Senin, 30 September 2013

Time Flies

It's that time of year again. The anniversary of when Chris and I moved to Hazard Ave. To be honest, it is about 5 weeks past that anniversary date, but I just couldn't get my shit together to write the post in time. I don't know about you, but it seems like the older I get, the faster time passes. Some days I get confused. Is it really almost Halloween again? Didn't we just have that???

Anyway, we've been living in this house three years already. Three whole years! We still have a lot left to do on the project list, but let's take a look at the progress we've made in the last year.

Last fall, we finished up the exterior. A faux slate roof was installed and the whole house was repainted.

Then we spent most of last winter working on the hallways and foyer.

Nope, not missing that vinyl wallpaper one bit.

Late last spring we moved on to the formal living room. Chris outdid himself with all the millwork. It took forever, but it was worth it. This is by far my favorite room in the house.

Chris and I are going to enjoy a nice long break before starting our next major renovation project - THE KITCHEN! I'm super excited and anxious to get started on that, but we need a breather first.

I'm not going to know what to do with myself.
Remind me please. What do normal people do on weekends?
Oh wait, if you read this blog, you are probably as renovation/design/house obsessed as we are. You aren't one of the normal ones. Carry on, friends.

Senin, 23 September 2013

Back to the Drawing Board

All does not always go as planned in home renovation.
Back in February, I posted about a new hallway runner for our foyer & hallway that we had just finished remodeling. Then I cruelly left you hanging by neglecting to tell you which runner I had decided on: a wool sisal one with a fabric border or a leopard print runner. My grand plan was to reveal my decision shortly after with an "after" photo of my runner newly installed looking super cool and fabulous.

Well, here is the anticlimatic reveal eight months later:

That's right. There is no runner.

You see, I ended up placing an order for a wool sisal runner with a fabric border, like this

Then endured a series of annoying and frustrating attempts by the carpet showroom and manufacturer to get our order right (and had to deal with a rude saleslady to boot.) The first rug arrived without the fabric border I requested, the second attempt was cut too wide for my staircase, and the third attempt was just plain wrong:

It was the installers who finally told me that a border like the one I wanted couldn't be used on a stair runner. They said that the extra fabric created a lot of puckering where the stair meets the riser and there was no way they could smooth it out. A few days later, the carpet showroom saleslady confirmed it after speaking to the manufacture.

I felt like screaming, "HEY LADY, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL INFORMATION TO HAVE EIGHT MONTHS AGO!!!".

Instead I requested our refund back and vowed to never, ever do business with them again.

Needless to say, animal print is back on the table. I called the same guy Erin Gates bought her cheetah runner from and it turns out his company also services my area. The bonus is that the cheetah runner will cost about the same price as the wool sisal one I originally planned to buy.

Elements of Style

Kind of makes the decision an easy one, no?

Jumat, 20 September 2013

70 m2 appartment in Paris

Sabtu, 14 September 2013

It's all about scale

Designers/decorators are like acrobats, always juggling the elements and principles of design to create inviting and interesting spaces. These tools of the trade come easily when you spend your time immersed in design, but for the average person it takes a little more effort to pull together a truly well designed space.

One of the the most noticeable problems I see in many spaces is a lack of understanding/ application/ use of proportion and scale. It's a biggie in my book. Playing with scale can be used to great effect, but when done wrong it can creates visually uncomfortable spaces.

Proportion and scale go hand in hand since both relate to size and shape. Proportion is about the ratio between the size of one part to another, and scale is how the size of one objects relates to another, to the space as a whole and to the people who will inhabit the space . My best example of disregarding scale is choosing a large overstuffed love seat, chair and sofa for a small space. Then imagine a petite couple living there!

Yea or Nah, let's see what we think about these.... I've had my say.... (all images from my Pinterest board Pondering Scale)

When I feel that the scale of something is off I say the object in question looks "uncomfortable". In the room above the clock looks very uncomfortable. It has no room to breathe because it is totally hemmed in by the the headboard and the night table. Is it a great clock? Yes... Would it look better in another setting ? I think so. How about you?

The urn next to the dresser looks out of place in this space. While it is quite stunning and it fits in with the style of the other objects and furniture, it needs a much larger space to shine. It works with the scale of the dark dresser with TV on top, but it it just too large for the space between the two pieces of furniture.

