House in Progress: Fourth Time's the Charm?

My poor husband must be so sick of my endless redecorating. As longtime readers may remember, the rich camel color of our living room had been seriously bugging me. (See the room's last incarnation here, and previous ones here and here.)

It was a nice shade, but it clashed with our newly bright and happy dining room, and it dictated too strictly the other colors I could put in the space.

I wanted something crisper and more serene, lighter and brighter, and above all more flexible -- that is, a hue that would work with my frequent changes of heart when it comes to decor and my ever-changing color infatuations.

I finally settled, over Nick's protests -- he likes everything to stay like it is, at least until he gets used to the new thing -- on Benjamin Moore's Gray Cloud, a very pale, silvery gray.

Right now, we have a lot of teal, turquoise, and lime-green accents in the room, and I think it works well with those. But the next time I'm itching for a change, I can simply swap out a few vases and textiles and the wallpaper backing on the bookshelves and hutch, and quickly substitute an entirely different color scheme -- lemon yellow, red, or whatever else strikes my fancy.

Since the upholstery on our couch and chairs was chosen to compliment the old paint color (and since I was equally sick of it), and since we still can't seem to find the perfect replacement couch at anything approaching a price we can afford right now, we settled on the interim solution of slipcovers.

These are from IKEA, and made to fit its Karlstad line, but they work well enough with our Crate & Barrel pieces -- just don't look too closely at the spots where they ride up awkwardly in the back.

Don't look too closely at the wallpaper on the bookshelves, either. Let's just say that I will never, ever be a professional wallpaper installer ... Oh, and I love my gorgeous new pillow (center) from InLeaf.

Except for those changes, and for some small accessories and new pillows and other textiles here and there, the room is pretty much the same as it was during its last iteration. I wouldn't mind trying a different furniture arrangement, but so far this is the only one we've found that works.

(Sometimes I daydream about hiring a designer to come over for one day and rearrange my house, just to have the nice surprise of seeing things in places I never would have thought to put them. Do you ever think about doing that? Do you suppose any design pros hire themselves out by the day to tweak people's homes? But I digress ... )

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the way the room looks now. It gets a lot of light even in winter, and can get pretty warm in the summer, and the soft gray is like mental air conditioning for me. I feel serenely calm and cool in the space.

Nick was worried the gray would be bland and dreary, but he seems OK with it now. Or perhaps he's just decided that it's pointless to protest now that it's done.

As for the kids, I think our daughter likes it. But when our son came home from school and saw the newly painted room for the first time, he took it all in for a moment before declaring, "It looks like an old person lives here." Thanks a lot, kid. (Umm, maybe that's just 14-year-old speak for "chic and sophisticated"?)

A couple of questions for you guys: Do you think we should change out the light fixtures? I adore the vintage lights -- but again, they were chosen to go with the old scheme, and I'm not sure they work so well with this one.

And I'm really tempted to paint out the red brick fireplace surround and hearth, but also kind of hate the idea of imposing my will on a 70-year-old, largely original house just to make it better match my decor-of-the-moment. Thoughts?

Mmmm ... peonies.

P.S. You can see more of mi casa here.

House in Progress: My Grandmother's Dresser

After my grandmother passed away last year, this petite chest of drawers was the only piece of furniture I took from her house (my mom, aunts, and cousins, of course, divvied up the rest). It had sat in her entryway for as long as I can remember, and of everything she had, it somehow symbolized her home -- where I'd always felt loved and welcomed -- the most for me.

The little dresser dates from 1939, not long after my grandma and my long-deceased grandfather were married, and it followed her through their many turbulent years together and their many cross-country moves -- from Chicago to New Jersey to Boston to Pittsburgh, back to Chicago, then to sunny post-war Los Angeles, and finally, to the Bay Area. It's not a particularly fine piece, but it's solid and useful, has a bit of 1930s-'40s flair with its chunky Asian-style brass pulls, and just reminds me of my grandmother in a fond way.

Its olive-green paint job had seen better days, though, and I wanted to update the chest with a splashy new color. I totally could have stripped, sanded, and repainted the thing myself, but I knew it would take me five years to get around to it and, truth be told, I'm just not all that meticulous about these sorts of projects. This is a special piece for me, and I didn't want to mess it up. So when I heard that Johnelle Mancha, the proprietress of Old Oakland's Mignonne, was offering a new furniture-refinishing service, I was all over it.

After consulting with me about the look I was after, Johnelle carefully stripped and refinished the dresser in a happy, glossy apple green that's a nod to the original hue but that gives the piece a more modern and surprising feel. (We literally matched the paint to a Granny Smith apple I'd brought from home.) I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

The cheerful chest now sits in my own entryway, where I've topped it was some of my favorite little treasures (like a vintage globe and wooden spool from eBay, a porcelain skeleton key from the Curiosity Shoppe, a ceramic-and-wooden apple from Relish at Home, and an Aida Dirse candy bowl from Rare Device), and where it reminds me of my beloved and dearly missed grandma every time I pass by. Thanks so much, Johnelle!

