Should I do it?

So, if I were to paint the living room white then I feel like all the colorful things we have will pop.  I am hoping that the white walls will sort have the same effect as in the picture below.   I LOVE how the bright cushions stand out against the white walls and the white floors.  My biggest fear in painting the walls white is that it will look sterile and bland.  I have started to look into white paints.  So far my favorite is White Dove in Matte by Benjamin Moore.  Now that I have more or less made up my mind to paint only the living room white my biggest obstacle is to convince Scott! 

Via Abigail Ahern

Should I take the plunge and paint the living room white?

This indecision aside we have bought a new pendant for the dining room and done a few other things around the house.  Once I figure out how to upload the pictures off my new camera I will post some updates.

More is Always More.

While I may wax and wane about the color of my walls (white or full of color)  the one thing that I am quite certain about is that a space only feels personal when it is filled with objects that mean something to the person living there.  A perfectly styled home in a magazine while looking beautiful is essentially uninviting simply because it says nothing about the person living in it.  The more personal the home is the more alive it feels.  My mantra is More is Always More. 

I love the little things and the big things that I do to my home because I want to come home to a beautiful place.  I want to be reminded of where I come from, who my friends are and essentially be cocooned in a place of beauty.  Decorating for me is fun and relaxing.  I think that some people decorate to have the "perfect" place that they think will impress others. Some people rush to get stuff done and don't seem to take any pleasure in the process of decorating.  Nothing about our house is perfect! It is old, odd-shaped and full of flaws...but those are all the things that I like about it!

I once had a hairdresser who told me quite authoritatively that photographs never belonged in the main living area.  He was totally appalled at my comment that  certain photographs are like art and should be hung all over the house! People and their rules! Nothing gets me more annoyed than all these rules people seem to impose on themselves and everyone else.  "No white after labor day", "paintings only at eye level", "granite a must in kitchens", "ceilings all ways white" etc. are all random useless rules which should just be tossed aside in general and specifically when decorating a home.  Decorating should be a fun and instinct driven process.  I say do what you like and have fun with it!

Here are some homes that look fabulous while breaking a lot of the so called rules:

I love everything about this room: the gallery wall of vintage paintings, the mismatched shell chairs, the Eiffel tower bases on the chairs, the wood table. 

 Via SFgirlbybay

I love the dark ceiling and the wallpaper.

Room designed by Abigail Ahern (source unknown)

I love the blue walls, the paintings and all the colors in this room. 

Olatz Schnabel Bedroom (source unknown)

I really like the idea of painting the walls and the ceiling the same color...it opens up the space.  I am not sure why I never thought of doing this. I love contrast of the fabrics, colors and texture.  Also, the painting in the room to the left of the picture is fabulous.

Living Room Decorated by Abigail Ahern (source unknown)

Vintage paintings in the kitchen! what a great idea.  This is one of my most favorite kitchens.

Kitchen Decorated by Abigail Ahern (source unknown)

 P.S.  While I wish I could be doing some fun house project I need to get back to some work that I need to get done before tomorrow morning.  I was down with the flu and spent some time laying in bed and I think I am inspired all over again to tackle some house projects.  I know I have not been good at doing regular posts but I feel that I will be posting more regularly again.

Alive and Dreaming of White.

Yes I am alive and well.  I have had quite a relaxing summer (hardly any house projects with lots of relaxing).  Scott finished his Postdoc at Penn and had a couple of months off so he worked on some of the bigger projects like removing the wallpaper on the second floor hallway.  I bought a few things (outdoor lamp, and shower curtain rod to name a few) but I was generally uninspired to do any major work.  Recently I have been feeling like tackling a project or two.  Much to Scott's dismay (and sort of mine) the one major thing that I have finally decided that must be done is to paint the house.  Yes we did only paint the house in 2007 when we bought it and it looks perfectly fine.  The only problem is that I really, really want a white house! I am not going to get rid of all the colorful things instead I just want all white walls.  I think that all my colorful bric-a-brac would look fabulous against a white background.  Don't these rooms look so uncluttered and charming? I especially like the juxtaposition of the vintage furniture and mirror against the stark white walls. 

