Happy July

I know I've been gone for a long while and reappearing around here should warrant some sort of explanation, but in truth, I have none.  Life has been good and busy, and I simply wanted to share a few pictures of a sweet feature of our new (old) house in this month's WNC Magazine. 

My thanks to all involved: Rita Larkin, editor-in-chief at WNC Magazine, as well as Whitney and Dustin Deal, who photographed our home. That was great fun. I also wanted to take a moment to thank my beautiful friend Christie who made the gorgeous jewelry I'm wearing. You can see more of her work at Calaycay Design.

Snow Days

Busy hands working outside, building a snow fort,

trekking up and down the yard delivering shredded ice

to be shaped into bricks with an old metal pan.

Busy hands working inside, hanging a new set of pretty curtains up high,

and trying to capture that beautiful, ever-elusive winter's light, bouncing off the wonderful snow outside.

And the dog, you may ask?

Busy taking it all in, ascertaining that indeed, this is a good life.

Progress

Well, the wall with interior windows is finally done...and I couldn't be happier. It really does look lovely, and the photos hardly do it justice.

Our friend David* was kind enough to come help us finish up. I was really tired of the inevitable clutter and disarray that come with weekend projects of this scale, so it was wonderful to have an extra set of hands - and one so talented at that.

It was a lot of work, but really worth it in the end... I can't imagine a better solution for this space. What was once an open attic expansion lacking definition is now a beautiful space that allows for separation without sacrificing light.

I also love the way enclosing the staircase gave it an incredible sense of volume - it looks so grand now..! It feels completely decadent to go up the stairs, lured by the inviting light streaming through those windows...


In other news, I have been very busy with clients and have even traveled to Maine (!!) to help one of them, and I am going to Brooklyn next month to visit yet another client (!!!). So, all very exciting things for someone who just a little bit over a year ago started this blog with a dream of sorts that is now slowly, quietly, but surely coming true. There are no words to describe how lucky I feel... And grateful, too. Incredibly grateful. I am getting to do what I love, which is...well, priceless, really.

So, I would like to officially announce that I am available for design assistance, and I will gladly help you with projects big and small. I will even travel - as long as all expenses are covered and my schedule allows it, of course. For more information, feel free to contact me.


*if you live in the Upstate of SC or WNC region and you need a terrific craftsman, let me know and I will put you in touch with David - he is fantastic and fantastic to work with.

(images: me)

Projects, lately.

Remember how our bedroom is upstairs and it's a little bit quirky the way most attic expansions can be? Quirky in a charming way, but you know, quirky nonetheless...?)

As you come up the stairs to the second floor, we have a half wall and therefore our bedroom area feels somewhat exposed. So I've been thinking about how to give our space a bit more privacy without closing it off completely...

I think I'll be aiming for something along the lines of these photographs for this project. You'll have to take a little leap of faith by disregarding the particular details, and simply embracing the overall feeling - given that we don't have the beautiful beadborad, nor do we have the exposed lath, gorgeous beams, or incredibly tall ceilings that grace the bedroom in these pictures...

In essence, though, we'll be going for something that is still a little funky, but soothing and pretty, and definitely somewhat unique given the space constraints (or advantages, depending on your take).

Something that allows us to capitalize on light and still gives us a little bit more of a sense of privacy - but somewhat playfully and resourcefully...

Although we're nowhere near finished, I thought I'd share with you some photos of the progress so far. Here are the boys, busy at work (Noah has sensitive ears, thus the gear)...

The first wall going up and the pretty windows all lined up (which I scored from a neighbor who was discarding them), patiently awaiting their second round in life...

The studs and frame all in place for the second wall...

And, here, the view from the other end, into our bedroom and a sliver of our bathroom...

I will post pictures once we're done. Hopefully it will be sometime before the end of the year. As the weather gets cooler (soon, soon!), we'll be wanting to spend more and more time outdoors, and inside projects will have to be put on hold as a result. So, we'll see - but I will definitely keep you posted once we're done.

