A Room with Another View..

It has been so nice to hear all the positive comments on my blog so far.  There have been quite a few requests for more pictures though so here you go….

Here is my inspiration room.  I loved the sophisticated color of Sara’s room but as I mentioned I just couldn’t get there with the match so I went with another neutral that I am truly happy with.  I so love Sara’s room in its entirety (especially the sofa) but I did not want my room to be quite as feminine so her room is truly an inspiration room – my goal was not to simply copy it but infuse some of her elements into my style.  I stole her accents of red idea – a color choice I never would have added on my own and it really does bring some punch to both of our rooms.

This is the front side of my room before:

It’s hard to see but, there was a built-in wooden valance above the windows.  The afternoon of day I closed on the house I left the lawyers office and drove directly to my new house.  One of the first things I did that afternoon was to remove the valance (and the hundreds of screws holding it up) and take the very dusty curtains down.  I left the window shades in place for privacy until I had decided on what I was going to install for blinds.  My room stayed that way for a while – a good long while during which I tested paint sample after paint sample….

These are the front windows now:

I have installed wood blinds in the rest of my house so I was a bit concerned about installing the cellular shades here but I really wanted the ability to close the blinds for privacy yet open them wide to let the light in.  This room gets tons of sun so I really wanted to let it shine in.

I don’t seem to have any before pictures of the other side of my living room but I am confident given the other pictures I have shared you can easily imagine the before shot.  Here is the after:

The door is my front door and there is a small vestibule between it and the outdoors – it was a faded brown color when I moved in kind of like baking chocolate that has been sitting too long and has that white coating. Not attractive!  My first plan was just to replace the door with a French door but I was a bit concerned with the lack of privacy as well as keeping heat in during those cold winter months here in Boston. 

So, while mulling my door issue over I happened upon a picture in a Serena & Lily catalog (love, love, love their linens) that gave me the inspiration to do something similar to my door. 

I have to say I love it now, I never thought a little paint would make such a difference but it really does help balance the window on the opposite wall (from last post picture).

So, that’s the finished product in its entirety.

One Room Down...

Ok, so I bought a little bungalow house 2 ½ years ago that while needing some serious updating was structurally a solid as one could ask for of a 1929 house.  Now, when I say it was like walking into 1972 I am not exaggerating even a little bit.  It was clean and well cared for but gold, green & brown were EVERYWHERE!  The kitchen, 2nd floor hall & basement had gold cabinets and woodwork, there was green & gold pineapple wallpaper in the kitchen, dining room and hallways (yes plural) and the carpet in the living room was seriously 1970's brown (although I think it was fairly new).  I knew this house would be charming when done but I also knew it would take a lot of elbow grease to get there.  The only real tragic room when I moved in was the bathroom and while I have done quite a bit of work on the bathroom it is not quite finished yet. 

Well, this weekend a momentous event passed – I finished my first room where it is actually fully complete.  I can’t believe it, from the 13 sample paints I purchased (my walls looked like a patchwork quilt for months) to pulling up the carpet, it’s done.   Yes 13 paint samples,   I do realize that is nuts but as I mentioned in my prior post I am a bit obsessive and couldn’t quite get the color right. A few years ago, I had seen a beautiful picture in Southern Living of Sara Blakely’s oh so elegant living room (for those who may not know, she is the creator of Spanx) and was obsessed with knocking it off.   I was aiming for this warm taupey-champagne color but after my 11^th sample that wasn’t even close ended up scrapping that plan and went with Benjamin Moore Truffle instead. 

I painted walls, ceiling, door, woodwork, removed the decorative window shell, installed crown molding, pulled carpet, buffed floors, laid a new area rug (another story all together – not so easy to put down a 100 pound rug by yourself and get it straight…), removed a custom wood valance and heavy dated drapes and installed new blinds, hung pictures and had to figure out furniture placement in a very odd shaped room (10x20).  All in all, I am very pleased with the finished product.

So, now I can sit back and relax in my totally refurbished living room right???  Unfortunately, not so much.  8 more rooms to go….luckily I do have most of these rooms are in various stages of renovation so hopefully the next one will be completed soon.  Dining room completion is right around the corner…

For now here are the before and after of my livingroom:

Before:

After:

Begin the begin..

Ok so here goes….

I’m very new to this “blog-o-sphere” world and generally a very private person who does not put it all out there but I have deemed 2011 the year of change in my world so I’ve made a decision to move forward with something that has been in my mind for literally years.  I don’t know how it’s all going to work and I don’t deal well with failure (especially a public failure) but I’ve finally accepted that by not even trying that automatically defaults to failure and I’m really not ok with that so I’m moving into this very public forum and pushing forward.

I am not a jump two feet first without looking kind of girl so this journey may seem to crawl at a snail’s pace but as long as it’s moving ahead I’m ok with that.  I’m an analyzer, muller, idea processor (ok, obsessor – I know not really a word) – and believe me when I tell you I’ve been analyzing, mulling, processing for a while now.  I will share more details as they unroll but for now all I really have that is somewhat concrete is the name…Babiole de Windsor.  What do you think?  It means baubles of Windsor in French – very international of me right?

Again, I imagine this journey to be slow and thought out so I’ll keep y’all entertained with some other fun random things along the way too (some of my fav places to go, new interesting spots, and likely updates on my ongoing house projects - they are never ending!).

Ta for now

PS:  oh yea, I have no idea what I am doing with all of this so it should be a very interesting journey J