Dancing on the Ceiling

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We are moving into the living room for this post. Once again, let’s take a look back at what we were working with.

It wasn’t a total disaster in here, so the work was much more cosmetic. I really wanted to keep this room all white, but add interest and texture through architectural details.

Starting at the entry, we replaced the front door. It’s a very basic door. The one I really want is about $2,000 over the budget, so we’ve just gone with something simple from Lowe’s.

We also added new trim around the frame of the front door. The glass was missing above the door and our goal is to replace it with a stained glass piece. Just haven’t found the right one yet.

Next up, the radiator that greets you as you enter this room. It was necessary, but not nice to look at. In just a few days, Jeff and my father built a cover that fits like a glove. It also made this area feel more like an entry.

Just 2 weeks ago, we made a long-awaited update to this radiator cover, a marble top. Only 2 days after a quick trip to A & S Tile to select the piece, it was ready and installed. I LOVE it! We are not done with this area yet. We’ve got more plans and will share them once they come to life.

Earlier I mentioned that I wanted to add texture to this room. We did this in a few different ways. First, to add texture, we added applied moldings to all of the walls. What a difference this made.

For a hot second, I was going to do a stencil inside each panel. I did a few and hated it. It was just too trendy and it pulled the focus away from the moldings themselves.

Applied moldings just add so much sophistication to this room. Lord knows it’s occupants don’t ; )

A second architectural element we added was a decorative ceiling medallion. I found this great one at Architectural Depot. I had a black chandelier from IKEA that we simply spray painted white. The medallion really helped elevate this light fixture and it was much cheaper than purchasing a new chandelier.

That’s not the only thing we did to the ceiling. In interior design, the ceiling is often referred to as the 5th wall and it shouldn’t be ignored. In our master bedroom, we painted the ceiling the same color as the walls to draw the eye up and to make the white tray stand out even more.

In this room, we went with wallpaper. Yup – I wallpapered the ceiling. Well, I didn’t do the actual work – I just picked out the paper! Thibault came through again. Because I saved money on the lighting, I was able to spend a little more on this fabulous paper.

The floors were in surprisingly good shape with the exception of just a few minor spots. We had them refinished and stained several shades darker. We had arranged for them to be done while we were on a trip to Paris. Four hours before we left for the airport, we got the couch stuck in the stairwell trying to move it. Seriously…

We have since figured out that by simply putting the couch on it’s end, it moves seamlessly between rooms.

I never wanted to leave Paris, but we came home to these GORGEOUS floors. They made being home from vacation a little easier.

If you take a close look at that photo, you’ll see that I may have been going through an “owl phase.” There are 9 owls on that mantel. When I do something, I really do it. Sometimes that’s not such a good thing. I’m now over the owls.

At one point, I got bored with the white in here and I actually painted the entire room on a Friday afternoon. This only lasted 2 days. It was back to white before the weekend was over. (I used to have quite a lot of time on my hands…)

You’ll notice that the fireplace surround is brown in this photo. One quick, cheap project that changed the look of the surround was adding peel and stick tile. One day, I’ll spring for marble. Until then, this will have to do. When I did this peel and stick tile was a new product. You can find it everywhere now and it’s a great money saver and super easy to install.

We recently did something that I swore would never do in this room, but I am apparently the Queen of Never Say Never.

That’s Jeff installing the mounting for a TV to go over the fireplace.

When I told my mother what was happening, she said aloud the words I hadn’t yet been able to utter, “What about Christmas?” Yes. Christmas. I go a little crazy at Christmas and I love decorating this mantel.

I guess I’m going to need to get a little creative this Christmas. I’m thinking about just wrapping it up like a big present. I’m sure Jeff would love that!

So here’s what this room looks like today. The owls are gone, but baskets of toys keep popping up. It is NEVER this clean and tidy, but it does fulfill its purpose. A whole lotta life happens in this living room.

What’s next – I really do want a new chandelier. Here are a few I have my eye on.

We also plan to install a section of tile near the entryway. Something with marble to coordinate with the new radiator top. There’s talk of adding a pilar to the radiator cover as well. I know that my father is just dying to start yet another project and I don’t want let him down.

If any of these projects happen, I’ll be sure to share them with you all on this little blog.

Sweet Child O Mine

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We are going to stay upstairs and take a look at the renovation of what is now a nursery. This was one of the worst rooms in the house when we bought it. Water damage from a leaking roof, black mold, and there were even mushrooms growing inside the window sills – no lie.

Let’s take a look at what we were up against.

My grand plan for this room was for it to be a small guest bedroom with a huge walk-in closet. This is what I was envisioning…

https://youtu.be/X8B_tUcS_iQ

Once again – my budget and my grand plans didn’t quite work well together. We also realized that it would be at least three years until we would be able to work on the master bedroom and we’d be bunking up in here until then.

Jeff and my father got to work and it felt like every square inch of this room needed help.

After repairing all of the damage, putting in new windows, hanging new drywall, a new ceiling and new floors, our budget for this room was shot. We could do little more than paint the walls and bring in our old furniture.

