Editing the Dining Room.

I love everything about this dining room.  I love the mismatched chairs (especially the Ghost chair).  I love the art work. And I love the laid back vibe. 

Via Domino

Our dining room feels a lot like a glorified corridor! It is long, narrow and has a slightly dropped ceiling (thankfully not the textured kind).  It does have two very large windows that face East and has tons of unrealized potential.  I have always been at a loss to make this room feel right.  It has always felt cramped and very boring.  The other problem was that we had a table and buffet which were really dark, heavy and too big for the space. For years I tried to work with what I had because I hate getting rid of stuff.  Anyway  I finally decided to get rid of everything in the dining room and start afresh.  For now I am keeping the blue walls.  We sold the dining room table and buffet on Craigslist (for the same price as that we paid in 1999 when we bought it).   Now I want to get rid of the chrome chairs.  They are fabulous  but I need some slimmer chairs for the small space.

Our Dining Room before we sold the table and buffet.


I love the gallery walls in the image below.  My plan to make the dining room feel less like a corridor is to cover all the walls in interesting art work, photos and other stuff (I love to frame anything).


Via sfgirlbybay

I would like to find a solid wood table, if possible made of reclaimed teak.  I bought a credenza a while ago on eBay.  It is Danish and it is gorgeous.  My camera is not working right now so I won't be able to post any pictures of it for a while.  For seating I may find a vintage bench to go against one side of the wall and use some of the mismatched chairs that we have in the basement.  I plan on funding all my purchases for the dining room with the money I make selling my stuff.  I have a huge old Persian rug and also a china cabinet (part of the dining room set) that I plan on selling soon on Craigslist. 

Re-dcorating the Guest Room.

After spending some time in November and December vacationing I realized the importance of having a very comfortable and beautiful guest room. This is what the guest room looks like now:

Our guest room is pretty tiny but it faces South and is always filled with light. To make it more guest friendly I need to make it feel more fabulous than it is now. I think we need to add some shelving, maybe in the alcove (next to the window and not seen in this picture) and over the bed. I would like to fill the shelves with some books about Philly and other great reads. We have no shortage of books in the house and this would give me more storage for the books and also provide our guests with some good reading material. I love the shelves in the images below and would like to use these images as inspiration to build our own shelves:

Via Design Sponge

(source unknown)

Since the room is pretty small I want to paint it a dark color, maybe a greenish grey and attempt to obtain a cocoon effect. I think that smaller bedrooms look much better in a darker color. I don't think that a small room ever looks bigger with a light color. Similarly, I think a small room looks better with larger pieces of furniture, even if they take up a lot of space, instead of tiny furniture scattered around.

I think that I will also paint the lamp base in black and get a smaller end table. Also, the batik peacock art will be moving to the basement temporarily. I want one large painting over the bed.

I hope that this will be a short and inexpensive project!

I'm Back!

The nightmare is over.  It turned out that Kiran also got an infection from the hospital likely due to the stint for the IV drip.  Anway he is better, Scott is better and we are safely back in gorgeous cold and snowy Philly! I think that it will probably take me a while to get over the emotional aspects of this trip.  I generally hate blaming others or harboring emotions of resentment for things in the past because it is just such a waste of time and really only serves to drive me crazy.  For whatever reason I am still angry about Kiran and Scott getting Dengue and the circumstances surrounding the illness, my parents reaction to the illness and  the magnitude of the decisions we had to make and the knowledge that a small miscalculation on our part could have resulted in a dire situation.  So while I am (unsuccessfully) trying to parse out these emotions I haven't started on any new house projects.

However, after seeing this picture of this mirror for the second time (I initially saw it on Living Etc.) I am inspired! Isn't it fabulous? I have a couple large vintage mirrors just gathering dust and I would like to paint one of them like this.  Maybe I will run out and buy some paint tomorrow after work...

Via Desire to Inspire

Not quite a Vacation.

Dear Readers:
Generally when I don't post anything for a while I give you some lame reason like "I was busy at work" or "I was having too much fun."  Well that is not so this time.  My initial plan when we first went away on vacation was to take pictures of the amazing architecture, textiles and sights of Sri Lanka and post them.  I anticipated weeks of relaxing in the sun, hanging out with friends, drinking endless cups of tea, getting tipsy on Sri Lankan beer and mostly spending hours upon hours with Scott and Kiran without a care in the world.  Well somehow my idyllic vacation morphed into a nightmare.  First Scott was diagnosed with Dengue which is a serious mosquito borne viral infection.  Scott was hospitalized for five agonizing days.  I spend those days running from the hospital to my parents home to cook for Kiran (he refused to eat anything that anyone else cooked for him) and play with him and then I would spend the nights with Scott in the hospital.  I had a short reprieve and then Kiran was also diagnosed with Dengue which can be very serious in infants and toddlers.

