Orange Perfection

I was reading an inspiring post on color by Kate at Centsational Girl, and she posted this image of Martha Stewart's.

It's my favorite color. Perfected in design, just for me to see, I swear.  

Martha Stewart

A gorgeous marriage.  Traditional design, modern twist.  And orange!  True love, my friends. I'm dizzy.  I need to sit down.  In that chair.


Talk to you soon,
Carol

Before and After: My "Office Nook" in Progress

Okay, okay, office nook is an exaggeration.  It's wall space in our bedroom occupied by my desk.  Bedroom workspace?  Tsk, tsk, you say -- I hear you.  But it's the only available real estate in the house, and I'm making it work.

When my friend Lisa moved this summer, she offered me I subtly suggested that if she wasn't  moving all of her office wall unit (who knew what space she'd have in the next house?), I would be glad to relieve her of the middle desk and hutch. (Lol.  Anyone who knows me can hear me telling her it was the least she could do for leaving me in a puddle.)  Anyway,

this is where the picture is supposed to go of the dated cherry finish 

desk and hutch, being sanded by yours truly in the garage.  

However, unable to find it, I will tell you instead 

that it was in serious need of a new life.

After I primed the desk, we hauled it to our bedroom upstairs. (You know how to tell cheap furniture?  It weighs a ton from all the MDF.  Don't worry, Lisa knows this -- it came from her husband's old office.)  The walls in our room were BM Vellum, and the stylish chair is straight from my man's office.  Here's the Before...

It was like this from October until last week. 

What lit a fire under my butt to start the bedroom retreat I've been promising my husband?  My 14 year old girls' birthday sleepover.  We have no finished basement or hang-out space.  Enough said?  "Retreat" will have many meanings in the years ahead.

This really is an "In Progress."  More to come, but I thought I'd share where I've gone so far...

Who knew when I reupholstered this chair (myself) last year, that Honeysuckle would be the color of this year?  I blush at how ahead of the curve I am (lol, hahaha...).  Seriously, I took this wing chair from the living room, along with the drapes, to start the bedroom. (I have other plans for the living room.)  The house has been morphing as we go along, and since the bedroom needed drapes, well, why make new ones when I could move them and change the living room?  Brilliant, I know.  (Cheeky this post, aren't I?)

The color of the room is now BM Antique Parchment, and the desk color is BM Natural Wicker.  I'm super happy so far.  There are more plans for my nook.  New lamp, shelving, and other surprises.  And the bedroom, there are plans for that, too.  But, I'm committed to trying to pace myself (like that will happen) because I tend to wipe myself out.  Off to do more painting...

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Pillow Love in the Works

I am so excited about some remnant fabrics I found yesterday.  A green velvet to swoon over.  A yellow-green color so delicious in real life you want to stare at it for days (am I the only one who actually does that?).  A satiny paisley with all the right colors.  Oh, and wait till you see how I plan to trim out the green ones :).

Remember this chinoiserie Kravet pillow I made here?  These new babies will be snuggling up close...

Stay tuned for a tutorial on knife edged pillows.  (I'm not a fan of dog-eared pillows, as I am a firm believer that dog ears should only be the soft ones attached to a dog's head. :)


Talk to you soon,
Carol

Before and After: Our Stairs

Our last house, which we moved from four plus years ago, has within its walls too many DIY projects to count -- new stairs, all new floors, moldings, window seats, and the list goes on.  We had gotten it pretty much the way we wanted, and then of course, we decided to move in favor of a little more space and privacy.

Taking on our current house meant doing some projects all over again.  The worst of which, in my man's mind, was the stairs...

(The day of our inspection, me in the kitchen).  It was almost an insult, being assaulted by the super cheap, blue-gray, worn rug in this picture -- it was the exact same rug we had lived with and hated in the old house for ten years!  And, alas, we were haunted by it anew.  (Oh, and I know you are checking out the $.99 tile, two different styles, no less, in the hall and the kitchen.  Put your green eyes away, lol...that's another story.)

