Tag: Library

Coulda Woulda Shoulda
Alternate title: Photoshop is Fun!

You saw the library last week, yes? The rug was on loan for a styling competition and it’s already on its way back, but the chairs that were supposed to be temporary are going to stick around for a bit longer. They’ve actually come in handy and the kids really like them! Well, that, and I totally lost the tags and receipt. What’s up, new chairs?

No, I didn’t intend to keep them. I picked them up in the first place because they were:
- the right color
- cute
- in stock
- affordable
- returnable
But also:
- the wrong finish (those silver legs)
- don’t look inviting / right for a library
- too modern / not interesting enough = looks cheap in context
They’re staying, for now, but I wouldn’t hesitate to sell them off at a steep discount. My loss, my mistake.

And here’s the thing. You know how you might kind of suspect something (ooh, those chairs aren’t as good as they could be), and then you have this weird job where your house and everything you do to it and put in it is shown to tens of thousands of people every day?* And then the choice you were least confident is indeed the thing people pick up on and don’t like? Yeah, that.

“They don’t really go with anything in the room and seem like nothing more than a last minute attempt to add a vibrant color to a relatively toned down room as well as looking like they ran out of money right at the end.”

Oof. I know. So here’s a little peek behind the curtain at what I would have really wanted to do for the rug shoot, had time and money not been a factor. (Aren’t those always the deciding factors?)

* Psst: I do love this job. I can take constructive criticism just fine (or worse), so I’m not complaining! Plus there were plenty of lovely, nice, complimentary comments as well. But you have to admit, it is a weird position to be in, right?

First up, the Roadhouse Leather Chair from CB2. I’ve written about these before, and a few other similar options. I would have gone with these, had they been in stock. It’s a lot of brown, but the leather adds a different texture that I like a lot.

Continuing on in that vein, we have another leather option. This time, the Baldwin Armchair from Jayson Home. I wouldn’t have been all that interested, having only seen them on the site, but in person they’re fantastic. Great scale, rich leather, just a nice, versatile chair.

That Eames rocker in the background does not go well with these. Ignore it. (It didn’t make the final shot anyway.)

How about some Wishbone chairs? I’ve always liked the look of them.

Nice, but they’re not really working here. Hoffman Prague chairs instead? Those are great too.

I like those. Definitely more “dining room” than “library” but that’s OK. I was staging it with glasses and plates. Thonet, windsor chairs (and modern interpretations like West Elm’s Scissor Spindle dining chair) — they all have a similar feel, just a tweak to the overall look. We’ve got a lot of mockups happening already here; let’s move on to something different!

Stripes! I may sell the striped sofa at some point (too long for the space). Go with these instead?

I like them, but I don’t love them. Maybe a couple of these hostess wingback chairs from World Market. They’re a little larger, so just a pair instead of four.

The color isn’t really working with that rug. Something darker, but still with some blue to reference the sofa. Like this.

Ah, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of the shoot then, doesn’t it!

OK, we’re getting closer. I like the wingback and I like the upholstery, but it needs to be a different color. Restoration Hardware offers some nice fabric options, and I’m fond of their 1940s Wingback side chair. In blue? Charcoal? Mustard velvet! (OK, I’m probably the only one that really likes mustard/ochre/shades of brown/tons of wood. But so what? I’ll own it if I love it and nobody else does.)

Except those are all custom orders, and they would take too long. Plus, then they’re ours for keeps and whoa whoa whoa, what’s all this talk about commitment?

What’s that, Target? Your cute chairs are $40, the right color, and you have them all in stock ready to go home with me immediately? All right then, sold. And since I’m a scatterbrain lately, they can stay for now. At least it won’t sting too badly when the kids inevitably drop a marker on one of them while coloring — although that only ever seems to happen with the super nice things you pine and save for.

Now on to the important stuff. Which chairs are your favorite? And did you know that after making a bunch of these and coming across a chair I wanted to mockup that didn’t have the necessary alternate angles, I briefly thought I could turn it around in Photoshop so we could see more of the front?
October 7, 2015
Styling Anastasia

This post is sponsored by Loloi.

You remember the blue Journey rug from Loloi that I styled a while back, right? I love the chance to play dress-up with my house, so I was excited about switching things up with another room.

And guess what — this is a competition.

To celebrate the line’s release, Loloi invited eight design bloggers to participate in a styling contest. Super fun, but the best part is that the winner will get a $1000 donation made on his or her behalf to the charity of their choice! A win for me would be a win for Rebuilding Together. They work with low-income homeowners, bettering their houses and their communities at the same time.

The Anastasia collection features traditional rug design elements made modern in scale and in the patterns’ distressing. There are bold colors (indigo, ochre, teal), but they’re tempered by creams and cool silvers. Our library has a whole lot of wood in it, especially from this angle, and the rug adds visual and tactile softness to the room.

Like last time, this rug is not a permanent addition (alas!). Nor are the chairs, which I added to echo the blues in the rug and pick up on the color of the sofa in the next room over. And since it’s a bit of a fiction, I set the table in our home library for dining — even though you guys know we really eat our meals in the dining room.

You have until midnight, October 14 to vote for your favorite room. Hopefully it’s mine (hint, hint) because I’d love the win for my charity, but everyone did an amazing job and chose equally worthy causes. Go check them out!

