Blog It Forward: Things Inspiring Me Right Now

Thanks to Victoria for coming up with this fun plan! I’m Blogging It Forward to Heart and Craft, so be sure to check her site out Monday. And now, without further ado, my list:

1. Kelly Wearstler. Well, Kelly Wearstler’s hair. And Kelly Wearstler’s black kitchen design.

2. Weirsie! (Johnny Weir, my Olympics boyfriend.)

3. Jessica Helgerson, who is design perfection.

4. J. Crew (and Jenna Lyons, of course, and Jenna Lyons’s house, and that one J. Crew bathroom she designed and oh wait I sound like a stalker.)

5. Black and white stripes, especially on the ceiling. I am going to have to do that to something soon.

Thanks again to Victoria! You inspire us all, girl.

(Photo credit: 1. casasugar.com 2. Getty Images 3. designspongeonline.com 4. jcrew.com 5. Domino)

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Quick Quick An Update

The bathroom addition plans are being drawn up as I type this. Our super excellent contractor doesn’t know he will be posing for headless photos. I guess I should tell him. And when we are finished with this project, I am going to nearly immediately start on our own bathroom remodel. Just cosmetic work for that one, nothing too big. It’s all very exciting, though. Two SEPARATE places to shower! Amazing.

Phase 1 of my  Los Angeles client’s house plan is complete and went so, so well. I learned a ton and can’t wait to go back for Phase 2. My client would like you all to know that, in addition to being connected to the tv show HOUSE, she is extremely powerful and important.

Pictures and more updates of everything are forthcoming. Thank you for your cooperation.

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A Short List of Things I’ve Been Doing

1. Decorating for Christmas. But not too much. I still have to put up the tree/wrap presents/make teacher gifts/discard teacher gifts due to burning/make more teacher gifts/lose my mind. But: all of my gifts have been bought. Boughten. This is a miraculous and beautiful thing.

Is it annoying to use images I uploaded to Flickr weeks ago? I apologize. Not enough to stop doing it, but just know that I feel bad about it.

The delicious sunburst mirror came from a local store, so I am sorry to say I can’t tell you where to get one of your own. Also, the cute white stockings came from Walmart, so judge me as you must.

2. Making curtains out of drop cloths. I mean, come on. Have you ever seen a cooler idea? I got it from the Internet. Here’s what you do: Go to Lowe’s (or Home Depot, or your local hardware store, but I checked all of my options and Lowe’s had the best quality fabric). Buy 2 drop cloths. Wash, wash, wash and dry the drop cloths. Now, wash them again. I hope you have a big washer. Cut and hem the bottom edge (I bought 12′ x 15′ drop cloths, because my windows are 120″ wide and my ceilings are 10′ tall. I stitched the long side to about 10′, and hung them at 9.5′ or so. (The ones I bought were already finished on all sides, with a shirttail hem.)). Hang. THE END.

3. Furiously searching for and downloading pictures of bathrooms for the addition we’re planning in the new year. I don’t know if you can tell what I like from this randomly chosen set of inspiration photos. They are all so different. We are very excited about this project — it’s been on our list of things to do basically since we moved into our house 6 years ago. And there is a teenager I know who is super happy about not having to share with her parents anymore. Hey, kid: THE FEELING IS MUTUAL.

4. In an unexpected development, I’ve taken on a real, live, paying decorating client. I am scared and nervous and exhilarated. It is kind of a trial run. The fun starts after the holidays. More details as they come. The excitement makes me write in little sentences.

I’ll not reveal the identity of my client, but they are closely connected to this person:

Obviously, I’ve written several private meetings into our contract. Consultations, if you will. For art.

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The Nursery of Little Martha

I know many of you are waiting to see this baby’s room, so I’ll keep it short. A few weeks ago my friends Allison and Chris adopted a baby, and I immediately sprung into action to help Al plan a nursery. Here is what we ended up with. I think it’s a pretty cute room for a pretty cute girl.

We didn’t have a lot of time to plan, so most of the items in the room were sourced locally or ordered somewhere online that offered quick shipping. I arrived in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon and had to leave Tuesday morning, so we had a tight schedule to get the room and crib painted, hang shades/curtains, and assemble everything. I would just like you to know that, although we achieved our goal, tomorrow I have to have my gall bladder removed. THE SACRIFICES I MAKE.

The crib is a Jenny Lind, which we painted a color called “Bumblebee” from Lowes’s Valspar spray paint line. (Dear Valspar, Your spray paint color selection is fantastic.) There was a communications mix-up between me and our workers (Vince) at home base, resulting in the purchase of 12 cans of spray paint requiring trips to 3 different Lowes stores. The tale of Vince and the Spray Paint is best told by Allison, so I’ll leave that to her. Maybe she’ll tell it in the comments.

