nursery essentials

there is a lot of time and energy that goes into pregnancy. i mean, there's the actual time and energy it takes to BE pregnant (a lot. of both. and gummy bears. a lot. of those.). and then there is the time to prepare. both phil and i are thorough - there is a lot of time and discussion prior to almost all of our purchases, even the more minor ones. which means we have spent many, many hours online researching what we "need" for a baby. i say "need" because, really, you need a car seat and a place to sleep. a way to feed the baby and cloth them. the end. but there are so many things that make life easier and / or prettier : )

so there were many hours devoted to looking through blog posts and asking other mamas what they really needed. since our house is not large and the baby's room is the smallest of all, the hope is to take a more minimal approach to baby gear and the nursery, in particular. these are some of the best lists i found while wandering online:

minimalist registry list from the fauxmartha
essentials from love taza
baby list from oh joy
the multi-post powerhouse guide from modern eve

from all of that, we narrowed it down to what we decided were the essentials for the way we live and want to live with our kiddo and her nursery. i've already shown my affection for simple, modern cribs. and that we will use a chair we already have in the house as an upstairs snuggle spot for reading and nighttime feeding. but there are a few other things we wanted in baby's room.

book shelves
i am a big reader, and actually a bit of a book hoarder. there are no less than four books on my nightstand at any typical time - a mix of fiction and non-fiction (biography, self-help, cookbooks, whatever). and my hope is to pass the love of reading on to our little bug. i'm sure by the time she's in school, everyone will be almost exclusively e-reader (tear), but until then, we need a place to store books. plus, babies use board books and cloth books and squeaky, fuzzy books with tails. because that is way more fun than swiping an ipad or kindle in your snuggly chair! so we started thinking about what we could use as book storage. there are so many great ideas out there and, no surprise, we lean toward the less cutesy-kiddie options and more toward simple, wood options.

cute, simple shelves from DIY Mama

preschool-style bookshelf

gorgeous apartment tour on cup of jo

ikea spice rack hack

changing table
pretty much everyone i talked to and every list i read recommended just using a dresser with a pad on top, because the changing table is not a multi-purpose piece of furniture. well, okay then. makes sense to me. especially since we need the dresser storage in our tiny little room for our tiny little person. so as i searched further, i found this interesting cleanable pad. as opposed to the traditional piece of foam / vinyl / whatever and washable cover. my thought is less laundry = less annoyance. and, hello, it comes in gray.

keekaroo peanut changing pad available at amazon or giggle

mobile
i already mentioned my love of calder and desire for a beautiful mobile for little nugget. i've also been reading about montessori, and how mobiles play an integral part in babies' development. i've been researching how to set up a montessori baby space, and this blog (how we montessori) has been an especially good resource. here are some mobile resources from the blog, and even some DIY ideas! we are not doing the child bed on the floor (yet - it may come as baby gets older - i am too anxious to put her on the floor in our old house now), but a lot of montessori resounds well with us. we aren't really musical elephant mobile people (no judgment), so these simple mobiles mesh with our style and baby's learning needs. win-win. i may make a few of the montessori mobiles for baby to reach for from her baby gym, but over the crib, i think we'll go with one of the beautiful modern mobiles out there.

a beautiful montessori gobbi mobile from etsy

one of the many stunning flensted mobiles available from allmodern

toy storage
again, montessori has ideas on toys and toy shelving. simple wooden shelves with only a few toys within reach of little people and baskets that sort items. but our nursery is very small - i'm not sure this is something we can fit in the room. our back room will become a play room, so perhaps we just put the shelves back there?

simple shelves and storage from this great blog post

bath storage
our house has a single bathroom for us to share. it's a family bath. i'm an architect, so i've drawn up SEVERAL plans for us to add a second bath upstairs. but we took a three week trip to africa this year and now we're having a baby, so big renovations are on hold for a bit. i've been looking for tips on sharing a family bath - most are for large families in farmhouses, roommates (been there done that, bath toys are different than 17 shampoo types), or extolling the benefits of teaching kids to share. all excellent advice, but we're going to feel it out. i'm thinking collapsible tub - like a colander : ) and keeping towels and wash cloths in the nursery. toys... again, not sure what to do.

