Before & After

Remember my post about gold leafing the $50 Salvation Army chair?

Here is the before:


And here is the after:



Unfortunately, for now, I only have a poor quality iPhone picture. I really love how it turned out!! Yes, that's TWO exclamation points :) I was so pleased my upholsterer understood my vision when I mentioned I wanted an offset stripe.

The home this chair belongs to has been shot and I will share the photographs as soon as I get them! But for now... more packing!

Mistints

Great mistints today!



Got all three :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Camera Phone Updates

Today is my last day at the day job! Goodbye daily grind, hello entrepreneurship! I won't be by the computer much, so I am going to be doing short, quick camera phone posts. Erika gave me the idea when she did it last year, and I really liked seeing little glimpses into her busy life. I hope you enjoy the same! Plus it's a way to document my crazy life right now.

So here it is, my stuff all packed up and ready to hand off to the administrative assistant:

Pretty Pictures

Here is a healthy dose of pretty pictures while I am busy with life:

{Phoebe Howard}

{Phoebe Howard}

{all images found via myhomeideas.com}

I love this idea!

What a great idea, using wallpaper to make a boring staircase/sitting room into something spectacular:

{image via myhomeideas.com}

If you look closely, this home looks like it once was cookie-cutter and builder basic.

And after a quick (less than 1 minute) search on realtor.com for homes in Charlotte, I found a very similar set up:



I think you could go either way: wallpaper the entire sitting room or just the one accent wall (also depends on the size, layout and ceiling height of the room). Either way, it's great inspiration.

ps - Anyone in Charlotte want help achieving this look? I just had to ask! ;)

This & That

How about a little update on life?

- Tomorrow was going to be my photo shoot for some interiors of mine, but I postponed it until Monday because of the terrible storms. I'm crossing my fingers Monday will be sunny (enough).

- Packing is....... terrible. How did I ever accumulate so much stuff? And I've always thought I was good about getting rid of stuff. Thank god for this move, it's really allowed me to only keep what I absolutely need and purge the rest.

- In between packing and finishing up decorating projects, I've been catching up on The Tudors on demand. Love the costumes, time period, and drama.

- I pushed my moving date back a week due to the overwhelming packing situation. I'm now leaving Feb 5th. So for you guys in Charlotte who inquired about using my services, I will contact you as SOON as I am there!

- My last day of work is the 29th! I'm not going to lie, I'm relieved.

And as always, some pretty pictures for you to enjoy:










All images from Megan McClure Interiors.

the black chair

Speaking of chairs... there is a reason why I gave in so easily when my husband denied me of the green chair, other than the fact that we need to save money for taxes (ughh). Well, truth is, my heart is really set on a black chair for my future. I'm so obsessed with them lately. Actually I'm so obsessed with black in general lately.

When I was 10 or 11, my nanny asked me what my favorite color was, and I said black. I think she was a bit disturbed, but it's such a great, perfect color.

Here are some images that started my obsession:

Green with Envy

Today at Home Goods I spotted this velvet (velveteen?) green chair on clearance for $140. I was dying over the color, such a rich emerald (which just happens to be my birth stone). I emailed my husband "can we get this?" with the picture attached. I was denied. (I can't argue with him though... it's looking like we're going to be owing a lot of taxes. Ugh!)



The arms are a little outdated, and the legs definitely need to be either replaced or painted, but for the price, it'd be a great chair to bring home. Can't you just imagine it in a black room with a cognac leather couch?

Check out this similar couch in a room by Palmer Weiss:

Idea Board: Living + Dining in DC

A design board for your Monday morning done for a couple in DC:



Edit: A couple of you asked about the green fabric source. It's actually a funny story! I have a lot of bookmarks on my Firefox of sources I like... fabric, wallpaper, etc. I was going through them and found modgreenpod.com and found the green fabric. It was perfect! After I sent the board off to it's owner, I put my computer aside, and my stack of dominos caught my eye not even two minutes later. There was the green fabric on the cover! Man I love domino, I'm still so sad it's gone :(

Anyway... here is the fabric on the cover:

Practice Makes Perfect

Both Charlotte and I have been busy gearing up for the move... I've been going crazy trying to pack (including a breakdown which involved a video chat with my husband of me walking through the house showing him how much I have to do). Charlotte's been preparing by testing out her new pet carrier:

At first she was a bit scared...



