Current House – Page 91

What’ll It Be? (and a Winner)

Published on January 25, 2013January 25, 2013 by Our Humble Abode38 Comments

First, let’s take care of business. The winner of the Studio Tullia and Our Humble Abode giveaway is…Kimberly R! Congratulations! You’ve got one pillow and two constellation cut outs waiting for you to customize.

Though the family room isn’t finished, I’m still excited to work on decorating. This four-foot wide nook by the fireplace is kind of tough. Right now we’ve got wood storage, an open space (that we’ll eventually fill with a tv), and a thick shelf for books and art.

Originally, I wanted two shelves at the top for a more built-in look, but chickened out when we built it fearing two shelves would look cramped. To be sure, I turned to Photoshop. Adding a second shelf and tv does fill in the space. If we upgrade the tv in the living room, we’ll put that one in here, like this:

But the 42″ tv looks huge here, so maybe we’ll buy a smaller 32 inch-ish one, like this.

Or maybe just a coat of paint is all we’ll need?

One shelf might look less cluttered…

Then again, two shelves could look like a built-in, adding height to the nook. In the event we add a second shelf, books will primarily fill the shelves. What do you think; one shelf or two?

Jarring

Published on January 24, 2013January 24, 2013 by Our Humble Abode23 Comments

After yesterday’s lighting post, I looked at the sad, nearly empty nook shelf. See it in the background? Just a few lonely items stashed there.

I pulled some of my favorite items, jars filled with vacation artifacts, off the guest room bookshelf and set ’em up.

A step back and all I saw was clutter. Clutter on the shelf competing with the frames on the mantel. Sure the patched walls and unpainted walls don’t help. Oh, now that I’ve painted the two smaller frames, I’m loving the mixture of frames.

Perhaps pairing down the jars would help?

Yep, that helped, but I still wasn’t smitten with the lack of books on a book shelf.

Knowing I didn’t want to detract from the mantel art, I pulled out white books, my new horse head bookends, and a wood sculpture.

Now we’re cookin’. But the dark frame and sculpture attracted too much attention. For a little color and height, I added a tall apothecary jar of shells (picked up on beach vacations).

Spray paint can cure any ugly/bad/wrong color. Crisp flat white on the frame, (which makes the cream mat look dingy) blends in with the rest of the arrangement.

So far, this is the least cluttered looking group I’ve come up with. Not completely sure I love it.

What do you think? Any suggestions for the shelf? Do you prefer it with the jars or books?

Keep a Low Profile

Published on January 23, 2013March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Slowly but surely, we’re chugging along on our family room. I’m trying to keep Ben focused on one room instead of jumping around. Fingers crossed we’ll start on (and finish) the trim this week or weekend. Then patching a small crack in the ceiling, then comes paint, and a complete-ish room. But we have to discuss the lighting, too. Specifically the oddly placed, too traditional faux candle sconces by the back door.

Unfortunately we can’t nix these entirely for lack of a better option. Sure, we could install outlets in the floor for lamps. But I’m not a fan of cutting permanent holes in hardwood floors when the furniture arrangement might change. Recessed cans could work, but we’d like to avoid a Swiss cheese looking ceiling. When it comes down to it, we realized we don’t hate the sconce idea, just the sconces we now have. Mostly, how far they stick out (this is a walk way), the style, and the harsh light from an exposed bulb.

Which easily narrowed down our search criteria. Must have the lowest profile possible, a shaded light, and something that looks good. Thanks to my friend Photoshop, we get to see the top four options in action. Simple ORB lights from Home Depot are okay, but not my favorite.

Same goes for these from Lowe’s.

Even this set of cut out sconces from Lamps Plus wasn’t doing it for me. That’s when I realized I didn’t like the half round sconce style.

And when I laid my eyes on these pretties, also from Lamps Plus, I knew they had to be mine. Pretty, filtered light, and low profile. Even better, they come in four different metal finishes. Hello satin nickel. Come to mama.

Now, let’s light the fire to get this all done. I’m seriously craving a nearly finished room; some tangible progress. This will be the first one in this house!

What’s your favorite sconce? Have you had to search for an item with very specific requirements? How’d it go for you?

The Office {Organization}

Published on January 21, 2013January 21, 2013 by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

Hello and happy Monday! You know the snowball effect? That happened to me recently. While working on orders, I decided to add labels to magazine files I use as paper storage.

Washi tape to the rescue. Now I know which is card stock and printer paper without pulling the file out.

Those labels set the organization ball in motion, and I knew another office space that needed some help. The dreaded file drawer. Organizing like items in files and receipts in large envelopes corralled the mess, but more washi tape (color coded!) labels everything.

After that, I moved up a drawer where I keep packing and mailing supplies for orders.

Above that drawer is basically an office junk drawer. Some office supplies, some craft supplies, and chargers. A quick purge and straighten out.

Over to my main drawer where I keep essentials. Scissors, paint brushes, utility knives, tape, pens, paper clips, chapstick, post its, everything.

An acrylic kitchen utensil caddy keeps large items together, but smaller items just don’t work well. But a cheap shelf turned drawer divider from the Dollar Tree works. Now I can separate large and small binder clips, rubber bands, and paper clips from my memory cards, stamps, and flash drive.

With most of the drawers done, I cleared out the mail slots.

A black box holds note cards with addresses, seriously the best address book for us. Envelopes and our address stamp make mailing easy. And a cute little elephant bank to corral change.

I keep extra-large envelopes and packing supplies in the white boxes. Markers, paint brushes, and extra pens are contained yet accessible in the vases on the top shelf.

A bouquet of pretty Sharpies in a candle holder on my desk add a pop of color to both my desk and mail. If only I had the energy to sort through my craft supplies, the boys’ art supplies, and other oddities in the other half of my office. I’m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of junk I seem to own. In the office and other areas of the house.

How was your weekend? Did you tackle a much-needed organizational project? Or realize you also have an insane amount of stuff?

On Procrastination

Published on January 17, 2013January 17, 2013 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Several months ago, I was offered a chance to review Dutch Boy paint. Not having a local retailer, I had never tried Dutch Boy, so I was curious to see what I thought about it. I picked out a pale green, Mackinac Island, to paint over the cranberry red walls.

I just couldn’t take it any longer. Happily, the green is a soothing, pale color. And the paint covered the red in two coats, without primer or any special treatment.

Being in a confined space, I really appreciated zero VOC, low odor paint.

However, I’m not thrilled with the green wall/orange-y oak trim combo. Of course, that’s not the paint’s fault, just an ugly combo akin to putting lipstick on a pig. Eventually we’ll remodel this bathroom including refinishing the clawfoot tub we pulled out of the main bathroom, shortening the vanity to one sink (to make room for the tub under the window), installing new tile, and new paint. So this is a temporary fix to cover up the blood-red walls.

And here’s the procrastination part. The light fixture in there is ornate and detailed. Too detailed for me to care to cut in around. I figured Ben could take the light down for me to paint behind, then put it back up. Well, we still haven’t done that. So here’s how it has looked for the past few months.