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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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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What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Before

My 5 year old child (she is actually 14 but that hurts to admit) is going to high school in a few weeks, so I decided she needed an all new big girl room design for her new big girl life. She went to a 3-week camp in mid-July, at which point Vince and I began working furiously to paint, refinish the floors, and redecorate her room. The whole thing was a big surprise, so I spent the last 3 weeks being alternately excited about the whole thing, and nervous that she would hate it. She didn’t. A lot.

Before

Admittedly, these are some awful before pictures (I had already started slinging stuff around, and the bed was originally against the opposite wall), but you get the idea. The walls/floor are the biggest improvements. They were in pretty bad shape.

I got most of the furniture at Ikea. Accessories/rugs are from various sources — Crate & Barrel, Urban Outfitters, eBay, thrifted.

After

After

After

More pictures on Flickr.

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DONE.

The Great Reveal:

It is even more beautiful than you can imagine, in person. NEXT ROOM.

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Peek

Y’all, I am almost there. The end is neeeeeear!

I am having tile cut into the size I want. I was inching into crazypants territory about getting exactly the right thing, and I can’t be worrying about it anymore. Thus, the backsplash goes in early next week. And then…WE REST.

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