Fav new designer: Mary Bairstow

http://www.marybairstowdesigns.com/interior+homeaccents/home_1.html

I married into quite the hoity-toity family. So hoity-toity, and so different from me, I don't even know how to correctly spell hoity-toity. My father-in-law owns a house in the Hamptons, Sag Harbor specifically. Growing up middle class in California, one could joke about being rich in the Hamptons, but I always imagined it was a cluster of huge white mansions somewhere in the East Coast. To my surprise, it's a tiny series of beach towns, undiscovered by the Manhatten upper class for many years, then swarmed by those wanting to vacation away for east side ambition. The down side, it's now a rich beach town, with really expensive grocery stores.

The appeal, however, is clear, and as long as we live off of pancakes and frozen pizzas, we can have a pretty fancy vacation there every summer.

This year was year 4 or 5, going out for a week in the Summer. While there, my mother-in-law, Nancy, is there building her own house (father and mother in-law divorced), so she came out to play with us. She found a fantastic antique fair, complete with all the stuff I only see in magazines and could never afford myself. While at this fair, I encounter Mary Bairstow.

It was industrial, farmhouse chic...presicely my personal style (though my house doesn't lend itself to this style, so I veer from it in my own home decor, opting for what works with the house instead of my own inclinations).

I was so in love with the antique rice sack pillows, the vintage center islands with patina metal tops, the wire basket and bulb light fixtures, vintage corbels, etc.

Enjoy.

Update and survey: "Why haven't you finished doing that project yet?"

The busy Summer travel season is coming to a close, but not before I spend most of October in California with my family. I always do a 2 week trip around a dance event called Boogie by the Bay in SF. While there, I inevitably eat my way through the bay area, completely abandoning my nutritional regimine in exchange for a nostalgic tour of the tastebuds.

Update: In response to a previous post, I did decide to partner up and dance a routine, putting baby #2 and design energies on hold, or at least in remission (yes, my design obsession is like a cancer, like a benign tumor that doesn't leave room for much else in life). And while I thought this would mean doing less decorating/remodeling, for some reason I'm doing to same amount, only for my house instead of others'.

I took all of Hazel's toys and organized them in the basement, installing new shelving to get them up off the floor and visible. I'm so tired of having volumes of stuff for Hazel to play with, and she's only inspired to grab what she can find on the surface, just the tinker toys that litter the ocean surface.

I also took all of my tools and began organizing them in the other half of our 2-car garage (we are a 1 car family anyway). I found an antique workbench, complete with old vise. I then hung peg board that I am determined to paint pink or purple at some point, simply to assert that a chick does the handy work around here - a joke between myself and I to laugh at together in animated congratulatory guffaws.

Now, I'm in the process of both 1) Setting up a design studio in the spare room on the 3rd floor, and 2) finishing the guest bathroom - finally. I'm tired of asking Aaron where I put something and having him respond with, "It's on the dining room sink." We don't have a sink in the dining room. That vanity I bought on clearance has been stored in there so long, we have come to refer to it as such. I've removed the old vanity in the guest bathroom, and now I need to paint the new one and install.

Meanwhile, my body is so fatigued from dancing, teaching, judging, emceeing, and traveling in general that I find my chemically driven, supernatural motivation for remodeling is waining slightly.

I've also taken over as housekeeper to save money. So when Hazel's at school, I'm scrubbing toilets instead of installing better ones. Why do I clean that which I hate? That which I will only replace as soon as I am able? At some undetermined point in time...

Photos to come. But in the meantime, I thought it might be fun to share unfinished projects together, and laugh as one collectively busy, fatigued group. What are your unfinished projects? How long have they remained undone? What holds you back from completing that task at hand?

Wendy's Attic

A Butter yellow from the living room and a cobalt blue from the Dining room...do not a pretty attic make.

To establish this as continued living space, like the living room, we continued the same color scheme. Repairing the window casing and painting it a fresh, semi-gloos "Greek Villa" white link it to the new trim color all over the house (trim was the most time consuming part of the project). "Softer Tan" covered the walls, and "Dapper Tan" with "Greek Villa" made a new runner for some really beat-up, chalky white stairs.

I don't have before pictures, but imagine a yellow room with blue surrounding the architerural nooks, giving it a highly segmented look that emphasied the funky angles rather than blending them into one large bonus room.

AFTER:

Wendy's Entry way and Living Room

Neutral tones and floor plan were the focus here. The butter yellow was too saturated for the buyers' market. And we needed to distinguish the entry way from the living room, while making the fireplace the focal point for the room.

We chose "Softer Tan" from Sherwin Williams, a pale taupe gray that I now want in my house. So sophisticated and refreshing. We replaced the minty green with "Dapper Tan" for the built-ins flanking the fireplace because it pulled a rich dark tone out of the stone work and expanded it onto the shelving. Some mirrors, neutral b/w photographs, and some "I have oodles of taste" orchids, and poof!

