In 10 Minutes or Less

Recovering the chair in our living room that sits by the secretary has been on the to-do list for awhile. But not for any real reason since it was already covered in our dining room fabric. So technically I was recovering an extra dining room chair that hadn't been changed from the red fabric we had on the chairs at our big dream house.

To make Sam like this project, remember I told him I would bring the fabric across the room and put it on this chair. I finally decided to go hunting for the electric staple gun and put a naptime to good use.

It took me less than ten minutes start to finish, not counting trying to find the staples and then figuring out how to load said staples into the gun... Easy cheesey. Love.

To Light or Not to Light

I have been on a "quest" to find the perfect candlestick lamps. And by quest I mean that in the back of my mind I think I would really like some but have never really tried to find any that me and the hubs could agree on. I usually vote for "fun" and he usually votes for VERY traditional. I get that our house is traditional and that we decorate traditional and usually I can inject some FUN into the house but lamps are a different story for him. So - we haven't had any in any of our houses on this buffet. (that we bought while in our first house for $150!!!)

Now my problem lies in whether I actually want lamps on the buffet. I am in LOVE with the dried hydrangeas from our yard and really don't want to move them - and I'm sure I could find a home for them somewhere else in the house but I like passing these a hundred times a day. Can't wait to add more once they bloom and start to die again. Obviously I could lose the pillar holders, since I haven't even bothered to get candles for them, and the crystal bowl would be ok too even though it was a wedding gift and Sam loves it. But do I WANT/NEED two lamps?
We love our house most when all the lamps are on - the soft glow can't be beat. On a whim yesterday I very quickly perused online for candlestick lamps. (I google imaged candlestick lamps...ha!) And this is what I found in less than five minutes.

I have long admired this one. At work, we had an account with Sterling and they have THE most fun lamps. And plenty of other fun furniture and accessories that just make you smile. I'm pretty sure Sam vetoed this one three years ago - but I wonder if I could get him to reconsider...

How fun are the Teacups?!

This is a Sterling Home lamp - not sure where I found the picture

This one would be easy to agree on. Clean simple lines, a little variety in the shade but I'm just not sure I want the hard black base.

Simple & Classic

Southern Accents

This would be a good compromise - fun shade, goes with our colors, and has a brass base. Though the shade is too big...

Cute Polka Dot Shade

www.customlamps.com

I like these, but I think the shade is too small and I don't like how the brass on the base doesn't continue up. But they are antique and lovely. And the red shade might be too strong. I'd like to infuse some green or blue into this room so it flows better from the living room.

Tiny Red Shades

www.antiquesatthebunkhouse.com

These are just pretty sconces. Wouldn't work in our room with all the doors but LOVE!!

Floral Sconces

www.antiquesatthebunkhouse.com

Love Love Love. Great color, shape, everything. Too bad they're $4,200!!

Porter & Plunk

So that's where I stand, and I can't get the underline to go away so just ignore. Opinions?

Goodwill To All

After being seriously inspired by Bower Power that it might be possible that my Goodwill doesn't totally stink - I've been popping in maybe once a week. This week - I went with a $4 budget (that's the cash I had on hand). Which was kinda fun and kinda not. I had to turn down some "silver" platters that would've gone great with the ones I already have but I wanted all 5 and it that meant I would've had to break out the debit card... Oh well.

Wandering around though - I did find a lonely wall pedestal thing - I had no idea where in the world I was going to put it but it was speaking to me. At $2.32 - Yes please - I will take you home. It had some scratches, which I am sure that some Beeswax magic stuff will fix if I ever remember to do it, but it's perfect. I had considered painting it - but my hubs thought it was just fine the way it was. And turns out - he was right! It fits in right nicely in our hallway - perfectly actually - less than a 1/4" to spare. And - the little silver vases had become orphans after I redid the dining room console (AGAIN! I'll show you later!) and now I can see these much more often.

going to oh so cute when I get flowers - little happiness in the hallway!

My second little treasure didn't look like a treasure at all. In fact - it was a little creepy. I'm not sure I even understand why there are roman numerals all over this - but whatever. It was a cut size and I liked the little "hook" on the top and it occurred to me that the raw material to make a door sign for William's room would be more than $1.31 - so it came home with me as well. And since we already own TONS of paint - this was easy cheesey. Three coats of green because I didn't want to mess with primer, two coats on the dandelion, stencil the letters & one coat of brown. Done. And so cute. Even Sam likes it. Which means I did good.

see what I mean - what is going on with the roman numerals?

super cute!!!

I had originally thought to hang the sign with ribbon - but decided that banging on the nursery door would be bad, very bad. And it had a sawtooth on the back - so nail in the door and some of that sticky moldy type stuff on the two bottom corners and it's not going anywhere! No reason to wake up a sleeping baby because I wanted to make something cute!

