Archive for the 'house' Category

Oct 24 2007

anyone else just fool around with the FLOR configurator?

Published by under daily,house

flor1.jpg

One response so far

Oct 15 2007

chair in progress…

Published by under crafty,daily,house,likes & irks

Being home with sick kids has it’s up side…

chair backs covered with amy butler fabric

I’m off to sew some piping now while it’s still quiet time.

2 responses so far

Oct 15 2007

the chairs I’m re-upholstering

Published by under crafty,daily,house

recovering them in this:

Grandiflora_Aqua.jpg

Ahhhh it’s good to finally get pictures off the camera and posted.

So, I’m recovering them, yes. What I’m not sure about, is if I want to do anything to the wood..

Options: do a darker stain, do a color (instead of a stain), or do an outrageous color (bright red comes to mind).

OR… I could leave it. Which I am inclined to do, because honestly, I quite like the color as it is!

Some other chair redos i’ve seen around design blog-land:

absolutely beautiful things:
chair+017.jpg

steamed artichoke studio:
Ava_chair.JPG

shelterrific:
shelter_shawnchair.jpg

2 responses so far

Oct 14 2007

closing in on a paint color

Published by under daily,house,kids,photos

We needed some test swatches on the wall downstairs.

First things first — Volunteers. Luckily, I had two.

Secondly, smocks. Luckily, Daddy had plenty of old tshirts he didn’t mind donating to the cause.

Thirdly… well, there is no thirdly, they just got right down to it!

The colors don’t look anything like this. Just letting you know.

We have narrowed it down (it’s like the a lighter version of the 3rd box), and purchased paint. Taping is finished, spackling and sanding is next.

One response so far

Oct 04 2007

basement decorating #5

Published by under amy's head,daily,house

So who’s surprised to hear that after I post the post about which color couch to buy (“I’m definitely going with the brown!”) That I changed my mind about 50 bajillion more times?

But now, my mind is made up, not only made up – couch purchased.

As much as I like the dark brown couch, I think the green one would look better in the basement. Plus, when I piled heavy things on James, he finally admitted to liking the green one better.

It will be arriving in 5-10 business days.

Wahoo!

Crate & Barrel Camden 69 in lichen

2 responses so far

Oct 03 2007

i need another project like i need another hole in my head

Published by under amy's head,crafty,daily,house

Let me tell you a story about a girl who had her finger in a lot of pies.

Ok, that sounds dirty, I’ll just talk about me and all the crap I’ve been trying to do.

THE ONE THAT ACTUALLY PAYS
First off, I’ve had a freelance gig. It has been somewhat strenuous, as I have a full time job, 2 kids with soccer, a husband, and a household.. I used to do quite a lot of freelance, when I didn’t have kids, and then when I had kids, but stayed home with them. So when an old friend of mine called me up and asked if I was interested, I told him bluntly that it would really have to be worth my while. I knew that the hours spent on a freelance gig would be hours spent, oh let’s see, not sleeping, not spending time with my kids, not seeing their soccer games, not seeing my husband, not taking care of my house.. and I knew that it would wear me out! So they made it worth my while and I jumped on board. I’ve been cranking on that for the last few weeks, with a big push this last weekend. Now, little bits and bobs pop up, but it’s finishing up nicely. Overall, I’m glad I took the gig, because it is going to translate into the new couch in the basement! The one I can’t decide which color it should be! Yippee! (My latest plan is to scout out the floor models – if the Lichen is on closeout, then they’re going to be getting rid of the floor models too, right??)

THE BABY CRAFTY
A few weeks ago, there was a joint baby shower for 2 ladies in the neighborhood who were expecting.. Correction, 1 was expecting, the other delivered prematurely at 32 weeks. (At the time of the shower, the baby was still staying at the hospital at the NICU, but now she is at home with her family.) So for this shower, I had 1 baby blanket done, and the other partially done, and somehow I got it into my head to make bibs from Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing book. It was lots of fun, and I’m glad I did it, but I am NOT glad for deciding to do all this the DAY BEFORE the shower. I was kind of stressed out about it, and that’s never a good thing. It makes you think all about the fact that you can buy a 4pk of bibs at Target for $1.99, and that’s never a good thing to think when you’re making something handmade! Oh, and another thing – Did I remember to take pictures? NO I DID NOT. What’s the point in making handmade gifts if you FORGET TO TAKE PICTURES?? Oh right, the joy of giving, blah blah blah. 🙂

THE BASEMENT PAINTY PAINTY
The basement is an ongoing project. James finished the floor with astonishing speed and verve, and as such, I told him that if he would prep it, I would paint it. He hasn’t finished prepping it, but that’s ok because I don’t think I’ll be able to get around to painting it until November.. and that’s only if I can decide on a paint color by then.