And pissed...


But then she started getting the hang of it..


She loves it now! She jumps in and out of it with ease, and lays down fully in it on her own (no pictures of that).




Does anyone have any tips for the plane ride? I plan on taking her on a looooooonnnnnggggg walk before the flight and then giving her benedryl to help knock her out.

white on white

This is obviously nothing new, but white or ivory curtains against white walls have been catching my eye lately. And it looks far from boring:

{kwinter & company}

{kwinter & company}

It reminds me of the softness of snow.

Horsin' Around

Yesterday I won these off an eBay auction:


Aren't they so cute yet so silly?

He's my favorite:


And YES. They are paint by numbers... And I have no idea what I'm going to do with them.

Have I lost it? Don't answer that ;)

Family & Looking Back

This post is random, but my mom just posted this picture of her as a little girl on her facebook, isn't it so cute?



I love it, I just had to share with the world (sorry mom!). And while I'm at it... here is a picture of me and my brother:



I always wonder what my kids will look like, especially since I look identical to my mom! Hopefully they will get straight hair like Matt (and my brother, ugh!) and not my fro. ;) On second thought, I just hope they are healthy and happy.. fro and all. :)

Gold Leafing a Salvation Army Find

Back in September, I purchased this chair from my local Salvation Army for only around $50.



So yeah... 1993 called, they wanted their chair back.

I knew I wanted to do black and white fabric and gold on the wood to go with the master bedroom the chair is going in. However, I was going back and forth between using gold metallic paint or gold leaf. After seeing Jenny's silver leafed nightstands, I knew gold leaf was the way to go. Aren't blogs great like that?

Last night I spent the better part of the night playing with gold leaf. It's actually pretty fun! It sort of reminds me of peeling off a sunburn.. (sorry! that's gross, but true).



I knew when I started I wanted an old looking, non-perfect finish. Luckily, the gold leaf did it's thing on the nooks and grooves and I love how it turned out. If it were perfect, it'd be too Donald Trump.



You'll see that the upholstery is stripped; I didn't do that myself but I'm sure you could if you are brave enough :) However, if you tell your upholsterer that you are refinishing the legs, they will let you take the chair mid-strip.

Also, in case you are curious about reupholstering - this chair cost $300 to reupholster and I live in a high-cost-of-living city. That price includes re-padding the arms and replacing the seat (and includes tax). So you see, reupholstering a vintage piece is a good value, and allows you to take classic lines and make it your own.

For the fabric, I chose this THICK black and white stripe from Premier Prints:



The stripe is 8" wide and I am pretty sure I'm going to off-center it like in the image above.

I can't wait to see the finished product! It's always fun seeing something come to life that you've been envisioning in your head for so long. But before that happens I need to gold leaf the other two legs....

edit: how could I have forgot? My friend Stefanie over at Brooklyn Limestone also silver leafed the top of her guest room side table! Check it out here.

Drowning

It's been one of those days... but really it's going to be one of those months. I've packed as much as I possibly can into the last couple weeks I have. So I won't take it personally if my readership plummets, as long as you promise not to leave me forever, k?

I will make time to show you pretty pictures though.. if nothing else, there will always be pretty pictures, I promise.

Making a Small Space Functional

I'm actually really excited about downsizing and moving into a smaller space. We have so much stuff and the past year or so I've been all about getting rid of the unnecessary things in life. If you are curious, we are moving from 2000 sq ft to just under 800.

Anyway, the more I get excited about downsizing, the more I'm drawn to looking for the perfect organizational items. Here are some pretty little things that I'm coveting so far for the new place...

How great are these Acrylic shelves? They are on my must have list:



These acrylic storage boxes have so many uses.. I think I will get some for my teenie tiny desk:


Letter boxes are a must:



These canvas bins are so simple and functional:




These are great for bathroom storage, just pull them out when needed:

These hooks are so inexpensive! Four for $5:

This hook is so freaking pretty... I want one for the bathroom, or maybe the bedroom!


If you ever need organization inspiration, check out Laura Cattano's Flickr account. I blogged about her before, she is crazy good. And if you live in the NYC area, she's for hire!