More is More

There is very little that I love more than a large series of pictures all hung together. It makes me ridiculously happy. Seriously. Love. I was thinking last night that I am probably a more is more kind of person (unless you're talking about table surfaces and then I like them clean and useful). I would hang every single print and piece of art we own on the walls if I could make it work. As it is, I have probably hung more than my sweet husband really wants. I try to edit myself, but I think it's more fun to be surrounded by the things that make you most happy.

Our bedroom in the first house we bought - the prints are now in our kitchen hung as a set of 8

Southern Living

House Beautiful - LOVE THE DARK WALLS!!

Southern Living - y'all know this one - Erika from Urban Grace She's amazing!!

Now the point of this post was to show you our new "family" (ie - William) wall in our bedroom. I love family pictures everywhere - but Sam prefers them to be less OUT THERE!! (Someone has to be able to reign me in!) So, we compromised, what a good marriage we have :), and I get to hang all the pictures I want in our bedroom. And, seriously, there's nothing and no one cuter than my kid. I picked my favorite faces from the past 6 months, edited them in black and white, and sent the to Snapfish. (seriously - check them out - cheap cheap) 14 pictures are in my mailbox less than a week later. I practically stalked the mailman for this package - I was so excited!

Into the frames and off we go and here we are. Granted - I only bought 12 this first time around but at $3 a piece - I am just going to pick up two every time we grocery shop and then I'll have the rest I need.

And just for the record, and to get this post back on track and less about my kid, it was REALLY easy to hang all these. All you need is a level (and a tape measure for the first one to find the center) The frames were 12" wide, I wanted approximately a 2" gap between pictures - so I put a pencil mark every 14". And then did the same after going down 12.25" for the next row. Obviously this is really easy when the hangers on your pictures are all in the same place on the back, otherwise you have to measure individually and you will be braindead by the end of the day. Not that that has happened to me... ;)

I'm thinking I like the four rows - opinions anyone?

So - the whole project, to this point, has cost me $36 (plus tax) for the frames and $14ish (we had a gift card from buying Santa picture in December so we really only paid $4) for the pictures. Not too shabby for a wall I will spend hours staring at! Now to just take more pictures and buy more frames - it could go on forever!!!

In the Works

This is for William

This is for our bedroom!

I doubt there's a whole lot of mystery behind either one of these - but since I don't have the finish products yet - this is what there is. I am absolutely tickled about both though!

Let there be Light!

Nighttime picture of the new & improved bathroom wasn't so great - will try again tomorrow...

As you saw last week - we had one pretty disgusting vanity light. Yuck. But we had decided to wait, not spend the money, and just be happy the walls were painted. Well, as luck would have it - Sam's dad needed to borrow our Angostora (sp) Bitter for drinks Saturday night and decided to "pay" us back for it. WAY TOO NICE OF HIM - but we SO appreciate it. He told us to go to dinner and have fun. Our idea of going to dinner is now picking up Chef Lee's and watching Gerard Butler in BluRay - yum - so there was cash left to fix the light this weekend. Hooray!!

We had originally gotten this fixture (but chrome) and was going to get the globes at a later date - one at a time - spread out the cost. But when we got home we didn't have the clearance above the medicine cabinet to install it without filling the existing holes and making new ones in the plaster walls. Major no-no, atleast for us. We've done it before and we decided it wasn't worth the hassle (i.e. complete destruction of the plaster...and the patch never looks that great anyway)

So back to Lowe's to get the contractor grade chrome light. It kinda stinks we can't have the nicer one - but this is SUCH an upgrade from the existing - that we will survive. The extra two lightbulbs we are able to have is AWESOME. The great white light is AWESOME. I didn't fully understand how hard it was to get ready in the nasty yellow two light bathroom - but now - I actually know what I look like when I go out in the world. (yes - A&P class - you're welcome...)

We also picked up 4 double hooks to install on the trim. I had no idea those came two to a pack - so that was a nice little $5 savings. I'll take it where we can get it! Now even William has a hook for his towel - so cute! I still have to think of what we want to do on that wall because I was planning for a little Hobby Lobby black shelf with 4 picture inserts and 4 hooks that would be installed on the wall - so maybe I'll "switch" (switch in my mind - the print isn't yet framed and matted) the print from the toilet wall to this wall and I just remembered that I found very cool inspiration for a shelving unit above the toilet. (I should seriously start bookmarking those so I can find them later to reference for you...oh well.)

We're getting there...