Anyway, this past summer, my man reached his breaking point and ripped up the carpet and the pine builder's board stairs and replaced them with oak.  Admittedly not my favorite species, but we had to coordinate with things existing, so there you have it.   He did a gorgeous job. He can do anything.  I'm seriously lucky.

After we'd finished painting the outside of the house all summer, the runner went on in the fall, followed by my drawing molding boxes on the wall and wallpapering them two weeks ago (a great girl-power day, teaching my teenage girls how to measure, cut and wallpaper)...

My man then cut and installed all the molding pieces I'd painted (BM Standish White) and finally, the finished product...

In reality, the wall is darker than it appears here, and the Versailles pattern wallpaper by Jaima Brown has the exact BM Crown Point Sand color in it as the walls are painted.  The stained woodwork is reflected in the warm brown tones in the paper, too.

What a difference it has made in the plain and tall front hall and stairway.  Just enough English meets French country.  I just wish the pictures showed just how nicely the colors of the rooms layer with the hallway :(, but you get the idea.  (Oh, and the floor in there will eventually be a limestone look, in varying size tiles, to give a stony feel -- another thing left behind in the old house!)

So, that's part of what I've been up to lately.  I took some time off from blogging to attend to some other commitments, but I couldn't stay away too long.  Blogging is such an addiction. :)

What's got you busy around the house?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Would You Fix Your Own Plumbing?

I wouldn't.  I don't know a thing about it.  I might give it a try, knowing all the while where the plumber's phone number is.  And it would be someone I was referred to.  By someone I know.  Someone who thought he (or she) did great work  That's why you hire a designer, too.

So, if you don't have a clue how to decorate or design in your home, why wouldn't you hire a professional?  Same concept as the plumber.

I just commented on Maria's post An Argument for Decorating at Colour Me Happy (go read it when you leave here, it's really good), and what I said at the end of my comment was...

"Why would you go it alone in the place that holds your life?"

Think about it.  I had to share it.  Your home is a bit of your soul, shared with the ones you love every day. No one will notice the dated cabinets when the atmosphere hugs you when you come in the front door.  Oh, and the coffee pot is on.

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Spring Green

Designer Ann Coyle created this fresh haven and it's where I want to be.  Right now.  Cheery.  Pretty.  Fresh.  Spring.  I'm drinking very hot coffee with cream, no sugar, in one of those chairs.  Laptop on lap.

Oh Happy Tuesday.

Have a great day and

Talk to you soon,
Carol

I Got A New Rack

Put your eyebrows down.  Plastic surgery isn't the topic today.  I'm talking antlers.  Deer antlers.

If you read design blogs or the latest magazines on hot decor, you'd have to be sleeping through it to not to notice all the antlers being used in design of late.  They are everywhere, from white plastic deer heads to silver coated Texas Long Horns.  Some of them are clever and whimsical.  And I have to say, unless you have a personal connection to them in some way, why would you use them for any other reason but whimsy?  The fake ones, I mean.

Here's a couple of examples, the first from Ballard Designs, the other source unknown...

(I found the above on Google images, which led to the blog  Chic on a Shoestring, which I immediately fell in love with.  Check it out.)

I won't bore you with the million images out there of rooms using them.  Instead, I will entertain you, lol, with this image from my family room.

The antlers, yes, are real, and they came from my parent's house, where my dad has several racks holding his collection of baseball hats and other sundries.  They line the stairs to the basement.  When I asked him if he'd like to donate some to my family room (in my ongoing attempt to have this room truly reflect our family), he offered me these.  I love them.  He had mounted them on a slab from a cedar tree.

So I have given in to trend and put antlers in my house.  Only because they reflect my dad, and my husband's one foray into deer hunting (another story).  They also contribute to the English library feeling I'm going for in there.  (Can't you just imagine the stenciled, tone on tone damask pattern that coming to those walls? :).

Do tell...are you in or out on antlers?

Talk to you soon,
Carol