Via Emmas Design Blogg

Via Emmas Design Blogg

Via Emmas Design Blogg

Via Emmas Design Blogg

Via Emmas Design Blogg

Spring!

Once the weather starts to get nice I  picture myself sneaking down early in the morning, making myself a cup of coffee and sitting outside in the backyard and enjoying a few moments to myself.  This dream sometimes materializes but I am determined to make it happen more often.  There are people who love being with and around other people all the time.  I am not one of them.  I feel more creative , inspired and happy when I manage to get some time alone. I like to be able to ponder the imponderables and just be.

 There is nothing more relaxing to me than sitting  outside in our backyard and doing nothing!  Well today was not that relaxing because I started to think about my backyard renovation.  I don't have any before pictures but the space back here was just awful.  It was a tiny block of cement with pigeon droppings everwhere.  First on my backyard To-Do-List is to prime and paint the window, shown in the picture below, yellow. 

Then I would like to figure out if I can plant a tree where this greenish yellow bush is (picture below) so that we can get some privacy from the house right next door.

Third I would like Scott to build me a planter all the way at the end of this long narrow pathway (see below).  The dining room windows look into this space and I would like to be able to see some green when looking out of the dining room. By the way I love my yellow door.  We painted it with Fine Paints of Europe, Semi Gloss, in yellow. 

This is a close up shot of the alleyway.  I would like to plant a very narrow row of  bamboos to the left of this picture so that no one can look into our dining room from the top floor of the house next door.

This is a picture of my sedum.  They come back faithfully each year in early Spring.

I want to plant a June Magnolia,  to the right of this picture.  We really need some privacy from the house which is right behind us. 

There is a shared alleyway to the left of this picture which is now defunct.  Once I get someone to break up an area of the cement back there I plan on planting a Japaneese maple in the alleyway to shield the backyard from the house to the left of this picture.

Finally I would like to plant a very narrow row of bamboo next to this wall.

I have chosen the bamboo, June Magnolia and Japanese Maple because they all how relatively light root systems and therefore are ideal trees for city environments.  Now that all my planning is done I feel like I've accomplished so much and it is only 6:35 in the morning!

Hallway One.

How fabulous is this hallway?

(I am not sure where I got this picture but I am pretty sure that it is Abigail Ahern's hallway)

I love the juxtaposition of the dark grey, red, purple, pink and green.   In starck contract to the hallway above this is what our hallway looks like:

Our hallway on the second floor is in need of some serious work.  It is the only place in the house that we never got around to stripping the old wallpaper ( the first floor bathroom is also covered in layers of ugly wallpaper but we plan on gutting the bathroom completely so thankfully we don't have to worry about removing any wallpaper).  Our plans for this hallway include stripping the wallpaper, fixing the plaster walls and putting up new black and white damask wallpaper (click here to see what it may look like once it is up). 

We have fixed the plaster wall you see to the right of the picture below.  Now if we could just stop being lazy and remove the rest of the wallpaper this hallway could be checked off my to-do list.

View of the hallway as it leads to the third floor staircase.

So far we (really just Scott) has stripped one wall of the old wallpaper.  Since the hallway is quite dark Scott's dad installed a light on this wall.  It makes a world of difference.   I want to find a vintage sconce for this wall.  I may keep this porcelain wall sconce (found in my father-in-law's basement) and just add a silver tipped light bulb. 

Wall at the end of hallway opposite which is the staircase leading to the third floor. 

The ceiling in this area looks really bubbly and strange.  In an attempt to deal with the crumbling plaster the previous owners covered up the plaster on the ceiling with some white wall paper.  We are going to have to remove the plaster and install drywall in this area only because I am pretty sure the plaster is beyond repair.  This fixture came with the house and I loved it so much that I added a clause in our purchase agreement that the previous owners had to leave this fixture in the house.

We have to also fix these random holes in the plaster around the switch plate.

Wall next to Master Bedroom.

View from the hallway towards the Master Bedroom.

Since this is such a small space I am tempted to go all out and experiment with lots of color and pattern.  I am thinking of painting the space underneath the stairs to the third floor in a bright color, similar to the hallway in the first picture.  I am also tempted to paint the ceiling in the same color.  This hallway is pretty dark and only gets natural light when the bathroom door and Kiran's room door are open. I would also like to figure out a way to install another light source (not that easy since this hallway is the only place in the house which still has  knob and tube wiring). 