i plan to update this once i figure out which end is up because right now it is just my blog-informed, naive conjecture... and i know it will take us some serious trial and error as we figure out how to raise our little baby in our little row house in our city : )

chair update

remember those gorgeous mid-century chairs we found on craigslist for an absolute steal? well, the plan was to refinish them and make new cushions. then, the summer happened and the baby projects started and the plan changed to having someone ELSE refinish them and make new cushions. and maybe sell / trade them the little triangle table to help offset the cost. it's a cool table, but not anything  we need in the house. it's a strange shape and also needs a little work.

the chairs need some re-gluing, new straps / webbing (seat support), and some wood refinishing in addition to the cushions. i'd like them to be restored to their original(ish) color of wood and then add simple, navy cushions. some of my inspiration photos:

fabric is a little light, but photo of sold item from this shop

photo from expired listing at this cute shop

photo from here

however, we got a few bids on the restoration and upholstery work. and the cheapest was $500 a chair!! ummm, what?! so now it's back to the drawing board. do we sell the chairs and buy something else? at $500/chair, we can buy really nice chairs. like, really nice. do we just live with the ugly a little longer and take on the project after the baby comes? something in between? maybe just a large foam base cushion and interesting pillow for the back... 

idea & photo from here

any ideas? any good places to buy ready-made cushions?

cribs & gliders

so big news in the dickinson house... it's time to design a nursery! we are beyond excited to welcome a baby in early 2015 : )

what does this mean for the house? well, it means we need to do a little re-arranging upstairs. our "DC third bedroom" is currently my closet. and the back room, the house's old sleeping porch, is our junk room : ( the plan is to make the closet into the nursery and the back room into a study / playroom. the guest room will stay the guest room. and pink (sorry, dad). so grateful that we are not adding "moving" to the long list of baby prep!

as for style, we want something Scandinavian and gender neutral. we decided to find out sex (a girl!!), but don't want to re-buy major pieces or be painting rooms for kiddo numero dos - should we be so lucky as to survive this one and be blessed with another : ) think lots of white and wood and grey (duh). artwork will be where we do a little gender expression... the plan is to hang this gorgeous number over the crib. I have a few art pieces left from my pre-married days (aka my feminine, shabby chic phase) that may find their way in. and I've always loved the work of Sharon Montrose, particularly the little darlings series. I mean, c'mon, so cute. or we'll do some family photos or black and whites from our travels. did you know babies only see in black and white at first??! oh, and a mobile. cannot forget the mobile. I have loved calder's mobiles since studying abroad in college, so i'm hoping to find a modern (and less expensive) interpretation.

onto the major pieces... my dream crib is the oeuf sparrow. soooo pretty. and sooooo expensive!

 

so if we can't find one at a reasonable price on craigslist, we'll be doing the ikea sniglar. similarly simple, but 1/10th the price. great reviews, solid wood... a real winner for under $100, in my opinion.

 

 

I feel like either crib could go masculine or feminine, and could be passed down through a few babies. we'll do neutral crib linens. as for glider / rocker, we're going to use a plycraft lounge chair (which is an eames knock-off) we found on craigslist a while back.

 

not our actual chair, but similar. photo from here



it leans, rocks, and has armrests and an ottoman. plus, the headrest is tall enough I can lean back comfortably. we're going to try it and see, since we already have it. it was downstairs for awhile, then in our bedroom... the leather is in so-so shape, but should be easier to clean than most fabrics. and, I have to say, i'm not a huge fan of a lot of the glider options out there. my all-time favorite rocker is the eames RAR, but at $500+ and no headrest, it did not make the short list. I mean, if we found one on craigslist, i'd find a home for it no question : )

 

we're also going to convert an old dresser into the changing table. and by that, I mean we will paint the old dresser and slap a changing pad on top. maybe i'm naïve, but I never understood the dedicated changing table as a piece of furniture you buy. eh. open to comments from people who actually have babies (and, therefore, informed opinions, haha).

