Last Spring an old friend of mine was getting rid a dresser–a nice solid piece with some broken hardware and missing decorative pieces. It went from her curb to my shed, and waited there for quite some time. Eventually I decided it would be a good time to experiment with chalk paint and antiquing wax.
That did not go well. I turned a perfectly nice dresser into a dingy, yellow mess. Continue reading
It’s that time of year in New England when I can’t wait to get outside, but all of my garden chores are clean-up related (read: boring). So in between raking the oak leaves out of the crevices (my oak tree holds its leaves through most of the winter and then dumps them in the spring–it’s very annoying) and putting down new mulch, I’ve been looking for ways to spice up my garden fun. That mostly consists of browsing Pinterest endlessly, and trying to grow starter plants in a terrarium. But I also decided to finally buy a bee house!
So here’s the deal! Not all bees live in hives. There are many species of solitary bees (who are not aggressive) and are GREAT for your garden. Your garden will benefit from having more of these insects around–and you can help combat colony collapse–and the houses are so darn cute! Honestly, picture this little palace when there are tomato plants and nasturtium all around. The bee houses (also known as insect hotels) often play host to other beneficial insects, like ladybugs and lacewings. Frankly, you can’t afford NOT to have one. Continue reading
I finally finished The Goldfinch. I got off to a slow start–skeptical that it could live up to the hype. I really did end up loving it, though. It sucked me into the Dickensian world of art crime and antiques. But it also reminded me how much I like rehabbing furniture.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Hobie, but I can repaint and and add new hardware like the best of them! As far as hobbies go this one is pretty useful. I get to be creative, and instead of having a bunch of bad pottery or ugly paintings sitting around my house, I can either use the furniture or sell it on Craigslist. Continue reading
I have this room at the back of my house that is part mudroom, part laundry room, and part sun room. My cats spend more time there than anyone else. They lounge on the old couch that is out there, eat their meals there, and use the litter box out there. There’s a big expanse of wall that has been repeatedly damaged by water, and so I’ve been hesitant to do much of anything to it–even though I couldn’t stop daydreaming about how I would turn that wall into my well organized dream storage unit.
Some days I thought I wanted a mudroom:
This project wasn’t technically on my To Do List, but I thought it deserved a William Morris shout out. A couple of months ago I embarked on a mission to keep my dog from eating cat food. It hasn’t been easy. Those of you with both canine and feline housemates know that there is nothing tastier to a dog than a bowl of ash-filled cat food. But it isn’t good for them, and it often results in your dog waking you in the wee hours of the morning to take her outside for an emergency potty break. And because one of my cats needs to gain weight (I know…who has that problem?) I can’t have the dog sneaking in and eating her food out from under her. For everyone’s sake, I had to get creative.
I’d do anything for this face.
When I first moved into my house there was nothing in the closets. No poles or shelves of any kind. My friend, Allison, and I went to Home Depot and quickly racked up a bill that had us voiding the sale and heading back to the aisles to buy a much more economical closet kit for my bedroom closet, and a few shelves for a utility closet.
We left the guest room and coat closet alone for the time being. I eventually put a shelf in the coat closet (which I don’t actually keep coats in) but four years later all the stuff in the guest room closet was still sitting on the floor. I decided to tackle that project this weekend.
This time my boyfriend and I headed to the HD and I knew enough to head immediately to the closet kits. I knew I didn’t want the same kit that I used in my closet. The guest room closet doesn’t have any clothing in it. It’s mostly extra blankets and pillows, a few boxes, and an air conditioner. So I wanted to keep the floor of the closet free of any obstructions, while having plenty of shelving up high. So I went with one of those adjustable track systems that can be configured however you want it. Continue reading
Despite the 90+ degree days here in Connecticut, summer is over. Labor Day has come and gone. Kids are back in school. I spent the weekend at a friend’s wedding on the water in Mystic–and then recovering from a night of drinking and dancing. But I spent my day off knocking another project off my list.
When my grandmother moved in with my aunt I took a large dresser and its matching nightstand that she had used for a buffet in her dining room. It was a good, solid dresser but was very dark and formal. My cousin and I sanded and painted it but when we moved it upstairs it took a couple of hits and the paint was scratched. Then daily life scratched up the top over the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the bedside table was still the dark stain because I wasn’t sure where I was going to use it. I originally thought I would put it in my spare bedroom, but it didn’t fit. So I put it in my bedroom, but didn’t get around to painting it until this week. Continue reading
I know this much to be true: When you change one element in a room, it all spirals out of control from there. After choosing a new couch, and doctoring the curtains, I decided I want to change the wall color. I did not officially add this to my William Morris To-Do list, but I can’t stop thinking about it.
