(This series of posts charts Jennifer and Drew's progress as they give their home The Cure. Jennifer and Drew live in Brooklyn and began their Cure in this post.)
The goals we have set for our apartment seem to have unconsciously reflected where we hope to go with our lives.
We are very close to having the dining room we want - one where we can have relaxed, going-til-all-hours dinner parties but also feel like dinner is an event when it's just us. Other than that, we hope to take big leaps in our home-based business this year, and I want to apply for a Master's degree.
Our son will start walking any minute and needs to have safe space to play with easy pathways to toddle through. And now that he has a schedule, our bedroom can be a refuge again just for us. I don't want to feel so overwhelmed by the minutae of life, but to set up systems that make everything function with less effort.
New Dining Room
We painted the dining room and bookcases white and the dining room seems to be breathing for the first time since we've lived here. My husband, wielder of tools, switched out the near-baroque ceiling fan with a globe pendant lamp we bought on sale at Chiasso, along with a doormat that we hope will set a good tone. (We're still not 100% on the lamp but it's growing on us; let me know what you think).
Exceedingly Dull Bathroom
Three more boxes of books went out, six bags of clothing are waiting to be dropped off at Goodwill. We moved my laundry basket from an old wicker trunk to my closet (which I also organized), so the trunk can be sold or donated. I filed a mess of papers and threw out a whole other mess of them, and we replaced our broken, ridiculous toilet seat. A lot of twenty picture frames won on Ebay (I finally have good Ebay karma because that never happens) will be arriving shortly.
Dull Hallway
We are slowly finding the heart of each room -- we're getting there with the living room, dining room and foyer.
Our son's room is basically done but needs some organization and donation of outgrown items. This leaves us with the exceedingly boring hallway, the even more boring bathroom, and our bedroom, which is not boring but in a bad way -- see previously mentioned chaos.
Bedroom not yet done
We have some ideas for the hallway, but anyone's two cents are welcome. As for the bathroom, we really don't know where to start, other than to admit that "Child Safety" is not a style of decor. The main thing tripping us up is choosing a paint color that will work with the terra cotta colored tiles the last owner installed. I guess what that really means is we're not sure how to make the bathroom a cool place to get ready in the morning and relax in the bath or shower.
See you next week. - Jennifer
Whoa! I'd liked your red wall, but the white looks terrific. The lamp looks good -- certainly better than the ceiling fan -- and you didn't spend a fortune on it, so you can always swap in something ultra-inspiring when you happen on it.
On the bathroom... I'd go somewhere with a large selection of bath linens. Grab two towels: one white and one the dominant brown of your floor. Now, stroll around and find two more towels. Don't worry about the quality of the towels -- these are just big, fluffy paint chips. One is any light-to-medium color that looks good with the first two towels and doesn't make you look ill when held next to your face. The second is an accent color that goes with all three other towels and amuses you. (You will actually buy some towels in this fourth color, eventually.)
Buy a washcloth from Towel #3 and use it to find a paint chip strip as near that color as possible. Depending on the lighting in your bathroom, you may want to go lighter or darker on the strip -- but that's your wall color.
Why go through this rigamarole instead of just looking at paint chips? (1) It's concrete and hands-on. (2) It guarantees you'll be able to buy coordinating towels! (3) It lets you deal with having to pick up or play down the tones in the terra cotta, before you commit to paint.
Your bathroom has plenty of potential. To enjoy baths, get rid of the sliding door and put in a curtain. That way you can loop it up out of the way while you relax in the tub. The curtain can also contribute to the warming (colorwise) of the space.
Great job! For the #2 baby room picture, I would suggest slipcover for the toy shelf like these http://www.organize-everything.com/covstorclos2.html or you could try to make one like this http://www.cottageliving.com/cottage/homes/article/0,21135,1150860,00.html.
First, great job, it's so brave to let everyone in to your home!
Second, I'm obsessed with your hallway, thinking about what I would do in your place.
What ideas do you have for the hallway? It looks like such a challenge for painting---so many transitions, two different types of doorways, etc. If more than one color was involved (from room to room), where would one start and another begin? Skip it altogether and keep it white?
As I study the pic, I just want to reach out and put a gorgeous runner down that hallway floor. And it just occured to me--is that linen closet at the end original or a dated add-on? Is it insane to remove it entirely? Could you live without that storage and gain a less doorway-museum space? With that unit gone, there'd be a clean wall-canvas for a beautiful piece of furniture (a small cabinet with linen storage below perhaps) and art.
This is gonna bug me all day, in a good way!