 

all of this change will spur many home projects, leading to (hopefully) more blog updates. we had stalled a bit on the house: burned out, working many, many hours and traveling. during this pregnancy I have gone to south padre island, texas; eastern shore, maryland; san antonio, texas; new york, new york; ft campbell, kentucky; nashville, tennessee; ft bragg, north carolina; ft hood, texas; dallas, texas; northern tanzania; kigali and northwestern rwanda; coastal tanzania; dubai; houston, texas; san diego, california... and I've had to say no to some work travel to the west coast. but the nesting instinct is real and strong (and felt by dads, too), so get ready!

on symmetry and patience

do you have obsessions? okay, obsession may be a bit strong. but, as i've said before, i get things into my head and they just, ummmm, stick. my latest design fixation is symmetry. i've never been a big fan of matchy-matchy, symmetrical designs... until now. maybe i'm feeling unbalanced in my personal life? the lie of work-life balance? eh, instead of paying for therapy, i'll just explore my inner psyche through the redecoration of our house. win-win.

there are two places i've been especially craving the symmetry: matching nightstands for our master bedroom and a pair of arm chairs for the living room. the nightstands are abundant - i'm really into these right now:

cb2 audrey nightstand

great, right? waiting for them to go on sale. well, and waiting for a new bed frame on craigslist. not totally in love with what we have now. 

the armchairs, however, were a different story. not abundant. especially in our price range and style. phil really REALLY likes matching mid-century armchairs. in wood. with vertical back slats. a tall order to fill at any price, much less under $400 for both, finished. which means including new cushions and/or wood refinishing. ha. it was a search for a unicorn. a flying unicorn. matching flying unicorns. 

we did the usual: craigslist every day, ebay, 1stdibs, estate sales. then a friend suggested we try auctions, so we went down to old town alexandria for brunch and a live auction with another couple. they've done auctions before (they have a beautiful art collection), so it was a great introduction to the sport. the potomack auction house had a small mid-century lot up that saturday. we previewed online and saw that there was a pair of chairs, exactly matching what we wanted. we did a little research on the design manufacturer to figure out pricing and set our max before we even downed a mimosa! (i've been shopping in vegas before!! haha)

when we got there, the auction was in full swing. there was a room full of furniture and art, and then a room full of chairs for bidders. we checked in and got our paddle. so exciting! then we sat down and watched to see the rhythm of the auctioneer and bidders. he spoke fast, like in movies. and people just raised their paddles. there were also tables on either side of room, with several women on the phones with clients and also watching the online portion of the bidding. 

they finally got to our lot, the pair of beautiful chairs. the bidding started low, around $300 i think. we raised our paddle. and then were outbid. we upped it. our max was going to be $400 (maybe $450 if we got carried away). welllll it didn't really matter. someone online bid almost $800. eight. hundred. dollars!!!!! needless to say, we were out. fun adventure, but no dice.

well, i've been working a fair amount from home on the weekend lately. and using my mental breaks to search for chairs and nightstands on craigslist. i actually just search "pair" and see what comes up. because i wouldn't say no to a nice pair of lamps either... anyway, lo and behold, i stumbled across a pair of chairs. in wood. with vertical back slats. FOR $50!!!! INCLUDING A SIDE TABLE!!!!!! we were starting the car to pick it up before we even finished calling to see if they were available. i had just lost on a gorgeous pair of campaign-style nightstands and i was not taking no for an answer this time.  

hello, gorgeous!! we drove as fast as legally possible out to the maryland suburbs and loaded them into our car. the table is not 100% our style. and the triangle shape makes it awkward to put in a small space. the wood is scratched on all three pieces.

and the cushions are gross. she had at least one cat, and there are claw marks all over the place. we brought the set home and THOROUGHLY cleaned them (number 1 rule of craigslist - clean before it gets in your house!) and did a good coat of lemon oil on all the wood. already looking happier. now i'm searching for the perfect fabric for the new cushions. and a good upholsterer. i'm not going to kid myself that i can bring these beauties back to life with my meager sewing skills. so any suggestions are welcome!

shedding some light

we've made more changes in the den. the latest is changing out a sconce on the brick wall. the original sconce was a little too shabby chic. while i love that style (i have the book, duh), it's a little too feminine for phil.

so i looked high and low for something modern, simple, and relatively inexpensive. i found a lot of fixtures i really liked, but phil would nix for price : ) finally, i found this one forty three sconce. but it was sold out. forever. so i followed the studio on instagram to know when it was back in production. and i finally was able to order it!

it took a few, okay several, weeks to come in. but well worth it for a beautiful, handmade fixture at a reasonable price! i opted for white and brass. the room is gray, the door hardware is brass (and antique brass-ish), and the trim is white. it even came with bulbs! so we took off the old fixture...

and discovered it had cloth-covered wires!

uh-oh. glad we took it off. then we painted the junction box on the wall, so it would match the shiny new white fixture. and then we installed the sconce ourselves!

actually, it was much easier than i expected. we just watched a quick youtube video after a google search. super quick, super easy.

doesn't it look great!?! i love it. we debated whether to orient the fixture with the bulbs up or down, and decided on down. it seemed less "bathroom vanity" and more "back den."

the light is bright. phil thinks maybe a bit too bright, especially for movie nights. eh. i like it. but my couch seat is further away : ) i'm looking at dipped bulbs as an option to shield some of the more direct light. but i think i'll wait until these burn out.

the den is getting close to complete; the major things left are accent pillows and artwork. the pillows we currently use are from my first apartment in denver, and a little worse for the wear. since this is "phil's room" we're having a disagreement over the artwork... he wants movie posters. ummm no? haha. we'll see. i think we may have some compromises in mind...

our most magical craigslist find yet!

it's no secret that phil is a craigslist master. seriously most of our house is furnished from craigslist. no reason to buy new when there are so many people looking to get rid of perfectly good furniture pieces in great shape. he somehow finds amazing things and we (almost) never get burned. one of my favorite finds is the plycraft eames-style lounge chair (you can see it here, it's the brown leather chair in the back). well, he outdid himself this time.

he was just browsing for "large art" or "large canvas" or something. we have next to nothing on the walls (still!! i know!), and it is starting to drive him nuts. i already knew what i was looking for. and there is a TON to wade through on craigslist art. some real doozies. so when i saw "michelle armas" i FLIPPED. OUT. what are the odds??!? a nice couple in chevy chase had two stretched prints on canvas, and we were the lucky ones. i mean, isn't it gorgeous?

we have it rotated sideways and just resting on the mantle until we find the perfect home. it's such a happy piece to see when you walk in! 

aaaaaand it made a beautiful addition to a baby shower for a sweet friend : ) 

way to go, phil! and looking forward to using the money we saved for plane tickets to texas to see friends and family. 

our second christmas

last year, i didn't decorate the house for christmas. i put up a boxwood wreath inside, but that was it. i had grand plans to order everything i wanted on sale after last christmas. i had a plan...

reality: i waited too long to order the wreaths. i tend to do that. they were sold out. garlands are expensive. i thought we had more white lights than we did (only one short string in the rubbermaid tub). we have been traveling so much that it didn't make sense to put up a tree.

so i ordered cheap artificial outdoor wreaths from amazon. not boxwood, like i originally envisioned, because i couldn't find them at a reasonable price point. we put them up on each window, but not the front door. still haven't been able to figure out how to hang it successfully on the storm door : ) and still haven't changed the door or storm door. eh. maybe next year?

i bought a single strand of icicle lights for across the front porch. it's almost the right size. but it doesn't hang straight. there are recommendations online, but they mostly involve a lot of time and a hair dryer. nope. does anyone have an easier way?

then i wrapped two columns with white lights. we did not wrap any garlands - too expensive. i might order an artificial one for next year (yeah, yeah, i know - because it worked so well last year). but wouldn't the porch railing look pretty with a green garland?

we also hung the wreaths on the interior of the house on the three upstairs windows. however, there are HVAC vents above the windows. the wreaths kept falling. so in the oh-so-lovely dark photo above, the middle upstairs wreath has fallen to the bedroom floor. i'll try climbing out onto the roof and hanging them outside next year.

inside, i did bare minimum decorating. number one on my after-christmas list is stocking holders. i really like the topiary ones from ballard designs, but unfortunately they don't carry them anymore.

maybe i could make them? maybe not. but i really like them. this year i just set the stockings out on top of the fireplace. which looks a little silly. i'll keep searching for hangers. we also did not put up a tree. we went to key west with phil's family the week before christmas, so we didn't think it was worth the hassle. however, my beautiful friend alycyn sent us a gorgeous small tree from a cute old town florist. what a fun treat on christmas eve! 

artwork progress

surprise! i'm back.

this time i've been traveling. i've been to north carolina, new jersey, maryland, and northern california for work. and dallas, athens, and abilene, texas with my family. and key west with phil's family. it's been quite a month. but we have seen all of our nieces and nephews! : )

i put together artwork in our guest room. remember, the pink one? i had found the beautiful center piece for a gallery wall (description here). i ordered a special frame. and then i combed through pieces we have collected through the years to organize a grouping.

option 1, clockwise from left: "so much," photo of stained glass from santa fe street market, capitol watercolor from eastern market, photo from hall of mirrors in versailles, small painting from my watercolor teacher saved from my time studying abroad in italy. the painting is on scrap board, and i would have to figure out how to hang it. and it looks a little lost.

option 2, clockwise from left: versailles photo, limited print produced by an RA from my study abroad time, "so much," santa fe photo, capitol watercolor, watercolor i painted under above-mentioned watercolor teacher. i have done watercolor lessons twice so far. i studied under a family friend in high school - she taught me about color and edamame. i worked with a local artist in italy - his english was poor, but our italian was worse. he preferred to paint outdoors around the village. not crazy about the two vertical pieces at the bottom of this arrangement.

option 3. i edited. and then i chose this arrangement. i like the way the colors are similar in all the pieces. it is a slightly feminine assortment, but the room is already pink...

then i traced each frame onto scratch paper. it was leftover tissue paper from an anthropologie bag, i think. then i taped it up on the wall above the bed to check if i liked the arrangement.

i also marked where i would need to nail into the wall to hang each piece.

i hung the gallery piece by piece, taking down the tissue paper and leveling as i went.

et voila! a simple foray into the gallery wall. of which there are many much, much more elaborate and beautiful. like this. or this gallery of galleries from lonny. 

celebrating a milestone

hello, friends.

yes, i'm still here.

i've just been taking a little break to do a few other things. like throw an engagement party, work in the garden, travel for work... and pass my last exam!! yes, that's right. i have now filed my paperwork with the fine state of wisconsin to become a real-live, registered, licensed architect! : )

now that it's finally here, i don't really know what to do. it's been my goal for so long. for, like, ever. so now what? just go to a nice dinner and keep going? my duties at work will be exactly the same. i do get to put the lovely "AIA" letters after my name. after filling out mountains of paperwork and paying a large amount of money.

i think i may buy myself a present to signify the achievement. but what does one buy for oneself? i'm thinking a piece of furniture. something uber-architect-y (that's a technical term, of course). there are several iconic architects with pieces of furniture that i would be happy to use an ongoing reminder that i achieved my goal. and i think that buying a verified original piece is an important way to celebrate. since i am now a certified designer, being paid for my ideas and design skills, i should return the favor and buy the real thing.

