Weekend Find

I was furniture hunting again over the weekend, trying to knock some items off my "to find" list, when I happened upon these...

Drexel dining chairs in a beautiful cerused oak finish...6 sides and 2 arms. Success! I opted out of the seat cushions that came with the chairs and will have new ones made with fresh upholstery; fabric TBD. (Interesting piece on cerused oak finish here, from the LA Times...)

I love that these chairs are different. I've bought a vintage faux-bamboo dining table that I've had lacquered creamy white, and I think that the modern look of these chairs will be a nice balance to the traditional bamboo detailing of the table. I'm a big fan of mixing furniture styles and periods and so I think I will love this combination in my dining room.

In other news, the metal bamboo chairs have sold; thanks to all of you who had interest in them. This one's a little random, but I also have a brand-new Serena & Lily Sprout Crib Skirt that I'm looking to sell. It's never been used (the green didn't work with the other fabrics in the room). $50 (plus shipping, if you're not local.) Email me if you're interested.

For Sale: Bamboo Chairs

I have 4 of these fabulous metal faux-bamboo side chairs, in need of a new paint job and possibly new upholstery. 15.5" w x 15.5" d x 39.5" h. Seat height is 18". $225/set of 4. Email me if you're interested.

For Sale: Sectional Sofa

A new house doesn't always make nice with your old furniture; meaning, sometimes it just doesn't fit. This is, unfortunately, the case with our brand-new (as of 2 years ago) sectional, which you may remember me discussing a few years back. We bought it for our old den and it was the perfect solution to that room's long and narrow structure. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit well into any of the rooms in our new house and so I'm trying to find it a new home. (As I mentioned the other day, there are a few pieces that I just can't get to work in our new place, so I'll be posting them on the blog over the next week in hopes of moving them along...)

Here are the specs: 

CR Laine Topsider Sectional Sofa. 2 pieces: 1 left arm facing corner sofa (83" x 36") and 1 right arm facing one arm loveseat (50" x 36"). Overall dimensions are 83" x 86" x 36" deep by 36" high. Fabric is Taupe solid. Comes with 3 throw pillows (matches sofa fabric). Legs are in Walnut finish. Sofa is in good condition with some slight fading from the sun on a few cushions. Manufactured in North Carolina- 8-way hand-tied, double wrapped cushions encased in down proof ticking.

I'm pricing it at $1,900, which is quite a bit below my designer cost. Email me if you're interested. 

Weekend Find

Here's the thrift store find I was telling you about yesterday- it fit perfectly in my foyer. Now I just need to decide on a paint color...and make time to paint it...

The Fun Stuff

Now that we've been in our house for about a month and a half and are finally finishing up the punch-list (which seemed never-ending), I'm turning my attention to what I consider the "fun stuff"...decorating.

A decent amount of our furniture didn't fit well in our new house and has been sold, borrowed or is looking for a new home (posts to come on items for sale). This leaves me with lots to find...which is really fun but also a lesson in patience. Finding the "perfect" piece of furniture or fabric takes time, especially when you have little ones (rendering shopping time scarce), you're looking for something unique, and you're working with a budget. As anxious as I am to get everything settled, I'm practicing patience and enjoying the "thrill of the hunt" yet again.

We needed a comfortable chair in our den, one that had a low profile since it needed to float and would be in the line of sight from the den into the kitchen. My mom found this beauty at a thrift store. It was sorely in need of reupholstering but seemed to be well-made and both rocks and swivels. Oh, and it was $25. Sold.

A new seat cushion and reupholstery in a fun Schumacher print and voila:

The upholsterer dropped it off on Saturday while we were at the beach. Let me tell you, for me to come home to a newly reupholstered piece of furniture is like Christmas morning to a five-year-old.

Side note- did I tell you about this flea market find from a few months ago? (probably not- I haven't exactly been the most diligent of bloggers...) Well, the colors are perfect and the size works great in our new foyer. It instantly brings life to the neutral walls.

