Living Room (or Den as I continue to call it)

• touch up walls
• paint trim
• cut wood for stairs
• urethane panels for stairs
• nail up panels and trim
• get chair
• attach mantel permanently
• new couch
• get rid of bar armoire
• install some kind of shelving/ cabinets behind bar
• bannister
• accessories
• new fireplace

Dining Room

• break open passthrough to kitchen
• adjust wiring
• finish old electrical project
• get rid of coffee table
• create a room divider
• figure out what to do with that awkward open space (if anything)
• hang artwork
• cut/measure/urethane and hang trim
• bench (Dad is making)
• new curtains
• paint
• possible display shelves for corners

Sitting Room

• new curtains
• create photo montage above piano
• hang other art

I only listed three rooms here that currently relate to House 2.0, so you can imagine how the rest of the list goes on and on. Actually the two longest room lists are the living room and dining room, so it’s not that bad really. Notice the two items with strikethroughs? I just got around to doing that today; so there will be a blog post to follow-up on that little adventure when I’m all done tomorrow. (There is no sarcasm in that comment whatsoever.)

This is my first time doing something like this for my whole house and frankly, I’m surprised it took me so long. I like the idea of keeping all the possible and even impossible projects in one place. That way I can refer back, modify, add, subtract — all the while keeping a perspective on the “someday/maybes” so I can actually make them realities. Do you make crazy all-inclusive lists to keep your ideas organized?

Here’s the picture of my setup. (I worked in the Laundry room, of course.) The dye just barely tinted the shade and I let the thing sit in the tub for about 30 minutes! I didn’t take a picture of the failed dye attempt because I was too busy trying to figure out how to fix the problem.

Remember, I said there was good news? I managed to come up with a solution: I grabbed a bottle of concentrated watercolor ink that I had in my art supply cabinet and applied the color with a paintbrush while the shade was still damp. I painted several layers from light to dark and let gravity pull The color down. It turned out more uneven and runny than my Photoshop mockup, but i think it looks funky this way. The only thing I might do is spray it with some kind of waterproofer since the watercolor ink isn’t 100% permanent. But it will never need to be washed, so I’m not too worried.

Hopefully, this is the last lamp related post for a while. :)

First, I have to announce the arrival of our dining room lamp. It came from the same place as our bedroom lamp and took forever to get to us–8 weeks from ordering to delivery. Sheesh! I thought I’d go old and gray before it came. (Oh wait, I already AM gray!) Given our past experience I knew it would take a while, and I think it was well worth the wait. Behold:

I know our style is a little eclectic and doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I LOVE it.

On to the next item on the agenda in Loftus Lamp Land. I present the lamps in my living room. I got a great deal on them from JCPenny while I was visiting my parents this summer. However, at the time I didn’t realize the color of the shades was nearly identical to the wall color. Cue sad trombone. I still really love the lamps, but wish they were a little more contrasty.

Then I found this article on Design Sponge and I think I’m going to give it a whirl. Plus, I realized I already had packet of unused dye… Which means, this DIY project is totally free as long as I don’t screw it up. Via the magic of Photoshop, here’s what I’m hoping the shades will look like when I’m done. Now I just have to find a tub big enough to hold the dye and the time to do it while Gabriel is asleep. I’ll keep you posted.

We installed the mantel! and I am in LOVE!! The warmth and rustic quality to the wood really make that wall pop. Plus, we purchased a print by Patty Baker (a somewhat local NY artist) from Art.com. It’s one of my favorite things about the room. Oh yeah, and there’s a crazy gold clock that I bought at the Goodwill for $6. I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to hang it to the left of the print.

The dining room chairs came back from the upholsterer and I love them. My dad is supposedly making me a long bench so that we can have some more seating and mix things up a bit. Also, we sold the old chairs — regrettably for less than I wanted, but they are out of our lives forever. Woo!

I realize I haven’t shared any pictures of the old dining room/new sitting room since we set up the furniture in there. The reason is probably because the room is constantly littered with Gabriel’s toys. I’m playing with the idea of eventually repainting this room. While I loved the Behr “Minced Ginger” color in there when it was our dining room, I’m just not digging it now that we have the neutral colored lounge chairs. Perhaps something more dramatic… but what? Since we have an open floor plan, I don’t want the new color to clash with the rest of the main level. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

Success is apparently called “Christopher Lowell Tweed” in Camel

My biggest concerns with the other fabrics were that they were too light and not all that family friendly. While it would have been good for stains, the lone dark swatch just didn’t do any justice to the beautiful teak chairs. This new swatch on the block is somewhere in between too light and too dark: just right. And just look at those subtle veins of chartreuse! It’s perfect. Even more perfect was the 50% off home decor fabric sale; otherwise, it would have been WAY out of budget. WOO-to-the-HOO!