MORE CRAFTY! THIS TIME WITH FURNITURE!
I also bought 2 chairs off craigslist about 2 months ago because I liked their bones, and wanted to try my hand at recovering. It’s a good thing I had planned on recovering to begin with, because they STINK. They reek of dank musty smoke to high heaven. I spent one afternoon several weeks ago pulling staples out of one of the chairs, and at the end of the day, I dropped everything I was wearing into the wash immediately, and then went and got in the shower. It was that bad. So now, 1 chair is taken apart and stripped down to the foam, and the other chair is sitting in the garage in all it’s stinkiness, waiting to be stripped. I am even thinking of stripping the wood and painting them. My thoughts: white, chocolate brown, or turquoise. I’m leaning towards the turquoise. Oooh, or bright red. Super glossy! Fun! The color they are now ain’t bad either. I have pictures, I just haven’t gotten them off the camera yet (STORY OF MY LIFE!)

THE HIGH PRIORITY CRAFTY SEWING PROJECT!
And LASTLY.. and now, most importantly… We have halloween coming up! Which means I have 4 weeks in which to construct a suitable Belle costume! Which I predict won’t be nearly enough time! I even purchased the satiny yellow fabric a few weeks ago. I have looked at the directions numerous times and feel that I am in way over my head. I guess we shall see.

So, yeah. Projects, projects. Lots of projects. Lots of projects for me, for me.

One response so far

Oct 02 2007

basement decorating #4

Published by under amy's head,daily,house

OK, so, you all know that woe is me, my dream couch, that I found on craigslist, ran off with another seller.

Here is that couch, Crate & Barrel Camden 69″, in Lichen:

Crate & Barrel Camden 69 in lichen

This couch is normally $900. I almost had it for $425. Now, I was very sad about this loss. Because couches like these don’t come along on Craigslist every day. Usually it’s something like this:

typical craigslist couch

Blech. Now, forgive me, if this is just the thing you’ve been looking for all your life, but this is the epitome of what I don’t want. My first rule is, no pillows – everything must be attached. Second rule- sleek and modern looking. No overstuffedness. How many sofas come along on CL that meet my rules? That’s right. 1, and I lost that one to a higher bidder, ergh!

But there are good things to think about. If I’m going to have to spend the entire $900 bucks, well, I could take a look at other colors, now couldn’t I? I do like the green Lichen one above.. and in the last few weeks, they’ve come out with a new “Spring Green”:

camden_springgreen.gif

Pretty, isn’t it? A touch more yellow in this one than the Lichen one. I think I like the Lichen better. Moving on..

We have this beautiful Chestnut baby:

camden_chestnut.gif

Isn’t that just gorgeous? So done. If I’m going to pay the full price, I’m getting the dark brown, ooh la la!

But now, a dilemma — with the rollout of these new colors, the Lichen couch is now ON SALE – for $700! Torn am I.

TORN AM I!

With the extra $200 bucks, I could buy a matching ottoman (normally $380, but now on sale for $200).

So..

What to do.. what to do.. Hmmmm.. That’s a stumper.

OH WHO THE HELL AM I KIDDIN. It’s not even a decision. I’m hemming and hawing just for the sake of something to post. (Forgive me? At least I included pretty pictures to look at!) My decision is made, baby (unless of course, James vetoes, but I don’t think he will) – It’s the dark brown! And all I’m thinking about now is what fabric to use for the pillows!

couch, with mockups of pillows in joel dewberry fabric

*cough* I could just make them all.

Do you think Jocelyn would mind if I cut up this dress and make it into pillows?

cute jocelyn dress

What? It won’t fit her much longer!

🙂

-amy might actually get around to painting the room in november.. le sigh…

2 responses so far

Sep 25 2007

basement decorating #3

Published by under daily,house

Hi guys.

So, I’m famous! Another Shade of Grey answered my email to her on her website – go check it out!

The colors: I feel so relieved, because it’s what I was thinking myself, but was nervous I’d screw it up. Well, let me clarify. I was thinking “a light brown, but what shade that won’t clash with the floor?” Hi amy. The word you’re looking for is “NEUTRAL.” A-duh! 🙂 Making it a neutral is just the right idea, though while browsing through paint colors, I find my self leaning towards a slight green. I won’t decide until I have the paint cards in hand though, as who knows what computer monitors can do to skew those colors!

Here are some paint choices, all from Lowes American Traditions:

possible paint colors for basement

The bottom 2 are kind of what I was leaning toward before, and now definitely don’t like. Well, “Withered Moss” is all right, but I like the others so much more. I believe the color that is the closest match to the one Jules had, is “Willow Wind.” I think I’d like to take the darker shade in the same family, of “Grassland.” The greener shades appeal to me as well, so I’m sure there’ll be a few test squares going up to see how it looks.

