Entry Progress

A long time ago, my mom told me that I should write a book. And I clearly remember telling her I couldn't write a book because I didn't have anything to say. It's been kind of like that with this blog. I haven't had much to say (though I did consider boring you with several rambling posts about my foster kittens...which still might happen). Overall, life has been really good. Really full, happy, hectic at times, but mostly status quo. Laura's and my interior design company has continued to be a dream come true, with steady projects and sweet clients. (The problem of course with a business blog is that there's plenty to say, but no time leftover to say it!)

Now, all of a sudden, it's December and Christmas is upon us, and I have much to tell you. So unless life goes off the rails, you can expect a few posts this month!

The first bit of exciting news is that I feel like we're actually making progress on our Entry project! We are not nearly finished, of course, but enough construction is done or underway that it's starting to feel different. Like, good different. 

Here's a look back at where we started:

Yikes, it was even worse than I remember!

That's how it looked in progress, and here's the current state:

We have replaced the ugly brown bifold closet doors with a single door, and completely remodeled the interior of the closet. You may remember I had hoped to use a single panel door style, but through a series of unfortunate events (i.e. ordering and returning multiple doors), it became clear that Home Depot couldn't match the detailing of our 5-panel doors in a single panel style. So, we just stuck with the same door used in the rest of the house. 

You may also remember I was in love with unlacquered brass doorknobs from Rejuvenation. But, the rational side of me and the reality of our bank account won out. The style throughout our house is $30 per knob and the Rejuvenation knobs are $180 each. It was really no contest. We still have to install it.

The new inside of the closet is so wonderfully functional! We have two glorious rows of hooks, 12 in total, as this is our main entry to the house and our main dumping ground for winter coats, backpacks and boots.

Inside the closet is a small section where hanging coats are tucked away. I love how the coats don't hit you right in the face when you open the door. Plenty of shelves and these cute bins give us tons of storage. Organizing the bins when they first arrived was such a happy day!

And we got a new rug! The last one was pretty, but it was very thin so it slid around like crazy no matter the rug pad. This one is sturdy and durable for all the heavy traffic.

I also worked with my mom to have a couple pieces from her house shipped to me from California. My wish list included an antique dresser with drawer space for hats & mittens. It dawned on both of us that my old childhood dresser, an antique passed down from a great aunt, was exactly what I'd been looking for. And my mom generously offered to give me one of my favorite items of hers, an elaborate Ethan Allen mirror, along with the dresser. For $200 I had the two of them shipped, which was less than I would have spent on Craigslist to find something with none of the sentimental value. Not only do I love the mirror, but it's sooo my mom with the gardening motif on top. She used to own a landscape design business. So, mom's stuff for the win!

I'm excited for the day I can style this surface with something other than tools.

I've been in the throws of another wallpaper crisis, as I realized the Caitlin Wilson buffalo check I had my heart set on would clash badly with my office rug (which is visible from the entry). Having two overly similar bold black and white geometric patterns together would be a huge no-no. So, I tried a long time to find a wallpaper I loved as much. In the end I just can't shake my need for the buffalo check so I bought a new office rug! At the time we did the office, I knew the IKEA rug would only have a trend-life of like 6 months, so it's way past time anyway. The new one is not here yet so fingers crossed it works. I'll show you when I have it!

The remodel of the staircase is underway. I ripped up the carpet on the lower stairs to reveal--get this-- treads! What luck in a 1991 house! So, that's a huge money savings. Unfortunately, the landing is plywood so I'm stalled at this point until I can research what needs to happen there. 

We'll be replacing the entire railing with a more historic (and beefy) style, staining the treads a bit darker and painting most everything else white.

And speaking of paint, we need a lot of it. The whole entry and ceiling still needs to be painted. But that's a long way off. 

