Guest Room Complete! (ish)

At some point you just have to call it a day and take the damn pictures, right? Our guest room is "done." And by that I mean I still need to switch out the ceiling fan from the 1980s, I don't love the chair pillow, and the curtain brackets needs to be re-installed wider, butbutbut... perfect is overrated. The way life is going, I'm just thrilled that I managed to repaint. This room is truly a breath of fresh air compared to the mishmash it was before, so I'm moving on from perfect and calling this a complete success! Here's our updated guest room, pulled together from lots of existing items and freshened up by springy green.

Sources
Wall Paint - Benjamin Moore Classic Gray
Bookcase Paint - Benjamin Moore Acadia Green
Curtains - Waverly One Wish fabric in Mint Julep
Bedding - Old West Elm with new Anthropologie throw pillow
Art, books, and accents - Stuff we already had
Rug - Shades of Light
Lamp - Ballard Design
Throw - Brahms Mount
Mirror - Hayneedle
Furniture - Existing stuff

Windows and paint are my love language

You know those stories about husbands failing miserably at life and romance by gifting their wife an appliance or a boring house item? Agree to disagree, because way back on Valentine's Day, T gifted me something I've been ogling for ages: plantation shutters.

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

We loved them from the start, but they were really a jumping-off point for all things windows. Classic, right? Pricey item leads only to pricier items. There's this house with new windows in between ours and Eastern Market that we walk by multiple times a week. Oh, those windows. I'd comment on them every time we walked by. Our neighborhood is filled with old homes with very old windows. I love the charm of our old house (1906!), but being unable to fully shut or open windows, having to prop things inside them, and needing to wrap up in blankets when sitting on the couch in the winter? Not cool. So when you notice new windows on an old house, they stick with you.

[Let's just agree at this point that fantasizing about windows makes me super-old and boring and move on, okay?]

We decided it couldn't hurt to learn more... just information-gathering, right? The window guy came over last spring and was pretty much the best window salesman in the history of window salesmen. We ooh'd. We aah'd. But with the backyard renovation coming up, we put it off. Then on Mother's Day, guess what T tell casually tells me as we're waking up?

"Oh hey, the window guy is coming over for final measurements at noon." So casual, but followed by a big grin. He knew. He'd decided without me to bite the bullet and do the front of the house now, with the rest to come later, after our backyard project. Installation happened last week.

Oh, did it happen.

Now back to that "jumping-off point" concept... Besides new windows, the other thing I've really, really wanted for the exterior of our house was new trim. I detest the cream color of our house trim - it's always looked dirty to me. The photo above is probably the best shot I've seen of the cream, and I'm sure that's because of the sunshine, shadows, and the new white windows. A couple of years ago I called around for trim paint quotes and received the craziest numbers - well over the cost to paint an entire exterior anywhere else. I put the idea to bed until our neighbor had a random guy out doing their trim. Random dude could do it for a fifth of the price and half the time - SOLD. Now we're bright, clean, and white. (Hi Eleanor!)

The white trim actually makes me like the color of our house now. We have more ideas to implement in the coming months and years - some paint detail and a new door, which might stay this color or might go glossy black. But it's been a big month for la casa, and I couldn't be happier.

Finally, because any good makeover has to include a before-and-after:

This is me, fully endorsing the idea of "boring house items" as gifts.

Hazel's Nursery!

It was so fun seeing Hazel's nursery on 100 Layer Cakelet while we were on vacation! The funny thing about the feature is that it actually only showed half the room - here's the entire room, plus all the fun details! Let's start from the beginning. Remember my inspiration board?

I knew I wanted Hazel's nursery to be bright, cheerful, and feminine. If you've been reading along for any length of time you know that a girly-girl pastel nursery isn't my cup of tea. I began with two primary inspiration points - Albert Hadley's "Fireworks" wallpaper and Thimblepress' fantastic US map of state flowers. I'd almost given up on the wallpaper when a friend found it, but it ended up being too pricey for me to justify. I considered doing just one wall instead, but I really wanted the room to be surrounded in pattern. That's when I started searching for stencils and eventually settled on Cutting Edge Stencil's Sari Paisley pattern. We refreshed the room with bright white, then matched the red of the old rocking chair for the stencil pattern (we also painted an old Ikea Expedit the same red). (We're still perfectly happy with a rocking chair instead of a pricey glider, by the way.)

