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.
 

Flea Market Finds.

Posted in family, house, thrifted by

Recently, on a perfect Fall day, we spent the day thrifting at the Golden Nugget Flea Market in Lambertville New Jersey.  It was sunny and warm and Kiran’s first real thrifting expedition  (not counting the countless trips when he was a baby in the stroller where he had been blissfully oblivious to the treasures around him).  This time however, he enjoyed touching everything much to the dismay of the vendors.  While Kiran didn’t find anything to buy I found tons of stuff but I limited myself to only a couple of things.   

I found this fabulous vintage wood and plaster frame for $7:

The frame  is not in great shape and the plaster is crumbling in places.  I need to super glue the plaster back,   cleaning it thoroughly and paint it a bright glossy red.  Scott took that picture of me and Kiran in the Summer.  I love the roughness of the concrete and the chain link fence against the ornate details of the frame.

 I also  found this amazing painting (it is not a print) for $15:

We left the flea market around noon and went to a picnic area by the lake for lunch.  I can’t wait to go back to this flea market.  There were lots of vendors and lots of great items at good prices.

More About Books in the Fireplace.

Posted in Books, bookshelves, house, living room, organizing by

The two main reasons that I decorate, renovate, rearrange and work on the house (constantly) are because: 1)  I enjoy being in a beautiful space and 2) I enjoy being creative.  Ultimately life is about the creation of beauty and perception of beauty through our senses is it not?

What does this have to do with the books in the fireplace? Well Kiran and I were sick and stuck at home recently.  So I decided to color code the books in the fireplace (something I have been meaning to do).  It was a fun project for us to do together and the result is fabulous (at least it looks a million times better than it used to look). 

Being sick is never fun, but being sick and taking care of a sick child is so much worse! Little projects like this kept us sane and it was a lot of fun.

Organizing Some Books.

Posted in Books, bookshelves, house, organizing by

While the fireplace is the the major “bookcase” in our house, I also have some of my favorite books on the shelves in my room.  These books were stacked randomly and always looked a little messy.  Yesterday evening while Scott was working upstairs I decided to organize them. Yes they are color coded and they look fabulous!

I am now wondering if I should try to color cordinate the books in the fireplace as well…

Isaiah Zagar Mural.

Posted in house, Inspiration by

Ever since my first visit to Philly in 1995 I have been obsessed with the Isaiah Zagar murals coverning numerous buildings and walls in South Philly.  When we moved to Philly in 1999 we went for a walk down South Street and spent hours admiring all the murals on the buildings.  The colors were amazing the details stunning and the best thing about them was that they were accessible to the public for anyone to admire.  Never did I ever imagine that I would have one of Isaiah’s fabulously beautiful murals on the side of my house!


Our Mural up close.

Our house has an extensive side wall that is clearly visible from the street.  While the old brick walls of our house are beautiful, the cinder block wall separating our house from the neighbors was just ugly.  So on a whim I started to research how I could get one of Isaiah’s murals on the side of our house.  It turned out to be much easier than I anticipated…which really shows that sometimes all you have to do is try and you could get something amazing. 

Isaiah started the mural by making the larger pieces in his studio, then attaching the larger pieces to the wall and drawing the outline for his students to complete. 


Isaiah starts the mural (as Kiran watches). 

Then one weekend his students started working on the mural and they finished it in two days under Isaiah’s strict guidance.

Isaiah and his students working on the wall.

Scott and I Help with the Mural.


Isaiah adds the finishing touches.

The completed mural.

We’ve had a lot of people give us their comments on the mural.  Most of them love it and some people  think that we have reduced the value of our house.  Neither Scott nor I worry about the “value” of our house while we renovate it.  We are renovating the house to accomodate our lives and our tastes.  I think that the value based approach to renovating is unnecessary not always necessary and prevents people from being creative in their living space because they want to play it safe for resale purposes. 





Ending Summer and Beginning New Projects.

Posted in Art by

I haven’t done many new projects since my last post.  I spent some time organizing drawers, cleaning out my closet, and in general clearing out cluttered drawers, cupboards, etc.  Summer has officially ended and I’ve started  a few projects.  My first project was framing some “Art.”

“Art” means a lot of different things to different people.  For me everyday objects, shells, letters, notes, photos and Kiran’s paintings are all Art.  I like to include these personal mementos with more tranditional works of Art that I’ve bought at auctions, on eBay or at thrift stores.  Art can be anything that evokes a sense of beauty and nothing does this better (for me) than objects that evoke beautiful memories.

I used to scour eBay and thrift stores for old frames which generally needed a lot of work.  So framing things would always be very time consuming.  Then I discovred the Ribba frames at Ikea and framing is now a snap! The smaller sized frames are made well, come in a variety of sizes and include a great matt.

So here’s what I framed yesterday:


The painting to the left is something Kiran did last week using blue acrylic paint and some water.  He doused the paper with a lot of water and then lifted the edges up and watched all the water roll off onto the floor.  I love this painting because I love the way it looks and also because it conjures images of him squealing with laughter and delight when the water kept rolling around on the paper.