eero saarinen
saarinen was a finnish american architect and furniture designer. buildings include the st louis gateway arch and the main terminal at dulles airport. if i were to buy a piece of his furniture, i would choose a coffee table. first choice would be a white/grey marble top with a white base.... but i think the white laminate makes it a little more in my price range : )

table from hive modern

charles & ray eames
an amazing american design couple, the eames are most famous for their chairs, tables, stools, and case study house in southern california. we have knock-off eames pieces already: a plycraft reproduction lounge chair that phil found on craigslist and our "eiffel" dining chairs from overstock. my all-time favorite piece from charles and ray eames is the RAR rocker. words do not express my undying devotion to this piece of furniture. weird? maybe. i'm a design-nut. sue me. but i have a confession. i've always imagined that i will buy the RAR (in white, natch) for my first nursery. i'm a sentimental weird design-nut, apparently.

rocker from room & board

mies van der rohe
mies is a legend. his name is used as an adjective, for goodness' sake. the german american architect is most famous for farnsworth house, the seagram building, crown hall, and the barcelona pavilion. he designed beautiful chairs for the pavilion, the barcelona chair. it's become an iconic chair in the commercial design world. the leather would be easy to clean and i can just imagine two matching brown leather chairs in our living room... if i cancel vacation for the next 10 years and buy these instead.

barcelona chair from knoll

alvar aalto
aalto is a finnish architect. he has many famous buildings in finland (can't spell them) and is known for his furniture design, like this gorgeous tea cart. but my present to myself would be a vase. the vase is beautiful, simple, sculptural, and as interesting empty as it is filled. and it costs significantly less than any of the pieces of furniture. a more modest celebration, but significant, nonetheless.

aalto vase from littala

now i'll just go through the options to phil... despite being a present to myself, some of these options are much too expensive to not be a joint decision. i hope i can get a table or chair! : )

magic carpet ride

have you ever bought a rug? a really big rug. oh my, they're expensive. but they can totally make a room.

i found a modern rug for our bedroom. it's large, but i found it in a cyber monday sale and it's a really popular pattern right now. i'm sure i'll think it's dated in a few years, but most of it is covered by our bed, so i'm kind of okay with that. downstairs in our front living room, however, is a different story...

we really want an antique rug. we thought "oh, let's get one of those cool overdyed rugs." so i looked online and couldn't find one that we loved. well, i found some beautiful rugs, but they were either too expensive, too bright, or too small. i was looking for an 8 foot-ish by 10 foot-ish rug in a muted green, gray, or blue. nothing. so we decided to wait until the annual bloomingdale's tent sale, which happens early every summer. it was overwhelmingly full of rugs. and pushy salesmen. we went earlier in the morning, to beat the heat (it's literally in a tent) and any crowd. failed on both accounts: miserably stuffy and there is apparently never a crowd. whatever.

we assumed our typical bargaining dynamic. i kindly explained what we were looking for (size, colors, prefer overdyed) while phil looked as bored as possible and said he hated everything we saw. the salesman, along with a team of helpers to pull back the heavy stacks of rugs, eventually helped me find two absolutely gorgeous rugs.

rug one - overdyed simple pattern

rug two - overdyed more ornate pattern, tad bit brighter

i would have been happy to take either home [the salesmen try to get you to buy 2-4 rugs, so you can "try it in your room and then bring back the ones you don't want" - yeah, right!], until we saw the price. each one was over $4000!!!!! ummmm what?? isn't this supposed to be a sale? oh, it was on sale. the original price was over $15,000 on one of them. who buys a $15,000 rug? not this couple. this couple was not buying a $4000 rug, either. oh, i considered it. i always do. in the heat of the moment i get really excited about how beautiful it will look and all the new furniture that will go with it... and then phil drags me back to earth.

the next tactic for a giant rug was the big box stores. i checked all the usuals: west elm, pottery barn, crate and barrel, cb2, ikea, macy's, etc. same problems. wrong color, wrong size, wrong price. or wrong quality - i found some interesting options on overstock, but they just looked so cheap. i mean, they are cheap. but i don't want it to look that way! : )

i wish this story had a happy ending. not yet. one day my prince rug will come. until then, it's back to the internets. i've found some amazing resources. esalerugs is my current haunt. there are some real beauties, the price is right, and the shipping is free. then i've been searching ebay and etsy. i typically follow the guidelines put forth by one of my favorite users-of-oriental-rugs-in-amazing-ways: little green notebook. she shares her tips for small rugs on ebay here, turkish kilims here, and success with esalerugs here. hopefully i find something soon!