After playing with these guys on the beach on Saturday, I headed out to scour some furniture shops. I thought I was going to come up empty-handed until I stopped into one last shop on my way home, where I found the most fabulous mid-centry modern console table. It's on its way home from the beach today and I can't wait to take a picture to share.

In other news, Rob learned how to climb out of his pack-n-play over the weekend. I'm thinking that addressing "big boy beds" for his room is going to move up to the top of the things-to-do-around-the-house list pretty soon...

We're in!

Last Friday was moving day and now we are officially in our new house. There's still a long punch list of items to be addressed (carpet in one room, the right refrigerator, a few light fixtures, etc.) but things are slowly feeling more settled. Here are a few pictures I took before our things arrived...more pictures to come once the boxes subside. Happy weekend!

Progress...Tile, Painting, Lights & More

We are thisclose to being finished. The projected final day is next Friday. While I'll be surprised if we make that, we are still hopeful that we can move in early July...fingers crossed.

Over the past few weeks there has been lots of progress at the house. I haven't been as diligent at photographing everything as I would like, but summer has had us out of town a good bit. While we were gone, the bathrooms and kitchen backsplash were tiled and most of the interior was painted. This week light fixtures were hung (probably the most fun change for me to see...I love a good light fixture!), appliances were delivered (but not installed), and today they started finishing the floors.

Downstairs bathroom tile

The kitchen! Lantern is from Chelsea House

Dining Room, painted Sherwin-Williams' Leapfrog 

Vintage gold pineapple chandelier from Hunt & Gather

Living Room & Foyer, painted Benjamin Moore's Ballet White

Den, painted a 50/50 mix of Benjamin Moore's Linen White & Decorator's White 

(a great neutral...takes a little bit of the yellow out of Linen White)

Playroom, painted Benjamin Moore's Wickham Gray

Laundry

James' room, painted Benjamin Moore's Lemon Chiffon. Fixture from Shades of Light

Rob's room, painted BM's 50/50 Linen White/Decorator's White, ceiling Benjamin Moore's Bird's Egg.

Fixture from Worlds Away.

We're heading out of town again this weekend but I'm looking forward to seeing the floors and the exterior painting when we come back on Sunday...I'll share pictures next week. Happy Friday!

Progress...Countertops, Drywall & Hardwood Floors

It's been a few weeks. Progress seemed to slow a bit as the drywall took seemingly forever to install and the painter got behind with other jobs. But things picked up last week and now we have hardwood floors and walls in the new playroom and countertops in the kitchen (except on the island, but that will come this week). We're entering the last month of the project and it's fun to finally see things coming together and looking more like a livable space!

After much debate, I decided to use Carrara marble countertops in the kitchen. They get such a bad wrap and I must say that I myself was skeptical at first. Marble is quite porous and known to easily stain and chip. But, I'm a fairly neat person and not one to go to bed with a messy kitchen, so I felt up to the "challenge" of marble countertops. And they're just so beautiful! I couldn't get excited about granite and quartz wasn't in the budget. Marble has the clean, crisp look I was after and I'm okay with the patina that I know it will incur over the years. We decided to go with honed marble because it makes etching less noticeable and offers a more casual look than the polished version. Hopefully once we start living in this kitchen and have day after day of orange juice, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and glasses of red wine, I will still love the countertops as much as I do today...fingers cross & I'll keep you posted. 

And our playroom finally has walls...

And we have hardwood floors on the main level, on the stairs, and the upstairs hall. This was probably the most fun change to see yet.

Tile was installed this weekend and interior painting begins tomorrow. I'm out of town with the boys, so I'll be anxiously awaiting update pictures from Ryan as he goes by to check out the progress...

Progress...Cabinets

Cabinets are in; here's the progression:

When we bought the house, we were hoping to re-surface the existing cabinets (getting new doors and hardware) to save some money (I had total sticker-shock over the cost of new cabinets!). But we were surprised to find out that the cost savings between resurfacing and buying new cabinets was nominal. And since cabinets are such an important feature in a remodeled kitchen, we didn't want to skimp and be hindered in our new layout by what was already there.