Shameless Plugs: My House on design*sponge

Hi everyone, just quickly popping in from my poolside perch in Palm Springs to link over to a "Sneak Peek" of our home that's up on the fabulous design*sponge. A huge thanks to Grace and Anne for deeming our place *sponge-worthy!

(If you want to see more, there's a complete flickr set with lots more pix and info about paint colors and what came from where, as well as my series of "House in Progress" posts on this blog.)

Hope you're having a fantastic holiday week! Now, back to sunning ...

House in Progress: Living Room 3.0

Of all the rooms in our home, the living room is the one that seems to forever be morphing. (You can see earlier incarnations here and here.) In fact, the only thing that doesn't change much is the furniture placement. We've tried moving the big pieces around, but this seems to be the only arrangement that doesn't look wonky in the space. Still, the colors, smaller pieces, and accessories in this room are constantly shifting.

It's still not quite there (I'm desperate to repaint, for one), but I thought I'd show you the latest incarnation:

Yeah, I know it looks a bit cluttered in this shot. It doesn't feel that way in real life, but now I see that I should probably continue to edit a bit. (Ah, the accumulation of "stuff." It's a sickness.)

Anyway, other than the seating and the bookshelves (which came from Crate & Barrel and a local "unfinished furniture" store, respectively), we got just about everything in this room from the Alameda flea market or eBay.

The bullet planter is from Hip Haven; the SubPop/Jeff Kleinsmith poster can be found here; the lamp was $10 at the flea market (my best find there this year); the little planter trio is from IKEA; and the vintage teak entry chest is an eBay score.

Except for the mirror and the books, everything in this picture was found on eBay; the metal "sculpture" is actually a vintage industrial cake beater. The latest evidence of my incurable lamp addiction always seems to end up on this cabinet.

The credenza, Buddha head lamp, metal H, vintage letterpress letters, and ceramic bird figurines are yet more eBay finds; the black-and-white photo was a flea market score; the tiny print is one of Chris Crites' paper bag mugshots; and the ceramic pear is from Heather Knight's Etsy shop.

The ceramic garden stool and vintage coffee table? Also eBay. I want to replace the table's small marble top with a larger one, but haven't quite gotten around to it. The pillow is from Henry Road (purchased on the cheap at the last Modern Economy sale). The "amazing shedding shag" rug is the Quinn from Pottery Barn, but we got it for about half-price on eBay. It's a good thing, too, because if I'd paid full retail for this thing -- which I kind of love but which is the absolute bane of my existence -- I'd be upset.

The stone planter head was from Wisteria; the vintage teal bowl is from eBay; the tall "Try Everything" print is from Advice to Sink in Slowly; and the blue bird triptych is by Hadley Hutton.

I'm just going to say it: I kind of hate the couch, chairs, and ottoman. Once I figure out what to replace them with -- and if we ever save enough pennies to actually buy those replacements -- they're going straight up on craigslist. Nick and I are both pretty tall (6'2" and 5'10"), so the couch is more comfortable for us without the back cushions.

The throw draped over the back (a birthday present from my mom) is from Designers Guild, and the linen pillows are from Anna Joyce (a splurge from Portland's Olio United), Sharon Spain, and Paper Cloud (both bought on super-duper clearance at Oakland's Atomic Garden); the floor lamp is from IKEA.

I used the Orla Kiely wallpaper left over from my dining room hutch project to back the bookshelves, but came up one length short. (Anyone have 52 inches of this paper to spare?) A vintage wooden soda crate turned on its side displays bud vases from Heath Ceramics and a few other odds and ends. The teak money, vintage hat form, phrenology head, limestone chunk, vintage globe, ceramic horse head, and turquoise dish all came from eBay (yes, I have a problem); the oval "tree head portrait" is by Sarah Ogren; the cream vase and nesting bowls are by Sara Paloma, nabbed at one of her studio sales; the paper-maché vessels are by Up in the Air Somewhere; and the white bowl is from Perch!

The round metal table is from the flea market, and the round white side table is (a vintage Saarinen knockoff) is from eBay.

Now, as for paint colors: I'm a little stumped. All I know is that I have to get rid of this butterscotch-camel hue. It's a nice color -- I'm just sick of it, and I want something a bit brighter and fresher. Should we paint the room white? (I can't believe I'm actually typing that, since Nick and I spent more than a decade waiting for the day when we'd have a place of our own that we could paint anything but white. But I'm much more into Scandinavian brightness and simplicity these days, so I've got white paint on the brain.) Maybe dove gray? Other ideas? Anyone? Anyone?