artwork search

we're getting closer to "complete" on a few rooms. well, by complete, i mean i'm not totally embarrassed to have people over. but we're missing the finishing touches. namely, artwork.

we have some large expanses of wall to fill. and i don't want to fill it with a bunch of posters or hastily purchased prints in cheap-looking frames. i want the look of a lovingly curated art collection... but i'm being impatient on the time it takes to build said collection : )

i've been doing a lot of searching for art and artists that i like. and i've found several. my favorite right now is michelle armas. her paintings are beautiful. and her framed originals are stunning. a large-format acrylic in a maple frame over our fireplace... wouldn't that be dreamy?? well, it's a little pricey. i'm saving. and trying to convince my husband that we should spend over $1000 on a painting when there is roof work to be done is not going well. understandably.

so i'm taking a different approach for now. scouring estate sales, ebay, craigslist and etsy for affordable options that both of us love and agree on. we've had one success so far.

this piece is from a very cute etsy shop called tastes orangey. it's called "so much" and i am smitten. it arrived beautifully packaged and very quickly. my plan is to use it as the centerpiece in a gallery wall in our guest room. so i ordered a frame.

which brings me to the next piece of the puzzle. once i find artwork, what do i do with it? especially since i don't want to spend zillions of dollars on frames. well, enter emily henderson. you know, the insanely adorable designer from hgtv. i love her. and i LOVE her blog. she wrote an amazing post about frames. i cannot recommend this enough. even the comments are helpful. i ordered a frame from one of her sources and some samples following a recommendation in the comments. i will update on how it goes - i am excited for it to work out!

and i'll keep saving for some large original pieces. my other obsession right now is gray malin's aerial beach photography series. wow. just stunning. i see this in our dining room. one of the giant ones. you know, the expensive ones. i wish i had an actual connection to one of these locations just so i could justify buying one. hehe. 

the other thing i'm working on is incorporating photos from our travels into our gallery walls. and maybe even paint something myself... maybe.

new additions

we have a couple of new additions to the den. as i said before, that's where our tv is located and we spend the majority of our time. since we have a rather large tv, that's also where we host game-watching parties during a&m football season. which means we need seating! last year, we typically brought in dining chairs, loaded up the couch, and sat on the floor to get everyone to fit - especially for the big games (i'm looking at you, alabama). so we found the big sectional. but we still need more chairs. the room is not very wide, so the side chair has to be rather skinny. we were killing time at tyson's corner mall a couple of weeks ago and happened into west elm. [okay, we didn't really "happen" into west elm - i dragged phil to go look at a coffee table i saw online after we visited the bloomingdale's rug tent sale. same thing.] and, lo and behold, there was a little chair! 



not only was there a little chair, but it was on sale! and upholstered in a non-offensive, non-feminine navy stripe! it's fairly comfortable, and will be even better with a pillow for lumbar support. woohoo!

then last weekend, phil lured me out of bed on a weekend morning with the promise of popeye's and the garden store. we had been to an all-day pool party the day before, and let's just say i needed my beauty rest : ) i was not leaving that bed and was quite happy to watch the new top chef masters and not change out of my pajamas, thank you. but phil never wants to go to the garden store (he always wants to go to popeye's. i think we've been to every single location in northwest DC and north arlington). so that was some motivation to throw on a cap and my sunglasses and get outside.

ummmm definitely worth it. i finally got a fiddle leaf fig!! i've been slightly obsessed for a while and johnson's had a few to choose from in their indoor section. we chose a nice, healthy tree on the smaller side. they had a couple of larger ones that were GORGEOUS. but they were also expensive at $150! our medium-ish sized guy was $40. johnson's is usually more expensive than our ace or home depot, but they're so helpful and i really like them. so i don't mind. well, i like to buy plants at ace, too, but i've never seen anything like this there. i evened it out by buying a new aloe vera plant and more liriope to fill in around our walk at ace. see - the tiny plant in the black pot behind the fig.