Still on the to-do list is to complete the trim and baseboards. Here's a close up look at the incomplete trim on the playroom side of this doorway:

I'm sure by now you're wondering what that giant blue cross is on the ceiling. Well, at some point Ryan mentioned to me that our light fixture was "off-center." How did I not notice this? It's not only off center, it's off everything! He now wishes with all his heart that he'd kept his mouth shut, because he's going to have to move it. The X marks the spot where the new fixture will be located, and it will be centered on both the front door and the closet door. Ah, yes. That will be much better.

As for fixtures, I've searched high and low for just the right thing. It had to be flush or semi-flush thanks to our short 8' ceilings. Are there any more unstylish lights on the planet than these? The answer is no. After hours of scouring I was able to find several options I actually liked, but almost all of them were $500 and up. Blerg! But, I think I have a solution and it's in the mail...fingers crossed and more on that another day. 

What else can I tell you? I think that rounds it up. Feels like the finish line is in sight but there are still so many little things to do. Not the least of which is tearing out a ceiling to rewire electrical and completely rebuilding a staircase. So you might not hear more on this until next Christmas (oh I hope that's not true...)

A couple more views before I say goodbye. This is the view of the entry from the other direction, when you're in my kitchen's eating area:

That's the basement door above. You can see what the doorknobs look like. Here is a look at the same hallway but at the wall opposite the basement door:

There's my office to the left (where the plant is). The basket holds shoes, and the light switch and doorbell need their covers back. And it all needs paint. So. much. paint. Here is the view of the entry from my office:

Goodbye rug!

Ryan and his trusty helper...

Doorknob under way!

Whew, I thought this was going to be short and sweet. Guess I had more to say than I even knew! Thanks for reading - I know this is going to sound weird since these conversations are kinda one-sided, but I really feel like we get to catch up when I write them! The last time I posted so many of you wrote to say how good it was to hear from me, and you will never know how encouraging and wonderful that was. I truly love you for reading this, whether we've only met once, or still have yet to meet. THANK YOU for hanging out with me here, however sporadic I may be about writing.

Talk to you soon!

Death by Legos

So, I'm pretty sure I'll be preaching to the choir if you're the mom of a grade-school aged boy (or Heaven help you, more than one grade-school aged boy), but I'm pretty sure that Legos are going to be the end of me fairly soon.

If I don't bleed out from the gaping foot wounds they inflict at night, I will definitely succumb from mental anguish over the sheer volume of the little beasts! The rate at which they are consuming our available remaining floor space is shocking. They're like block-shaped carpet-locusts.

When we first remodeled our boys' room in 2013 PB (that's "pre-blog"), I thought that a few wall shelves and a dresser top would be plenty of storage and display space for a Lego collection. Ha. Silly Laura. 2016 laughs at you.

My breaking point came this weekend. As I stood in the doorway to the room and surveyed the landscape, there was no end in sight. Piles, stacks, battles, bases, lost Chi, dismembered Kai, X-wings with broken wings, Emmett missing his pants. And it's not fair, really, for the boys to have nowhere to put these creations they spend so much time on. Elaborate sets are left to the perils of the carpet, where they are stepped on and crushed, never to be resurrected (see previous note about my foot wounds). The Lego population had to be dealt with.

These photos only scratch the surface- they were snapped after we cleaned half of them up...

Shudder. In totally uncharacteristic fashion, I did a quick online search for a bookcase, barely measured, called the store and held it, drove over, didn't see it in person, bought it for a whopping $330 (which I NEVER spend, and especially not on a whim), and wrestled it back in the house all in the span of a couple hours.

World Market Emerson Shelving

Much to Ryan's delight, he got to spend the remainder of his weekend assembling it and rearranging wall shelves (with the ensuing patching & repainting of NINE holes in the wall) to accommodate it. I spent the remainder of my weekend organizing the entire boys' room, cleaning it top to bottom, and sorting my little locust-nemeses with glee.

I could NOT be more pleased. This bookcase is a monster size, but it looks just right in the room. It has deep, wide shelves, perfect for showing off the Kylo Ren Command Shuttle and keeping it not-decimated. The wood is beautiful, the metal perfectly coordinates with the grey on the beadboard, and it is such a cool design for kids because-- get this-- foot rail and handles! They are actually allowed to climb the furniture to reach the top shelf (thank you, industrial-strength wall anchors). And it's manly enough to make the transition into the teen years.

