Tag: double parlor

Black and Blue

This post is sponsored by Loloi.

Ever borrow something from a friend, and then after seeing how good it looks on you, you wish you didn’t have to give it back? That’s kind of the situation here, except it’s my house that’s wearing the borrowed item. A rug, in this case. And a couple of pillows.

I’d been seeing Loloi popping up in the design world a lot lately, and when they reached out about a potential partnership, we decided that it would be fun to feature one of their rugs by styling it in my home. I chose one of my favorites (JO-10 in indigo/blue, from their new Journey collection) and it was on its way here.

Loloi has rugs in a huge variety of styles. I almost went with their Sahara rug, but I thought it would be fun to try out something with a more saturated color palette. The blue is so beautiful, isn’t it? I wasn’t sure how it would play against my sofa, but it’s working. Oh, yes it is.

Since everything was sent on loan to be photographed, it will be on its way back to Loloi soon and I’ll be sad to see it go. The floors are bare throughout most of the first floor right now and I’d forgotten how nice it is to have a soft, plush rug underfoot, let alone one so pretty. I find myself standing in the doorway, checking out the room the way you might put on something new and check yourself out in the mirror. Lookin’ good, room.

The pillows by Loloi will be in stores soon, and I think that at the very least I’m going to need to get one of those multicolored pillows for keeps. The rugs are available now though, in retailers across the nation and online through sites like Wayfair and Rugs Direct.

So fun to see the room dressed a bit differently, and rugs always have the power to really change a room. What do you think? Are you liking the black and blue together in the room as much as I am?

March 12, 2015
Madame Secretary

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I wanted to add a secretary desk to the library because the room needed a piece with height and a desk would be a useful addition. I chose this 19th Century French Iron Secretary. The rooms of our Victorian are all fairly open to one another, so I’ve been keeping that in mind as I decorate each space. The black iron secretary plays nicely off of the black walls in the back parlor and I like its mix of masculine details and feminine curves.

Incoming mail is always one of our biggest sources of clutter, and the secretary is the perfect solution to the problem! In the old house, mail and other paperwork would end up all over the dining room table, and here it usually piled up on the entryway sideboard. I would sort through it, recycling what I could, but the rest stayed put. Magazines and catalogs mixed with bills, invitations, and other correspondence. The kids’ schoolwork was getting mixed up in it too, but now everything has a place within the shelving of the secretary and it can be kept neatly organized behind closed doors.

We have four antique Thonet chairs in the house, passed down to us from Brandon’s mom. Two are in the entryway, one is in the bathroom on the main floor (holding a stack of towels), and the last is here at the desk. I hung a 50¢ tassel on the key in the door, but I wish I had brought one of the beautiful ones I’d seen in Morocco home as a souvenir. I’m kicking myself for passing on them!

I love the secretary though. I wanted it specifically for that spot in the library, but I can see it working in several spots in our house if I ever want to rearrange things a bit. It’s always good to have options, right?

December 3, 2014
Peacock Mirror

There is a wall in our back parlor that has been calling out for a mirror. I hung the Lily mirror from our old house as a placeholder, but it felt a bit too girly for the space. The gold sunburst mirror in the first photo from the other day’s post would have been perfect! Alas, at seven hundred and something dollars, it’s going to have to go and be perfect in the home of someone else. I started looking around yesterday for some possible alternatives, and I found a peacock mirror at Pier 1 via Copy Cat Chic. My local store had one in stock, so I figured I’d walk over and take a look. I hadn’t planned on buying it right away, but two small mirrors were missing and it was being sold “as-is” for a steal. Yes! I had wanted a peacock mirror for the house since we first knew we were going to be moving here!

Honestly, it’s so busy that the flaws are hard to spot. There were a couple of scuffs that I’ve already touched up with gold paint, and I’ll pick up a couple of small mirrors from the craft store to replace the missing ones. After it’s all fixed up, it will be good as new! Once again, I am all about the floor model.

November 20, 2014
The Library, Rearranged

I’ve been getting the “oh, you’re nesting!” comments from friends and family a lot lately, and maybe it’s true. I’m organizing closets. I’m arranging and rearranging and then rearranging some more. I think I’ve kind of hit on a good arrangement in the library though (and identified a key missing piece!), so I thought I’d snap a few photos today.

I don’t know if the rug is going to stay. I like it, but I think it’s a little too sweet in the room and the library is either calling for bare floors or something with an entirely different feel. It’s a little too small anyway.

I like the black and white sofa in front of the bookshelves. There is room for the library ladder to roll behind there, so it’s not blocking any access, but I don’t know if I’m crazy about lining up that sofa with the blue one facing the same way in the next room over.

And then there’s that missing piece the room needs: a secretary desk! Yes. This side of the room needs something with some height, and a desk would be useful. I’m thinking it should be black, with masculine lines to offset all of the pink and girly going on in there. Something that won’t compete with the bookshelves, but that can hold its own in the space.

All right, back to nesting! Today’s my birthday, but I don’t think the baby’s interested in making his debut today (though there’s still time, eh?). I’m angling for tomorrow so he can share the date with my grandma, but I’m not due until Friday.