The crib bedding and lamps are from Target. The glider is from a place called, I am not joking, “New Baby Products.” The yellow Ikat pillow is from the awesome Fabricadabra, and thank you Raina for that tip! The dresser is from Babies R Us, and we love it because it doesn’t look like baby furniture.

The rugs, bookcase (Expedit, what what!), and white grommet curtains are all Ikea. The uglydolls are from Heliotrope Home. The pink chair is Vitra from Hive Modern. The most excellent cardboard moose head, which took me approximately 40 years to put together, is from Uncommon Goods. And finally, the walls are “Atlantic Fog” from the discontinued Martha Stewart line at Sherwin Williams.

I wish I had gotten better pictures of the bed, and the room from other angles, but we woke up in the middle of a HURRICANE, so there was very little time and even less light. I did get a shot of one of my favorite things in the room, the Mason jar full of twinkle lights, which was Al’s inspired idea.

Welcome home, Marlo. I hope you love your new room.

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Living Room: Sneak Peek

This is actually my Bench Monday submission for today, but it’s also a tiny glimpse of our newly painted living room, the last room in the house to be painted. It looks worlds better. Dear Super White, I love you forever.

More details and pictures soon.

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The Results

Y’all must have been voting it up for me in the bedroom contest, because I won the Readers’ Choice Award! That’s right! Power to the people! Thank you so much for voting, both from the link here and on Twitter. Also, thanks to my ladies over at Design Crisis, for their aggressive Pro-AB campaign.

I was also given an Honorable Mention by the judges (Dear Kelly Wearstler: CALL ME), which is doubly awesome. See the results, and the super fabulous winners, right here.

Now everybody go paint something Down Pipe!

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Overwhelmedness(iosity)

Oh my goodness, it’s been a banner week here at Chao Central. First of all, the temperature has dropped below 75 at least 3 times. Secondly, one of my favorite blogs, Creature Comforts, did a super sweet post on our house. THIRD OF ALL, I will be doing a guest post on one of my OTHER favorite blogs (Karly and Erin, what what!) very very soon.

FINALLY, and this is going to blow your mind, I am a finalist in this All The Best Bedroom Contest. I mean, how sick are you of hearing about my bedroom? I know, me too. However. Not only is it an honor to be chosen, but your favorite and mine, the crazy awesome Kelly Wearstler, is one of the judges. This makes me squee. A lot. Y’all, the other contestants are so good. They are obviously professionals. So I cannot even tell you how happy it made me to find out I was in the top 12. As a bonus, there is a Reader’s Choice poll you should go vote in. (For me.) (I mean, you don’t have to. Only if you want to.) (Dewit.)

Talk about an embarrassment of riches. I am the luckiest girl in the blogosphere!!!!!!1!

And now, here are 2 more pictures of my bedroom. YAY!

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Our Bedroom: Before and After

I don’t have much to say about this except 1) I’m so happy with the result, 2) “Down Pipe” is my new favorite color, and 3) I am very tired.

New things bought for the room: Paint, roller shades, and throw pillows. I bought the antlers on eBay.

If you have any questions I’ll try to answer them!

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I have decorating ADD

The burlap shades have been shunted to the side for the time being. I can’t decide on a trim fabric or color, and it’s making me upset. So I’m putting them on hold. It’s ok, though, because I’ve decided that our bedroom must be painted now, now, now. This is all Abigail Ahern’s fault. She paints lots of her walls this gorgeous chalky black blue gray color that I have fallen in love with, and now I must have it somewhere in my house. The bedroom — which hasn’t been painted since before we moved into this house — wins.

I am not happy with this bedroom for many reasons. First of all, because the curtains don’t cover the edge of my window trim, which is a most egregious error committed by my husband when he measured the curtain rods. But most of all, because of that dumb Ikea locker in the corner. It holds our TiVo and DVD player and other technology, and every day when I see it I am filled with rage. The locker is cute — on your porch, in your hall, in your bathroom. Not in my bedroom. I want it out. The new walls will help me with this problem, I’m sure of it.

This is the color:

Whee! Just looking at it makes me happy. And the name! Down Pipe. That’s right. It’s awesome and dirty at the same time.

Watch this space.

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Hi hi hi!

Hello there, Apartment Therapists. Welcome to hashai. I never update, and when I do it’s usually a disappointment. I’m glad to see you here, anyway!

(Just kidding about the disappointment.)

My next project is our guest bedroom-cum-tv room. It’s about 85% finished, and I’m currently working on the shades for the 6 windows the room contains. If anyone knows where to find some fabulous velvet ribbon in this specific color of green I cannot describe, then I wish you would tell me.

Sneak Peek

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