For a brief moment I entertained fantasies that the bookcase would be styled just so...

...buuuut it basically just looks like the mess has migrated.

Still, I'm declaring victory because at least they're not on the floor. And I took the opportunity to photograph the room for posterity, since I've never done it, and since for this one brief moment it is free and clear of debris!

Ahhhh. Look at that glorious expanse of carpet. SANITY RESTORED. I WIN LEGOS!!!

Entry Remodeling

Hi!!

Dude, it has been forever. I've missed you. I've missed blogging. It's so fun, but there is noooo time for it anymore. (I actually don't think there ever was, but I've decided sleep is a necessary thing if I'm going to live long enough to raise these kids through college...)

Anyway! We have been chugging along on some house projects...and if nothing else, I NEED to keep this blog as a record of the changes we make to this dated '91 fixer-upper we call home. We are currently in full-on assault mode trying to conquer the plastic brown baseboards and doors throughout this place.

My current focus is our entry.

This was its sad state last fall, before the One Room Challenge (and a generous gift from Ryan's parents) gave us the kick we needed to replace these front doors:

Since that update, the first room of our home that greets you is looking 100% better. But you know how it is...you change one thing and then it makes the things around it look even worse. So, we are now working on updating the architecture in the rest of the entry to match the prettiness of the front doors.

In addition to upping the pretty in this space, we need to upgrade the efficiency. Since we don't yet have a mudroom (still holding out hope for someday), our front entry needs to bear the sole burden of organizing five people's winter gear. This means we need a hardworking storage piece (like a dresser), and to re-work the tiny closet so that it actually has room to hold stuff, and doesn't just end up with piles dumped on the floor. A bonus of this necessary re-working is the opportunity to change from a bi-fold to a single door style on the closet.

Tangent. It's easy to get caught up in trends and it's especially easy for me to be all over the board, style-wise. I therefore decided that to stay consistent, architecturally speaking, we are going to stick to the style of my late grandma Kate's house. (The house was on Avery Street, whereby this blog came to its name, in case you ever wondered)! Her home was built in 1910, and though I wish that I had more pictures, I do have records of the staircase railing, mantles, doors, doorknobs and baseboards. And we are using that general style of architecture to determine the updates we make here in our house. All that to say, houses built in 1910 did NOT have bi-fold doors on the closets.

Kate's Entry

Kate's house is the perfect inspiration. She had boss architecture, a mix of mid-century and antique furniture, and patterned wallpaper all over the place. (She also had a blue room that would make Dorothy Draper proud, and it's my goal in life to replicate it, but that's a post for another day).

Alright, so, back to our entry. With Kate's architecture in mind as inspiration, and a goal of making it pretty and functional, here is my wish list:

- New closet door
- Update all trim and baseboards
- Closet interior reorganization
- Dresser with mirror
- Wallpaper somehow!
- Rip up staircase carpet & refinish stair and railing
- New light fixture
- PAINT.

Here is a tour of the entry in its current state (shudder):

Greeting you is a sad and dingy staircase. Luckily, you won't notice it because the dog (looking uncharacteristically calm and angelic in this photo) has just hysterically tackled you with excitement upon your arrival. 

Next to the staircase, against the only wall space in the entry, is a P.O.J. (that's polite for P.O.S.) wardrobe I bought on Craigslist for my daughter's Narnia birthday party last fall. We cut the back out of it and painted it so the kids could all climb through to enter Narnia. Awesome as a birthday party prop; Not so awesome as an enormous waste of space in the entry of our house. It'll either be relegated to the curb or the garage when I can find a dresser that is a better scale for this wall.

As you can spy along the staircase, our wall art needs some updating. ;) I am happy to report though that the baseboards are coming along nicely. It used to be a skinny ugly brown plastic-ish trim, so the new white beefy boards look amazing in comparison. They still need to be caulked and painted.