September 22, 2014
Making it Home

Let’s get rambly. Last weekend, I almost bought a couple of chairs for the back parlor, and then I decided against it. I’ve done this a bunch of times. I know — excitement and thrills! Hold on to your seats!

I’ve mentioned before that Brandon and I had set aside a budget for furniture when we bought this house, and I think we used it well. We bought a washer and dryer, a black and white striped sofa for the front parlor and a teal blue sofa for the back, a rug, and a media console. We’ve been working with what we already had from the last house too, of course, but this house is bigger and much different in style, and so there are some missing pieces. And those missing pieces are harder to justify spending a lot on, since we’ve already bought the main things and have gone through that initial furniture budget. Anything coming in now will be brought in a little at a time, and saved up for as we go.

This is exactly how we did things with the first house too, way back in 2007 at the beginning of this blog. The difference now though, is that I feel more pressure to do it all. Do it right! Do it big! Jules and I were emailing back and forth (chatting about something else), but she sent this gif in reply and it made me burst out laughing. It’s kind of appropriate here, so you get to enjoy it now too.

Aren’t you glad? (Ack, it’s going to take a few posts before that gets pushed off the home page…)

But back to those chairs I almost bought. I love the idea of a matching pair of armchairs facing the blue sofa, which is what I was going for when I picked up the olive green scroll-arm chairs last winter. Then I got them home. They were a good deal, the scale was right, and the shape was interesting, but the color was off. Thankfully I didn’t lose any money on them (phew), and the mistake reinforced what I already knew, which was that I don’t like to make big impulse purchases. I like to fall in love with an item, then ponder it for a while. Sometimes I still love it, and it’s a go (like my blue sofa, which I thought and thought about for months before finally buying it on sale). Sometimes, I’m over it a couple of days later.

I often see chairs on Craigslist, in a thrift/resale/antique store, or on a flash-shopping site, and think I can make them work. I’m sure I could, and their easy to justify purchasing. The price is good! The deal won’t last! But then the more I think about it, I realize I’d be repeating the same mistake as with the green chairs. Something may be a great deal, but if the scale, shape, or color is off, I’m not going to be happy with the purchase long-term. And I’m not interested in rushing out to get a bunch of things for the sake of having a ‘finished’ room (self-induced pressure to do so or otherwise be damned). I’d rather wait and get it right. Maybe the right find will come along. Maybe it will mean saving up longer to buy the best quality I can. Either way, it’s going to take time. And I’m okay with that.

Actually, I’m more than okay with it. I’m enjoying the process! I love living here and experiencing the changing seasons in our house. I like being able to really think about how we can make it work best for our family. I may wish we had just the right chairs opposite a sofa, but if we need more seating there are others we can use in a pinch. Decorating shows and seeing client work from designers condition us to think that a rooms and houses can and should come together on a deadline, but that’s now how real life works for the people I know and it’s not how it works for us either.

I may not always succeed, but I’m doing my best to do things right the first time, and to value quality over quantity. What interests me most is working with what we have, adding good pieces over time, and adding pieces with an overall plan in mind (but being flexible enough to let that plan shift and change). I’m aware that I could be creating blog content by bringing in new pieces and working on rooms as quickly, but it’s more important to me that I’m creating a home. I’m trying to think of a cliché to mirror Go Big or Go Home here. Maybe Slow and Steady Wins the Race? Ah, wait, I have a Pinterest board full of platitudes and quotes to choose from!

This will do nicely.

Also, this.

May 29, 2014
The Built-in Library Shelves, with Books

The library isn’t really finished, but the shelves have books, the house is neat, and I took photos. So? Photos!

Definitely loving that ladder. I’m also loving the play of color from room to room, but I plan to paint the library walls and both ceilings at some point. They don’t look terrible here, but depending on the lighting and time of day, the color can go pretty yellow. I do like the contrast, and I’m thinking I might choose white, or very pale peachy/coral/pink.

We’re only borrowing the gate leg table from a family member. I wanted to see if it would be a pain to sit around, and the answer is yes. I love the look (like so), but it isn’t very practical for us, and I want to be able to play games there with the kids.

What is practical though, is the shelving. A few people have been eager to see how the built-ins look “once they’re styled,” so I hope I’m not disappointing you here. The shelves are adjustable and we moved a couple to fit large art and photography books, but that’s the extent of the styling. Brandon and I have a lot of books, and these shelves were intended to be used fully for book storage from the start. We actually still have more, but I think we can whittle down what’s on the shelves a bit to make room, and only keep what we really love. We had so much book storage in the last house that we didn’t need to pare down much (though we did some before we moved).

The layout is not final. I think the rocker looks a bit out of place, but I would like to make it work somewhere downstairs. We’ll have our cushy upholstered glider for the nursery, but I’d like to have the Eames rocker out where I’ll be able to rock the baby while sitting with friends and family.

Having a dedicated space for all of our books feels really good. It isn’t done (or “Pinterest Perfect”) yet, but I like where it’s at right now. There are a million little things to change and tweak, but that’s part of the fun of decorating, isn’t it? My last house came together over seven years, always changing a little at a time. I’m eager to see how this space grows and changes too.

May 12, 2014