Tuesday Project Roundup: Flat Pack Rodeo

How about some furniture instead of fabric this week? I decided it was time to upgrade my bedroom dresser to something bigger. Here's the setup before:

And here's the after, courtesy of IKEA (the Malm dresser and Hemnes mirror) and these lasercut fretwork panels:

I'm not 100% sold on how much contrast there is (maybe the drawer fronts need to be all white?) but I'm completely happy with the capacity: 

Many, many thanks to my dad for pickup, delivery, and assembly over the course of four hours. As the IKEA instructions tell us, one person assembling this is a frowny face. But two people is a great big smile!

Tuesday Project Roundup: A House Project

After taking down Christmas decor the house seemed barren, so my new goal is to add more decor and accessories. I started with the office and added bulletin boards on each side of the desk:

This is another fabric-covered Homasote board, just like the one in the sewing room. Since I had leftover Homasote board on hand, this project only required one yard of fabric and the loan of my dad's staple gun again. Here's a close up:


I'm really happy with the result (but anything turquoise and orange has a 99.9% chance of maing me happy.) There's certainly more decor in the room than there was this time a year ago:

Giving Thanks While Seated

I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year, but I could:
I finally have chairs to go with that table--and for the first time in my adult life, I can entertain more than a total of two for dinner!

So I'm thankful for furniture, and that I have family and friends that I want to fill the chairs, and for what's been a really good year, overall.

Meanwhile, Toby remains thankful for his space heater:


Enjoy the long weekend! I'll be back Monday.

So Close To A Dinner Party

What's better than an IKEA dining table that gives you the impression of a Saarinen tulip table? Finding that same table on ksl.com for $20, of course!

It needed some Magic Eraser-ing and I still may need to touch up the top, but I am so pleased with this score. Suddenly I understand why people shop at thrift stores.

Now to score some chairs...

Black Is Hot, White Is Return, Green Is Ground

Have you ever wondered why I've never posted a full shot of my kitchen? It was because I hated the industrial florescent light fixture in it. But now I can show pictures (and only cavil at the cabinets being wood, not white) because look--new lights!
Matching new lights! (Yes, I still need a dining table.)

I made my father come over last weekend and change out lights--but don't worry, I watched and learned. I could totally do the next one.

Here's a detail. These are not fancy (I had no idea how much you can spend on lighting!) but they give the look I want (mod!).

Tuesday Project Roundup: Mixed Success

This week's projects had about a 50% success rate. Let's start with the one that worked out:
I finally got the shower curtain for the guest bath done. (As I didn't have any guests clamoring to use the shower, there wasn't a lot of motivation.) It's just a rectangle with some buttonholes at the top, so it went pretty quickly.

Above, you can see the tiger painting ended up in the guest bath...

...but can you spot the tiger descendant in this picture?

The not-so-successful project was some DIY art I tried to paint for the living room. I was inspired by this artist's watercolor chevrons:

But since I don't like prints of paintings and I thought the chevrons could be even MORE colorful, I decided to try my own. I was being cocky and thought, "I'm so good with color, I don't even need to plan out the order of my stripes--I'll just see what inspires me."

Well, as the boy I was desperately in love with years ago said to me after we watched Wuthering Heights, "Let this be a lesson to us all." I don't think I could have made this uglier if I tried:

I mean....wow. Not a success. Looking at it, I can see how re-arranging the color order would fix it, but I think I have learned that painting is not for me. I'll stick with fabric.

Tuesday Project Roundup: What I've Been Doing Instead Of Sewing

The short answer: gardening and spending money.

On Saturday, I mounted planter boxes to the railings of my tiny deck (all on my own!), visited two nurseries, and then planted lots of pots.

The long view, with some more pots:
(Ignore the fact that I STILL HAVE NO LAWN AFTER FOUR MONTHS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, BUILDER.)

There are also pots by the front door:

Sunday I focused on the indoors and went TV and flat-pack furniture shopping. I returned with something resembling the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey:
(I have not had to hit it with a bone. Yet.)

The TV stand is IKEA--not bad for Sweden, right? I have to thank my dad for braving IKEA with me, hauling everything around, and helping me assemble. Thanks, Dad!

And here's one last picture showing a little more of how the monolith fits in the room:

Check THIS Out

Look what was delivered Saturday:

Just look at it:

Another view:

Other than my washer and dryer, I think this couch is the nicest thing I own. I am so happy with it.

Somebody else likes it, too:

Tuesday Project Roundup: Public Service Announcement

"Please, if you or anyone you know is thinking about making lined drapes, don't let them. There's another way. Get professional help."