At this point in time, I still had an unhealthy obsession with Tiffany & Co. I thought it might be fun to have a bedroom that looked like a jewelry box. We had laid white laminate flooring and I started my search for the perfect blue.

In the end, we chose Nautical by Valpar. There is a reason they refer to a little blue box and not a big blue box at Tiffany’s and that reason is that this color is overwhelming in large format. It got old after a day, but it stayed up for close to 4 years.

We weren’t able to put in a closet, so we had to make it work with our pair of IKEA wardrobes. I painted my 10-year-old furniture white and we had our little jewelry box pretty full. I only have 2 random, grainy photos and from the room at this time and one actually has some jewelry – none of it from Tiffany’s!

A few years later, I finally got my closet. Not the SJP closet, but a closet none the less. I was over the moon the day this drywall started going up.

After two short days, I had my closet and even lived my SJP SITC closet fantasy for a second.

Upon the completion of the closet, we pulled the trigger and repainted the entire room. Yet again – a bold choice. Plum Good from Valspar. We didn’t have to look at this color very long as we were already starting to work on the master bedroom.

I thought this room would remain a guest room forever and perhaps magically turn into the closet of my dreams. What I NEVER could have imagined is that it would have a permanent resident. In 2018, this room underwent another, major transformation. It became a nursery.

I did have a LOT of fun working on this nursery. I wanted to create a design that would last long after the crib was gone. After months of design planning, here is what I came up with.

You knew this room was going to be grey, but I had to bring in a little more color. I was seriously considering a mural for the back wall and found many amazing ones on Etsy.

What held me back was the longevity (and budget) so I went with wallpaper. Shopping for wallpaper is one of my favorite things. Choosing one is one of my least. Here were the contenders.

Part of me thinks I should have gone with the first one, but I played it safe and went with #3. Now that the hard part was over – time for some furniture.

My favorite piece in the room is the rocker. I found this gorgeous Mellinger Rocking Chair at All Modern. I sit in it all of the time. I will never get rid of this chair.

I thought my days of IKEA were behind me, but I loved their Sundvik series and got the crib and wardrobe.

IKEA came through for a great dresser as well. This thing holds a TON of baby clothes.

I didn’t like any of the colors or stains, so we painted it – you guessed it – grey. This dresser, while functional, was a pain. Putting it together was not exactly fun nor was painting it.

We went with Earl Gray from the HGTV Home collection from Sherwin-Williams for the dresser.

For the walls, we chose Repose Gray also from the HGTV Home collection from Sherwin-Williams. It has just the right brown undertone and went perfectly with the wallpaper.

So here’s what this room looks like now that it is complete.

I picked up those sweet felt mounted animals at the Union Square Christmas Market in NYC. I did a little dance when I found them! Brant’s engraved wall art was an Etsy find thanks to Engraved Happyism Team.

For a room that I thought would never exist, I has become my favorite room in the house. That SITC closet is going to have to wait for about 18 more years.

So Fresh, So Clean

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Last week you saw the before of our bathroom. If you happened to miss it, you can check it out here.

This week, we are sharing the after. Actually, the after, after. Let me explain. I’ve mentioned before that I’m bringing an old blog back to life. As a result of not keeping up with that old blog and not thinking I’d ever bring it back, I don’t have a single picture of the bathroom after it was completed in 2011. I do have some of my old design notes that I can share.

I had some pretty bold plans for that little bathroom. As usual, all of them over budget and just a bit eccentric. Here were our final selections.

For the paint, we went with Martha Stewart’s Precious Metals in Eagle Brown. Terrible name, but beautiful color. Her precious metals collection had a gorgeous shimmer – not glitter – shimmer – we were trying to keep it classy. It was a perfect compliment to my tiny bubbles in the shower.

For fixtures, we went with the Bamboo collection from Glacier Bay in brushed nickel. Clearly, Don Ho had a bigger influence on me than I thought. We wanted double sinks, but we had very little room. Leave it to IKEA to have a solution. Their BRÃ…VIKEN sink’s trough-like design allows for two faucets in a smaller space. We went with one large round mirror to “mirror” the accent tiles in the shower. We kept the light fixtures clean and simple.

While I don’t have an after photo, what I do have is hindsight and photos of a slightly updated bathroom.

Let’s tackle that hindsight.

  1. The paint. That paint really was fabulous but it made that bathroom feel so small and dark. I was going for a spa look but got a cave instead. Great for hibernating, terrible for getting ready in the morning. The paint’s saving grace was the shimmer. It did reflect light nicely. But that shimmer was a blessing and a curse. It was a nightmare to do a touch-up with that paint. It NEVER looked right. We had to repaint an entire wall, not just the tiny bit that was nicked. On a trip to Home Depot to get more of it, I found out that the entire line was discontinued. Time for a new color and no shimmer!