…in all its Danish teak splendor. A new set like this would undoubtedly run us in the thousands, but we bought this pre-loved for a steal. Sleek lines, solid construction, made in Denmark. And get this: with two 20″ leaves the thing extends to 104 inches! Holy feast table, Batman! Last week I gave the table a good sanding and applied some teak oil with love and it practically looks brand new.

Now for the bad part: The chairs had been sitting in the sellers basement, and they’re rather musty. That’s actually being nice; when we brought them home, they were downright stinky. :( Some squirts with febreeze and a few weeks later, they smell better, but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that the upholstery is stained and one chair is actually torn.

So I’m having someone reupholster them. At first I was all, “I can totally do this myself.” and then I got real and thought, “Seriously? who am I kidding?” So I called some upholsterers and got some quotes. I’m not thrilled about spending $300 (plus fabric) to have them recovered — especially when we weren’t in the market for a new table/chairs — but it’ll be totally worth it!

Above is a picture of the samples I just got in the mail from FabricGuru.com. I have to say that I’m torn. I really like the look of the original “oatmeal” woven color, but I think I might be leaning toward that “smoke” gray sample on the left. What do you think??

In this picture the lamp is by the window, but I’ve since moved it between his crib and changing table. But it’s a cheapy Target lamp with no weight to the base. Luckily the shade is plastic so there’s no worry of that shattering.

So I’ve decided to replace the floor lamp with a wall fixture that plugs in. (It has to plug in to utilize the wall switch.) It’s no surprise really, but Lowe’s didn’t have anything similar to what I was looking for, and I don’t have the budget for the fancy fixtures at the lighting store! I ended up finding this excellent fixture at LampsPlus.com (the same place I bought Gabe’s awesome nightstand lamp). The only thing we’ll have to do is attach some panduit to the wall to hide the cord and keep Gabe from pulling the whole thing down. :)

The picture doesn’t show it, but there is a cord that hangs down from the fixture. I confirmed it by checking out a couple of pictures that other consumers uploaded.

Something like this, perhaps. Yes, please!! In fact, I’ll take that whole room, thank you.

Source: woovaa.com via Vanessa on Pinterest

There’s a place locally that sells reclaimed wood for flooring and other applications, but when I told them what I was looking for I was given a starting quote of $500. YIKES!! Who knew it could be so expensive for a beat-up old piece of wood! So I’m back to the drawing board. Now that I look at my inspiration pic again, it doesn’t have to be old or reclaimed… just budget-friendly. Thoughts?

• Sold a bunch of our unwanted stuff on Craigslist — woo!!
• Purchased a larger area rug for the dining room. More on that in another post
• Brainstormed, conceptualized, dreamed
• Had someone from Lowe’s come out and do a measurement detail on our den for new carpet.

I really had a hard time with that last item. I kind of wanted to do a wood surface or similar hard flooring. I have no great love for wall-to-wall carpet — it’s probably all those years I spent in rental apartments with medium beige carpet that makes me want to gag at the thought. And I really prefer the low-maintenance cleanup hard flooring provides. But, there were several factors that made us decide that carpet was probably the best option for us. First, our den is below grade (ie, underground) which means that choosing a wood surface suitable for basement floors would be a challenge and expensive. Also, half the walls are bare foundation making finishing the ends of the flooring difficult. Plus, there’s always the warmth factor of carpet to think of when installing below grade, and it gets pretty darned chilly down there, especially in winter. Finally, the den is going to be Gabriel’s primary play space once it’s all done, and I think I feel better with him playing on the carpet than on hardwood. And I’ve gotta be honest, with all the crawling around chasing each other we’ve been doing, it’s got to be easier on the knees to do it on carpet.

That being said, I’m trying very hard to pick out a carpet that doesn’t make me cringe. I mean, you never see rooms featured in home decor magazines sporting beige wall-to-wall carpet. Hard flooring and area rugs are IN, carpet is OUT. I’m not aiming to be featured in a magazine or anything, but I do think about these things… I mean, I can see using carpet in bedrooms, but I just worry that it looks too dated in a living room. It just doesn’t go with the whole modern vibe I want down there — but then again, neither does my current furniture… :)

I found this picture on the Stainmaster website. While it’s not exactly what I’m going for, it proves that you don’t have to sacrifice style with carpet. Thoughts?? Am I totally overanalyzing this?

Well I found a site online that will custom create your replacement shade. FenchelShades.com recreated the old shade for a pretty good price, I think – $42 (plus shipping). Normally I wouldn’t spend that much on a shade, but I’ve been looking around for months at replacement shades in stores and just haven’t found the right thing. They were either too small or the wrong style.

What a difference a fresh new shade makes – but I HAVE to do something with the pukey brown base of the lamp. As part of House 2.0 Grandma’s Milo Baughman chairs, modern side table and this lamp will be journeying up the stairs to the current dining room or soon-to-be sitting room. I’ve been thinking about spray-painting it a glossy black. Here’s my photoshop rendition of what it might look like up there. Thoughts?