On a slightly different note, I've also been working on a couple of little rooms

*inspired by this,

and this,

as well as this,

and this,

and this sweet, little print:

So, creative and productive times here in our little corner of the world. All of which is good for my spirit. I hope this post finds you all having the kinds of times that are good for your spirits, too. I am sending you all much peace, my friends. Be well tonight, and always.

*for a client, so don't be getting any ideas..!

(images: 1. & 2. via vintage; 3. via canadian house and home; 4-7. me; 8. via isak; 9. via cookie magazine; 10. via domino magazine; 11. via country living; 12. via katie daisy)

Hi. Hello, there.

I've been absent. So very, very absent from this little space. I know. But life has been incredibly busy - in the best of ways. So... where do I start?


The hydrangeas are in full bloom. We have corn and tomatoes from our garden, and the sunflowers are taller than we are, and we have to squint our eyes when we look up at their smiling faces. It's been hot. Really hot. And it has rained and rained in the evenings, and stormed and thundered much. Summer is unapologetically here.


Noah's nose has sprouted the faintest, most endearing collection of freckles as he spends most of his days outdoors. They dance around his face when he smiles, and I have moments when I look at him and he simply just takes my breath away. He's so grown-up; such a beautiful, beautiful boy. He is both excited and a little nervous about starting first grade come August.


I have met with a couple of new design clients and that has been great fun. My job at the nonprofit has been busy with five-year goal plans and lots of meetings about them.

The house is still on the market - we had a low offer in the beginning, which for obvious reasons did not work out. I am, oddly enough, not stressed about it, though. I truly believe things happen for a reason, so if the house doesn't sell this year, then we'll try again next year. The goal will remain to downsize, but it doesn't have to happen this month, or two months from now, or by the fall, or even before the holidays... We'll just have to wait and see what happens.


In the meantime, the woman who grew up in our house, her daughter and granddaughter will all be here in July to celebrate their birthdays at the house. I am really excited about that and hope that we will make a little video and take many photos of what I am certain will be a very special evening.

As always, I keep dragging outcasts home. Maybe I'll use this at the little house if it all works out this year. Or maybe I'll use it in a client's home. But this kitchen cabinet from the 20's was far too special to be left to rot in a dumpster. It needs some work (and don't we all?), but it will be a beauty again with a little bit of love.


And... that's about it in a nutshell, my friends. Things are busy, busy, busy, and it is all good. Like I was telling dear Bonnie when she emailed to check in - between new clients, my little job at the nonprofit, being mama to Noah, head grocery-shopper and main cook at the house, something had to give - and it has been the blog. For now.

I do hope this post finds you well and happy, enjoying life wherever you may be. The next couple of months promise to be just as busy as this one, so I am not sure how present I will be in this space. But know that I think of you often and wonder how you are and sincerely hope that life is treating every single one of you kindly. Take good care of yourselves and your loved ones. I am sending you all much love.

(images: me)

What's on Your Nightstand?

Lovely Kate of the wonderful and oftentimes hilarious (seriously - check this post out) The Goodie Life asked me to participate in this series - and I said, why of course. Just like that.

When you have a moment, do stop by... I have a few more pictures and words about my nightstand over there.

(Peek of gorgeous handmade lovelies: framed photo by Cara, ruffled bowl by Denise, sequined bracelet by Emma, little notebook by Katrina, lavender eye pillow by Allison.)

This and that

Remember this post..? Well, I ordered this handmade pillow from Liane at enhabiten... I think it's the perfect companion for our quilt in the spare bedroom, don't you?

They're calling for snow here today... I know most of you are about done with winter by now, but it doesn't snow much around here, so I'm actually kind of excited. Maybe we'll get to do this again tomorrow:

Now, that would be fun, no?

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Noah's bedroom

My little boy's room.

My little boy who will be going to first grade this fall.

My little guy who is learning how to spell words and write proud, deliberate numbers...

He who collects leaves and rocks and seashells; and dried flowers and the spiked fruit from gumball trees...

He, to whom I read Goodnight Moon not so long ago in my arms, rocking back and forth, back and forth...

