Little things that make me happy

Whad up, yo? I hope everyone is having a great Easter weekend! I went to Estherville, Iowa with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and parents to help my sister and her husband move into their (ridiculous, stunning, gorgeous) new home. They will be there for 3 weeks while he works at the hospital in town and they're moving there for good in July. It's bittersweet. I am so happy for them because I know this means great professional strides for my brother-in-law, but I will miss them more than I can say. I've been so lucky to see my niece two or three times a week since we moved back, and now they're going to be 3 1/2 hours away. But life goes on, and we will try to make the most of this summer.

That oddly sad intro was all to say I am freaking exhausted so this will be a short post. I did my usual drop-in at the Salvation Army across the street from work on Friday and found a couple of really cute things, starting with this cloisonne-style trinket box for $1 (yes, I hate the word "trinket," too):

The base is brass. Obviously I could not leave it there.

I thought it was really pretty and it's a good size - probably 5 or 6 inches in diameter. I can use it to store coasters... when I buy some damn coasters.

It has a happy new home on my incredibly dusty and finger-printy end table. 

Next up, I found two cute things for the upstairs. This watercolor/pencil drawing had the price tag halfway scraped off, so I asked the checkout girl how much it was. Similar items there go for between $10 and $15, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. She gave it to me for $2!

Sorry so fuzzy - camera's still acting up.

I planned to paint the mat something less 1980s cornflower blue, but someone had it custom framed and I didn't want to mess with the pristine kraft paper backing. For $2, I can live with it.

Pretty, huh? I like it, anyway.

Lastly, I got this heavier-than-it-looks floral figurine, I think made out of brass with some badly chipped enamel on the flower petals:

Wow, that is an awful picture. It's the little doo-hickey on the left.

It cost me $1, and I just thought it was pretty. For some reason I am obsessed with weighty stuff. If it feels like I could clock an intruder in the head with it and really do some damage, I will usually want to take it home.

So for $4 total I got three things that pretty much made my day. That's less than some people spend on coffee. I mean, I don't know anyone who spend $4 on a single coffee, but that's what you're supposed to do. Feel holier-than-thou because I spend less on junk from thrift stores than some people do on coffee.

This weekend I think I am going to try out the Goodwill Wearhouse, a Goodwill "outlet" of sorts where they just have waist-high bins bigger than a studio apartment through which you have to dig for your treasures. I went to one in Queens with the ladies of AuH20, the world's best clothing store in the East Village in NYC. Seriously, they are fabulous girls with amazing taste and I have never left their store empty-handed, even on the many occasions I dragged Alexis there "just real quick" before brunch.

Anyway, it was an awesome experience and you pay for your junk by the pound, which means I spent something like $17 for several pieces of clothing (including a Tory Burch coat that was sadly beyond repair), an art deco beaded purse and a pair of shoes I wear at least twice a week. Love it.

Have a great rest of the day!

xoxo,

Leigh

DIY Fabric Roller Shades (AKA, no more crack den curtains!)

Woot! Remember those painted vinyl roller shades I told you guys about? Finally, they have been banished to the basement to be used as drop cloths or something. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours ironing and gluing my way to fancy new window treatments for the guest room. Here's the result:

Yikes, sorry it's so dark. MAYBE THE SUN COULD COME OUT SOME TIME.

Edit: I got another, better photo:

I was so excited to get started on these I didn't even take before shots. I am the worst blogger ever. Suffice to say, sloppily painted white vinyl is not pretty. Not even a little.

I followed this tutorial, but the process was pretty simple: measure, cut, "sew" hems on 3 sides with hemming tape, and use this miracle glue to glue the top, raw edge of the fabric to the cardboard tube from which you ripped the offensive white vinyl.

This was a really economical way to dress these windows. And economical is a really nice euphemism for cheap. But still, they turned out nicely and I'm happy with the results. Full curtains would have been expensive and not very practical since the giant desk at which I blog and Pete does his homework butts right up against the wall. And I don't know if you've noticed, but nice-looking curtain hardware can be really expensive! These roller shades were only $7, and the mounting hardware was already there from when the previous own had her curtains and shades up.

