The Jewel Box

I could talk about the giant hole in the side of my house which isn't completely closed and is exposed to all the elements and critters in the neighborhood.  Or I could talk about the two tractors that encompass my entire backyard and the silt sludge they created which has traveled down the driveway, into the street and down the street to which the neighbors complained.   Or I could talk about how a million projects have been started in the house and not one completed.

But...I won't.  Instead I'm going to go to my happy place and look at pretty pictures of powder rooms.

Lori Graham via Decorpad

Nest Interior Design via Decorpad

Niche Interiors

Artistic Designs For Living

Rules for small spaces:  Keep things light, simple and avoid anything with bold patterns.

Rules for a powder room:  Ignore all rules of small spaces.

This is the room where you're allowed to go crazy and have fun with design.  I've already started to think about what I want to do in our teeny tiny powder room.  Right now it's an utter and complete dump of a room, but one day it will be an inviting little jewel box.  That is, after everything in the room is removed and I finish removing the old hideous wallpaper.   It's been super hot these past few weeks and there is no air conditioning in the house.  Needless to say that I can only stand to be in that hole for short periods of time.  The top layer of the wallpaper came off so easily I was thinking that I was gonna  be home free.  I was wrong.  I'm hoping to finish it this weekend, cross my fingers.

I've picked out the wallpaper I'm going to replace it with.  It's Flavor Paper's "City Park" design.

  It's so fun and whimsical with the parking meters, fire hydrants, rats and pigeons.   I love that from afar it looks like a damask but up close...well you can see for yourself.   I'm going to get it in a custom color though since I'm not keen on the ones they have.  The only problem is that I'm not sure what color it should be.   Whatever the color,  I think I'm going to break it up with either beadboard or board and batten since I think the pattern might be a little overwhelming.  Next I'm going to have to find a smaller toilet and a tiny vanity to replace the corner one that was in the room.  And, I need to find a cool pendant light. Oh, and a mirror.  Exhale. Ok.  Now to recap, this is what we've started with:

In all it's glory.  

I love the multilayered window treatments.  The shutters are literally resting against the window

Floor tile ideas

Seriously, check out the floor.  It's taped with masking tape.  Classy.

And what is it going to look like?  Not sure yet, but stay tuned.

The Laundry List

Shouldn't the laundry room get the same attention as the rest of the house?  I mean I know I need inspiration to get up off my butt and fold the clothes.  It might as well be a pretty room since I'm going to be spending a fair bit of time in there.  Here's some rooms that have inspired the look that I want in my laundry room.

Via Southern Living

I love love love the color of the cabinets.  Don't be shocked if I steal this idea.

Via Hooked on Houses

After seeing this I decided that a backsplash is a must.

Via House & Home

This room looks so clean and fresh.  Appropriate.

Via The Container Store

Can you tell that I'm a wee bit partial to the color blue?

Via Decorology

I think this would look right at home in my home.

Via Little Green Notebook

This laundry room looks so elegant with that wallpaper.

Last but not least is Sarah Richardson's design from Sarah's House.  I don't care what anyone says, I love her.  This industrial look would not work in my house however.

Ok, enough of that.  Now on to my laundry room.

I couldn't really open the door too much more than this because of the shower immediately to the right.

That, by the way is a giant slab of marble.  All the walls were marble.  I'm hoping to reuse some of it somewhere else in the house.  It has a few rust stains but I think I can work around them.  

And here's what it looks like now.  I really need to invest in a wide angle lens.

This is the utility sink we're using.  We got it off of Craigslist and had it reglazed.  Doesn't it look amazing?

We're going to use the old kitchen cabinets in the laundry room.  Do you think I should paint them or leave them the way they are?  Kidding!  Those are getting painted.  I'm going to have to watch Miss Mustard Seed's video tutorial on how to paint kitchen cabinets ASAP.

As you can see it's a work in progress.  Can I just tell you that the tiles that were in the bathroom were hideous, in bad shape, and 5 inches thick.  Don't ask me why, just believe me when I say it took a while to remove them.  

So here's what I'm thinking...washing machine, dryer, and utility sink on the right wall with a countertop and upper cabinets.  On the left wall, drying racks, ironing board and some kind of fold down utility table.  I haven't quite figured the table out yet (project!).  I also want curtains and some type of chandelier since the ceiling is high.  I'm not talking crystal, but something.  Again, not sure what.  This is what I've picked out so far.

Ceramic tile for the floor, quartz countertop, mosaic tile for the backsplash and fabric.  If I go with these I'll tell you where I got them and how much.  Nothing is set in stone (yet), but washing machine and dryer are going in July 28 so we'd best get crackin'.

The Addition(al Budget Buster)

A few things HAVE TO be done before we can move into the house.

1)  Master Bed/Bath

2)  Kitchen

3)  Laundry Room

Our little one's room can be slapped together for now and she can use our bathroom.  Paying two mortgages is starting to get old and we're wasting money that we could be putting into the house.  The master bed/bath are well on their way, but the kitchen is going to be the biggest change to the house.  Why are we doing this you ask?  Because we're gluttons for punishment.  Truthfully the old kitchen was in the very back of the house and makes no sense to us since we don't plan on having servants (unfortunately).  So the plan is to turn the old kitchen into a family room and expand the horrible stucco addition to make a bigger kitchen that connects to the existing dining room and the family room.  The old porch is going bye-bye and we're building a new porch off of the kitchen which will serve as the new back entry.  It makes sense since it's closer to the garage.  Here are the plans (sorry they're kind of hard to see).

This is the way it used to look.  

The window to the left of the stucco addition is where the dining room is.  That window is going to be replaced by a doorway linking the new kitchen to it.

