My new happy little furnishings are home, but they are sad…

Thank God for Zipcar!  I checked-out a Tacoma and picked up my sofa and chair (thanks, Mike, for helping me unload it!!), then ran to Oakland to pick up my rug.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG they are soooooooooo cute.

They are also so pitiful looking all wrapped up in plastic still.  Good motivation to get the living room painted!  (Stick a fork in the kitchen, at least it’s done!)

Lampshades are more than just for wearing on your head

I am trying to involve my daughter, Haley, in as much of this re-design as she will tolerate.  (Zac Efron is much more interesting than rugs – most of the time )

I love the shape of my hanging lamps and now that the big purchases are made I need to start looking for economies, so I have been torturing the child with ideas for things to cover the shades in  The rug is such a dominating pattern that I want to add girliness with texture.

Presently, they are stock turquoise (shocking, huh?) Skimra lampshades

IDEAS…

Capiz Shells…though I don’t think the coolness would translate if they weren’t all dangly-riffic…

Coordinating Fabric…. *yawn*.  I am making curtains out of steel gray satin to tie in with the baseboards, but covering the lamps in it may just make me lapse in to a coma.

Feathers!…  Haley thought I should be committed when I suggested this, but how girly would that be????  (And apparently I’d have company in my feather-covered loony bin!)  (And I swear, I thought of this before I found this pic!)

Little mirrors… to pay homage to our favorite housekeeping/go-go dancing song, Shiny Disco Balls

or

Or…??

More of the ugly…

Apologies, but I have been standing at death’s doorstep for more than a week and I’ve only just taken one step back from the brink

If you’re interested in the rest of the horror, please proceed…

The before pics, warts and all – Part I (NSFTWWC*)

* Not Suitable For Those With Weak Constitutions

 Knowing I was going to undertake this massive project I pretty much abandoned all efforts at domesticity.  My housekeeping apathy was justified by the reading of the book, the obsessing over paint swatches, the birth of this blog…  Honestly, I think it also exaggerates the issues in our space and makes them painfully clear.  You can see where accumulations form, what previous “fixes” failed miserably, and removes any shred of doubt I may have had about how dire the situation has become.

Tomorrow I will post more Befores, then I will post my Week 1 pics.  It’s a more accurate view of what our home looks like on a daily basis, but the trouble spots remain undeniable.  Hopefully they will also reassure those of you ready to call CPS.

 Photos are small so as not to leave any lasting damage on your optic nerves…

Let the purging begin!

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/zip/606424162.html

Hallway – Done!

BEFORE

Hallway Before:  coat rack cluttered, accessories from apartments (and relationships) past, walls closing in on you – even before you get inside!  My daughter and I are very good about hanging our coats and bags when we come in, but the space is easily overwhelmed by our stuff and overflow spills all over the rest of the house.

Paint throughout my apartment is white, old and almost completely worn away – down to the sheetrock in some places.  Trim and baseboards are sickly green-yellow.  This theme is “Neglected” and apartment-wide.  This hallway sucks the joy out of you as soon as you open the door

Prove you love me

This Saturday or next… come over, pick up a paint roller, and help me crank this bitch out!

I want to see my new happy sofa and my happy chair in a happy newly painted living room.

I’ll love you forever.  I’ll buy pizza, beer, hook you up with a speed-ball …  anything. 

Like childbirth, the pain is SO worth it!

Though I’m not sure this was really that painful…

The CraigsList Gods have again shone their good graces upon me.  While looking for a couch I found a sale – on real furniture!  You know… furniture with hard wood frames and individually wrapped coil springs in the seats, that don’t come in a flat pack or require assembly!  (No disrespect to the Ikea Gods who have treated me so well, and to whom I will continue to sing praises!)

I present to you the newest additions to my Girly Modern Posh Palace!

Sleek, chic, femme and stain resistant:  my new sofa!

 

And this adorable chair which is so wide, soooo comfy, and soooooooooo in the 50% off clearance section

  Won’t it look so extra adorable recovered to match the hallway wall color?

Oh, the AGONY

I’ve only bought a brand new couch once before and I was clear as day about what I wanted.  Now…. notsomuch!

Current candidates are (the second, in gray fabric):

Obviously I am limited in size by my bizarrely shaped living room.  Ugh.

Decisions, decisions. 

I am proud of myself for only briefly kvetching that a new sofa should have been part of my “settlement” last year.  It was brief because events of late make me damn happy that shit done with.  I have enough bad juju things to exorcise or dispose of!