This is an elegantly designed space, but I am fussy about the scale of pillows to chairs/sofas. To my mind they have to look good and be functional. How would you ever sit on this chair? Pillow to floor immediately! A 12 in square or a lumbar pillow works well in a side chair. If you want to add lots of pattern consider a throw folded over the back of a chair.

Cynthia Lynn Photography

We don't usually see pendants this large but in this space I think they work very well. It helps that they are transparent. The choice of oversized pendants seems to be on the rise lately.

You will often see a small decorative mirror over a bed, but it rarely works to best effect. I would choose a round mirror for this beautiful room and I quite like the gold finish. I think it needs to be a tad larger. Rule of thumb is 2/3 the width of the headboard. Where this space is banked by two windows
you could go a tad smaller that that but not as little as half which is what we have in the room above.

When you have a very tall headboard or posts you need to scale up your lamp accordingly. I want this lamp to have a larger base and only slightly more height. It needs more presence. Everything else about this space is just lovely.

I love the burlap with stripe and the glass base of this lamp, but it gives that uncomfortable feeling again. How do you know which shade size (height and width) to choose for a lamp? There are all kinds of formulas for this, but consider a shade that is roughly 2/3 the height of the lamp base up to where the socket begins and twice the width of the base. The shade above is not too bad height wise, but it needs to have a much larger shade diameter.

I seem to have a lot of lamp issues in this post. Great lamp but not on this cabinet and what about placing the little plant next to it? This lamp needs SPACE!

Another lovely space with pristine white everywhere. If this table doubles as a place to eat, I guess function will outweigh form. Otherwise a coffee table should be roughly 2/3 the length of the sofa.

In my world you should not have to reach up to a coffee table or any table for that matter. It is actually dangerous if you have a hot drink and knock it enroute. A coffee table is usually the height of the sofa cushion, a tad lower or higher. Modern coffee tables are often much lower than the top of the sofa cushion.

The floral arrangement is also very high for the middle of a space. Safety again. There's living in a space and then there are photo shoots. Not the same thing at all.

This may only be a pet peeve of mine because I see tall tables next to seating in home decor magazines and online.This smallish love seat with delicate arms is overpowered by this much taller table. It might not be quite so bad if the lamp weren't towering over everything.

I can't imagine why one would want an art work touching the ceiling and a sofa. I guess the designer could be making some statement about insignificance!

Muriel Bardinet's house in Brussels

Kamis, 12 September 2013

Modern stylish latest homes exterior designs Cyprus.

Homes Abroad Cyprus - Cyprus Realestate For Sale / Rent

www.homesabroadcyprus.com/‎

Minggu, 08 September 2013

Let's Talk About Drapery Hardware for Bay Windows

I'm going to let you in on a little secret...
The drapery hardware in my new living room? It isn't brass.
It is actually spray painted wood.

It came about as a happy accident as I tried to come up with a solution for the bay window. You see, there are ready made bay window rods available, but the ones I came across didn't have enough "elbows" that we needed for our window. You can also purchase the elbows separately and assemble the rod yourself using adjustable metal rods, but this was adding up to big bucks in my head.

So Chris and I went to Home Depot one morning with only a vague idea of how we were going to make it work. Luckily, it ended up being a pretty easy solution. Home Depot carries wooden drapery hardware under the Martha Stewart brand. We were able to pick up enough wooden elbows for the bay window plus rods, wooden end caps, wooden brackets, and wooden curtain rings for all the windows in the room. It came out to about $150.

Knowing that this was all going to get spray painted, we just went to the lumber section and selected two closet rods. They ended up being almost half the price of the wooden drapery poles available from Martha (just make sure they are the right diameter to fit into the elbows and brackets).

Again, knowing that it was all going to get spray painted, I didn't care that we had both white and oak colors to start (though the oak color was easier to cover with gold).

Then I sprayed them with Rustoleum's Metallic Gold spray paint. If you plan on opening and closing your drapes, I'd spray a coat of poly on also. I easily removed the clips from the curtain rings after the paint was dry to use them with drapery hooks.

The wooden poles were easy to cut down to exactly the sizes we needed to get around all the corners of our bay window. The elbows just screw into the pole.

At first, I didn't like the way the paint looked on the wooden poles... it was uneven - some spots took the sheen and color differently.

But now I'm really happy about it. It doesn't have the even texture of paint, rather it looks like brass that is starting to tarnish in some areas, like real unlaquered brass would.

Doesn't look too bad for something we cobbled together. In fact, I like the look so much I'd consider using wooden rods in other rooms of my home. Would you?