That little stucco addtion used to house these:

Can you imagine the conversation.   Question: "Does the shower curtain go with the floral wallpaper and faux brick linoleum?"  Answer: "Totally".  And don't even get me started about the light fixture in the laundry area.  What the hell is that thing?

Anyway, we're moving the laundry room upstairs.  We have two bathrooms on the second floor which are literally right next to each other.  One of those is going to be converted.  There is a bonus room off of the kitchen (I'll show pictures of that hot mess later) which will be split into two rooms, a butler's pantry and a bathroom.   

So construction, or, rather, destruction has started.  This is what it looks like now.  What I don't have a picture of is the pile of crap that now occupies our teeny tiny backyard.  

Pray for us people!

Frank Lloyd Wright Rocks!

We just took an extended weekend and made the nine hour (yes, that's right, nine hours with a toddler!) trek to Ohio for a family event.  On the way we stopped to see this.

In case you have no idea what this is, it's Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece home "Fallingwater"  built for the Kaufmann family in the 1930's as their weekend retreat.  Jealous!  This is arguably one of  the most important if not the most important piece of architecture in America.  It's absolutely brilliant in pictures but it's breathtaking in person.  

I love how it  looks like it's growing right out of the landscape around it.

It's such a serene atmosphere with the sounds of the waterfalls literally right outside the door.  We weren't able to go in to take the tour since kids under age six aren't allowed (boo!) but we did enjoy the scenery.  Just beautiful.  Even my little one looked like she was enjoying herself.  It's rare to get a picture of her without her super squinty "cheese" face or her blurry face since she rarely stands still for more than a nanosecond.

So after traveling 18 hours and spending 2 days with family we're now home and back to the grind.  The master bath is on hold while an even bigger project is underway...  the kitchen.  It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.  My husband loves that saying, "you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet".   I pretty much want to throw up every time he says it (he says it a lot), but I guess he's right...this time.  

The Jumping Off Point

Well while things are  moving along I decided that it was time to start taking fabric selection a little more seriously.  For my bedroom the choice was easy.  When I say easy I mean after looking through about a million fabrics I saw this one and it was love at first sight.  The fabric is from Victoria Hagan Home and I'd be lying if I said it was affordable.  It's not.  In addition you have to buy a minimum of 3 yards.  I had a feeling it was going to be expensive (why do I always seem to gravitate to things that are out of my price range?) though I was hopeful.  After my hopes were dashed and I closed my gaping mouth I decided that since this is going to be my forever home and since I work really hard and since my birthday is coming up I would splurge a bit on my sooner or later to be sanctuary.  Don't get me wrong, I will only be purchasing the minimum and will just use it as accents in the room, maybe for pillows or cornices.  Meanwhile every other room in the house is getting a $1.00 a yard fabric to compensate for this-Ha!  

Victoria Hagan Home- Four Seasons-Winter

At any rate this is the "jumping off point" if you will.  Now I've go to coordinate.  Here's some potential candidates.  Keep in mind that I don't know what's going where yet.  I'm just gathering memo's to get ideas.

Stout- Faulkner - Camel

Stout- Delphi- Pecan

Stout- Omni- Wheat

Stout- Lowell- Tan

Stout- Apalachee- Dove

  

In reality these fabrics do go with my inspiration fabric but on the computer...eh, not so much.  Here's a picture of all the contenders:

My husband hates the zebra print.  He thinks it looks like something Ice-T's wife Coco would wear.  Um, I guess.  I'm kind of partial to a little animal print in small doses.  What do you think?

Anyway, for the walls I'm going to go with a soft grey-blue color.   I haven't actually picked out the color yet but that's what I want to do.  I'm either going to go for the same color in the sitting room and the bedroom or darker/lighter shades of the same color in the two rooms.  The bathroom is probably going a darker shade since it's going to be mostly marble and there's some good light in the room.  I'm going to be doing a rather ambitious project involving the clawfoot tub but I'm going to keep it a secret for now in case it turns out to be too difficult to execute.  

Decisions decisions.  Well it's a start at least:)

The Plan

Well the insulation went in,

and the drywall went up.

Shower and linen closet

bathtub and toilet room

Vanity wall

This is how they mud the walls.  Hilarious.

Next is heated flooring.  It's all starting to come together.   We're reusing a cast iron clawfoot tub which was in another bathroom for the master.  We just had it reglazed and it looks amazing.

But, the outside still looks like this.

This will be a fun project in the not so distant future.  I'm going to paint it (not sure which color yet), but the clawfeet are getting a sort of gilded silver look which will mirror the chandelier we're putting in (pictures coming soon).

Here's a look at some of the other things that are going in the bathroom.

Elizabethan Classics clawfoot tub faucet but in satin nickel

Elizabethan Classics exposed shower system

Venatino glass and stone tile from Lowe's

We also have some marble tile going in from The Tile Shop, but the pictures aren't great online. We're doing 5 inch octagon marble tiles on the floor with 2 inch octagons on the shower floor.  I think we're doing an off center running bond pattern on the shower walls with an accent of the Venatino from Lowe's.  

We still need to buy a vanity.  We were thinking about getting a piece of furniture to convert, but as someone suggested to me, maybe that idea is better for a powder room instead of someplace that you're using everyday.  I think we're going to get one made at Lowe's.  

 Before I forget, the tub faucet and exposed shower system were not purchased through the actual company.  We found them for half the price at Overstock Deals which was a huge savings.  When you find something that you like, it really does pay to look around on the web because you can usually find it for a lot cheaper.

That's all for now.  I can't wait to show you my inspiration fabric for the sitting room but it will have to wait.  I've got a throbbing headache and I'm starting to suffer from toasted skin syndrome.  Seriously my laptop feels like it came from the depths of hell.  I have to go dress my wounds.