My Little Prince who is growing up. The little man who is becoming so wise. I worry about his heart - how it will be broken, and how that is part of growing up. But I tell myself: he'll be fine. It will soon be time for him to go from the safety of his little school to the big school. His world is getting bigger and bigger every day. And he'll take it all in stride and be just fine...

I, on the other hand, might have a little bit of a harder time. But I, too, will be fine. For my little boy is growing up - and that is a good thing. I hope the world treats him with the love and kindness that he deserves, and that he, in turn, will treat the world in the same way.




*For those of you who asked, the color on the top is Silver Sea SR209 (the same I used for the bi-fold doors, since I had leftover) and on the bottom, the color is Dust Storm EE2046C. You can get them both at Lowe's.*

Psssst...!

Lovely Leah at Apartment Therapy surprised me by posting our little bi-fold door project here. Go take a look, if you feel so inclined, and check out the other two great DIY ideas for door updates. You won't be disappointed - I promise.


Thank you, Leah! It truly was a sweet, unexpected surprise and an incredible honor. You made my day, dear. And as Bill is fond of saying, Happy Little Friday, everyone!

(image: me)

The guest bedroom

Yes. We have a spare bedroom. I must confess that at times, it about kills me. Although it's nice to have one when we have the occasional guest in town, it is one of the only things about the house that is not a perfect match for us: its size. I think the spare bedroom and the office, as well as the living room and den, could all be combined into two rooms, really: one living area and one office/guest bedroom. All these extra spaces (a couple of them seldom used) seem to make this house a little too big for a family of three. Sometimes, it feels a bit wasteful to me.

For a while there we thought there might be another kid, so it made sense... But we now know that won't be the case, thus the house at times strikes me as being rather large - and decadently so.

At any rate. The guest bedroom. Let me share it with you...won't you come along?

The quilt was made by Bill's mother when we first started dating. It was originally intended as a gift for her bachelor son, but I love it, so it gladly got adopted into the collective of togetherness that has been our life now for... close to 12 years.

The nightstands (both yard sale finds)...

The dresser (found at The Screen Door, in Asheville)...

(Actually, let me pause here for a moment to admire this beauty...will you indulge me, just a bit? I love distressed furniture - a love that only those who love it, too, can understand, and those who don't...well - they simply don't do this to their furniture. Or if they do, they regard it as the ugly stage in the way to refinishing. I love to leave it just like this - really, it's crazy how madly happy just looking at it makes me..!)

The wood floors in this room were painted a glossy black. In a way, I was delighted; Bill simply stared in horror. Of course there were the really purple walls, too. And the zebra skin painted on the door. And there was some hot pink, too. And a little desk lamp with boa feathers. I think. Maybe the horrified look I'm attributing to the floors is misdirected. But I digress.

I was ecstatic because it meant I could paint over the floors - something Bill would have balked at had the floors been the wormy pine and oak of the rest of the house... But I adore painted floors. Especially in creams, grays and whites... They become such a neutral and soft background for everything else... don't you think?

The closet was added on at some point and is definitely not original to the house. You can even see the remnants of a fireplace hearth on the bottom right corner.... Anyway, the closet was cut out with an opening so crooked and low that no door would really work. Which gave me an excuse to do something else I really love - hanging heavy curtains high up, almost to the ceiling, to emphasize the beautiful height of the ones in our home.

And that, my friends, concludes the tour of our guest bedroom. Like I said before - it feels like too much of a luxury for us at this point... So we'll keep pondering this issue for a little while...

Holiday glimpses

I know, I know... They're over. The holidays, that is. But maybe there is a holiday going on somewhere in the world (there must be), and we can bask in the good feelings a little bit longer....

We're still listening to Christmas music around here (driving Bill somewhat batty in the process, I'll admit), and just feeling the lazy comfort that came from having unstructured time off... In that spirit, I'll leave you with a few pictures that capture, in a small way, what life was like around here in December...

Folksy Santas,

Noah's cheer,

pretty lights...

