House Updates.

THE "BOUDOIR" CHAIR


I was going to give this, after it was recovered of course, to Brad as a surprise, but now I'm thinking, Not so much. I might like to return it to the original burnt orange crushed velvet state I remember in in and put it in the living room as the "occasional" chair. I think it was originally my grandmother's. I have no idea if it's officially a boudoir chair or not, but that's what I think we call it?


Look what Fatty and Blackie did to it! Some things wait until Post F/B, but this will not.

THE GUEST ROOM/STUDIO


I wasn't using this room except for like, a storage closet, unless of course someone was over. I decided that was a colossal waste of space about 99% of the time. So I put my easel and a desk in it but it still never got used. Until a couple weekends ago when I decided to try it – and I liked it.


I decided it needed a make-over asap. I have hesitated to reverse the set-up because I thought it was bad feng shui to have a bed in front of the door like this. Is it? I don't care. I like it so much better. Now when you walk by the room, you don't have to glance at that cluttered mess on the desktop, which is much worse feng shui anyway, right?


Instead you see a cute bed arrangement and some fake branches* and portraits.

Of course now I need to get all the old nails out of the wall, and patch and repaint everything right away. I put up Benjamin Moore Manchester Tan in swatches on all the walls. Not quite. I would like to at least replace the curtain rods and shades. That, and paint the dresser and maybe desk top white, but I have to wait until it gets above 25º on a more or less regular basis before I start sanding and priming in the garage.


For now I can at least look out the window when I work and there's a natural space to tack things up (and shade the window (and me)). Maybe I will actually use one of those paint brushes? I have three other things I think would make this room close to perfect-ish, but more on that later. Something I realized: If you're not using a perfectly good room, ask yourself Why? and figure out what will make you want to go in there. Duh.

*I know fake branches are the worst. I will get real ones, I swear.

THE KITCHEN

The kitchen needs a rug.


Aside from the island, stools, garbage can and wall hangings, I had nothing to do with the design of this room. I daydream about the day it makes sense to redesign/renovate. This is lowest of the low priorities – but getting a new rug to "finish it" isn't.


After I get rid of that dingy, dinky, lame-o rug under the sink, this space would perfectly house a 4 x 6. For the longest time I thought I'd figured it out. The Stella Rug from Crate and Barrel.


But then I saw this kitchen from The Kenmore Arms over at A Bloomsbury Life. That Stella looks so lame now, no? Tell me what you think if you want, but the search for a new rug just started.


And, check out A Bloomsbury Life's blog. Her house is amazing and she's really interesting.