Stripey hallway — almost done! August 26, 2009

Here are some views of the latest odds and ends I’ve done in the fabulous striped hallway. Got an INCREDIBLE rich teal blue silk velvet remnant at Osgood’s for $24.00 (!!!!), and have temporarily hung it with temporary clips on a rod with glass finials (Big Lots — $15.00). Also got a cool drape pulling rod (Big Lots, $5.00). Have to sew the drape up properly with hem and lining (I’m thinking shocking orange liner), and have settled on having the one drape only (since that’s all there was for the remnant and it was such a good deal).

Got a mirrored top for the table at ABC Glass ($35.00, custom cut — thank heavens I got the measurements right for once — I usually write the measurements down then mistrust what I’ve written and add a few inches to things for no reason), and will be getting same for top of armoire (in hopes of it reflecting some light into that very dark corner).

Cute little “PAID” stamp bank came from Savers (‘natch) for $3.99.

I went through FIVE paint colors and “custom blends” before I found the one that is up there now. It’s Pratt & Lambert’s “erica” (my name), so how could I resist? Plus, I like it.

Have to decide if I really want to hang the picture that’s leaning against the wall. But those are the last few things — oh, and the polka-dot lampshades. I ordered some from Lamps Plus. I hope I like them, because they were $10.00 each plus $15.00 shipping, so I’ll be out a pretty penny if I hate them and have to send them back….

This is the little sample pot (all I needed) of “erica” by P&L paints.

Painting the radiator.

Radiator, oh radiator. You are so much more lovely in white.

The lovely, lovely blue fabric, with the neat curtain puller thingy.

One side of the armoire papered. Still wet.

Not exactly doorknobs. These are hooks from Job Lots ($1.99 each), but they’re really spiffy!

Eeek! Several of the paint colors and why they weren’t working.

Ta da! The armoire papered and painted. Awfully nice, if I do say so myself!

View of the lovely blue drape beside the armoire.

Armoire in its natural state, somewhat the worse for wear.

Lovely mirrored table top for horribly warped, water damaged table top.

Dining room — Winter 2006 August 21, 2009

I decided to re-do my dining room over the Christmas break of 2006. During the work, I came down with a terrible cold, but soldiered on and completed the papering and painting in about a week. The room was all white (as was everything). There had been a door on the wall opposite the fireplace that led into a small empty room (now the butler’s pantry). Having that door there made no wall large complete enough to hold a buffet (two windows on one wall, fireplace on another, and pocket doors to the living room on the third). So friends helped cover up that door (also made for much more room for cabinetry in the butler’s pantry, q.v.) in 2004 or 2005 (lost photo years, sadly).

The wall was very very bumpy where the door had been, and I knew that foil wallpaper would help disguise it. I got this fabulous wallpaper from ebay — it’s a Van Luit, Winterthur collection item. Gold foil with black and white partridges and other birds. I did a lincrusta-esque paper on the bottom, with a lincrusta chair rail. Painted the ceiling the same metallic gold (Ralph Lauren at Home Depot) as in the living room. White trim is also same from living room (also R.L. at the Depot).

Will post some more detailed/close up after photos soon.

Before: the wall of art on ex-door wall

Before: hard to have eaten in this all-white room. Tried to disguise white with paintings and crowded furniture, but it was still there… white…

Note how flat the wall looks due to wallpaper’s incredible structural properties…

Wall where there once was a door, then there were lots of paintings.

More of same

After: Windows, radiator cabinet.

What a coat of Quick Shine will do!

Another view of paper and fireplace

After: Gold ceiling, flash reflected in gold wallpaper, cleaned up fireplace mantel, waxed floor

A favorite corner August 20, 2009

I’ve always loved this little corner of my house. I adore this funny little table-with-built-in-lamp (flea market find). The painting on the wall is a favorite (from an auction, probably cost $10.00), the one on the table is by my grandfather, and I’ve had it since I was a little kid. I just got it framed and think the framing shows it off very nicely. Found the shiny orange dish at Savers and got the dog statue in a box lot at the Golden Gavel. These are some of my favorite things! It makes me so happy every time I walk past this happy little corner, and even happier now with the stripey wallpaper.