Handmade stockings*, one, two, three...

...and a fourth one for The Bean.

Moose** pancakes (because some of you asked),

for dinner, no less..!

(Because Noah asked.)

The good news is - we can revisit all of this any time we want... We don't need a holiday to have twinkling lights, deliciously idle family time, or ridiculously shaped pancakes (for dinner or otherwise)... don't you think? Happy January, dear friends!


*made by wonderful Rebekah of Little Byrd

(**editor's note: Uh. Yeah. Apparently these aren't moose pancakes, but reindeer ones. Heh. My apologies to the moose. And the reindeer. Of course it makes sense - I mean, moose don't pull Santa's sleigh in Buenos Aires either. I just wish Bill had pointed all this out before folks started leaving comments. Siiiiiiigh...!)

(images: me)

Photo shoot!

Okay, my dears, I'm sorry it's taken me this long to get back into the swing of things, but here you have it: what kept me busy and happy last week was that Better Homes & Gardens was here to photograph our kitchen and bath!!!

I had such a great time..! And I can't say enough kind things about the team that came over to the house. Sandi, the field editor/stylist, was wonderful. She was funny, considerate, and has been doing this for some time, so she had an amazing ability to anticipate how the vignettes would look like on film (which, surprisingly to me, is quite different from how they might look in real life, both color- and composition-wise).

She was also incredibly patient with my constant questions and requests to move things or try this or that instead, and she even let me style a little (!!), which was not only incredibly generous of her, but also made me realize how much fun styling is...!

Brie, the photographer, was incredible - it was truly a gift to see my house come to life through her eyes. She is ridiculously talented and I encourage you to visit her site here. You will not be disappointed.

And then there was Mike, who helped Brie with everything from technical issues to (I kid you not) holding our ficus tree outside the window so that our neighbor's somewhat messy back porch would be hidden from view. He was, needless to say, indispensable.

I wish I had captured a shot of him holding up the tree..! Unfortunately, I didn't, but here are a few pictures I took that I hope you'll enjoy and will help give you a sense of what a chaotic scene it can be right outside the camera frame when you are doing a photo shoot...

The pretties - cake and raspberries on a beautiful stand, and gorgeous tulips in an ironstone pitcher (pay no attention to the surrounding madness).

The not so pretty chaos.

Lovely Brie at work, secretly wishing walls and kitchen islands would be more helpful and move out of the way so that she could do her job more easily.

Gear. Tons and tons of cool gear.

The camera resting on its tripod while things were being set up.

More contortions from poor Brie to get just the right shot.

Sandi inspecting the shot and making mental notes about which things would need to be moved one or two inches this way or that, and such.

Mike and Brie working on the camera's focus in a rather tight space (again, if the house's walls would be a bit more cooperative and flexible..!)

Highly technical gear - not to be confused with the Ikea Komplement basket.

Sandi, with Mike standing by, studying the shot, and getting ready to call it a day. And what a wonderful couple of days they were..!

If you guys (Sandi, Brie and Mike) happen to be reading this: I had the best time. The house felt a little bit empty after you left... Thank you for your generosity and the privilege of allowing me to watch you work. I feel like I learned a ton and I have renewed love and sense of commitment for design.

The magazine is called Kitchen & Bath Makeovers, a quarterly publication of Better Homes & Gardens. Sandi thought the kitchen would be featured in the Spring issue, perhaps on the cover (eeeeeeep!!) and the bath might be published in a later issue. I can't wait to see them in print!

(images: me)

New glass knobs and one sweet discovery

So, remember those bifold doors we turned into little french doors..? I told you about them a couple of weeks ago...? (See here, if you don't remember.) Well, we finally got the knobs, and I think they're lovely. Take a look:

They add the perfect finishing touch to the doors, don't you think..?

What I neglected to tell you in my earlier post is that, while doing the work, we had a little, uh... accident. I forget how it started. In a really silly way, most likely. It was probably one of those "We can't do it - it'll look dumb/ Of course we can do it - fine I'll do it all by myself!!" moments...

