Author: Making it Lovely

  • Working it

    Working it

    We’ve had some phone and internet issues, but they’ve been resolved so it’s back to work for me! I’ve setup my desk and painted the office already. It’s nice to have at least one semi-finished space in the house. Especially since I spend so much time at my desk.

    my desk

    The office is definitely not finshed, but it’s not horrible either. The closet has no door, and the blinds on the window are not my cup of tea. Oh, and the other side of the room looks like this. Messy!

    Did I do the right thing by only bringing the pink up to the picture rail? I’m not really sure. The color I chose for the top of the room and the ceiling was “oyster” by Benjamin Moore. I thought it was a gorgeous grey/lavender, but it just looks white. Oh well – at least it picks up on the white of my desk and bookshelf. And it’s certainly an improvement over the original state of the room. It was peach before (yuck). Here’s a reminder:

    my office

    Oddly, the baseboard and picture rail were painted the same peach. I guess I can see blending in the picture rail, but the baseboard too? The trim around the doors and the window were still wood. I ended up matching the brown in the wood trim as closely as possible and painting over the peach. I suppose the correct thing to do would have been to strip off the paint and then stain. I could still do that at some point in the future though (if I decide to). For now, there’s enough work to do in the house without adding ‘paint stripping’ to the list.

  • Devon table

    What a smart little side table!

    Victoria Hagan Target Devon Table

    It’s the Devon table by Victoria Hagan, and it’s only $50 from Target.

    I might use it by our orange and white Anthropologie chair…

    new chair
    (this one)

    …or I’ll place it between two slipper chairs centered on the living room window. Once the room is in better shape (there are boxes everywhere right now), I’ll try both ways and see which I like.

  • Pictures!

    As promised, I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures of the empty house to my flickr account!

    dining room

  • We’ve moved! And we were COLD!

    We started moving on Thursday and finished yesterday. Of course the weekend we moved happened to be the COLDEST weekend of the year in Chicago. We happened to check the weather on Friday, and the forcast said “BRUTALLY COLD” through Tuesday. Right now it’s -9ºF (windchill has been around -35ºF).

    Oh, and we did hire movers! We only used them for four hours on Friday, but it was worth it. They brought all of our books (about 50 boxes), plus the big stuff (couch, mattress, bookshelves, etc.). Thank you, Kolovitz Movers!

    I snapped a gazillion photos while the house was empty. I’m on the old Mac right now, so as soon as I setup my computer I’ll upload everything to my flickr account.

  • Tansu and Satula

    I wrote a little haiku for today.

    Beautiful fabric,
    why are you so hard to find?
    I just want curtains.

    Tantsu and Satula Marimekko Fabrics

    The above fabrics are both by Marimekko, and they’re both available (I think) on this Japanese website: http://www.icenter.co.jp/satula.htm. At least I know the names, numbers, and corresponding colorways for each of the fabrics (Tansu: 19926-21 and Satula: 19927-24).

    I wonder if they can be ordered directly from Marimekko…

  • Painting Walls with Picture Rail?

    Painting Walls with Picture Rail?

    How do you paint a wall with picture rail? Do you paint the same wall color above and below? Or do you paint the wall color up to the picture rail and then paint the area above the same color as the ceiling?

    And what about wallpaper? Only up to the picture rail?

    I know… the Photoshopped wallpaper looks ridiculous (also – that’s NOT our dragon on the buffet). Which version looks better though?

    picture rail question