randomness

sorry blog friends, it's been awhile since my last post and i've been trying really hard lately to post at least a few times a week...

but we have done nothing on the house. wait, i did buy and install new switch plate covers in the upstairs hallway! but i didn't take pictures. i will though, cause i looove my switch plate covers :-)

some other random happenings in my life:

- i've starting to crochet. yeah, i know... i learned how to knit in college and i was getting bored with it. so i decided to try something new and i'm making this blanket:only that blanket pattern uses expensive yarn and 20 billion colors so i'm using less expensive yarn and only 8 colors. so far it's going really well. i knit/crochet while watching tv cause i'm not very good at sitting still. don't judge.

- speaking of tv, i am in love with the tv show mad men and am sad that the season finale was last week. but i loved the finale. i cannot wait until next season. plus i really just want to move into their office/the draper house.

- 2 friends are working on planning visits to st louis (one in early december, and the other for new years) and i am super excited. but i'm also stressing trying to think of something fun to do on new years eve. any of you st louis people out there feel free to give me some suggestions.

- i am still getting up early to take the dogs for a long walk/run before work! i'm very impressed with this because i am not a morning person at all. i've been doing this for about 2 months and i actually find that i'm more awake in the mornings now. there is also a new ymca opening up close to our house next week and we've been talking about joining. so maybe soon we'll be getting some more serious work outs in!

- we decided to wait on the floors until early next year, i can't remember if i posted that on here or not. after looking at a calender we thought it would be too stressful to try to get them ordered and installed before thanksgiving and i refuse to have everything torn up for christmas. i do have a few other small house projects that i'm hoping to work in though, so maybe i'll still have some fun house posts in the next few weeks... but for now you might just have to settle for life randomness :-)

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renovation inspiration

about a month ago i came across a st louis real state listing for a house that i just can't seem to get out of my mind. i no longer remember what i was looking for (i tend to look on real estate sites for photos of similar houses when i'm trying to figure out something in our house) but the images of this house have stuck with me.

so i emailed the realtor today, who asked the owner's permission, and now i'm sharing the pictures with you! i know nothing about the house other than what i saw on the website, but i can only hope that our own home renovations look as lovely as this. i thought that some of you might also find it inspiring. at first i thought i'd only share a few photos, but once i started uploading them i realized that i love almost every part of this house so i guess i'm sharing almost the entire house with you. i also love the way that the owners have the house decorated and the colors and interior selections throughout. anyway, enough words, here are the pictures: based on other houses that i have been in, i would assume that there was a wall between the hallway and living room, and possibly between the living room and dining room at one point. i have seen other houses that have been opened up like this, but nothing compares to this. i love how they don't try to make it look like it was original to the house, or didn't put in some weird soffit to cover a beam, but are still preserving the original details and character with their modern renovation. and the lights in the opening are way cool.

shell chair? check. the sofa i want? check.

exposed brick in the bathroom? love it. and i need that sink for our bathroom please.

i really like this kitchen, i like the mixture of dark and light cabinets, and how the wall is open to....
my favorite room in their house! if i lived here, this would be my studio.
and the other wall appears to be painted black. i really like how everything is so light and open and then contrasted with the dark wall (and i typically do not like accent walls). i wonder if it is chalkboard paint?
i wish our doors had transoms above them, the second floor seems very light and airy. this also makes me sad that we can not save our floors downstairs, look at those floors!

the built-ins with the baskets are a great use of space in the bathroom and i've always wanted a nice clawfoot tub.
and look at this backyard!! i am super jealous. you don't often see nice backyards in the city.

so there you have it, do you love it as much as i do? special thanks to the realtor and the home owner for letting me post some pictures, i know i will refer to them often as we do our own renovations. and i'm not sure who did the photography, but wow! i really need to do a better job of photographing my own house.

all images are taken from the website: http://www.1411hebert.com/

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our room: lighting

thanks for the feedback on the bed post below. i still haven't made any decisions, but hopefully i'll come up with something soon!

on to issue number 2... lighting. we currently have a ceiling fan light but need to come up with something different for bedside lighting. we have 2 paper lamps that i got from ikea years ago that have worked fine, except that the cat has decided that he likes to eat the paper so they are pretty much ruined at this point. and our new nightstand and dresser (that is being used as the other nightstand) are different heights. i don't think this would bother me as much if the bedside lights were at least at the same height. so i've been looking at wall mounted swing arm lamps. i think this is a great solution, esp. since i like to read at night before bed... and then i found this:
the tolomeo wall mount lamp - love it. really love it. really want it. don't love the price ($320 each is way out of my budget!)

so i kept looking, and found this one:
the reading room wall lamp - not at all the same, but for $80 each, it's getting closer to what i can afford. i'm going to keep looking, but anyone have any other suggestions?

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our room

this picture of our room is right after painting - we have painted this room twice, the first attempt was too light and was more baby blue. this color is silver sage from restoration hardware and we both really like it, and like how the curtains sort of blend in with the walls. we had the floors refinished, and then we just moved some random furniture in... and now it's a about 8 months later and this is the most recent picture i have.

i realized that i've written very little about our bedroom on this blog... and that's mostly because it's been kind of a disaster. we were only able to fit one dresser in our room instead of the armoire and dresser that we had in our last apartment. our closet space, while great for an old house, did not make up for the lack of armoire storage. over the last few months we have slowly been working on organizing our room, starting with organizing the closets, and more recently, by adding another smaller dresser and nightstand with drawers from craigslist. by the way, the suggestion of shellac on the interior of the dresser and drawers was a great one and the smoke smell is pretty much gone now. thanks!!

i can officially say that all of our clothes are unpacked, organized, and put away. it's way more exciting to me than it should be

so now i've moved on to the fun part - hanging art, decorating, and making the room feel uncluttered and just calm. finally.

starting with... the bed. i really want a bed. an actual bed with a headboard and bedframe that's not made out of metal. i've had my eye on the tate bed from crate and barrel for forever, but the price tag is just too much for us.besides, i would never pay that much for something that i think i could somehow make. i think that i could construct something similar using my upholstery skills and some basic wood frame construction. i'm completely confident with the headboard, but not as much with the upholstered bedframe... but i'm willing to give it a try.

i've also thought of a couple of other options. the first being to buy a wooden bedframe (or again, make something, but i've found some pretty inexpensive bedframes, the one below is from west elm and is sold separately from the headboard) and then add my own upholstered headboard.

or, make a fitted bedskirt to match the upholstered headboard? below is an example, i would not make our headboard that tall though.
any thoughts/advice/opinions? what do you like best? has anyone made a headboard and/or bed? i go back and forth... all i know for sure is that i want an upholstered headboard with buttons. the last bedskirt option seems easiest and we could probably do it rather quickly. the top option with the all upholstery frame would be the most complicated but it is what i was first drawn to... the wooden legs could also be nice because our dogs do sleep right beside the bed and i'm kind of worried about always having to wash a bedskirt (which is what we do now) or use a lint roller on an upholstered frame to remove pet fur.

i can't decide. help... am i crazy to even think about making a bedframe?

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to our future guests:

i promise that i will wash all bedding before you come to visit.

i cannot promise that these guys will share their room with you...

(and yes mom, i still need to hem the curtains.)

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