And so it was that I found myself wrestling with the bifold, trying to take it down all on my own... And I succeeded - only it landed squarely on the thermostat. Sigh.

Bill quickly put aside our little spat (and suppressed some serious laughter, I'm sure), coming to the rescue since I was caught in one of those I-almost-saved-it-but-didn't-quite-pull-it-off positions, awkwardly holding the door which had caught my ankle at one end and smashed the thermostat at the other. He gently assured me that it wasn't a big deal and helped me untangle myself free from the door, while I just berated myself for being so stubborn. (I think I was probably a little embarrassed, too, not just angry. Heh.)

The one cool thing about this little episode was that when we took the old (really old) thermostat down, we found one of those sweet surprises old houses can give you:

Isn't that tiny bit of vintage wallpaper the sweetest..? I love it when little unexpected things like these happen. Anyway, I debated whether I should take it down and frame it or not, but I decided to leave it with the house, so that it can tell this story again through someone else some day.

So, we covered the little treasure, with Bill doing most of the work, and me getting in his way, trying to document it...

And there you have it. The same exact thermostat, sadly made out of plastic instead of metal...but, oh well. At least it's white, rather than brass. I guess that's an improvement, visually speaking. For me, anyway.

The Living Room

I thought I'd introduce you, dear reader, to our living room. I've only painted it three different times, and although I can't promise (*cough*) I won't repaint it again at some point in the future, for now, the walls will remain chocolate brown.

I like to have a place to drop keys and sunglasses when I come in, so this tall (yet narrow) dresser provides us with just the prefect spot for that... I sanded it down until you could see the different layers it's seen in its lifetime and rather liked it, so I left it that way.

On this wall, we put up beadboard pretty high up, to emphasize the height of the ceilings, and because as much as I think the cozy color works in this room, I need white. And lots of it, at that.

The vintage coat rack was missing a hook, so I put a glass knob in its place. I took the knob from an old cabinet door a neighbor had discarded after a remodel (The horror! The horror! And on so many levels, too... But I'll abstain from saying anything else about that.) Anyway, I actually really like this detail, and I am glad that at least the knob, if not the door, found a second life in our home. The bird print is by talented Geninne, whom I've mentioned before here.

The windows behind the couch to the right were covered with mirror (mirror?? yes, mirror...more horror) that had been glued to the glass, which made for a very weird and uncomfortable space, not to mention dark...so dark.

Needless to say, we got rid of the mirrors, carefully breaking each little pane on the top as well as the big panes on the bottom of both windows. We then put in new glass panes, applied putty around them to hold them in place, and repainted the frames once the putty had hardened... The light in this room is now pretty incredible, as we knew it would be...

...and hopefully it will somehow make up for the many years of bad luck we'll otherwise get because we had to break so many mirrors to free those windows and their lovely, life-loving ability to let in light.

Weekend house love

Remember I told you about adding brackets and a shelf, along with hooks, to the wall in the hallway? Here's the picture to jog your memory:

Anyway. What I didn't show you was that next to the shelf and benches, right out of sight in the photo, are two closet doors where we hide all manner of household odds and ends: paint cans and rollers, drills, random screws and nails, hammers, cleaning supplies, stacks of toilet paper (Bill thinks I have a problem hoarding paper goods), boxes of movies in VHS that belong to Bill (I think Bill has a problem hoarding everything, but nevermindthat), the odd box of old clothes that don't fit Noah anymore (but we'll take to the Goodwill - eventually)... in other words, this space holds a lot of our stuff. But it's stuff that needs to be in a closet, behind closed doors, at least until we get around to using it or appropriately disposing of it.

So back to the point of this post. Those closet doors in question? Horrid bifold little numbers. I think I abhor bifold doors almost as much as I dislike wall-to-wall carpet. They just grate on my aesthetic sensibilities or something. Plus they're awkward and dated. So down they came.