The Anastasia Rug (AF-07 in Sand/Lt Blue)is available from Wayfair and RugsDirect.

September 30, 2015
Decorating and Perfectionism

I can already hear the snickering at that title (ha, she thinks what she has done is perfect!?), but stick with me.

I’m slowly working toward my overall vision for the house. Certain things (like wallpaper) are on hold until the rewiring of the house has been finished, and the rewiring is on hold until at least after we host a bridal shower here next month. Holes in the walls and ceiling are so distracting at parties, you know?

Because our plan is to be here for a long time, I find myself obsessively fixating on getting things just right. I finally ordered the Dawson pedestal table that I’d had my eye on for over a year. The upside to fixating on certain pieces and keeping track of them is that you’re aware of when they go on sale, so I was able to grab the table at 30% off. I’m kind of kicking myself though for not having bought a pair of Deeda chairs when the pink ones went on clearance a while back. They can still be ordered in that fabric (farrow-strawberry linen), but I didn’t buy them when they were $500 instead of $1500 because I didn’t have the cash on hand at the time, and I’m not going into debt over a couple of chairs.

I borrowed one in the stock fabric so that I could check the scale and photograph it (because hi, I’m a blogger and my job is weird). Through the magic of Photoshop, I turned it into a pair.

Is it really everything I’ve imagined for the past year? Yes and no.

I love the table. I love the chairs with the table, and that farrow-strawberry fabric would be the most beautiful shade of pink for our library. But the chairs are tall, and the pair of Lincoln armchairs in the adjacent room look bitty when viewed together. So, go for the chairs I’d wanted all along, and sell and replace the floor model chairs in the living room? The house has already been photographed for publication — why not switch things up? Or stick with the ones I got, find something else to work with the table in the library, and stop spending so much damn money in pursuit of some silly inflexible vision? The room would still look good. It would still work. It just wouldn’t match what has been in my head.

I’ve been working toward this arbitrary idea of what our home should look like, without taking time to stop and reassess. What has changed? What can I move forward with, and what can I let go?

I’ve been here before. I included these phrases in a post from seven years ago, and they still apply now.

A good idea today is better than a perfect idea tomorrow.

Don’t let best get in the way of better.

Done is better than perfect.

I think that with the first house, there was less pressure. I always knew in the back of my mind that we would move on some day. Instead of ‘perfect’ I would go for the ‘good’ and the ‘done’ with the idea that it might be replaced eventually. It came together over time, and I loved it every step along the way.

And if we were still in that house, no doubt it would already look different.

I’m always aware of what is available and what’s coming on the market, so I’m constantly finding myself drawn to new! next! now! I could create an entire room design around the latest whatever because it’s far easier to pull a room together all at once, but how many of us can realistically do so? Most of us, myself included, are decorating over time, which means that your vision has time to grow and change. We create cohesion and a home that reflects our style while leaving room for things that may not even exist yet. In theory, each new piece for your home should bring you closer to the finish line, but in practice, that line is always moving.

We’ve lived here for almost two years. That’s crazy to me! The time has gone by so quickly. I’m coming out of the fog of caring for an infant as the baby gets a little older (and a little easier), and I’m excited that I’ve got this big old lovely house here just waiting for me to go nuts with it. Time to revisit my initial vision for the home, reassess, and move forward. Even if it isn’t perfect, it can still be pretty damn good.

June 25, 2015
More Light for the Library

This post and giveaway are sponsored by GE reveal^®.

We’ve come to the last of four #100reveal makeovers in four weeks, using just $100 from Target each time, plus GE reveal^® LED light bulbs. I’ve had a total of $4000 in Target gift cards and plenty of GE reveal^® lighting to give away too, so that each week, 10 readers win everything they need for their own #100reveal makeovers at home! I’ve already shown the changes I’ve made to the dining room, my work space, and our playroom as part of this series, and the library is the fourth and final space, so let’s get to it!

What the room needed most was more light. The secretary desk that I’d added recently was fine to use during the day, but once it got dark out, that corner of the room was in shadow. I used half of my Target budget this week to buy a brass floor lamp, and then used the other half for a couple of vases that were on sale.

I arranged the vases on top of the secretary for a bit more height, and I like that their colors reference the wall color of the entryway just beyond the doorframe. Of course, as nice as those vases are, the biggest change in the library was the addition of the much-needed floor lamp.

The other floor lamp in the room, next to the floral chair, had two CFL bulbs in it. Their light was always very yellow, so I swapped them out for GE reveal^® LED bulbs. The dingy color they cast was gone, and the pattern in the chair was much more vibrant in the new lighting. Even the books on the shelves looked better!

You can see more of the library’s #100reveal makeover in this week’s video.

Giveaway

How would you set up a reading spot of your own using GE reveal^® and a $100 gift card to Target? Comment on this post mentioning #100reveal for your chance to win!

There will be ten winners drawn. See the complete rules for more information, and good luck!

I’m so excited to be a GE reveal^® #100reveal sponsored blogger. Opinions are my own, projects have been chosen by me, and additional products used in the project were selected by me and provided by GE reveal^®.

March 17, 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
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