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!

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! : )

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.

progress in the den

our house has the same floor plan as most DC townhouses. front living room, dining room and adjacent galley kitchen, and a former porch that is now enclosed. this back room is our den, our TV room. it's thin and cool in the winter and warm in the summer. one wall is brick (as it used to be the exterior of the house), and has two doors and windows. there are also double french doors to our back patio. it is where we spend most of our time - it has the TV and is right off the kitchen : )

i've been struggling how to use these first floor rooms, looking at lots of inspiration for help. we only had one couch when we moved to the house (makes sense, since we were in a tiny one-bedroom apartment), and it was not my favorite. a red monstrosity that we got for free from phil's co-worker during his denver internship. we saw it in his garage after going to a july 4 barbecue and took it home in the back of the truck. we've been on the hunt for a new couch for a year. we bought a small khaki nordic sofa off craigslist right when we moved in, but it wasn't the comfy lounge-y couch we needed for the back room.

we finally found one! a year-old crate & barrel sectional on craigslist. we luuuurrrrrrve craigslist : ) and it is a perfect fit. brown leather, comfy, and, oh, that chaise! it is so great to put up your feet. and we can both snuggle for movies without feeling cramped. we were also able to sell the old red couch (goodbye, old friend!) to a new loving home.

but what to do with the rest of the room? obviously, we need some storage. the photo above was right after we moved the sectional in, so please excuse the messy mess. there are built-ins to the immediate left of the sofa that i will repurpose as an end table. and cook book storage. ha. i have a problem.

we decided to paint the room. originally, the brick was a maroon-ish color and the other walls tan. i prefer cool colors over warm colors, so we decided to paint the entire room grey. i don't know what my aversion to warm paint colors is all about. i just need the cooling, calming grey or blue. i like bright red rooms, i could just never have one in my house. the pink is not working out, so i went back to my tried and true.

very happy with how it turned out. the room is not done. but it's closer. we are looking for a coffee table and the right artwork for the room. phil wants movie artwork (like this). i want a mixture of photos and small original artwork. we'll see...

the dresser that's never finished

we needed a dresser for our bedroom. phil had been using an old one... one of those 1960s french provincial (a taller version of this) that is part of the bedroom suite my mom had growing up. it had been painted several times and was peeling and girly. we found a beautiful slate blue dresser at restoration hardware, but they wanted over $1000. on. SALE. no way!!

to craigslist we went. we found a long dresser with mirror for $25. good shape, lots of drawers, and someone to help us load it in the car. sidebar: one of my favorite things about craigslist is getting to explore random parts of the city. like this dresser took us to a crazy huge apartment building by the cathedral. HUGE. and it was built into a crazy hill. fancy lobby, but probably less expensive rent because not convenient to anything. i had never even seen any of this area before. i love that. i would have never been to this part of the city if not for craigslist. other sidebar: i don't do pickups by myself. ever. i watch lifetime. not gonna happen.

anyway... it was an awful honey-colored stain. luckily, it is solid wood - one of those lovely 1990s pieces from a north carolina major furniture company. we decided to use an extra gallon of paint and refinish the piece. phil had bought grey paint for our bedroom in our rosslyn apartment, but nothing highlights disgusting carpet like grey walls ; )

we did a lot of research on the best way to refinish. we bought a sander. the best tutorials we found were young house love (of course! love that site) and centsational girl (she has so many good tips on painting and refinishing). we bought all of our supplies:

primer, good brushes (phil splurged and it was DEFINITELY worth it), sandpaper in several grits, paint, wood filler, floetrol, poly

and we set up in the garage. we are always limited on time, so this project took us forever. like over a month. maybe 40 hours total (between two people), but spread out over several weekends to allow for drying and erratic schedules. needless to say, refinishing furniture is a big time investment. especially since we were not going for the shabby chic look. that looks is much quicker - less sanding, no priming, no even coats, no final poly coats. we decided we're growing out of the shabby chic look. i loved it in college, but too feminine for our first real house together (so i'm told).

first, we had to fill in a crack along the top of the dresser. we shoved it full of wood filler and let it dry. then we sanded. and sanded. and sanded. we used the random orbital on the large expanses and hand-sanded corners and edges. i used a sponge wrapped in sand paper. we started with a coarse grit and worked our way to finer. not super fine (yet), just prepping. we wiped everything down to get rid of the sandpaper.