I wish I had heard a PSA like that before I started this project--but at least they're done now:

Drapery construction is not complicated, which was the source of my hubris initially, but it is just so. much. fabric. to wrangle and feed through the machine evenly. And of course I wanted to line them, so that doubled the fabric to wrangle.

But they are done (I know I said that already; I just can't believe it) and it's really nice to have them to close at night:

And with these finished, all the windows in the house are now covered. That only took 2.75 months!

The Unbearable Adultness Of Decorating

I have made some serious purchases for the house lately. I know refrigerators and washers and dryers are serious, but these latest purchases feel more weighty, if only because they're essentially frivolous. (Bear with me here.)

Remember how I wanted to copy a painting instead of buying real art? Well, the artist has been doing a lot of smaller work lately and I just went for it. Meet "Amber":

The long view:

I love "Amber." I think she needs a frame, but she is gorgeous.

And remember when I wanted to buy a love seat for my old apartment--because a real couch wouldn't fit--and I found one at Target.com? (That was so long ago that the images got lost when I moved to the new Blogger.) I remember back in 2007 that I worked two jobs to get the $400 to get that foam masterpiece.

Well, things have changed a little, because Monday I ordered this baby:

Made in Virginia to my own specifications, with my own upholstery choice (orange, of course), in six to eight weeks? I kind of can't believe it. Because I remember working two jobs to get $400. Yes, I was in debt then, but not only am I out of debt now, I bought a house; and lately I just plop down money for non-essentials like real art and real furniture without batting an eye.

Tax returns help with the plopping down of money, of course, but regardless--it just sunk in that I'm not a struggling 20-something anymore. The unbearable adultness, indeed.

Will The Projects Never Cease?

It's all projects, all the time here at Chez Cat Hair lately. (Idle hands are the devil's playground, after all.) I didn't think this should get a spot on a Tuesday Project Roundup because the only skill involved was stapling, but there is fabric---specifically, a yard of Schumacher "Chiang Mai" linen stretched over a frame my dad made.

It's art!

It hangs on the east wall of the main floor, in what will be the dining area if I ever find a kitchen table.

I barely had the fabric art hung before I moved on the the NEXT project: Drapes for the main floor. Must stay busy!

Burning Bright, Tangled

Last week I had an idea to search Etsy for "vintage paint by number" and look what that got me:

(I'll tell Toby it's a portrait of one of his ancestors.)

And my friend Kara pointed me to the work of Stasia Burrington, where I found this print called "Tangled." I had to buy it--it has Japanese kites and the artist described it as "about relationships and sticking out your neck."


So, despite thinking I needed to branch out, I have two more Asian-influenced things to frame now. I might as well embrace it and just call my decorating style "chinoiserie," I guess.

Tuesday Project Roundup: In Which I Wield A Staple Gun

This week's projects are all for the sewing room. In the 5-year plan, I want to finish the basement (I use the term "I" loosely) and move the sewing stuff downstairs. But until then, I wanted to get the room a little more done. That meant a table and lamp from IKEA and some fabric projects.

First I got my dad to deliver and cut some Homasote and loan me his staple gun (thanks, Dad!). Then my project supervisor had to approve my plans:

Then I stretched some fabric over the Homasote and stapled and in about 20 minutes I had a bulletin board. (I still need to get it mounted on the wall--and pin things to it--but this gives you an idea. That's the new table, too.)

I also made a new polka dotted ironing board cover. I used this tutorial and it worked like a charm:

And here's one last shot of everything together--the "ironing" view:
Now I just need some real blinds for the rooms upstairs...I guess I can't make those.

Tuesday Project Roundup: A Deocorating Equation

These 2 items:

plus 1 bedskirt from IKEA add up to this:


That total, when combined with 2 lamps from Home Goods, 1 new headboard, and 1 more IKEA "Rast" chest finished by one's father, gets you a new total of:


100% FANCY. Oh yeah!

Color!

Here's what Dorothy Draper* has to say about using color in decorating back in 1939:

Select the loveliest colors you can find--throw them together--and your own taste, resourcefulness and independence will carry you through. Above all, never be afraid of color. As I've said before, the day of drab, timid colors is past.

With that said, I am going with white walls in the new place for now. But look at the fabrics I'm considering:


*In this same book (Decorating Is Fun!), Dorothy Draper talks about painting ceilings in a complementary or contrasting shade, a practice that no one I know has ever heard of. As she says, "Just don't treat [the ceiling] like a stepchild."