Oh, if you want to actually be able to see the fabric, here it is:

It's a print by Waverly called "Lovely Lattice" in the Jungle color. I bought 7.5 yards of this stuff when I foolishly thought I would reupholster a sofa I got on Craigslist. I paid $10 a yard at Joann during a sale. The sofa now resides in the burn pile at my Aunt Sue's farm.

So since I had the shades, hardware, and fabric, this project only ended up costing me $5 for a bottle of glue (using a coupon, of course!). If I had to buy all the stuff I still think I could have gotten it done for around $40 or $50, depending on how much I spent on fabric. I searched high and low online for something else, but nothing caught my eye and it finally dawned on me I had a huge stash of something that would work sitting in the basement.

Also this weekend, the search for a new coffee table to replace the brass-and-glass monstrosity ended. Seriously, never buy a glass coffee table unless you own stock in Windex.

I went to my very first estate sale and found this beauty tagged at $50, but then the woman running the sale said all furniture was half price, so I jumped on it. Well, not literally. I had write my name on a piece of painter's tape, which she gingerly placed upon its surface.

Say hi to Pete's legs and sock! Also, yes, I did use the same fabric for that lumbar pillow in the middle of the sofa. How else do you use up 7.5 yards of fabric?!

It's a solid slab, about 1 1/2" thick, and has just the right dimensions. The only thing I'm torn about is the legs. They're kind of skinny, almost 70s colonial-style turned legs with tiny brass caster feet. Although I love the caster feet with my whole shriveled heart, I kind of hate the legs. They feel very old-lady to me. I'm trying to get Pete to agree to replace them with something tapered to give the whole thing a more modern feel, like this one:

We shall see. Maybe I'll learn to love the little old-lady spindly legs.

So do you like the roller shades? Do you want to come stay in my guest room? It's nice, and yellow, and now it has non-scary things to cover the windows! Yippeeeeeeee!

xoxo,

Leigh

P.S. - Here's a lovely shot of a couple of cute paintings I got at the thrift store for $1 each. They're obviously not masterpieces, but I love the colors with the yellow walls (and now green-and-white shades!) and anything nautical is a-okay in my book.

Master Bedroom Part 2

Holy crap, you guys! It's been a week since I last posted. Sorry about that. It's been a busy few days. (It will always be busy, I'm realizing. Must come up with some way to get stuff done ... stuff besides the stuff with which I'm busy.)

I know you've been waiting with bated breath to see the second half of the master bedroom, so here goes:

Ta-da! The sleeping area. We are dealing with the dreaded window-behind-the-bed situation. I haven't figured out if we should do a headboard or not. Please ignore the wonky bedding. Pete made the bed that day. (Love you, honey!) The monogrammed shams were the first thing I bought after our wedding. They're from Pottery Barn, and I remember feeling absurdly swanky for buying them.

 

I don't know how to reconcile my being over "shabby chic" with how much I love this decidedly shabby chic bedding. It is, in fact, from Target's Shabby Chic line, although naturally I hunted it down on eBay for 30% lower than the store price. I wasn't about to pay triple digits for bedding.

 

Isn't the linen texture so pretty? And I love the colors, but I guess I want something more... I don't know. Sophisticated or something.

Remember that chair-as-nightstand thing I posted about in the kitchen entry? If you look closely you'll see two chairs flanking the bed in the first photo. Here's a close-up. The clamp lights are $7 from Home Depot. At some point I will get around to spray painting them antique brass or something a little softer than brand-new aluminum.

Close-up of what might be the weirdest art project ever. I had these ugly dark red "distressed" metal stars we bought 1 million years ago and displayed on the walls in our Brooklyn apartment. I used Mod Podge to adhere pieces of newsprint to them. I liked the results enough to put them up, but they're definitely not my fave.

 

That is an old bench that was in our house in Ashland when I was a kid, then spent some time at my aunt's farm, and now lives happily in our room. The throw is Cynthia Rowley and the leather journal was a gift from Pete a long time ago.

 

I keep meaning to hang these brass bird thingies but I don't have a good spot for them yet. They were $1 each (there's two, it's hard to tell) at the St. Vincent de Paul store.

And that's about it. The room still needs lots of finessing. I'm hoping to add some more mid-century modern pieces to the mix to steer it away from the direction it's in now. I would repaint, but it was such a beast the first time that I resolved not to paint it again until we could pay someone to do it. It. Was. Awful. Plus, new paint means new curtains, new curtains means new bedding, and before you know it, you've had to sell your damn house.