Settling on the fabric was another biggie in the room. Zoe Pearn’s “Sweetest Thing” fabric line for Riley Blake had everything I was looking for in a fabric collection - sweet, feminine prints with bright colors that never veered too saccharine. The fabrics really helped set the tone for the room and soften the stenciling. The final touches came in the pops of color in the room's artwork and accessories - little finds from some of my favorite presses and shops.

We couldn't be happier with how the room turned out. For a small space like this, it's as functional as it is cute. We rely heavily on basket storage and everything really does have a place. Now on to the photos... with a big 'ol source list at the end.

(All photos taken by Amanda Young)

 

 

 

   

Sources

Stencil: Cutting Edge Stencils

Crib: Jenny Lind

Yellow Moroccan Pouf: Tazi Designs

Rocking Chair: Vintage

Rug: Safavieh

Light: Shades of Light

Wooden “h”: Borlovan Woodworks on Etsy 

Gallery Top Left (Shine Bright): The Wheatfield on Etsy

Gallery Top Middle (City Living): Laura Amiss on Etsy

Gallery Top Right (More than you Know): Raw Art Letterpress on Etsy

Gallery Bottom Left (DC map): Meredith Pannett Designs on Etsy

Gallery Bottom Middle (Free to be Me): Rosy Hues on Etsy

Gallery Bottom Right (Let Us Lie in the Sun): Sarah Trumbauer on Etsy

Sheets, Crib Skirt, Changing Pad Cover: Modified Tot on Etsy (Zoe Pearn’s “Sweetest Thing” fabric line for Riley Blake)

Quilt: The Red Pistachio on Etsy (Zoe Pearn’s “Sweetest Thing” fabric line for Riley Blake)

Pillows: Happy Little Cottage on Etsy (Zoe Pearn’s “Sweetest Thing” fabric line for Riley Blake)

Curtains: Serena & Lily

Curtain Tieback: Willows Grace on Etsy

Stuffed Whale: Gift

Stuffed Cat: Walnut Animal Society

Throw: Gift

Turquoise Basket: Serena & Lily

Dresser: Jenny Lind for Land of Nod

Stuffed Pig: Land of Nod

State Flower Map: Thimblepress

Yellow Baskets: Container Store

White Baskets: Land of Nod

Red Bookcase: Ikea (painted to match red of wall + chair)

Alphabet Print: One Canoe Two Letterpress

Hazel Embroidery Loop: King Soleil on Etsy

White Bookcase: Ikea

Bunting: Happy Little Cottage on Etsy (Zoe Pearn’s “Sweetest Thing” fabric line for Riley Blake)

Hazel's nursery featured on 100 Layer Cakelet!

Hi friends! I know I've been holding out on showing Miss H's nursery here, and that's because it's being featured on 100 Layer Cakelet today! Head over to their gorgeous blog and check it out, and let me know what you think! We love her cheerful room and all the details that make it special.

Photo Credit: Amanda Young Photography

Once I'm back from vacation next week I'll share more. Enjoy!

Guest Room Redux

Last time I shared our back bedroom here, it was a home office.

But then my company opened a DC office, so I didn't need a dedicated space at home anymore. And then our guest room turned into a nursery (the big reveal coming soon, promise!), so we needed the old office to become a new guest room. The last several months have featured the same décor from the old office with the guest bed thrown into it. Not very cohesive and not very homey.

It's occurred to me walking around our home that as much as I love the color green, it's not really featured very much in our house. I decided that the revamped guest room would be the perfect place to remedy that - I'm going for fresh green and white with pops of blue, very outdoors-in. My inspiration started with Waverly's "One Wish" fabric in Mint Julep - I used it for curtains, and the print is just the vibe I wanted. (Note: The green is much lighter in person than is this image! I wasn't prepared when the curtains arrived, but quickly adjusted the greens in my plans.)