As I write this post I can see my poor little boy drugged out listless on the bed in front of me and I am again filled with more despair. Why did I bring him here? He barely smiles anymore and all that I want to do is pick him up, rush to the airport and get on the next flight back to Philly.  I alternate between moments of utter despair, short bouts of  hopefulness and agonizing hours of disbelief. I can't believe this is happening to me.

Kiran's Dengue appears to be under control but he seems to have developed a secondary infection.  The doctors are not sure...maybe it is malaria.  We'll know whether it is malaria tomorrow.  For now all I can to is hope that my darling Kiran will recover and that he will once again laugh smile and do all the silly little things that he used to do.

So dear readers that is all for now from what was once my beautiful homeland. From now on Sri Lanka will sure to inspire more dread that beauty in my mind.

"I See a Red Door and I Want It Painted Black."

 ...well not really.  "I saw a white door leading to the basement and I wanted it painted black" would be a more accurate (and less poetic) title.  However,  this is probably the only chance I get to quote the Rolling Stones in my blog  so I went for it!

For a couple of months I was really busy at work.  I felt like all that I did was work, hang out with Kiran after his preschool and then work some more during the night (you may have noticed the lack of posts).  Sometimes even when I went to bed I kept thinking of things that I needed to get done at work.  Well during those days and nights I really needed an outlet for my anxiety.  Some people eat and some people exercise to blow off some steam...but I like to do house projects.  One day I called Scott and told him that he had to pick up some Benjamin Moore Studio Finishes Chalkboard paint on his way home from work.  Well that night instead of spending another sleepless night laying in bed thinking about all the things that I had to get done I spent a couple of hours cleaning the basement door downstairs and then painting it black.  I loved it so much that I decided to also paint the door to the downstairs bathroom black, before going to bed.  Scott and Kiran woke up the next morning to the black doors and they both loved it.

 Door leading to the basement.

A close up of the basement door.

A close up of the bathroom door downstairs.

A close up of my favoite door knob .

The next night I painted Kiran's bedroom door and the second floor bathroom door black.  The next night it was our room door and the door downstairs that leads to the backyard.  Well now all the doors except for those on the third floor and the front door are black.  I love the way the doors look.  They are very dramatic and unexpected.  What do you think?

The door to Kiran's room to the left and the bathroom door on the second floor to the right. 

A close up of the Kiran's door (it is actually black and not at all bluish like in this picture).

The second floor bathroom door.

I had originally planned on using chalkboard paint so that Kiran could draw on the basement door but I may never let Kiran draw on any of these doors...I haven't decided yet.

I need some color!

While I love the juxtaposition of lots of colors, textures and prints (more is always more) I sometimes love the serenity of all white rooms.

I recently came across these two beautiful images on Decor8 and I can't help but drool over the this beautiful home. I love the crochet covers on the bed.  I especially like the contrast of the white cover with the beautiful cream cover.  I obsessively searched eBay for a while for vintage crochet bedspreads. I wanted one that I could dye black but they all ended up being too granny-ish that I didn't end up buying anything.  Seeing this picture  has re-sparked my eBay search for crochet blankets!  The bright clothes pop nicely against the all white decor.  I think the light fixture is a Tord Boontje garland that I have been lusting after for ages. I have no where to put it so I have resisted the urge to buy it.

Speaking of lamps I have also been lusting after a Bourgie lamp like the one below.  I prefer the completely clear one and once a lot of the major renovations are done I may buy one.  It is sort of way out of the league, in terms of cost, compared to all my other thrift store lamps.  I am not sure  if there were ever a time that I didn't have any major renovations to do that I would actually spend that kind of money on a lamp.  For now I am quite content thinking that I may buy it.  I  love the mix of high and low in the picture below,  the amazing lamp is sitting on an inexpensive Ikea cabinet and looks stunning.  

There is no chance that I am going to paint my walls white (any time soon) but I love adding lots of white furniture and accessories to the room.  White makes it easier to live with lots of color.  

I shall go to bed tonight dreaming of the Bourgie lamp.

Still Dreaming of a Black Room.

A while ago I posted some pictures of chalkboard paint and black walls.  Well my obsession with black walls just seems to grow in leaps and bounds.  I am seriously on the verge of painting the office room black.  What's holding me back? I have always loved color and black is sort of the absence of any color so it is a huge mental hurdle for me to overcome.  I feel that my black room may seem depressing, dark and dull.   However, all the black rooms I've seen online are rich and decadent.  Here are some of the fabulous black rooms that are really pushing me towards actually buying the paint and painting the room black!

Dining Room of Victoria via AT

Breakfast Nook of Victoria via AT

Jenna Lyons' Bedroom via Living Etc.

Anna at D16's newly painted black wall

I think that sometime in late January I will tackle the office room.  I need to, spackle, fill in all nail holes,  prime the walls,  paint and then rip out the carpets.  I've already picked out the perfect black from Benjamin Moore. Also, I've decided to paint everything black, the walls, molding, doors and shelves.  I am not sure whether the floors under the carpet can be refinished.  I am hoping that they are in perfect condition like those we found throughout the house.  I hate carpets and I hate carpeting from prior owners even more.