If you step through our front door and look left, the entry opens to our playroom. Ryan is in the process of trimming out the door with this simple door trim style, and still needs to add the little crown molding at the top. The trim also needs caulk and paint.

To the right after you walk in the front door is the closet we are remodeling, and then past that is my office. If you were to walk straight back instead of going into the office, you'd go to our dining area and kitchen. 

This is a view looking back at the entry while sitting at our dining table:

That door, which goes to our basement, was very recently a slab textured brown wood (hideous) with a gold lever doorknob. Since this is the spot I drink coffee every morning, this lovely new door has literally changed my outlook on life. It makes me so happy every day! It too is still in need of the crown on the trim, and caulk, and paint. 

You also get a good view here of the light fixture. In a weird way, I like it. But it's way too small and our movers smacked it with a couch when we arrived here, a blow from which it never fully recovered.

Alright, so that's where we are at. Oh, and I didn't even give you a proper close-up of the massive holes in the staircase drywall, left over from the Baby Gate Era. It's bad. So add a lot of patching to the wish list.

On to the dream! Here's a look at a few pictures inspiring the design:

Source: Planete Deco

Source: Studio McGee

Source: Elle Decor

Source: Design*Sponge

Source: Jennifer Barron Interiors

Source: Design*Sponge

I realize there's quite a variance of styles among those pictures. But once you pinpoint some common elements, and extract a favorite or two from each, it's not hard to create a mix that works. 

My entry moodboard so far:

Mirror  |  Dresser  |   Lantern  |  Basket  |  Rug  |  Crystal Knob  |  Brass Knob  |  Umbrella Stand  |  Wallpaper  |  Hook  |  Flowers

It's equal parts Brooklyn Brownstone and Modern Farmhouse, while being grounded in the pre-war style of architecture from Kate's house. We have some preppy elements (like blue and white Chinoiserie jars), antique touches (mirror and dresser), and there's even a nod to Kate's mid-century style with that graphic check wallpaper (not sure I can actually commit to it, but I love it). 

I agonized over the doorknob decision for the closet and the basement door. I am using the 5-panel door style throughout the house, but because I am easily bored, I really wanted the closet door to be a different style. I also didn't want the exact same doorknobs as the front door- so those could really shine- and the design ADD in me was rearing up and rebelling against using the same knobs we are doing in the upstairs half of the house. AND, all those inspiration pictures have me drooling over unlacquered brass. But how do you do three different door styles in one entry, two different paint treatments (because you know I'd love a dark closet door), and two or more different doorknob styles?! Most people would not even attempt this, and would keep things matching to keep it safe. Aaaand that's why my husband will probably get ulcers. I'm definitely opposed to playing it safe. I'd rather play it whatever way makes me jump up and down when the UPS box arrives.

Again, as a starting point, I scoured my photos of Kate's house to find her doorknob style.

Elongated back plate, simple knob, and though it's aged for sure, I'd be willing to bet those were brass to begin with. Unlacquered brass for the win! Her style is a bit too ornate for our modern construction house though, so I found a simpler version from Rejuvenation. I think they sit beautifully with the existing front door and upstairs knobs, look great with dark or white paint, and go well with every door style in the running:

Entry Door  |  Crystal Knob  |  Navy Paint  |  One-Panel Door  |  Brass Knob  |  

5-Panel Door  |  White Paint

The only problem? An utterly outrageous price point. None of you are surprised I'm sure. So after all that distress about the style decision, I'm left with two options. One, continue my upstairs knobs (which are $30 a piece and are quite cute) but die inside just a tiny bit, or Two, save in a major way somewhere else and splurge on these knobs for 5x the price (so wrong) but have my heart skip a happy beat every time I walk past a downstairs door. I'm telling you, the freak out and ensuing Instagramming over that UPS box would be one for the record books. Sigh.

Well guys, that's the story on what we're up to around here. I'll post updates as they come! In the meantime, I'll be missing you!