  2. The sink. It works and it gives us two faucets. What it doesn’t do is provide space for anything more than a toothbrush holder, a soap dispenser, and a small mirror. I am a big fan of a clean, clutter-free countertop, but getting ready is a real pain in the ass. I have to put everything in the sink basin. Countless little hairpins have gone down the drain and I am convinced that I’m going to be electrocuted by the hairdryer. Because it has no legs and is mounted to the wall, I live in fear that it will just pop off the wall and onto myself or Brant and crush us.

  3. The heated floor. I’m as stubborn as they come and when the salesman told me that I would never use that heated floor, I vowed to prove him wrong. It’s been 9 years and we have probably used it less than 20 times. The only time it has really been useful is after a long night of drinking and karaoke when sleeping on the bathroom floor just feels like the right choice.

So now for the update. It’s a good thing that paint was discontinued. Gave me a reason to find a new color. I went with my favorite – GRAY!

The paint really made the bathroom feel much bigger and so much brighter. Not to mention, so much easier to touch up when needed.

Don’t think that I’m done in here. I want a new vanity that doesn’t threaten to kill me and I would love glass doors for the shower. I also hate that toilet. Check back in a year – I might have another bathroom update. OR my husband, not the vanity, will have killed me by then.

Like what you see? Shop this look. While many of the items in my bathroom have been discontinued, I’ve found a few great substitutions.

Glacier Bay Bamboo Single Hole Low-Arc Faucet in Brushed Nickel

Glacier Bay Bamboo Single-Handle 3-Spray Tub and Shower Faucet in Brushed Nickel

Round Beveled Polished Frameless Decorative Wall Mirror

Braviken Sink

We found our sconces at Home Depot, but they have been discontinued. I’ve found some great alternatives that, quite frankly, I like a little more…

My tiny bubbles have also been discontinued, but here are a few great options.

Floor & shower wall tile – Adessi Millennium Ivory Porcelain Tile

Wall color – Whirlwind by Olympic available at Lowes.

Trim color – Summer Gray by Valspar available at Lowes.

Every Little Step

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THE STORY

Last week it was NKOTB this week I’m thowin’ it back to Bobby Brown. Can you tell when I grew up yet??? 

Keeping with the theme of steps, I thought I would share our stairwell transformation. This is a great one. 

Here’s where we began:

Our first not-so-little step was to strip the stairs. This was grueling work and Jeff did the lion’s share.  

A railing was even missing, so we stole one from the hallway. 

When we purchased the house, we were engaged to be married. We thought it would be fun to have our engagement photos taken in the Money Pit. I love juxtaposition –  beauty and ugliness, darkness and light. The current state of our house provided the perfect backdrop for us to get dressed to the nines and pretend to be models for a day. Here are a few photos taken on the stairs. 

Shout out to Brad Barnwell, Frederick’s favorite photographer. He’s been with us through all of our most important events. Please reach out to him if you are looking for a photographer! Check out his work here. You’ll see more of these engagement photos on future posts too. They get a little crazy!

Although my thigh is now larger than my waist was when this photo was taken, I still have this dress. It’s one of my favorite pieces. I found it at my friend Jen’s shop, Venus on the Halfshell in downtown Frederick. She names many of her pieces and this one is called “Daddy’s Little Spoiled Brat.” So perfect!

Back to the stairs… 

We were making very slow progress painting these stairs and the walls were just too high for us to deal with. I think it took me 8 hours to finish these spindles.

We decided to call in a professional. Dave De Leon of  De Leon Painting came to our rescue. In just a few days, our stairwell was transformed. Here’s a great side-by-side before and after.

The niche looks really great. I wanted a chandelier in there and I guess I got one : )

We’ve had a lot of wear and tear on these poor steps and the walls. They were in rough shape. During the quarantine, Jeff repainted not only the stairs but also the walls and niche! We also updated the sconces. The old ones just weren’t fussy enough. These are worthy of the art. 

Jeff really dislikes the baroque frames on the wall – likely because they have fallen off the wall and hit him in the head on more than one occasion! I love them and I’m thinking of getting silhouettes of Brant and Rogue done to place in them.

Here is a sneak peek at the stairs that lead to our basement and my favorite light fixture in the house.  We’ll save the full basement reveal for a later post.

THE MATERIALS

Like what you see? Here are the paints and fixtures and artwork we used. Click on the links to shop our space.

The light fixture in our lower level stairwell is the Powell LED 3-Light Semi-Flush with White Globes, Aged Brass from Lights.com.

Wall color is Icy Avalanche by Sherman Willimas available at Lowes.

Spindles, risers and wall trim are in Summer Gray by Valspar available at Lowes.

The niche color is Pencil Point by Behr available at Home Depot.

Stair treds, handrails and posts are in New Black by Valpsar available at Lowes.

Our sconces were purchased from Pottery Barn, but they no longer sell them. I’ve found a similar sconce at a great price from BeautifulHalo.com.

The black baroque frames came from IKEA of all places. They are the Ung Drill Mirrors that are now discontinued. But you can still snag them at Refinery 29. Who’d have guessed something so fussy could be found in the land of simplistic Scandinavian furnishings!

The large canvas that hangs in the niche was a Home Goods find, but you can find many like it at Wayfair.