Oh, and if an antique/mid-century mash-up sounds super weird to you, take a look at this awesome space I saw on SF Girl by Bay. (Won't let me copy photos in, boo.) Isn't that room amazing? I know we don't live in an East Sussex farmhouse, but we do live in a Southeast Omaha brick house - it shouldn't be that hard to replicate!

So if anyone has a vintage white leather lounge chair or freaking awesome credenza, please let me know. I will pay you five American dollars for them, which I believe is the going rate.

By the way, thrifting was sort of a bust this weekend. I got a cute little brass and glass side table for $7 (I posted a photo on Instagram), a couple of paintings for the guest room for $1 each, and a brass picture frame. I could have kept shopping, but it seemed like everywhere I went there were homeless creepers and it was just making me tired. You really have to be in the right mood to be okay shopping alongside a couple of meth heads trying to load two bed-bug-ridden armchairs into their van.

On that cheerful note, have a lovely night!

xoxo,

Leigh

Work in Progress: The Master Bedroom, Part 1

If my boss is reading this (hi, Shelley!), please don't judge my inconsistent capitalization in the post titles. I can only follow the rules so many hours a day. Outside those hours I am a major rebel.

Ahem, so. Sorry no post yesterday - we went to see The Lion King at the Orpheum. That is to say, we saw half of The Lion King. Joanna, my stepmom, had ants in her pants by intermission (okay, so did I) so we left before the second half. How do kids sit through a nearly 3-hour theater production?!

Today I wanted to share some photos of the master bedroom. Our room occupies the entire 2nd floor, and has a little "getting ready room" and the "sleeping room." I'm splitting this up into two posts because I have about 1.8 million photos.

This room is probably my least favorite right now. The decor is tending toward French country/shabby chic and that's not really where I wanted to go. It's pretty and soothing and it's not like I'm going to rip everything out tomorrow, but when I have the resources to redecorate, that room will be #1 on the list. It just feels a little disjointed from the rest of the house, which has a distinctly eclectic-vintage-mid-century feel.

The before and afters are better than the kitchen's, if I do say so myself. And I do.

Here's the before, as you've just come up the stairs:

Please note the globe light fixture, weird laminate elf door on the right, and paneling EVERYWHERE. Oh, also, the house was wired for Life Alert so there were phones, wires and buttons on every wall surface upstairs.

And as you round the corner to the left, here's what is now the getting-ready room:

If you look at the ceiling you can see the gorgeous acoustic tile. I mean, perfection.

This is what that space looks like now:

At some point that banister will get replaced, probably when we refinish the floors and drywall the walls and ceilings. Much better, though, right? Don't mind that weird pop-out thing over the mantel. There was a lot of slap-dash carpentry done up there; we'll fix it eventually.

The biggest improvement, for me, was the ceiling. We used this textured wallpaper from Lowe's to cover the acoustic tiles. Thank GOD my dad is so experienced with wallpaper. He had this up in two days, with me as his assistant. It still needs some touching up, but it's such a difference from the dingy commercial ceiling.  

In case you were wondering, the globe light, sadly, was discarded and replaced with this $5 pendant from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore near our house:

It reminds me of an earring. I thought it was pretty and it was certainly the right price, so up it went! 

You may have noticed that beautiful mantle. Pete rescued it from the trash pile on one of his jobs in NYC, and we hauled it here with us when we moved. It's by far my favorite part of the upstairs:

What sort of fool would throw that away?!

 To fill in the center of the mantel (you know, where a fireplace would usually go), I  used some scrap wallpaper and pasted it to a section of the cardboard box in which our bed frame was delivered. Pete attached a leftover piece of molding from the kitchen so the bottom looks a bit more finished. That little project was free. Love it.

Close-up of the detail on the mantel.

Plant-less planter, gilded photo frame and glittery silver bird procured from thrift stores and TJ Maxx.

Thrifted vases and little wicker purse.

My dad gave me that book when I was 10 years old and I still read it and love the illustrations. It's The Random House Book of Stories from the Ballet. The primitive stool it sits on was $6 from a thrift store and I love all the chippy paint.

Little vintage cup and saucer set from a shop in Kansas City.