(P.S. If you missed my earlier House in Progress posts, you can see them all here.)

House in Progress: Dining Room Revamp

Remember when I said we were going to repaint our dining room -- oh, about ten months ago? Well, we finally got it done. (And, as always, by "we" I mean Nick).

Before, the room was a deep crimson hue (Benjamin Moore's Segovia Red) with dark wood furniture and dark metal, circa-1930s light fixtures. It was really dramatic, and at first I loved it. (After years spent living in beige-painted rental apartments and our first owned home with only an eat-in kitchen, we'd always wanted a red dining room and painted this one before we even moved in.)

But eventually it started feeling heavy, a bit oppressive, and altogether too grown up for our relatively young family. Plus, we really use this room -- we eat pretty much every meal in here, the kids do their homework at the table after school, and I sometimes spread out my work there or let Laurel use it as crafting central. So it wasn't just a formal nighttime space or a room reserved for company, although it looked like one.

Finally, I just couldn't stand it any more. For his part, Nick still liked the color and was reluctant to paint over the red and replace the vintage light fixtures. But I really craved something lighter and fresher. (Guess who won?)

I'm incredibly fortunate to have a partner who has strong opinions about our home, but who's usually willing to give my ideas a try. And lucky for him, he had a little helper for the priming and painting, since I no longer have the patience for it.

It took two coats of gray-tinted primer to fully cover the red. Nick used Mythic primer and paint, which is formulated without VOCs. The paint was mixed to match Benjamin Moore's Sonoma Skies, which I'd loved as a paint chip.

Once the paint was on the wall, though, the aqua color was really intense. In an attempt to lighten it up to a more subtle shade, we wound up dumping an equal amount of white paint into the bucket before rolling three coats onto the wall. The final color is still a bit brighter than I was expecting, but it's fun and cheerful. (And Nick will kill me if I make him paint it again, so the color will stay -- at least for a couple of years.)

After the painting was finished, it was time to redecorate! I'd been lusting after David Trubridge's Coral Pendant forever. It was a big splurge (and a big statement), but I love it.

The table, which we already had, is the Basque from Crate & Barrel, and the chairs were a craigslist special; the slipcovers are leftovers from the room's red incarnation. I found the flatweave rug at Urban Outfitters ($40 on sale!).

I turned a blank expanse of wall into a gallery for (mostly) Etsy prints in IKEA's white Ribba frames.

The antique oak sideboard and hutch is a family heirloom. Painting it isn't an option, but I did want to lighten it up a bit.

Orla Kiely's Blossom wallpaper taped to the back of the shelves, plus my collection of vintage white ceramics and a set of Lisa Solomon-Aurora Robson "Couplets" prints in white Ribba frames, does the job nicely.

More light-colored accessories. Left: A white-painted vintage garden urn displays a sea "bouquet" made up of white and purple coral, purple-and-white barnacles, and sea fans. (All purchased for a few dollars apiece on eBay; check the "Rocks and Fossils" and "Aquarium" categories for similar.) Right: Salt and pepper shakers from Heath Ceramics and a trio of vessels from Portland's Life + Limb; I'm planning to fill them with petite succulents.

On the opposite side of the room, a white IKEA Expedit unit laid on its side with stainless steel Capita legs attached fits perfectly under the window, offers storage for fabric and craft supplies, and provides a handy surface for extra dishes during dinner parties and large family gatherings. The white storage boxes and linen curtains are also from IKEA (although this particular pattern is no longer available).

We tucked a small workspace and sewing- and crafting station into a corner of the room. I can set up here with the laptop, or Laurel can sew while I keep an eye on her. The desk is West Elm's white Parsons. I found the vintage tulip-style chair (most likely by Burke) on eBay. The IKEA Grundtal rail and Asker containers corral scissors, rulers, pens and pencils, paperclips, and other supplies.

On the shelves and wall is my prized collection of Rob Dobi photos, purchased from ImageKind, and framed in more white Ribbas.

The vintage teak sunburst clock is an eBay find. The bird mobile is from Helen Ige. A vintage Lucite bar cart holds a display of mercury glass and silver-toned accent pieces collected from eBay. The sconce is from West Elm. (And yes, I know there's altogether too much stuff in this room -- but god help me, I just can't do minimalism.)

Do you have kids? Oh, the joy of it all ...

Anyway, that's about it. I'd still like to find chairs that are a little less boring and traditional than these, but that'll have to wait. (I did win a set of cool midcentury teak dining chairs on eBay, but when they arrived Nick and the kids vetoed them on grounds of comfort, so up on craigslist they went.)

Overall, I'm really happy with the end result, except that now the camel color in the adjoining living room looks all wrong. I'm already mulling over new paint colors for that space -- keep your fingers crossed that Nick won't divorce me over it.

P.S. Want to see more? Click here for a tour of other areas of our "House in Progress."