I'm putting the room together now - almost done repainting and maybe halfway there with other elements. I'm trying to use what I already own as much as possible, so I'm repurposing existing bedding, furniture, and art - really just shopping for new accent pieces. I've been collecting ideas on a Pinterest board if you want to take a peek at where I'm headed.

Hazel had some fun this weekend while we were painting (luckily the same gray paint from the old guest room works great in here - I love using what I already have!). Here's our cutie hamming it up during the paint session with a sneak peek of the curtains. (Also, remind me never to sell our house unless we're moving into one with the same great natural light, okay?)

I'll be back next month (fingers crossed!) with the finished product.

The downside to homeownership

Oof. We're in a homeowner tight spot right now.

• Last week: Planned construction, plus planned expense of installing Elfa in the master closet. Expensive stuff, but at least planned.
• Last weekend: Completely unexpected purchase of a new washing machine
• This week: Completely unexpected (and unexpectedly large) AC repair bill

I suppose these things usually do happen in threes, don't they? Feel free to agree with me so I don't walk around in fear of house expense #4 hitting me in the face soon. Ouch.

My parents are coming this weekend to check in on the belly and help us move some furniture. We're officially christening the current guest bedroom as the nursery and turning the current office into the guest room. Now that I only work from home on Fridays, I don't really need a full-time home office. Maybe someday in the fantasy world where we live on the beach full-time and telecommute, but not now. I had a good run with this office, though.

Over at work, I'm finally getting an office with a door I can shut (hallelulah!), so I think my fun Amtrak print might have to make the move with me. Maybe I'll even toss in some wedding pomanders to jazz things up a bit.

My six-year old niece Taylor is coming up with my parents for her first trip to DC. Taylor told her mom that she'd only be happy to get a new cousin if it was a girl - "No more boys, Mom!" I'm so happy that our pregnancy is Taylor-endorsed.

Speaking of Taylor... holy CUTE flashback from almost exactly four years ago!

Nursery decorating begins.... now.

We have a normal [future] nursery! Without terrible built-in laminate closets featuring fading butterfly decals! The before, and the after:

I think it's fair to say that in the final tally of scheming versus reality in our wall/closet project, "our" master closet ended up bigger than we thought it would, and Baby H's closet ended up smaller. But you know what? Little ones don't need a lot of closet space. As long as we can get her out of this room before she's having freakouts about what to wear to school every day [see also: Maude Apatow in the funniest scene in 'This is 40'], we'll be fine.

But I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself, given that Baby H is still the size of a papaya. Before there are teen freakouts and goth posters on the wall, there is a tiny baby and a nursery. And for maybe the last time, I get to design it! Enter:

Maggie's Rules to Nursery Happiness

1. There will be brightness
2. There will be color
3. There will not be pink

Here's what I came up with:

 

I see oh-so-me pattern play, great wallpaper, patterned curtains, and pops of color. Mostly I see the happiest room ever.

My first step is this wallpaper - easier said than done. It's Fireworks by Albert Hadley for Hinson, and I'm obsessed. My first leads went nowhere, but I have a couple of good investigators on the case, so there is hope. If any of you have any designer wallpaper hunting tips, send them on! (As for installation, I dare not do this myself, never fear.)

Who else is on Team Bright for a girl's nursery?

Edit: Additional comment on the room - we'd originally intended to buy a glider, but we've already been gifted a rocking chair, so we're going to try that first. We can always switch it out later, if need be.

Knocking down walls again

You know what we haven't talked about here in a while? House projects. Let's dive in, shall we?

Like probably 90% of the pregnant population, having a little one on the way sent our loosey-goosey "one day" house to-do list into overdrive. Some of the things we'd dreamingly talked about doing took on the urgency of my bladder at 3 a.m., while others just... yeah, not going to happen. Our priority projects are the ones in the future nursery/current guest room and the hallway outside her room. Basically, activities that could massively disrupt a (perfectly content and sleeping, obviously) baby.

Let's refresh. Our guest room is an average-sized second bedroom for Capitol Hill, meaning miniscule for you suburbanites. It has great light and is right next door to our bedroom, but it also features ugly built-ins from the 1970's-era ugly step-sibling of Ikea.