we primed the entire dresser with two coats. we used long, even brushstrokes and tried to do a thin single coat on the entire piece. in between each coat, we sanded after the primer was dry. lots of sanding. hey, it's a good arm workout, right?

finally, it was time to paint! after a good sanding and wiping (no sawdust), we started to very carefully paint the dresser. phil was the best at long, smooth strokes for the top of the dresser - at over five feet long, that's a long stroke! it took awhile to get into the groove of getting a smooth finish. i recommend starting on bottom drawers, or practice on the back of the piece. you'll get the hang of it. another tip to help in the smooth finish is adding floetrol. we mixed it into red solo cups with the paint, following the directions on the back of the bottle (we found it at our local ace - love that place!). we did three thin coats. thin coats are better in the fight against drips and globs. it's okay if you get a couple of ridges, though. guess what? you'll sand them out! like i said, a lot of sanding. we used the finest grit sandpaper here (like 120 or more). and we were very careful on the edges - we're not going for shabby chic, remember?

the color turned out to be not as grey as anticipated, more slate blue. totally happy with it (and soooo glad it didn't end up on walls). painting all of the actual color took a long time. it was slow painting, since we were being so careful. then we'd have to wait for it to dry before sanding and painting another coat. what usually happened is we would paint and then have to wait until the next day or weekend to do the next coat. to keep the paint fresh in between our work and not waste any pre-mixed paint with floetrol, i would cover the solo cup with saran wrap. i would put the wrap so it touched the top of the paint and then put a rubber band around the cup. it kept quite nicely and didn't form a skin. we'd just mix it a little when we were ready to start again.

after all the coats (it may take you less or more, i think it depends on how you've prepped it), we did one final sanding with very fine grit sandpaper. then we did two very thin poly coats. this one is hard in a low-lit area (like a garage and under a porch). it had to "cure" for about a week before we moved it upstairs.

definitely not done - i just put the old knobs back on so we could start using it. i have a few ideas for knobs; i want masculine knobs. i loved these at anthropologie: 

but i waited too long and missed them on sale : ( back to the drawing board... i will post photos once it's actually complete! 

worth it?

do you see that look on phil's face?? that look says "i know i'm fundamentally frugal, but this is a lot of work... couldn't we just buy a finished dresser and have more time for fun!?"

so, yes, refinishing furniture is a lot of work. especially because we want to do it right. so between coats two and a half and three of the primer, we had a real discussion about the "value" of cheap craigslist furniture that takes 6+ hours of work... we'll see once this is done what the verdict is - it seems so romantic on young house love... let's just say we are very glad we didn't buy a total fixer-upper :)

working

we got a sander. true to form, phil researched and then comparison shopped for a couple of weeks. he decided we need a random orbital sander, since we plan to use it mainly for refinishing furniture. so we tested it this weekend on the craigslist dresser. i'll do a full post once we finish the piece (i had a bachelorette party saturday night, so we couldn't finish), but we were able to get the entire piece sanded and a couple drawers primed. we had to sand the edges by hand, and the tutorials we read recommended using a sponge sander. well those cost almost $10 (!!), so i rigged one out of a sponge from the garage and a 79 cent sheet of sandpaper :) hoping to finish the dresser this weekend! well, everything except the hardware... that is a big decision!

updates

these are the assembled chairs.  they are reproductions of one of my favorite chairs and surprisingly good. one of the major differences is the overstock version is a thin plastic shell seat, rather than a thick molded polypropylene or fiberglass.  either way, they look great in the dining room! the clean white chairs with the wood table is exactly what i was hoping for : ) not a huge fan of reproductions, since as a designer i'm a proponent of supporting other designers, but i couldn't find any in our price range or on craigslist.  we need six chairs - at $300-$350 each, there is no way! we had to assemble them, which was fun. and by fun, i mean i got really frustrated assembling two while phil did the other four. i try really hard, but i'm not the most adept...

and this is the guest room. doesn't look so pink : )  the duvet i ordered looked way too feminine, so now i'm hunting for a charcoal striped set - like this but hopefully at a different price point. i also want to make a grey upholstered headboard. the room is too small for a full bed frame - we did fit a queen bed into a 9x11 room - so looks like it is a headboard-only solution for us. one of these days we will finish a room so i can post finished photography!