We decided to glue and nail beadboard to the space where the horizontal slats were,

then added trim around to hide the gaps on the edges,

and most importantly, we re-hung them as little french doors instead of bifolds. We put a piece of trim along the length of one of the doors to hold the other one in place and we installed a little magnet latch at the top.

We then spot-primed the knots with a shellac base primer and then applied a solid coat of regular primer to the bare wood...

Finally, we gave them a coat of bluish paint that was leftover from Noah's room (Silver Sea, you can get it at Lowe's), and there you have it! We also ordered a couple of glass knobs for each door from Anthropologie, but they're on backorder, so it'll be a little while before they get here. They're the prism knob, in clear:

One little house project finished: check. And on to the next..!

(**To see the finished project, with glass knobs and all, click here and here.**)

A good house

Remember this? Go on and take a moment to read it if you haven't already... There's no rush, so take your time; I'll be right here, waiting for you to come back.

Not only was I lucky to have such unexpected, wonderful guests that afternoon, but I have also kept in touch with the daughter.... And she was kind enough to look through her pictures and found this little treasure, which she generously sent our way (on loan) so that Bill could scan it at work and I could post here.

This is our house in the 30's. It certainly helps explain why I've never liked the massive brick columns holding the porch up - they are not original to the house (see pictures of the exterior of the house when we first got it, plus current ones here). I am glad that the brackets we put back on the house are fairly close to the originals, and breaking up the color on the columns at least gives the appearance of the original design.

When I showed him the picture, Noah wanted to know why our house looked "old-fashioned" and why all those trees from the old picture were now gone.... and then he repeated the story I was told about the Dogwood being the size of the Oak tree up front. I have to confess that while the boys turned the picture this way and that, now distracted with the old Model T parked in the carport, I got a bit misty-eyed. I love that the stories about this old house are being passed on. What a gift we've been given... It is my hope that we will be able to pass it on ourselves one day, when we are too old to climb stairs, and the house has simply become too big for just two.

One man's trash...

So, take a look at this beauty - I found it on my walk around the neighborhood the other morning:


I just can't pass by something this classic and gorgeous and not drag it home. I'm thinking that, after a good scrubbing and replacing that handle that's missing on the hot faucet, we may want to use it in our upstairs bathroom when we really renovate it (we've just given it a face-lift for now):

I am not a big fan of vanities (I'd rather have a pedestal sink and a small piece of furniture), and even though we reinvented ours to be a little more unique and our style, I still would like to have something a bit less bulky. Now that I found that sink on the side of the road, I'm thinking about something along these lines:

I like that it's airy, and we actually have a leftover marble slab from the downstairs bathroom, so this could totally work.

And I already have a pair of old crates for extra storage:

Add to that the already painted black clawfoot tub we have stashed in Bill's Dad's garage, paired with pretty marble hexagonal tile on the floor, like so, and I think we're onto something:

And I kind of like this idea, since we don't have enough room for a separate shower in our bathroom either:

But it looks like it may be way too expensive for us, though.

Plus, I don't know if I'd be able to resist playing with extra long fabric for a shower curtain, or maybe even something frilly and girly like this little Anthropologie number:

(images: 1. & 2. yours truly, 3. via cottage living, 4. via real simple, 5. via design*sponge, 6. via down and out chic, 7. via antropologie)

The Dining Room

So, this is the view from the living room, when you first enter the house. I still haven't painted the ceiling, but I'm feeling a little lazy, so I'm not sure it'll happen any time soon.

Here is a shot of all four necessary curtain panels, as promised:

The view from the kitchen:

This next shot here is of what I'll call my problem wall, mainly because that IKEA bookshelf is temporary, until we can afford what I really want.

And what would that be, you may ask yourself? An oversize vintage chalkboard? Why, yes. That would be quite lovely.

Perhaps an old church pew to go underneath it, with some fun pillows and throws for extra seating and lounging? Why, that would be great!

Or a vintage map, you say? With a cool old bench underneath it? Yes, yes, oh yes.