I searched Pinterest over and over, looking for new color ideas. I thought I was settling on a neutral — maybe gray or beige…or greige. And I was also still mulling over the gray-blue I’d always thought I wanted in that room. Then, in a fit of spring fever, I got to thinking about that lovely palette of pale peaches and pinks that I love so much in the garden. Because who doesn’t want their house to look like this?
Seriously, I swoon at the mere thought of being in a room as beautiful as these flowers. Continue reading
I understand that big open spaces are desirable in your home. There’s a lot to love about it, but there’s also a lot that’s kind of annoying. My living room and dining room are the same room, and my kitchen is mostly open to the dining room. That means everything needs to go together to some degree. I don’t do matchy-matchy, even in the same room (I loathe sets of furniture) but I’m also not going to paint the kitchen a color that completely clashes with the living/dining rooms. It also makes furniture placement a bit tricky, because you have less wall space, and my room isn’t quite big enough to just float the furniture. I digress. I’m here to talk about curtains.
I finally pulled the trigger. I chose a couch, I went to the store–complete with a rented van and my cousin’s help–I put my credit card down and I bought a new couch. We headed up to the sofa department before making the final purchase. I was planning on buying the Idemo Beige corner Ektorp, but it looked a bit too light–like I’d be washing it all the time. I’d also been eyeing the Nordvalla Gray. It looked a bit too dark on the site, so I wanted to see it in person before heading to the cash register. Turns out, it was a much lighter color (meaning less likely to show white cat hair) than it looked on the screen.
I like used furniture. Most of the time, I won’t even consider buying something new. I walk into a furniture store and find myself knocking on bed frames and dressers wondering what they are made of, and deciding it definitely cannot be wood. I prefer to troll Craigslist for people who have money to waste, and like redecorating their homes. (It’s important to zero in on certain zip codes to make this work.) But after years of sitting on couches with mysterious origins, and covering them with slipcovers and blankets, I have become obsessed with the idea of finding and buying a couch I actually like.
This is harder than it sounds. Continue reading
It’s over. Just get me a ratty cardigan and take away my comb, because despite living with the world’s cutest dog I think I’ve finally gone and crossed over into Cat Lady territory.
It all started with Ruby’s gallstones. I didn’t want to have to hunt her down just to force a pill down her throat, so I started keeping both cats inside. And for about a thousand different reasons, I decided to keep them inside even after I stopped having to torture her with medications multiple times a day. Those reasons are boring, so I’ll skip over them, but suffice it to say that having two cats who really want to go outside but can’t can be pretty annoying. So I decided to resurrect an old dream of mine and make an outdoor enclosure thanks, in part, to Pinterest — and with lots of help from my boyfriend.
I’ve got a lot of used furniture coming my way. My grandmother is moving out of the house she’s lived in for almost 30 years, which means she needs to get rid of a whole lotta furniture. Meanwhile, my step-father’s mother passed away and he hauled a dresser from Florida to Connecticut for reasons none of us are quite sure of. I have been looking for a long dresser for quite some time, but I was planning on just taking one from my grandmother when she moves. But once it was here, there was no turning it away. So I decided to go all DIY on it.
That’s a lot of blue.
It’s been a big week here at my house. I started out the week getting the giant, terrifying pine trees behind my house taken down. It pains me to see a tree cut down. I am, after all, a bit of a tree hugger, but these things were a danger to themselves and others. For half the summer, my dog ends up looking diseased because I have to cut big patches of her fur out thanks to the sticky sap from the trees. Any furniture I put in the yard would be covered with the same sap, and then there were the needles… Oh the needles.
But that’s not enough reason to go to the trouble and expense of cutting down seven trees (three of which were absolutely huge, and the rest were more like weeds). But every time the wind blew branches came down. So far they’d missed the house, and anyone driving on the private road behind my house, but it was just a matter of time. I mean, the really big trees were probably damn near twice as tall as my house, and they were not pictures of health.
As you may have read, I spent New Year’s Day giving my home office a bit of a makeover… and that — combined with hours spent browsing Pinterest on my iPad — has got me spinning out of control. Are there reno rehabs? Because I may need one.
You see, shortly after I gave my office a makeover — or at least a corner of it — I also picked up a box spring for the new bed I bought a few months ago. Bitten by “the bug,” I also decided to move a bookshelf out of the office and up to my bedroom in order to free up some floor space. This made me start thinking harder about my bedroom, which is rather large and has become a bit of a dumping ground (much like my office). And my brain hasn’t stopped dreaming up ideas since.
The mudroom better watch its back…
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