anyway. it is a great addition to our den. he sits next to the tv, so he can soak up the southern sunlight that comes in the transom above the back door. if i remember to leave the shades open. i hope i don't kill him!

dorky photo from my instagram feed. please notice mr fiddle leaf fig off to the right. please do not notice the fact that i should be dusting my tv console instead of bawling my eyes out to a movie i've seen a zillion times.

the baseboards (or how i almost lost my mind)

oh hey. i'm back. took a little hiatus to enjoy my summer and not study for my exams : ) we've also tackled a few projects, which i hope to post about in a somewhat timely manner.

we spent our fourth of july on our hands and knees. sanding. and sanding. and sanding. and sanding. remember how we refinished the walls and floors before we moved in? well it did a number on our baseboards. first, the painters came and stripped all the walls down to the plaster, using humidifiers to help them strip the wallpaper. then, a few days later, the flooring contractor came in and pulled off the shoe molding to strip and refinish the floors. i guess the base was still a little soft, because it chewed it up. and we didn't have time to have the painters come back and touch it up after the flooring contractor, due to our crazy fast timeline.

ummm it looked awful. and we kept putting off fixing it, because we knew how horrible the project would be. we finally had extra time over the long holiday weekend at fourth of july and decided better sooner than later...

we moved all the furniture away from the walls. this meant moving a large part of the dining room into the den.

so that was fun. my arms were already sore from moving furniture! but then the real fun started. the sanding. we started with a medium grit sandpaper (about an 80 grit). the hardest part was not sanding the shoe molding while still getting all of the base smooth. there were several layers of thick, goopy paint and it took some serious time to get it ready for paint. after sanding all of the boards (entry, living room, dining room, stairs and upstairs landing) with medium grit, we gave it a pass with a finer grit. again, it took forever. 

my sanding fuel! can't get enough of this stuff

the straight runs were not so bad to sand. the stairs, however... well, let's just say we both deserve a hot stone massage after that situation. 

pretty, right? : ) to protect the edge of the stairs, we wrapped sandpaper around sponges (like we did while working on the dresser). that way, the sponge rubs against the finished wood while the sandpaper worked on the grubby trim. 

so we finished the sanding. and ate our weight in chinese food (ps - this is our favorite delivery place in NW DC). then we cleaned. we used all-purpose cleaner and old cotton t-shirts to clean all the sandpaper and grime off the entire area. it's one of those chores that i hate doing, so i don't do it very often. which means this is the first time the baseboards received a good scrub in about a year. oops. so if nothing else, our baseboards are nice and clean after this little adventure : ) 

the next morning, we taped. again, the straight runs were not difficult, but the stairs were time-consuming. this task was definitely worth it, though, so take your time and be accurate. phil even likes to run an old credit card along the top edge, to ensure a really good seal between the tape and the wood. 

after the extensive taping, we finally started painting. we used a white trim paint we found in the basement and a thin, high-quality brush. 

the painting went quicker than the sanding, but it was still slow work. it's careful work. and we would be painting and see a spot that needed more sanding (like above). so we'd have to not paint that area, then wait for the entire zone to dry (to prevent dust from getting into the wet paint), sand it again, clean it again, and then paint it. i'm not sure if anyone could ever tell that we went to all that trouble as we went once all the furniture is in, but phil is a stickler for doing things the right way. me... well... not so much. i'm happier to just move quickly. but i'm always happy when phil makes me stop and do things correctly. in the end. even if i fight him while we're working. not that i would ever do that : ) 

whistling while we work aka singing along to one of our many pandora stations

we waited for the paint to mostly dry, then took off the tape. we had to do a little touch-up work here and there, both with the paintbrush and also the razorblade (to get a few messy edges off the shoe mold). 

so after two and a half days' labor, we were done! it's not perfect, but it looks so. much. better! 

we moved the furniture back in and opened a couple of well-deserved beers : )