Here's the realtor-produced photo from the house listing along with how it looked six months later (including the junk below the "desk" - keeping it real!):

These things are ugly. And they're also a huge space hog. Meanwhile, our master bedroom closet is on the other side of them. I say "our" very gently - T had to move out of the closet a year ago due to space constraints and the peace of our marriage. It's not very big and also aggressively ugly. Let's take a look at the realtor-produced photo of the master bedroom wall in question, featuring classicly euphemistic language:

Note the "wall of closets." Well dang, how could I complain about a wall of closets?! I'll try:

1. Completely disregard the "closet" on the far right. It's actually ten inches of usable shelves all the way down and the rest is the chimney. The only practical thing I've been able to do is stuff shoes in the shelves, which means half the time I can't see and/or reach them. Why, you might ask, did someone at some point decide to cover the entire thing up in a closet door to give the appearance of a normal closet inside? I have no idea.
2. The main closet area is the two doors on the left. They're fine, sure, but very shallow inside and not fit for sharing. For perspective, I've already filled them with maternity clothes alone. Not a ton of space.
3. The upper closets are good for storage bins etc., but damn ugly.
4. Hadn't these people ever heard of trim? I'm pretty sure they thought these frameless closets looked "modern." The natural choice when your house was built in 1906, right?

So our closet situation sucked and we've always known we wanted to do something about it. Our plan was this: knock out the wall between the two rooms and completely redesign the closets in both.

Take a look at that upper photo again. We felt that by closing the wall of the future nursery in so that it's level with the window-side closet (which would a "real" closet, not an add-on), we wouldn't lose usable space. The room was already small-ish, and it's a nursery, so really... decent tradeoff. (We popped into an Open House on our street a few weeks ago that featured a nursery the size of our not-big bathroom, so I'm still feeling prety good about Baby H's abode.) And because we can use every extra inch in our closet (maybe even "ours" again?), gaining whole feet at a time could be transformative. Also, for the love of historic homes, there will be frames and doors that match the character of our house!

Our contractors have been working all week. The bad news is that they had to open up the entry to our attic for days a time, which meant a flood of 100+-degree air into the rest of the house. Which convinced our AC to stop working, naturally. But the good news is that they're almost done, and we're already pretty pumped up with what we see.

More soon! PROGRESS! Things HAPPENING! Good stuff.

Landscaping our hearts out (thanks Mom!)

Thanks so much, everyone, for sending such warm thoughts about my grandfather. I thought a nice way to honor him here might be to share the love that his daughter - my amazing mom - puts into everything she does and everyone she loves. We've been so lucky to benefit from her green thumb and zeal for gardening here in DC, something for which we have my grandfather to thank.

A refresher, then. When we moved in two years ago, our yard was... a dud. And six months later, it was still a dud. We had the space to do something, but weren't at all sure what to do. And since our efforts were focused on some major projects indoors anyway, we were happy to let it be.

A year and a half ago:

Late last summer, we hosted my parents for a weekend of brainstorming and space-planning. We talked about how to salvage (or not) the ugly yew hedges that border our side yard, how to make our side yard more inviting, and how to maximize the space without making it too linear. They came back in October for a H-U-G-E planting weekend, all under the eye of our visionary commander-in-chief, my mom. We decided to rip out two of the worst yews to create more breathing room in the border, to weed our butts off and mulch the hell out of the side yard (I think we put down 30 bags that weekend), to define true planting beds for the first time, to plant some large, pretty things that would be dormant until spring (lots of peonies and hydrangeas), and add some great fall color, too.

My parents came back in late April to implement Phase 2 of our plan. Thankfully, everything we put in the ground in October lasted through the winter beautifully, and we were starting to see some real growth with the warmer temperatures. This time they pulled up in the BusyBee (nickname for my mom's car - long story) with a few more large plants, spring and summer color, and lots more classic "Mom" yard touches. Our big goals were to refine our space-planning now that our little plants were big plants, define edges, switch out cold-weather color for warm-weather color, and develop a path for the side yard. About a month after their visit, I'm pretty thrilled with our results. And to know that the color out there will just continue to intensify (the peonies are just beginning! the hydrangeas are coming!)... we are giddy.

Our front yard today:

(Hi E!)

Aaand... color! (Only two of our five peony bushes have bloomed so far... I cannot WAIT to see them all!)