Our contractor found a great, reasonably-priced cabinet line for us from a company right out of western North Carolina. We went with a classic, white shaker-style to go with the soon-to-be-installed white subway tile backsplash and Carrara marble countertops. I really wanted a clean, white kitchen and plan to incorporate lots of color with fabrics, art, and accessories. I'm a strong believer in keeping the fixed elements of a home pretty neutral so that you (and future homeowners) don't get sick of them.

The perimeter countertops are being installed today, so stay tuned next week for pictures...happy weekend, everybody!

Progress...Doors

I have new-found appreciation and love for doors. Weird, I know. But the right door can make such a difference, of which I was reminded last week when new doors were installed at the house. (yay!)

With little to no natural light in the downstairs laundry and play rooms, we decided to replace the solid exterior doors with 15-light doors. It already makes a huge difference in terms of opening up the space.

Laundry door- old

 Laundry door- new

Playroom door-old

 Playroom door- new

And in the kitchen, we replaced the door and window with a french door, to allow for more light, better positioning of the cabinets, and easier flow out to the deck (which is currently the size of a postage stamp, but that's a post/project for another time...) and backyard. 

 Kitchen door/window- old

Kitchen french door- new

Progress

We're on our way to a kid-friendly and code-compliant side porch. 

Here's the original:

And here's our progress:

Double-stroller width...very important.

Making Plans

Once our offer on the house was accepted and we were under contract, we started our search for a contractor. It was important to us to find someone who was knowledgeable, experienced, creative, and who really understood our vision (and budget) for the house. We found that in Reid of Original Space, who offered us great but realistic ideas from the get-go. 

So after many walk-throughs and meetings, Reid drew up a set of plans and we started to put the scope of work together. We aren't making any major, add-on changes, but rather are renovating the existing space to meet our needs. (remember...this house hadn't been touched since the early 1970s!)

Here's the main level floor plan:

There are no hardwood floors in the house, unfortunately, so we are pulling up carpet and installing them throughout the main level and on both sets of stairs and the upstairs hall. And, of course, every surface of this house will be painted (the existing trim is...wait for it...mint green).

Other than that, the main floor plan changes lie in the den/kitchen. This is the part of the house to which we were most attracted, other than its location, because of the potential for some really awesome living space. Becoming a mother gave me a totally new perspective on good living space, namely on how important the kitchen and family room are to it. In our old house, our kitchen was closed off, so if I wanted to cook dinner while Rob was still awake, I had to entice him to sit on the floor next to me by dragging in toys and books...which made maneuvering around them to cook the meal just as hard as keeping him interested in staying in there. So having a kitchen that opened up to the family room was huge for me, so that I can cook and keep an eye on the boys while they play.

The den and kitchen in this house are separated by a wall, which we were thrilled to learn was not load-bearing and could come down, thus creating one large space for the kitchen, eating area and den.

Here are the rooms with the original wall separating them:

kitchen (taken from the dining room)

 den (and, yes, that is an intercom system and an 8-track player embedded into the wall)

and the wall came down...

No floor plan changes are being made upstairs, but we are changing up the lower level a bit. There's a large utility room that you enter when you come in through the driveway door. Given that this will be our main point of entry (and thinking of going in and out with two small kids), we decided to really maximize this space and make it super family-friendly.

Here's the original utility room:

 door leading to driveway

 door leading to laundry room/upstairs

And here's our new plan:

We're installing a partition near the driveway door to make a small "mud room" of sorts- mainly a spot to store strollers, coats, and general coming-and-going clutter. We're also adding a full bathroom that will service the downstairs guest room and the playroom, which will take up most of this new space. I'm ecstatic about having a playroom and have had the most fun dreaming of what this space will be like...

They began framing out the new playroom/bathroom last week:

 walls of the new closet and bathroom

the "mud room" partition

The rest of the lower level entails the laundry room and guest room/office, but these areas aren't going to see major changes. The upper level, where there are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, is also only receiving cosmetic changes (nothing structural). 

So that's the plan, folks. I'm heading back over tomorrow to check on the progress and to have a walk-through with the electrician. Until next time...