Busted-ass chair also from the store in Kansas City. I had big plans to repair the seat, but I kind of like it as-is. I hung a vintage Whiting & Davis mesh drawstring purse from it. If I could carry that purse everywhere, I would. It's like jewelry in which you can carry your phone. 

 And to wrap this all up, here are some shots of the junk sitting on or hanging above the dresser I got on Craigslist before we even owned a house to put it in (you can see it peeking out on the right side of the first "after" shot):

Thrifted brass tray for my perfumes, and a votive holder I got from TJ Maxx for $0.30.

Pretty silver bowl from a thrift store - it holds my bracelets.

I use the votive holder to stash my rings when I'm not wearing them.

Pete brought this thing home from somewhere. God only know what it's made out of. It weighs about a million pounds. He does a great job of holding me necklaces for me.

The engraved brass lamp and deco beaded purse are from - where else? - thrift stores for $8 and $1.50, respectively.

Here's the mirror I hung over the dresser. It was $6 from TJ Maxx. It's not really big enough for that spot, so I filled out the space a little with antique backplates from my dad's house in Ashland. I love having them up there.

That about sums up Part 1 of the bedroom tour! I'm sure you're all waited with bated breath for Part 2. I mean, I know how excited we all were for Part 2 of The Lion King.

Oh, wait...

xoxo,

Leigh

P.S. - If you've seen drop-cloth curtains on Pinterest and wondered how they turn out in real life, without seamstress skills or complex stripe-painting or any other nonsense, they look awesome. And are much heavier and expensive looking than comparably priced "real" curtains.

I ironed a "flap" at the top that's about 18" tall - no hemming or sewing involved, just a lot of time with an iron on its highest setting and lots of water to steam the wrinkles out. You will want to wash and dry the cloths before hanging them. They stink.

Shot of the awesome drapery clips I used to hang the curtains. They hold on tight and slide really nicely over the rod. Man, I could totally write romance novels.

What's cookin'? Our kitchen, that's what.

Our apartment in Brooklyn was dark. We euphemistically referred to it as The Cave. It had two windows, both of which faced the inside of a courtyard surrounded by 9-story buildings. We had to keep the curtains closed because we lived on the garden level and anyone walking through the courtyard could just look right in. Our ceilings were low, too, which didn't help. In some ways it was nice, like living in a cocoon. Most of the time, though, I couldn't shake this perpetually groggy feeling, like I'd just been awakened from a nap. And not in a nice, "hey, dinner's ready, I made your very favorite" way, but in a "hey, get up. You've been sleeping all damn day" way.

I tell you this so you'll understand the sheer joy I experience when I come home to a house that has light in it. Our house was built in the 1930s, but every room has an abundance of big windows that you don't always find in older homes. I had a different post planned for today, but when I got home and saw how pretty and bright the kitchen looked, I scrapped that plan and decided to share some photos of the kitchen instead. It's not our dream kitchen by any stretch (we plan to renovate in a couple years anyway), but when you see the before and afters, I think the improvement is pretty dramatic.

First, the befores, of which I have only two from the day we walked through the house before we signed the offer: 

  

You can't really tell in this photo, but the cabinets and walls were pink. The sickliest, grossest shade of pink you ever did see. The cabinets are nice and roomy, but damn that color was bad. The hardware was pretty inoffensive. Also, please note the gorgeous pink countertops. It's like they wanted the kitchen to resemble a baby girl's nursery as closely as possible. Also, God bless the 90-year-old woman who lived here for 50 years before we bought the house, but she had the most complex window treatments I've ever seen. Every window had a roller shade, curtains and a valance. Lucky us, it was all included in the sale. 

Next up is the view into the eat-in area:

Mm hmm. Couldn't you just lick those linoleum floors? And wrap yourself in the curtains? The appliances are missing, which was fine with us; we guessed they wouldn't have been exactly updated and were perfectly content to buy them ourselves. All that's missing now is a dishwasher, which will be priority Numero Uno when we renovate. 

Now for the afters! 

So much better, right? It still needs some work, but I don't know how much we'll even bother with since we know it's all coming out in a couple years. So far we've bought appliances, painted the cabinets white enamel, replaced the cabinet hardware, taken the ugly mottled glass shades off the light fixtures, and... what else? OH! Completely revamped the floors and installed brand new base molding.

