Category Archives: house

Spring!

Posted in backyard, house by

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.

Posted in house, Inspiration by

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…

Posted in Art, house by

…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 20×200) and the pink swirly painting is also from 20×200 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…

Posted in bookshelves, house, Inspiration by

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.

Editing the Dining Room.

Posted in house, Inspiration by

I love everything about this dining room.  I love the mismatched chairs (especially the Ghost chair).  I love the art work. And I love the laid back vibe. 

Via Domino

Our dining room feels a lot like a glorified corridor! It is long, narrow and has a slightly dropped ceiling (thankfully not the textured kind).  It does have two very large windows that face East and has tons of unrealized potential.  I have always been at a loss to make this room feel right.  It has always felt cramped and very boring.  The other problem was that we had a table and buffet which were really dark, heavy and too big for the space. For years I tried to work with what I had because I hate getting rid of stuff.  Anyway  I finally decided to get rid of everything in the dining room and start afresh.  For now I am keeping the blue walls.  We sold the dining room table and buffet on Craigslist (for the same price as that we paid in 1999 when we bought it).   Now I want to get rid of the chrome chairs.  They are fabulous  but I need some slimmer chairs for the small space.

Our Dining Room before we sold the table and buffet.


I love the gallery walls in the image below.  My plan to make the dining room feel less like a corridor is to cover all the walls in interesting art work, photos and other stuff (I love to frame anything).


Via sfgirlbybay

I would like to find a solid wood table, if possible made of reclaimed teak.  I bought a credenza a while ago on eBay.  It is Danish and it is gorgeous.  My camera is not working right now so I won’t be able to post any pictures of it for a while.  For seating I may find a vintage bench to go against one side of the wall and use some of the mismatched chairs that we have in the basement.  I plan on funding all my purchases for the dining room with the money I make selling my stuff.  I have a huge old Persian rug and also a china cabinet (part of the dining room set) that I plan on selling soon on Craigslist. 

Re-dcorating the Guest Room.

Posted in guest bedroom, house, Inspiration by

After spending some time in November and December vacationing I realized the importance of having a very comfortable and beautiful guest room. This is what the guest room looks like now:

Our guest room is pretty tiny but it faces South and is always filled with light. To make it more guest friendly I need to make it feel more fabulous than it is now. I think we need to add some shelving, maybe in the alcove (next to the window and not seen in this picture) and over the bed. I would like to fill the shelves with some books about Philly and other great reads. We have no shortage of books in the house and this would give me more storage for the books and also provide our guests with some good reading material. I love the shelves in the images below and would like to use these images as inspiration to build our own shelves:

(source unknown)

Since the room is pretty small I want to paint it a dark color, maybe a greenish grey and attempt to obtain a cocoon effect. I think that smaller bedrooms look much better in a darker color. I don’t think that a small room ever looks bigger with a light color. Similarly, I think a small room looks better with larger pieces of furniture, even if they take up a lot of space, instead of tiny furniture scattered around.

I think that I will also paint the lamp base in black and get a smaller end table. Also, the batik peacock art will be moving to the basement temporarily. I want one large painting over the bed.

I hope that this will be a short and inexpensive project!

I’m Back!

Posted in family, house, Inspiration by

The nightmare is over.  It turned out that Kiran also got an infection from the hospital likely due to the stint for the IV drip.  Anway he is better, Scott is better and we are safely back in gorgeous cold and snowy Philly! I think that it will probably take me a while to get over the emotional aspects of this trip.  I generally hate blaming others or harboring emotions of resentment for things in the past because it is just such a waste of time and really only serves to drive me crazy.  For whatever reason I am still angry about Kiran and Scott getting Dengue and the circumstances surrounding the illness, my parents reaction to the illness and  the magnitude of the decisions we had to make and the knowledge that a small miscalculation on our part could have resulted in a dire situation.  So while I am (unsuccessfully) trying to parse out these emotions I haven’t started on any new house projects.

However, after seeing this picture of this mirror for the second time (I initially saw it on Living Etc.) I am inspired! Isn’t it fabulous? I have a couple large vintage mirrors just gathering dust and I would like to paint one of them like this.  Maybe I will run out and buy some paint tomorrow after work…

"I See a Red Door and I Want It Painted Black."

Posted in DIY, house, living room by

 …well not really.  “I saw a white door leading to the basement and I wanted it painted black” would be a more accurate (and less poetic) title.  However,  this is probably the only chance I get to quote the Rolling Stones in my blog  so I went for it!

For a couple of months I was really busy at work.  I felt like all that I did was work, hang out with Kiran after his preschool and then work some more during the night (you may have noticed the lack of posts).  Sometimes even when I went to bed I kept thinking of things that I needed to get done at work.  Well during those days and nights I really needed an outlet for my anxiety.  Some people eat and some people exercise to blow off some steam…but I like to do house projects.  One day I called Scott and told him that he had to pick up some Benjamin Moore Studio Finishes Chalkboard paint on his way home from work.  Well that night instead of spending another sleepless night laying in bed thinking about all the things that I had to get done I spent a couple of hours cleaning the basement door downstairs and then painting it black.  I loved it so much that I decided to also paint the door to the downstairs bathroom black, before going to bed.  Scott and Kiran woke up the next morning to the black doors and they both loved it.

 Door leading to the basement.
A close up of the basement door.
A close up of the bathroom door downstairs.
A close up of my favoite door knob .

The next night I painted Kiran’s bedroom door and the second floor bathroom door black.  The next night it was our room door and the door downstairs that leads to the backyard.  Well now all the doors except for those on the third floor and the front door are black.  I love the way the doors look.  They are very dramatic and unexpected.  What do you think?

The door to Kiran’s room to the left and the bathroom door on the second floor to the right. 

A close up of the Kiran’s door (it is actually black and not at all bluish like in this picture).
The second floor bathroom door.

I had originally planned on using chalkboard paint so that Kiran could draw on the basement door but I may never let Kiran draw on any of these doors…I haven’t decided yet.

Still Dreaming of a Black Room.

Posted in house, Inspiration by

A while ago I posted some pictures of chalkboard paint and black walls.  Well my obsession with black walls just seems to grow in leaps and bounds.  I am seriously on the verge of painting the office room black.  What’s holding me back? I have always loved color and black is sort of the absence of any color so it is a huge mental hurdle for me to overcome.  I feel that my black room may seem depressing, dark and dull.   However, all the black rooms I’ve seen online are rich and decadent.  Here are some of the fabulous black rooms that are really pushing me towards actually buying the paint and painting the room black!

Dining Room of Victoria via AT
Breakfast Nook of Victoria via AT
Jenna Lyons’ Bedroom via Living Etc.
Anna at D16’s newly painted black wall
I think that sometime in late January I will tackle the office room.  I need to, spackle, fill in all nail holes,  prime the walls,  paint and then rip out the carpets.  I’ve already picked out the perfect black from Benjamin Moore. Also, I’ve decided to paint everything black, the walls, molding, doors and shelves.  I am not sure whether the floors under the carpet can be refinished.  I am hoping that they are in perfect condition like those we found throughout the house.  I hate carpets and I hate carpeting from prior owners even more. 

Color Therapy.

Posted in DIY, house, thrifted by

So this weekend I managed to fix this frame and paint it a very bright glossy red.  My father-in-law cut a piece of glass for the frame and it was very easy to transform the frame into something stunning.  It is amazing what a coat of bright paint can do to an old frame or even and old piece of  furniture.  I love everything about the photograph and the frame.  Now I just need to decide where I am going to hang it.  Click here to see what the frame looked like before I painted it.