Not Thrifty...

...but  worth every penny.  We bought the Darjeeling dining table from CB2 after almost a year of considering whether it would work.   We sold our old dining table a few months ago but I still couldn't commit to buying the table.  If you've been following this blog for a while you already know that most of the furniture in the house is vintage and inexpensive.  I won't use the word "cheap" because vintage furniture is generally much sturdier and of better quality than new furniture.  Anyway, about a year ago I first saw the Darjeeling table on the CB2 website and I fell in love with it.  I also knew based on the reviews that it was a sturdy table and well made.  the only issue was that it was almost $900!   I hesitated to buy it also because  it was almost 15 inches longer than our old table .  Our old table was only 65 inches long but seemed to take up the entire dining room.  It was also very wide (45 inches) so it seemed massive.  After a year of living with duct tape on the floor outlining the dimensions of this table (80 inches x36 inches) we finally took the plunge and bought the table.  It is more amazing that I had imagined.

It is made of Sal wood reclaimed from old Indian railroad ties. What is great about old wood is that it is much sturdier than the wood used these days to make furniture. The older wood was harvested from older more mature treas which means that it is much  stronger than wood that doesn't get a chance to mature.

Since getting the dining table the whole room looks different. I painted our old dining room chairs which somehow makes the dining room look a little bit sophisticated.


The table arrived unfinished and I applied several coats of beeswax to protect the table. The table will probably need a new coat of beeswax every year.

I was worried about the length but it fits perfectly in the dining room. I have always said that larger pieces of furniture generally make a look larger than smaller pieces. The dining room doesn't look like a corridor any more and we use it a lot more to just hang out. Also the table seats 8 but we could squeeze 10 which is great for parties.

I've hung more "art" on the walls and the room looks a lot more cozier than it used to.  Kiran uses the table to do a lot of his art projects and I generally work at night from this table.  What makes a home comfortable is having furniture that works for you.  This table fits that bill. 

The fashion drawings to the left of the picture above were done by Scott's mother.  The picture of the girl on the grass is by Tierney Gearon (purchased from 20x200) and the pink swirly painting is also from 20x200 and is a print by Jennifer Sanchez.  The nude charcoal drawing is also by Scott's mother.  The black and white painting to the left of the picture above is a collage Kiran and I did with Indian Ink. 

I look these pictures in a hurry and I didn't get a chance to clean off the table.  That big piece of paper in all the pictures in this post is a painting by Kiran.  I love the muted greys, pink, blue and green.  I was in the process of framing it when I took the pictures of the table.  Another reason why I love this table it is a great place for me to do lots of projects in addition to eating. 

It's been a while...

I have been very motivated to do lots of things around the house.  I especially get more motivated when things get really busy at work because it is a way for me to relax.  So this is what I have been up to:

1.  I finished painting the two doors on the third floor black 
2. I bought a new dining table!
3. I painted three of our old dining chairs in Regal Matt Black by Benjamin Moore and upholstered the seats in a very dark gray fabric from Ikea
4. I painted the back wall of my room black and I used Benjamin Moore Chalkboard paint as I did on the doors
5. we bought Kiran a full size bed for his room from Ikea
6. I rearranged the furniture in Kiran's room and organized all his toys in separate baskets.  (This has worked out really well.  Kiran cleans up most of the time and I don't have to deal with stray toys all over the house).  

Here's what I would like to get done for April

1. Install two curtain rods and hang some sheer curtains (which I already have) in the back room
2. Install a shelf in the vestibule and put some small baskets to store scarves and gloves in one space
3. Pick a color and paint the guest room
4. Paint the office room in black or dark grey
5. sell more furniture and clear out the basement!
6. figure out how I can build a bookshelf for the office room like this:

Image via Vintage

Oh and if you are wondering why I haven't posted any pictures of what I've been up to well it is because my camera is not working.  Apparently the sandy conditions in Sri Lanka were too much for my camera.  I plan on buying a camera before April 18th (which is Kiran's birthday) but I just can't bring myself to spend the money again since we've only had our camera for about a year.