Funny story, those floors. 

Pete texted me at work one day and asked if I'd be mad if he pulled up a corner of the floor to see what was underneath. We pulled up carpet in the rest of the downstairs to reveal nice hardwood flooring, so I thought it was worth a gamble. Under the lineoleum was a layer of VCT flooring, then another layer of lineolum, then the pine sub-floor. After several days' work (thank you, Dad and Joanna!), the pine flooring was refinished and urethaned. It was an unexpected addition to the budget and timeline, but beyond worth it. The floors now feel clean but warm at the same time. 

By the way, I honestly believe that Hell is a place where you go to pull thousands of tiny staples out of flooring. My hands were bruised and bloody. Definitely a job to do with a jug of wine by your side. 

On to more photos! 

This is what it looks like when you're facing the garage from the eat-in area. That door needs refinishing (see the pink paint?!) and we'll replace that fluorescent light fixture soon.

An absurdly fuzzy shot of the eat-in area. Stupid camera is on the fritz.

We got the yellow table and maple chairs on Craigslist for $30 and $4 each, respectively. I bought two extra chairs and we use them as nightstands (it looks better than it sounds). 

Do you like those cheerful orange curtains? I made them myself!

There is almost nothing hem tape and fabric glue won't do. The fabric is a really fun, retro print. I got it on sale at Hancock Fabric for about $2 a yard. I used 2 1/2" pieces of grosgrain ribbon to make "tabs" on the back for the rod go go through. Are they perfect? Far from it. But they're cute and they keep creepers from peering into the kitchen at night. 

And hey, remember that rusty metal cart I told you about a few posts back? (I say this like my posting is super prolific.) Well, it is rusty no more!

Seriously, Pete is amazing. He sanded and painted the whole thing. We chose bright yellow and white enamel; I thought the colors looked fun with the mint green walls. I love how it turned out. We've had it in that little corner since Friday and already it's coming in handy. The cart itself was $10 or $12, and we paid another $15 or so for the paint. For $25ish, we have a customized vintage piece that will get a ton of use and looks pretty to boot.

I got another fun project done on Friday too:

That door (which also needs refinishing) leads to the basement.

I was going to do a separate post on this, but I don't think a bulletin board from Walmart with yellow enamel paint on the border warrants its own post. Regardless, the board was $10 and we used leftover paint from the bar cart to cover the plastic "wood grain" border it came with. Then I used basic white thumbtacks to display a bunch of cards, coasters and postcards from restaurants and bars we went to in NYC. We started collecting them during the last year we lived there and amassed quite a hoard. We'll have to find another way to display the rest of them. 

Speaking of displays, you can see those little corner cabinets in the photos above. We briefly contemplated ripping them out when we renovate (there isn't a lot of floor space in the kitchen!), but upon threats of death from my aunt and dad, we have decided to keep them. I have to say, I do enjoy finding fun stuff to put in there:

White enamel bowl with strawberries and flowers from Goodwill for $2.

My little collection of milk glass vases, bought from a garage sale for $0.25 each.

Cute sundae dishes from TJ Maxx for $1 each. I can't fathom why these didn't fly off the shelves at full price - doesn't everyone have specialty dishes for their ice cream?

So damn precious. Another little strawberry bowl.

This is that teapot I bought at the Salvation Army on Friday for $1.59. It's signed on the bottom, so I did some googling and found out it's worth anywhere from $60 to $100!

Whew! Still with me? Good. We're almost done, I promise. I just want to share a couple photos of the prettiest cabinet hardware in the wide world:

Martha Stewart cup pulls from the Bedford line at Home Depot, $2 each! A steal, if you've done any shopping for non-ugly drawer pulls recently.

Ugh, I just love these. They were also $2 each at Home Depot. They're the prettiest acrylic knobs, with a bright brass base.

Side view - they're clear from this angle, and yellow if you're looking head-on. I love it.

Well, that about wraps up the kitchen tour. Like I said, it's not perfect (paint touch-ups abound!), but it's so much brighter and cleaner than what we started with. It's functional, we have plenty of storage, and Pete is still able to cook fantastic dinners in it every night. (One time I made minestrone! YAY ME!)

Hope you enjoyed this little post, and if you didn't, well... sorry. I most definitely won't be making you any minestrone.

xoxo,

Leigh