreous China All-Purpose Sink (30" x  22"); $594.57 at eFaucets.

Above: The classic three-foot-long Kohler Brockway Wash Sink with drillings for two faucets ; $808.86 at Every Faucet.

Two of these super fun and water-proof (because they are outdoor) sconces on either side of a mirror.

Above: Barn Light Electric Industrial Static Topless Sconce, $109.00 each.

Walls will be wood hung horizontally and painted white for sanitary/ spaciousness reasons. The verdict is still out on the flooring...any ideas out there? I found a mirror at Sleepy Poet for 30$, just need to go buy it ( if its still there!)...So really just flooring issues/shower tile...who out there has an amazing source/great idea?!

Good old lamp makeover

Last weekend, Mom found this old oil lamp in the attic that her grandmother, Lydia, had wired as a lamp. The wires and socket were hanging out of the top of the lamp and it was in need of some serious polish. Here it is after I cut out all of the old wires.

The old wiring...

After a few hours and severe cramping in my right hand I had her mostly polished up. I installed my "Make a lamp" kit from Ace Hardware (just like I did here) and as my Monday brain would have it I was electrocuted two times when checking to see that I had wired it correctly. You'd think I would wizen up, eh? The second time really, really hurt (did I ever tell y'all about the time I was really electrocuted while swimming in the lake during lightening? Seriously. You really should get out when it starts to thunder...listen to your parents). With only a few tears shed I wrapped up the project and rushed to steal a shade from another lamp to see what it would look like.

And, now, in the interest of showing you my busts as well as my successes, the truth: the lamp is very, very crooked. After a couple of decades it seems to have gone Pisa. I had to turn the lamp around several times to get a shot that wasn't terribly lopsided. My thoughts: 1) this is an oil lamp, not a real 21st century lamp...it can be crooked if it wants, 2) if the lamp goes strategically into the corner and is operated by a wall switch, and no one ever touches it....then no one (besides you) will ever know, 3) I hope that when I am almost a 100 years old, no one will fault me for being crooked, or slightly tarnished for that matter, 4) did you know that a synonym for the word crooked when used in the "crooked cop" context is "hinky"? (have I said the word "crooked" yet? It's beginning to look misspelled to me...)

The home swap saga continues...

I mentioned the "green" room in the last post but realized most of you have no idea what that room is. It has led many lives: Travis' bedroom, my "second" room (still getting crap about that from my brothers), and most recently mom's office.

Once again, I feel like I am cheating you out of all the before and after wonder by posting semi-before pictures of this room as an office. 

By this point in the picture taking almost half of the furniture in here and been moved to the office's new location in the play room. But you can get a taste of its former glory. 

 I bet mom is starting to cringe when she sees that I have another post on her house. No comments on hoarding tendencies this time mom, promise.

Anyways after a day of cleaning we finally had all of the stuff either organized or out on the curb to the picked up by the gleaners. It's amazing how many pictures I have of this room, but  no picture of it clean with my bed moved in there. Well, just something to look forward to :)

Small, Dark, Bold

I have an itch to paint the "green" room at home a dark color. We moved my brass bed in there and I think it would be stunning.

(ok, not "dark" but there are dark elements and I just love this room)