The painting to the right is a drawing I found in my father-in-law’s attic.  It is a drawing by Scott’s mother in 1966.  While it is sad that Kiran will never meet Scott’s mother (because she passed away when Scott was young) it will be nice to have her drawing in the house so that Kiran will at least know something about his paternal grandmother through her drawing.

Second Floor Bathroom Update.

Posted in house by

I realized that I haven’t posted any good pictures of the second floor bathroom.  Yes the bathroom is very pink!  Instead of trying to hide the pink we decided to embrace it and go a step further, with the mint green walls.  Since my earlier post I have been working on little things on the bathroom.  We had to re-grout the tub, replace the stems of the faucet and do a few other not so exciting things.  I have added more pictures all in black frames which I think was necessary to minimize the pinkness of the room.  The only thing left for us to do in the bathroom is remove the old sink and install a new sink, faucet and cabinet. 
This is what you see when you open the bathroom door:

To the right of the door to the bathroom (below) is a little nook with the sink and a cabinet below the sink which also has two drawers.  Because there was hardly any space for toiletries we installed this shelf to the right of the nook.  Please excuse the wiered angle of the picture. I was trying to take a picture that looked decent without me being in it.

The pictures are vintage prints that I framed.  The light fixture and towel rod are from Restoration Hardware.  The shelf is from Ikea.  The flowers are from my stoop.

To the left of the nook we installed a magnifying mirror which we found at a yard sale (below). 

This picture below shows the main wall in the bathroom.  To the right is the bath and to the left is a huge window which faces south.  I keep rotating my plants in here.  I love succulents but the humidity is a little too much for them.  I think that I have finally found the right plants for this spot.

I have a bunch of vintage candle holders over the heater cover (below).  The heater cover was in pretty bad condition but we primed and painted it white and it is really convenient and hides the ugly radiator.  To the right of this picture is our linen closet.  I love my petite chandelier which was a total score on eBay.

This is what you see when you leave the bathroom (below).   The sink nook is to the left and the bathroom leads out to the second floor hallway.

The bathroom, like the rest of the house, has a strange layout but we’ve made the space work for us.

I am over this house! (not really).

Posted in backyard, house by
The back yard

I should be relaxing in my back yard but I am not!

Sometimes I feel like I spend every waking minute, at some level, thinking about what needs to be done on the house.  This combined with my slight obsessiveness  makes it really hard for me some times to just relax at home.  This seems absurd because I used to be the type of person who wanted to always relax, read and enjoy my home.  I am not sure if everyone who buys a house gets house-nuts or whether it is just me.

Last summer I loved my backyard…this summer not so much.  This is mainly because I hate the slope of the yard and now I’m obsessing over what I need to do to it…slate tiles, break the concrete and pour new concrete and level it, etc.  The previous owners in an (overzealous) effort to keep water away from the house inclined the yard at such a steep pitch that it slants sharply away from the house.  Therefore everything always looks crooked…no matter what I do!

It surprises me when is people come over and don’t notice the slope…is it all in my head? When did I decide that things had to be so perfect? I used to love old imperfect things. When we bought this house I fell in love with it because it alluded to grandness in its past lives in a very atypical row house sort of way. I really wanted to restore it to its original grandness but keep all the personality.  Well now somehow I have entered a house renovation world where I embrace the imperfections but at the same time need everything that we do to be perfect. I am not sure if I could ever reconcile these two emotions. I am making a pact with myself that from today onwards I will make more of an effort to just let things go (just a little).

I will leave you with this picture of my back yard:

P.S. Look closely and you will see that everything slopes to the left.

Weekend Away.

Posted in family by

Scott, Kiran and I went to New York City for a mini vacation.  We spent Saturday wandering around Central Park.  Kiran took his afternoon nap in his stroller and when he woke up he was just amazed (as probably most city kids would be) at the expanse of grass! We spent the rest of the day running around after Kiran and playing in the fabulous water park in Central Park.

Kiran in his Marimekko bathing suit.

I can’t help but compare how much my life has changed.  Before having Kiran, Scott and I would have probably spent the day scouring thrift stores, flea markets and antique shops for clothes, furniture and other random things.  Then we would have showered and gotten all dressed up for a night of diner, drinks and dancing.  Now we spend our days in NYC  jumping, running and getting wet in Central Park!

Not everything has changed however.  On Sunday morning we went to one of my favorite shops in NYC, Pearl River.  I love their ceramics.  I am not a fan of matching all my dishes, plates, and bowls so I have a random collection of dinnerware.  I have a small collection of mostly blue and white ceramics, with some colored pieces thrown in.  Here are some of my purchases:

I love the swirly designs on the bowls with the swirls on the fabric on the chair (below) and the color and design of this tablecloth which is a design by Liro A. Ahokas for Marimekko, called Kimara.

I wasn’t sure what I would I would do with this cup since I am not a big fan of cups without handles.  This cup however turned out to be the perfect size to hold pencils on my desk.

Here’s a small peek inside my kitchen cabinets filled with unmatched dinnerware: