let the decorating begin!

Hallelujah, the nursery is done! Well, it's now a blank slate for my decorating that is. I told Alex last night that I think the nursery was his pregnancy—it caused him so much physical pain, there have been surprises at every turn, it's been exhausting, and it's taken so many long months to create.  

Up next, a homemade crib skirt and window treatment thanks to the lovely Hannah J. Here's the fabric I chose for both:

And now that I have empty walls to fill I have no more excuses to procrastinate on making some art! It's time to crack open those art supplies for the first time in my pregnancy (that's so depressing). 


The nursery may not look like much right now, but believe me it's an entirely different room than when we moved in. Originally the walls featured tan wallpaper on two walls and bookcase wallpaper on the other two walls. Here's where we started (poor quality photo taken with the former owner's belongings still in it):

We pulled down the bookcase wallpaper only to find some terrifying 1940's teddybear themed paper. The walls were basically beyond repair, but we decided to forgo the recommendation that we put up completely new walls (in retrospect that probably would've been easier, faster and cheaper…..sigh) in lieu of slightly imperfect patched walls.

Notice the lovely lime green baseboards, which matched the lime green ceilings, trim and doors…lovely...

And now:

The above is the most amazing sight I've seen in months! I can't explain the happiness I felt when Alex revealed the new room after spending 4 hours on his hands and knees scrubbing the floors clean. And then to watch him with his father and brother putting together the crib and dresser yesterday….it was like taking a tranquilizer after months of wondering if this baby would have a room before she was born.

house projects

There is SO much going on in our house right now. It seems all the major house projects we've had in the works for a while are all reaching critical points and will be finished within the next few weeks….from nursery renovations to dinning room renovations to new doors being installed to a new heating system that will turn our house into a complete construction zone for an entire week. I absolutely canNOT wait for the house to reach a place of calm, something I haven't experienced since we moved in. 

Dinning room renovations: deciding between these two colors…

Martha Stewart Fennel Seed

Martha Stewart Bayou

And hanging this chandelier:

This week, my husband will put the finishing touches on the nursery renovations that he has been working on for months! It's been frustrating all around to transform that room into a usable space, and my husband's limited free time has not made it any easier. But, the walls and ceilings have been de-wallpapered and patched and the room painted a comforting shade of buttery cream (color on the right, Benjamin Moore Sugar Cookie). It has just enough yellow in it to bring a little sunshine into what is a very dark room. The next step is moving the crib and dresser in and working on the MANY decorative touches I have dreamt up. The first is choosing the main fabric for the room, out of which my amazing and talented friend Hannah will make curtains, a crib skirt and possibly some throw pillows. Here are the fabrics I'm considering:

Another idea I'm contemplating is hanging handmade 3D flowers on the walls. Either small ones like these above the crib:

Or large ones like these, which I'd hang in the corners or on one wall of the room (these are hanging on the wall at the amazing coffee house/restaurant/art shop/general store down the street): 

Then I'd like to recreate this painting that I will hang in a gallery display on one wall of the nursery with other pieces of art I will make/buy (painting by Mati Rose):

Another piece of art I'd like to recreate using fabric:

Phew! Lots going on in this house! I will post the end results soon!

baby room dreams

One of the first things I started googling when I found out I was pregnant was "baby nursery ideas." Decorating a space with childlike adorableness sounded like such an exciting thing to do! But, after 4 months I must say I haven't been wowed by many nurseries I've come across. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, maybe my expectations are far too high, but most nurseries I've seen are either way too over-the-top with hot pink or toy trucks plastered all over the walls, or they are just plain rooms without much going on. I do want my baby's room to be gender-specific, but not in an overpowering way. I'm thinking handmade art and decor, inviting textures, lots of neutrals, and small touches of pink or blue. I think I'll have a little more direction 2 1/2 weeks from now when I know the gender of our baby (I cannot wait to find out! I've never been more excited!). I did have a huge surge of inspiration for the room based on the names we picked for both a girl and boy….but that will mean I won't be able to reveal the room in its entirety to all of you until after the birth since this little one's name is top secret until then:)


A few nurseries I've come across along the way that I do like (I guess I really am forever drawn to neutrals, but I think if used properly a neutral nursery can be oh so soothing)….

walls of horror

Being an aesthetically-focused individual, I have been trying to envision and sketch out the baby nursery from the minute we bought this house. But, I am completely stuck. I have spent so many nights lying awake, sifting through color schemes and furniture layouts in my head, and though I've had many ideas, none of them feel right. Perhaps I'll feel more inspired when I know the baby's gender? Perhaps I'll have a crazy, hormone-induced decorating surge at some point and know exactly what I want? I hope so.


For now, I am haunted by that long, narrow room at the end of the hall that currently looks like the perfect backdrop for a horror movie scene. When we bought the house, we felt lucky to find the one house in the Northern Berkshires that wasn't 100% wallpapered—with the exception of the nursery and a small bathroom downstairs. Piece of cake we thought, until Alex's brother-in-law brought over a steamer and began removing this…..

only to find this underneath……

This quickly turned into a huge project, given the terrifying teddybear wallpaper is from 1949 when the house was built and is glued to the original plywood. In other words, it's not coming off, which means an insane amount of wall patching before we can even think about painting it. 


I haven't even reached the crazy nesting phase of pregnancy yet, but I already feel like that room needs to be done TOMORROW. I hope that the walls get patched and I find some inspiration soon!

rachel zoe and my love for neutrals

While my husband was away in Colorado last week I used the man-free time to gorge myself on reality TV—something I only get to indulge when he's not around because he acts like he's in physical pain and claims the estrogen levels will cause his brain to internally combust so….change. the. channel. NOW. It's quite dramatic. At any rate, I watched a few back-to-back episodes of The Rachel Zoe Project and completely fell in love with her new house. I just can't stand it. 

I have had a deep love affair with neutrals, most specifically white and cream, for as long as I can remember. It's really interesting because I love to see bright color in other people's homes, in other people's wardrobes and in my own art, but more often than not I choose white for myself—couches, clothes, throw blankets and pillows, cookware, dishes, walls….everything. And I sometimes feel a little self-conscious about the fact that my world in "colored" in white/cream/tan/brown/khaki/stone, but Rachel Zoe changed my mind. She is gaga about the color white, I mean crazy. And her new house speaks to that like no other. 

Looking at this space inspires me to embrace my love for neutrals (with pops of great color here and there) rather than try to force myself to go nuts with color in my house (something I've been trying to do). Of course, in a perfect world I would just move into this house tomorrow because it's absolute perfection….

I have a serious love for white furniture—so impractical, so amazing. I was able to keep my white couch immaculate….until I married my husband.

I could just live in this bedroom. Perrrrrfection.

Where can I get those yellow lamps?? Amazing!

built-in bookcase color dilemma

I desperately would like to have my living room all unpacked and decorated, given it is the room I spend the majority of my time in…..it'd be nice to have one little clean space to escape to. But, what is holding me back is the built-in bookcase next to the fireplace that is currently painted a bright shade of red (the picture above is from when the previous owner still lived here—no, I do not own a collection of antique bells). I am just not a fan of the color red in a living room—it's too intense and energizing in a room that I associate with peace and relaxation. At any rate, I need to repaint this bookshelf ASAP so I can finish the room, but am really struggling with choosing a color! I am also adamant about using a low-VOC paint so that is limiting my choices a bit, on top of my indecision. I've already been to Home Depot 4 times to look at paint samples and still no decision. Perhaps I need to visit a Benjamin Moore? I've had better luck with their paint selection in the past. 

So, what I had in mind was my living room in San Francisco that was painted in two different shades of green. I found it incredibly peaceful and relaxing….

But, I haven't been able to match these colors yet….also, I'm not whether to go dark or light. Here are some possibilities I've come up with so far:

Thoughts??

country kitchen

I am incredibly frustrated by the kitchen in our new house. I know I should be feeling deeply appreciative of this amazing new home we've found ourselves in (and I am), but I can't find the love for this kitchen and am obsessed with remodeling it ASAP. For starters, someone removed the dishwasher and replaced it with an unusable cabinet (given its location and dimensions). Why would you remove the dishwasher? I have no idea, but these hands are mighty sick of washing dishes already. Beyond that (huge) issue, half of the cabinets are unusable given the piecemeal fashion in which it was remodeled at various points in time. For example, when someone put in a new stove and hood fan, they rendered 4 cabinets unusable—the door on one is blocked by the hood and the other three actually house the top of the hood. And having unusable cabinets in a small kitchen is not cool, not cool at all.

I'm finding my creativity is stunted when it comes to this space, which is crazy because I was able to transform a teeny, tiny San Francisco kitchen with no cabinet space, no dishwasher and all-around limited space into a kitchen I was relatively happy using. I attacked that kitchen—personally installed new flooring, patched walls, new paint, removed the cabinets to paint them and install new hardware, found a table small enough to tuck into a corner.

I am also trying to hone my own version of country style because it is not something that comes naturally to me. I have more classic/modern taste. Some thoughts on going a bit more country…..

 elle decor

all images from pinterest

I am also obsessed with the idea of buying an Ikea kitchen after visiting the local store in CT with my dear friend Hannah a few weeks ago. I was shocked by how affordable an entire kitchen could be—including cabinets, counters, new sink and appliances.

Ikea country kitchen