The colors are chosen

Round one colors were just too pale, too bright and too Easter Egg-y once they went up on the walls.  I really want to feel and see an obvious change so I am not going half way on any colors!

 

• Ocean Pearl = livingroom walls
• Cascade White = ceiling (eggshell), trim (gloss)
• November Skies = hallway
• Distance = baseboards

Hallway pics to come tomorrow!

Fluorescent light fixtures are the bane of my existence

Paint and furniture are easy pills to swallow, but rewiring light fixtures is 1. scary and 2. scary.  If I had a cute boy called Sparky in my life, I might think differently. 

I have horrific fluoro fixtures in my living room and kitchen.  The kitchen I can handle, but I’m tempted to seal over the switch for the light in the living room to prevent that horrible surgical room light from ever spilling forth again.  But the fixture would still be the elephant in the middle of the room and the bane of my decorating existence.

Or so I thought..! 

I think I shall steal some ideas from the Sky Factory.

I rasterbated (hehehe) an image of plum blossom branches, and I will print the pages on transparencies and lay them over a thin piece of acrylic.  I’ll replace the existing plastic in the fixture with my custom job and hopefully that hideous piece of fluorescent crap will be transformed in to… wait for it…. FLORALESCENT. 

Yeah, I’ll keep my day job.

Paint?

Yes?  No?  Maybe so?

 

From top to bottom:

• light gray = curtains, chairs
• blue = hallway walls, sofa
• cream = livingroom walls
• dark gray = baseboards

What to do about the doors?  Dark gray seems a little much.

Bright white for trim, doors, ceiling??

I NEED HELP!

Poll: What color should I paint my doors?

• Light gray (Russian Blue)
• Dark gray (Distance)
• White
• Other – see my comments

Status:
Sorry – Voting is CLOSED. My front door is white, so that’s what they’re all gonna be! (Even tho half of you thought I should go with light blue. It’s not that I don’t respect your esteemed opinion it’s just I was compelled whilst perusing the paint chips at the Home Despot And yes, that mis-spelling was intentional)

Inspiration can come from the strangest places

Organic modern will have a place in my fantastical new palace:  in my bedroom.

The cream walls will continue in to my room.  I want the colors to come from here – a feakin’ Starbucks mug.  (How embarrassing to admit I’ve been in a Starbucks.  Vanilla Bean Frappuchino = plastic crap.  And now I have to return for this damn mug.)

Actual colors are richer – the green is definitely less neon.  As crazed as I am over turquoise these days, I am loving leaf green, burnt orange and cream together.  My room shall be all three

All together now…. OHM

Key purchase, and applying my marginal Photoshop skills

I’ve been vacillating between three different style themes to use in my grand redecorating scheme.  I clearly lean toward the modern aesthetic, and I’ve been having trouble picking a direction to take it. 

• Mid-century modern:  sparse and Scandinavian
• Girly modern (my term, you like?):  clean lines, playful use of color and pattern
• Organic modern:  clean, simple, earthy neutrals, bamboo motifs

A few months ago I found a rug that I immediately fell in love with.  It’s HUGE, it’s bold and it’s easy to take care of.  Yesterday I noticed it was on sale… really on sale.  Mid-century and Organic options be damned!  Girly prevails!

Inspiration finally hit me with paint colors (robin’s egg blue in the hall, cream in the living room, gunmetal gray baseboards) and with the addition of the rug purchase choosing the couch, chairs and curtain colors came easily after.  The couch will be the same blue as the hallway paint, chairs will be dark gray, and the curtains will be shimmery silver.  If you know me well, you know I love me some vinyl couch action and I may just get my way.  If not it’ll probably be micro-suede as will be the chairs, or maybe something with a tweedier texture. 

Finding The Chairs is proving difficult, so this is what I have so far… subject to color tweaking with the assistance of Susan.  Her house is amazing and I will rely on her eye for color.

 

The Rug…

The cure for what ails me?

Undertaking the Apartment Therapy Cure 

I’ve grown obssessed with design blogs, probably due to my continual tweaking of my apartment decor.  Far and away my favorite is Apartment Therapy because they promote form and function as being the foundation of beauty and style. 

At AT I have grown to love Mid-Century Modern design and other forms of simple, pared down style.  The creaters of AT wrote a book, a plan, to achieve balance in your apartment:  The Cure.

Basically, over the course of 8 weeks I should be able to exorcise the demons (of relationships past) in my apartment, make it function according to our needs, and be a healthy welcoming place for friends and family – a place we want to be, that we love and loves us back.

YAY!