State of the State of Chaos

I would like to announce that most of the "broken house" is placed in it's final position. Only one drawer is holding its ground.

Look there it is! On the non-green wall!!

Now why wouldn't the drawers be fully installed since it's been hanging for 3 days? Let's talk about making life harder. It started with the whole floating vanity idea. Similar pieces were around $750-$1000+  range. 

For example:

currently on sale for $755.99

and

$1,949.00

And those are Overstock prices. That's not my flavor. 

Ikea GODMORGAN at $329 was easy math. Now the laminated drawer fronts are a problem. Way too faux wood-ing for me. My answer of course is to buy solid oak and stain it to match. Of. Course. So I'm waiting (and waiting) for stain to dry. The other issue with the GODMORGAN is that the pre-drilled holes for the silver pulls are only 3" apart. I thought wider and golder handles would be better.

Anyhoo it's a far cry from where we started when we moved it. 

If you are loving the wallpaper I just found it on ebay. Not kidding. Little did I know I had paper gold in my hands.

The current shot again

Now to continue making my life harder.  I had a quick simple idea for the fireplace wall

that was terrible. So 3"x3" hand painted multicolored squares were the obvious (re)answer.

It's only going up about this high on both sides. I'll add a couple more when or if the fireplace gets finished. Sidenote: please let me know if you can find my marble guy because I can't anymore. 

The sconce above is from Restoration Hardware since someone had asked about it. Shout out to Restoration.

I love them, my husband hates them. Please contain your shock.

Many of you are now questioning my sanity. Yes, I am crazy for taking on the squares but insane would be to do the entire wall [says the voice in my head]. I leave you with this project to truly ponder my sanity.

Paper bag faux wood floors. PAPER. With a wood grain stamping tool.

That is crazy. I now look completely sane right?

Right?

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New PROPS

We are expanding the backdrop collection! Here is a preview!

If there are any you would like to suggest please feel free -we would love to hear!

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Photo of the Week #0096

Vivian Maier, a full time nanny living in Chicago in the 60s, captured over 100,000 portraits of street life with her Rolleiflex. It was her secret hobby that no on knew about until after her death just a few years ago. Her work was only discovered after a real estate agent bought her storage trunk of negatives at auction for a $380. Her work is AMAZING. Her selfies are worth the site visit alone. I could have picked all of her images for Photo of the Week but I'll leave you with just 5 of my favorites:

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State of the State of Chaos

Answers to the previous post:

Ugh. I'm currently "working it out" with the contractor.

Remember how I mentioned the lavatory as one of my 875,293 projects? Feast your eyes on this mess:

I can' t recall if the terrible green picked by my husband came first or if it was the birch. I hand painted the trees when the birch wallpaper was all the rage. I'm over it 2 years ago. I do, however, still love my $30 Menard's knock-off of the Tom Dixon light. Love. Not moving. P.J. says he hates it but he gently dusted it off the other day on his own merit. I think he secretly likes it.

The floors are 3/4" wood with nailhead details. I have a four year old boy that uses this toilet. You can put two and two together. It's gotta go. You can see that we started taking off the base board already.

My mug shots! I still love these and they will stay in the next rendition. Food for thought when guests are on the toilet. I have more that need to go up but right now my favorite is Frank Sinatra. He was arrested in 1938 for carrying on with a married woman. I'm sure that man had STOR-ies. I painted the wall black because I had to reduce the awful green. I let the man go rogue and look what happens. Please note this room canNOT be applied to my design style as I hate it as much as the next person. It's merely in limbo.

So as you may have guessed the "broken house" is still in the same place but will be the new vanity in here. I'm going gold handles and fixtures. Holla!

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State of the State of Chaos

So the dining room looks like this:

Ceiling is smooth and dark in a semi-gloss paint. Yes I did say semi-gloss. Since the color was dark I wanted that good window light to bounce around. Now is that the best idea for say, an older home with old ceilings? Probably not as there are likely flaws in old ceilings and semi-gloss only highlights those. Now my ceiling was brand big box store drywall new. It took about 5 rounds of spackle/smooth/spackle/smooth but it's next to perfect now. While I am pretty freekin' good with a spackle knife I wish I could say it was done easily and right away but I always find a way to make my life more difficult in the name of design. Whatever. It's done. The room is a work in progress just like the rest of them. Not sure I'm feeling the frames hung the way they are. 

Moving on. Marble is on the fireplace. Now reread that sentence like your parents bought you a car when you were 16 BUT it's a station wagon with faux wood paneling on the side because 

it ain't right.

Can you see the issues?

I'll post them tomorrow and in case you were wondering the "broken house" hasn't moved. 

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Photo of the Week #0095

Has it really been a month since my last post?!? Whoops! I should change the title of the post. Anyway check this one out:

By Jake Oson. Gorg.

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My Guy

So my oldest turned four this month. 

I thought I would share since I can still say "this month" for another couple hours.

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Another Pretty Book

This is a post for those that are interested in GOOD books that also look nice on a coffee table or book shelf. This is the second addition (here is the first). Today's book is a staple and if you don't already have it you should get it now here:

Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy

It has great decorating tips and the cover and spine are this pretty light aqua color with a dash of bird and flowers. 

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Photo of the Week #0094

 

LUCIANO PERGREFFI

Photographer

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Detroit C-list

Time for more Craigslist fun in the D!

$90 will get you this uniquely cool cart. Cart bars are all the rage these days and if you like to upcycle this one is for you! Or it could be a plant stand, console table, or cat bed. You decide.

Also trending in the design world are dead animal parts. One antler could be great on a coffee table or collect a lot of them and you could make a chandelier.  The traditional wall mount is acceptable as well. They want $185 for these bad boys.

I love the look of antique fans. This one  is fiddy.

Letters, of course, are neat-o keen. $15 each is a great deal for these.

Then for the prop junkies there is this really great old tricycle for $250. Not cheap but this could easily sell for more.

Don't live in the D? I can scour your local Craigslist for you just tell me where :)

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