Truth be told, I could also totally go with a modern painting, provided it had the right colors, such as this one (oh, and I'd take those chairs, too):

For now, however, the dining room is done. Until I get a bug to paint it again, that is, or if I happen to win the lottery and I'm able to buy all of the above-mentioned wish list items. Sigh.

(images: first 4, moi; 5. via cottage living; 6. via apartment therapy; 7. country decorating ideas via poppytalk; via down and out chic)

The office - a work in progress

What I love the most? The bird's eye view we get of our tree-lined street through our beautiful, old windows, wavy glass still intact.


This is the rocking chair that Bill's mom used to rock Bill to sleep when he was a baby. It was given to us when Noah was born, so he too was rocked on this chair.

We've ordered some hooks and we'll hang Bill's guitars from the wall - they'll be accessible and off the floor, which makes my sweet husband very happy. And the sheer orderliness of it of course appeals to me. (Yeah, I know.)


The desk is made of a hollow-core door ($24 at Lowes) resting on an old metal bookshelf on one side and file cabinet on the other, both of which we got at the Habitat store. I painted them white and hung a little curtain to hide the open shelves. We're not quite done, but I do think we got quite a bit accomplished for a Sunday afternoon. Especially after we'd tackled the den and the dining room that same weekend!

More on all house projects soon... It is almost the weekend after all!

The den (revisited) and dining room peek

So, we were busy with house projects this weekend (enter Bill's sigh and roll of the eyes here, because this usually involves him standing high on a ladder, holding something heavy, and me going, "A little more to the right. No, no - a smidgen to the left. Okay, can you go a little to the right now?" and so on and so forth).

Although I was excited to have curtains up in the den a couple of weeks ago, I was not really that happy with the overall result, I realized. Something was bugging me. The room was too busy and loud (visually speaking), especially for a space where we spend a lot of our time. I knew I liked all of the individual parts, I just wasn't sure I liked them all together.

For instance, I knew I loved the couch and chair with the denim slipcovers because I can wash them, and like a good pair of jeans, they hide dirt fairly well and they only get better with time. I liked the new curtains, too. I liked the rug and the new little pillow that looks like a flower (or fish scales, if you ask Bill).


And I love the color blue, but the one in the ceiling was killing me - it was too decisively blue, and nothing made it more apparent than adding more blue with those curtains. I like colors that are more indefinite, that live in gray areas (and I mean that metaphorically, yes, but also quite literally: gray is one of my favorite hues).

I actually never intended for the blue on that ceiling to be so intense to begin with - it was supposed to be the same bluish gray as on the kitchen ceiling, but I think the mix got botched somehow and I didn't notice the mistake until I had already painted the entire ceiling. By that point, I was just too tired to redo it, so I left it as it was. Very blue. With blue slipcovers and now curtains with blue accents. A little too much blueness for me.

So, even though I liked the new curtains, I just did not like them in this room. I decided to take them down and brought in white curtains I had in the guest bedroom. And I also decided I had lived with the loud blue of the ceiling long enough - so I painted it a soothing gray instead. (I believe the name is Winter White, by Benjamin Moore).


I think our dog, Lena (Lay-nah) Bean, approves. Or, as we affectionately refer to her, The Bean. Yes, I think The Bean approves.


And now, instead of pattern and jarring color, we have visual peace and quiet, which suits my personality and makes me very happy.

And so, you may be wondering, what did I do with the curtains that were in the den? Well, I put them in the dining room, which of course meant I had to change the wall color there too. Heh. It's yet another shade of gray, only on the taupe side this time. It's very soothing and calming, too.

I actually now need to go get two more panels because there are three windows in the dining room, so I'll have to show you pictures when all the curtains are up. And I also want to paint the ceiling in here. It's a disease, I know - but these kinds of projects bring me such joy..!

And we also started setting up the office upstairs this weekend (Bill's rolling of the eyes is not for naught). But I'll save that for a later post.

**Paint colors: den's walls, Woodrow Wilson Putty (6006-1A), at Lowes; den's ceiling, Winter White (OC-21) by Benjamin Moore; dining room walls, Taupe Stone (SR304), at Lowes.**

(images: me)