Happy corner

Office>Bar>Office August 20, 2009

When I first moved into my house, I was co-owner of a web-design business, and we decided to locate it in this room of my house. The company folded and I eventually made the room into a bar. I stopped drinking a few years ago, and am curtailing large parties that need a full bar to be a party, so I decided to turn the room back into an office for my accent modification business.

Like all the other rooms in my house, it was 100% white when I moved in (well, except for the brick wall). Hard to find any white today. I can’t find any early early photos (so sad to have lost all of those with the loss of the computer…), but there are some photos from when it was a bar on this site.

So here it is today. I had the big ungainly radiator removed and replaced with a daintier model from the basement. Just painted the big white spot (the paint is still wet!). It’s so hard to take photos in this room because it’s on the darkish side (just the way I like it). The colors are quite lovely, but they do look rather garish in the flash.

Some of the highlights of this room: drapes — I got the fabric at a going out of business sale for about $10.00. Monkey chandelier and sconces. Sink (from bar days) designed and built by New England School of Architectural Woodworking students. Marble shelf over bar is an old fireplace mantel bought at a salvage yard, and marble sink top was pieced together out of marble scraps; Italian faucet and basin from ebay. Fabulous couch was a free gift from a neighbor who didn’t want to pay for reupholstering it (it was scratched up 1980’s green ick). The reupholstering (it’s velvet on the black parts — very rich) was pricey, but worth it. Red wing chairs cost $10 each at a thrift store. Fabulous desk was $100 on ebay.

Future plans: I want to paint the outside edge of the shelves with a dark navy, and possibly add a gold pinstripe. Also need to add to my Hindu and Buddhist statuary collection

Here are the photos!

Monkey sconce in corner

Maybe I’m a Batman villian? The room isn’t really crooked.

This photo was taken at 6:00 PM in the summer — basically full daylight…

During: new radiator is in, showing how white the wall was. Eeek!

Skunkie shows off the lovely paisley rug

During: first coat of paint is on

After: small radiator and painted wall

BEFORE: giant radiator of doom

View from the desk with fresh paint and small radiator

Desk, shelves, sink and marble shelf

Jerome shows his enthusiasm for painting project

The supervisor

Downstairs Hallway/Entrance TRANSFORMED August 16, 2009

When I first moved into my house in 2002, I decided to do the ground floor first — kitchen, half-bath, and what was then (and has now become again) my office. It took about six months, but it happened. All of the hallways in my house had a charming but very old and dingy brocadey green wallpaper. It was in really super dingy shape here on the first floor, so I had it removed and had the bare plaster walls painted a neutral beige color, a la restoration hardware catalog. So the hallway was beige with black and white accents. It was really cute for a couple of years, but the wall color turned dingy after just a few years. I also have a rising damp problem in one corner (which was less of a problem with the paper there; I believe it was keeping it down to some degree).

So anyway, I have just finished papering it. I got York paper — a classic black and white stripe. And did it on the ceiling too! It looks fabulous, if I do say so myself. I still have a few odds and ends to finish. Please enjoy the wallpapered ADT circuit box, and the wallpapered switchplate cover.

THANK YOU to my good friends Ann and Liz who helped me do the ceilings — and without whom the ceiling would have been a huge disaster. The cat and dog helped a lot, too.

This was a two-day project. On day one I moved all the furniture and did the short part of the ceiling and the walls directly under the short part of the ceiling. On day two, I did the rest of the walls and the longer ceiling parts with my friends. I’m still deciding what to do about the furniture, so that will be another day’s worth of work (painting and papering) once I decide. Also need a radiator cabinet (and will paper that).

Enjoy the transformation!!!

After: This is what the ceiling looks like if you faint from vertigo and are prone on the floor

Before: Hallway and downstairs entry door

After: The supervisor is satisfied with a job well done. :)

During: First wall is papered.

After: Hallway and downstairs entry door

During: Graceful yardstick usage.

During: My clever damp fixing technique

Before: Damp issue

During: Jerome, supervising

Before: Rising damp, falling plaster, peeling paint

After: Hallway going towards the kitchen

Before: Hallway towards kitchen

After: Can you find the switch plate cover?

During: The first piece of paper is up!

Before: Hallway with water stained ceiling

During: Ceiling partly papered

During: Trimming the final piece of ceiling paper

During: Skunkie is also supervising

During: That g.d. medalion was so hard to paper around!

During: Wall under stairs

Before: Corner under stairs

Jerome, Jerome, Jerome August 13, 2009

Here are some gratuitous photos of Jerome. But he’s so cute!!!

Hallways — carpeted August 13, 2009

This photo shows the late great Grigio the Cat (rest in peace, little grige) hanging her head in shame over the indoor-outdoor grotesquely stained carpet that covered the hallways when I first moved in, in 2002.

Gross!!! I lived with them for a few years, then with the help of friends (I have really, really good friends), pulled up the carpet and had professionals come in and sand and stain the floors.

Things found under the carpet: original linoleum (which decomposed upon being touched), keys, razor blades (?), and old newspapers from the 1930s (kept those).

Gross carpeted hallway

Butler’s Pantry August 13, 2009

In 2006, my old computer died. I was write in the midst of writing my thesis, and I was able to recover that (thanks to Jim, Mac-man extrodinaire!). BUT all my home photos from 2002 — 2006 were lost. Every now and then I find old discs which I hope will contain some older house photos. Sometimes they do, but more often than not, they don’t.

So you’re just going to have to take my word for what the house looked like in its “before” state. Except for the hallways (which remain papered in the cute, but exhausted green brocadey paper), everything that was not the floor in this house was white. EVERYTHING — the walls, the ceilings, the doors, the trim, the baseboards.

The butler’s pantry was no exception. In fact, it wasn’t a butler’s pantry, just a white room. There had been a door to the dining room, but my friendly neighborhood work crew blocked that up, then we installed the retro shelving. I had a plumber put in the plumbing for the all-in-one unit that had formerly lived in the basement kitchen (somewhere along the way the fridge stopped working, though). My friends and I did the electricity for the stove. I hired someone to install the tin ceiling. I installed the cork flooring. My friend Liz (wife of Mac-man Jim) and I installed the Lincrusta and the Burrows hand-blocked wallpaper. I hired someone to install glass in and re-orient the door to the BP (it used to open the other way, and it was impossible to get food from the BP to the dining room. The countertops are slate. Everyone says it looks like it’s always been here.

View to hallway from BP

Cork flooring, plywood subfloor, no threshold in yet

Wall over stove-fridge-sink unit. Lincrusta and wallpaper

Wall where door used to be

Cork tiles

Nice marble threshold

Door to BP. Stripped, stained, glass added, and re-oriented

Tin ceiling and funky pendant lamp

I really wish I had those before pictures, because this is a most amazing transformation.

Bar (before) August 13, 2009

Until very recently, I have had a home bar. I do (or at least used to do) a lot of entertaining in my big house, and used to host an annual neighborhood party for between 50 — 125 people. The home bar came in very handy for such events. A few years ago I quit drinking (but not entertaining), so the room was only used every few months. Recently, I decided to move my business from an office downtown to my home (nearly downtown), as the majority of my work is done at the workplace of clients or over the Internet.

The best room to become an office seemed, to me, to be the largely unused bar. So from Monkey Bar to Monkey Business, the room is evolving. These are some before photos of the room. The orange walls and red ceiling and wainscotting, plus the severe darkness (it’s a London-level half-below-ground room) make it seem horrendously glaringly orange, but it’s much nicer in person.

Wall of glasses and shakers

Gratuitous photo of Jerome

Wine fridge and phone stand