I also positioned the couch in the way I did for two reasons:

1. It faces the fireplace - the star of the room.

2. It establishes to start of the living room and end of the entry way.

The Entry got a console and mirror - a last-minute "check your make-up" moment next to the front door, not to mention a place to drop shooes, keys, and loose change, in a house with no first floor coat closet.

Enjoy.

Before:






After:

Wendy's Breakfast Nook

A lot of molding repair: scraping, sanding, caulking, painting, etc. We still need to add the curtains, so will add curtain pictures later. I wanted to off-dining room to be a special breakfast area where one could read the paper and sip coffee, while draped in clean fresh fabric that brought the "breakfast in bed" luxary to the first floor. Crispt, white linen on the table, seat cushions, and later curtains...ooh la la.

But those tablecloths, table, and chairs had to go to San Diego. What's left are the soft cool glow of curtains wrapping the breakfast nook with purpose. Like a Genie in a bottle, but with light and pastries... kinda feel.

Enjoy!


BEFORE:





AFTER:

Wendy's Dining Room

Bye bye blue, complete with faded color surrounding the sillouhette of old frames from the countless paintings and photos taken by the amazing artists of the house. Unfortunately, buyers want to buy the house, not the artwork, so it had to go. In it's place, we did a white - one shade up from the living room color - to emphasize the contrast between walls and moldings. The woodwoork needs to be the star in this room.

We continued certain finishes consistently through the eating areas: white, glass, and pewter. The mantle became a vinette for these finishes while black and white, neutral subject photos completed the room. This played off of the existing chandelier beautifully. They were hung between the plate rail and the top of the door casing, bringing them down to an arts and crafts flavored height.

Before:







After:

Wendy's Butler's Pantry

After 100+ hours of painting, caulking, spackling, scraping, priming, puddying, sanding, cleaning, organizing, purging, and staging... The Chapmans will leave us officially tomorrow when the movers come. We will miss you, Chapman clan! Thanks for your warmth, honesty, charity, and good humor.

The schedule for the move was erratic, at best. They didn't have the relief of knowing whan they would move, who would move them, where they would move into, how long to stage for, etc. And in usual Chapman fashion, everything kinda serendipitously came together for them.

The staging, however, was short-lived (maybe 2 weeks finished before movers came and took it all away). I didn't even get a chance to take pictures of some of the staging before it all had to be boxed up! Such a bummer, but that was the circumstances from the get-go. Unknown, and doing the best yuh could with what yuh knew.

The plan was to repair/paint all four floors fo the house, change some light fixtures, add some curtains, organize, purge, and light and decorate for the buying market. We did most of that. Wendy and Claire even picking up a brush now and then and joined me in an effort to finish asap. The result was striking!

We'll do this one blog at a time. Butler's Pantry:

This was a random extra room (one of several on the first floor) that needed a purpose. It extended storage for the kitchen and ajoined the breakfast nook and dining room - hence "butler's pantry".

The valance hangs from the ceiling to maximaze feeling of height. It runs across both windows to unify and expand them. And it distracts from the fact that there is no window casing.

We added mason jars (which you know I love) and labeled them, conjuring up images for buyers of gourmet cooking and fancy, well-cared for ingredients. With the wine rack, we also added the buffet that was previously crowding the dining room and made it a buffet/drink serving station with some rich, sophisticated looking pewter dishware.

Before:





After:

Ali's Kitchen - just about done!!!

How does one execute a kitchen gut job for under $3000?

You don't. You go over budget a bit, do it right, once, and finish up for just under $4000. BUT! For under $4000, the Olsen family have an enitrely renovated kitchen. WOW!

Ask Ali about reusing some of her appliances. Then ask all the free/cheap labor she got (me, and uncle, and a contractor from church who took pity on her). Then ask the people on Craigslist she bought appliances from. Then ask the lady at Home Depot who gave her and inside scoop on clearance laminate countertops. Then ask about cheap materials, tricks with paint, borrowing tools, snagging flooring deals, and poof! A clean, beuatiful, functional kitchen on a shoe string budget.

Next: decorating and staging. Perhaps a hanging pot rack for the wall right of the fridge. Ali's already working on curtains with Stephi-approved fabric. Light fixture for Dining nook is - I think - on order. Everything is finally falling into place...

Here's the bones!

The Wendy Project - Progress Report

First floor is aaaaalmost done being painted - or as I accidentally said in character, "Some stuff still needs painted." Oy. I hope I can learn to turn down the theatrical side of me and adopt the contractor skills without the lingo.

Take a look, buyers!