(apologies for the ADT photobomb)

 

 

Here's our fantastic side yard. Keep in mind that most of these large plants haven't yet bloomed,  so as it gets warmer we'll have color there, too. Because our side yard is so shady we chose hydrangeas - blue, white, pink, green, and ivory lacecaps, too. The stepping stones are sandstone, and we've dotted the pathway with white star creepers, a groundcover that will slowly spread and turn our entire pathway green. As you look at these photos imagine a swath of green cutting through the mulch in between the stones - that'll be our path before too much time has passed!

(looking back to the front of the house)

And that's that! I'll be back with peony and hydrangea updates soon, so stay tuned. My Instagram feed is pretty much going to become a flowerfest for a while, so prepare yourself!

And I really do have to give another HUGE thanks for my parents for being the vision, the brains, and half the muscle. We could NOT have done it without you!

Friday I'm in Love

I'm looking forward to a weekend in DC where we shall slooooooooooow down. My plans include tinkering around the house, garden, and neighborhood, hanging out with friends, and booing the Yankees. Sounds pretty perfect to me right now. I hope your weekends are filled with slow goodness, too. Here's three little links from me to wrap up the week. See you on the flip side!

'Grow Your Own' Calendar

 I'm obsessed with this gorgeous planting guide print, available here and discovered here. I'd love it if they would expand their reach and include planting seasons for places other than England. Perhaps my Grandma Jessie Mae can be the planting expert for the Eastern NC calendar... But would I choose that one, or the Mid-Atlantic guide? Hypothetical decisions abound! Regardless, this piece would be perfect hanging in any kitchen or back porch, don't you think?

Bedroom Upgrades

 I recently received a much-deserved (if I do say so myself) promotion and raise, and to celebrate, I ordered a piece of furniture I've been ogling for ages. Actually, I ordered two! These gorgeous Bedford Chests will serve as beefed-up nightstands for us, filling out a wall where we have space for more substantial furniture in what is otherwise wasted by only using small nightstands. I'm so.flipping.pumped that we're about to have more storage in our bedroom. We are ever so slowly getting a vision for what that room can become (only a year and a half after moving in... why does the bedroom always get shortchanged in my world?). I think I might even do some painting this weekend... it's been too long since these hands wielded a brush! The dressers are delivered Saturday... color me excited.

More Belle Boggs

 I know I recommended a Belle Boggs article last week, too, but this one was just too beautiful to go without mention. It was sent to me by my friend Cate (join me in wishing she was blogging again, why don't you?), and with good reason. In this piece (Yearning for Conception: The Art of Waiting), Boggs reminds me of Barbara Kingsolver in my annual spring/summer read Prodigal Summer. There's infertility, sure, but it's woven into the fabric of the NC Zoo, biology, and nature. Gorgeous stuff.

Small steps out front

Until a month or so ago, we'd done absolutely nothing to our front yard. The plants in the yard were... random, at best. Old and not particularly healthy. Planted haphazardly. No continuity or relationship between plants. Random.

We've invested so much time and energy inside our house that the outside has been firmly on the backburner. We finally brought a great landscape designer over to help us plan our dream yard, then started prioritizing his plan. We realized our biggest priority was probably the most expensive piece (our rotting deck), and so we stalled again. 

But those old roses out front that inexplicably looked great this year changed things for me. Seeing something grow and look pretty in our front yard made me realize that just because our bigger picture effort is stalled, there's no reason I can't begin making small improvements on my own. And so over the last month, I've planted lots out front: a new rose bush, a gardenia bush, three peonies, a hibiscus, and a hosta. There's more to come, too. I'm still waiting for some of these to pop open for the first time, and I know that this year might be their smallest. But a year from now they'll all look much better, and the year after that, even prettier. Incremental progress that I made while we were stalled. That works for me.

I'm happy I got over my can't-plant-because-we-have-a-huge-landscaping-plan-in-mind rut (which lasted a year, I should add). Not to mention... passing the gardenia on the way up our front steps makes me - and my nose - all kinds of happy.

I'll show you the backyard soon. We still have the crazy blue deck, but at least it features lots of seasonal color. Small steps!