So while I’m at it, here are some pictures of the actual basement itself. I’ve had to fiddle with the exposure/brightness/contrast to try to get the colors right, but it’s still looking a little dark, as well as yellowy. It’s a basement. And it was night when I shot them. What can you do.

Next, I have to update you on the chairs I’m recovering.

On the family front, we spent a horrible night last night due to Jocelyn’s unceasing coughing, the poor darling. She coughed so hard that she spit up/threw up a little bit 🙁 She has been congested since before we went on our little mini vacation before school started, so that’d put us at over THREE WEEKS.. She has never had a fever though, so that’s why I haven’t taken her in, but last night was pretty awful for her. I’m taking her to the doctor this afternoon.

-amy

4 responses so far

Sep 23 2007

doggone it..

Published by under amy's head,daily,house

woe is me.

The sofa I was going to pick up today from a craigslist seller, fell through.

I am so bummed. I LOVE THAT SOFA. It was too good to be true, I guess.

So, it’s not like we’re urgently awaiting a sofa to sit on or anything, the room isn’t even painted yet, so we can wait and see if something else comes along on craigslist.

But a part of me just wants to rush out and buy a sofa RIGHT NOW. I even checked the hours of the Crate and Barrel outlet nearby. I’ve no idea if they usually have furniture. And if so, how damaged it would be.

I scoured the Ikea website (I actually took the kids there today to scope out possible media center solutions) looking for a cheaper alternative. “Eh.” was my reaction. The Kramfors or possibly the Klippan are the only ones that slightly appealed to me, and I don’t like the WIDENESS of everything. that’s why I love the Camden. Narrow and sleek. No chunkiness whatsoever.

I just don’t think I can compromise.

Going to just have to wait a few months, save my pennies, and get the Camden.

It’s hard to be chipper about this, I was really looking forward to having the couch down there and moving it around to see what might work.

I guess on the bright side, if we end up buying it new, we will be able to choose a fabric/color we like the best (although the green worked fine for me.) Maybe chocolate brown?

So.

Yeah.

Totally bummed out. 🙁

My advice – if you convince someone via email to let something go for less than their asking — RUN and go pick it up. Don’t wait 48 hours. Because they’ll probably change their mind/get an offer for their full price/decide they like it a lot after all, and then you’re totally screwed.

le sigh.

Comments Off on doggone it..

Sep 21 2007

basement decorating #2

Published by under amy's head,daily,house

So, I am having a hard time with this basement design stuff. We are getting our sofa on Sunday, and yet I still need to pick a paint color. Not that I’m going to have time to paint in the next few weeks anyway, but all I can think about (especially now that our sofa’s arrival is IMMINENT!) is how all the elements are going to work together? I’m deathly afraid of picking a paint color that isn’t going to WORK, and then James will sniff at me and tell me how fickle I am. I don’t want that! I want to be CONFIDENT! 🙂

Ergh.

So to help my brain try to bring all these components up, I tried to do a little design elements sheet thingee. You always see these type of things on the design shows, right? So with the help of a little photoshop… here we go (sorry it is so long!)

basement design elements

I originally thought the palette would be a nice chocolate brown on the walls, greenish touches in the furniture (the sofa is green, some green pillows on the chairs, maybe a greenish rug..) and then some real pops of bright color – I originally thought turquoise, but for some reason now I’m leaning towards yellow, or even a bright red. Maybe because there is already a good bit of turquoise in the amy butler fabric?

The deep shelves pictured to serve as the TV media stand I like, but not necessarily in white – and I also envision floating shelves on the wall above the TV as well.

Obviously there’s a few elements missing above, we’re not going to do a coffee table, but a large flat ottoman might be just the ticket, we’re going to need a rug, and some side tables, and I’m thinking a table on the backside of the sofa. I feel like these will come together after I get the basics down (like establishing the color palette). I also have to remember that this is a BASEMENT with only ONE tiny window, so maybe a dark brown on the walls is NOT a good idea? Any thoughts on that? As well as being our prime TV viewing area (while I dream about sofas and paint chips, James is currently dreaming about Visio and Samsung) this room will serve other functions as well (toy area, mommy’s craft/sewing/office area). There’s a floorplan of the room on this post, although we’re now picturing the sofa and tv rotated 45degrees clockwise from what is on that picture.

I still have some time, but it is ticking away. I can’t wait to make this space FUNCTIONAL again! Any thoughts and ideas you have, please comment!

I’m also going to send this post along to one of my favorite design blogs, Another Shade of Grey – she has a keen eye for color and design as well as awesome vintage pieces (she has a store with her vintage finds), and has helped many others do little mini make-overs of their space.. maybe she can help kick me off in the right direction for mine!

Some other folks she’s helped:

M’s Bedroom

Annie’s bathroom

And Julietta, who’s black and white kitchen I ADORE.

Check out Another Shade of Grey – you won’t be sorry 🙂

-amy

4 responses so far

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