Our bathroom is the redheaded stepchild of our house - and I can say that because that phrase also describes me. Though I've never understood why it's a bad thing... Anyhow. The rest of the house has been painted for months - since before little William was born - but we have seriously neglected the bathroom. We did paint the vanity - and that helped - but the walls were still a mess and it lacked any kind of style. Someone truly "brilliant" had popcorned not only the ceiling but the walls as well. Ick. Serious Ick. I guess that deterred us a bit - never felt up to making a humongous mess I suppose. That all came to an end last weekend. We had orphan gift cards (less than $5 left) and we gathered them all up and put them to good use - SemiGloss Paint in Color Forest Lichen from Lowe's.

I'm in love. This is my new favorite color. I expected it to look good but it surpassed my expectations when Sam got it on the wall. It's PERFECT. Not too blue, or gray, or green. Perfection.

now to replace that hideous light fixture... and isn't my kid adorable! ;)

The popcorn came off surprisingly easy, which is always a plus. We learned one thing from Forest - you never truly know what you're getting into when you start messing with things. Sam had to patch a couple holes where the paint/wall board didn't like the wall anymore - but easy cheesey - he had the whole thing painted in a day. Gotta love small rooms.

Yeah - the vanity top needs replacing too - but one step at a time.

Of course, now that the bathroom walls were so pretty it seemed a shame to put our old-seen-better-days shower curtain back up - so off to TJ Maxx William & I went. So proud of us - we found the perfect cream one for $5.99 and a heavy clear liner for $4.99 - can't beat it. And the best part - I had a yard of fabric that would look AWESOME as a skirt on the shower curtain to jazz up the plainness. I even surprised myself by figuring out how to sew an inverted pleat. I cut the yard in half - hemmed - and laid out the print next to the shower curtain and pulled in the pleats until the width was the same. Granted - I probably could've done some awesome math, and there was a little involved, but I was so tickled with myself. REALLY easy!!

So now what could've been plain and boring is now making me very happy on a daily basis. Best part - since they're installed on separate rods - I can make full use of the clear liner only when showering to get the most light. (installing a ceiling light fixture is on the list of to-dos - but we need my Dad's help for that one!) Oh and very sorry if that was TMI....

Neat huh?!

Obviously - we aren't even close to totally complete - but this is the beginning of the end I hope!! And it's SO MUCH better than white gross popcorn walls!!

What a difference a half hour makes!

This is going to be super short....promise.

We got a Pottery Barn gift card for Christmas - we bought the coolest wooden tray & vase. It's funny, we had wandered the store for 30-45 minutes and couldn't make up our minds and on the way to grab the vase we both saw this tray and it was like magic. It was perfect to help organize our coffee table.

One problem - it was a LOT of wood. Wood table, wood tray. Love the tray but it needed something.

wood, wood, wood, lovely - but way too much of the same stacked on top of each other.

Enter green geometric print that I almost jumped for joy when I saw a yard in the remnant bin. Seriously - $5. Love it!!

the smallest little break in the wood makes me oh so happy

Cut out the size, hem, sew, voila!! Just enough of a pop to give the tray the extra oomph. (And, when I find the staples to the staple gun - this print will also go on the chair for our little secretary desk by the french doors.) Repeats make everything cohesive. I only mention this because my husband thought it was pretty random until I gave him the whole plan. He still doesn't quite understand why I need some pop in the tray but he let me do it and that's what counts.

detail of the fabric - seriously can't go wrong with this print!

Enjoy!

Now Close to Balanced

My dining room has been making me crazy since we moved in. There are certain rules I live by - one of which is that the chandelier is centered in the room and the table goes under it. (and, yes, there are exceptions, but not in this house...) Our dining room has been horribly imbalanced since June. The interior wall has the buffet, the middle is the table, and the window wall - nothing. It didn't have draperies, nothing to give it some visual weight. When we got the amazing steal on roman shades - that helped - but not nearly enough.

The before - but the bench didn't stay there very long - it went to the screen porch and is now in our bedroom waiting to be repainted...

I was sewing one day and needed the armchairs out of the way to sew on the table and so I put them on the window wall. I was sewing for several days, so that's where they stayed. And, lo and behold, we loved it. Mostly because it somehow managed to give us some extra room for traffic, not that we were tripping over anything, but an extra 6 inches really does make a huge difference. Then I got home last night after Bunco, and it occurred to me that we needed a table there. Nothing large, not too high or too deep, and we should just keep our eyes open. Um - look in the bedroom silly! We had the perfect table there! Borrowed from my always stylish in-laws who I guess didn't have room for it.

The after - absolute perfection - atleast it will be when the I get the draperies made

The after - full view to compare how much more balanced it is now. Please ignore all my sewing stuff on the buffet...

and that I forgot to turn on the chandelier - we haven't had sun in so long I'm trying to enjoy it

AND that I don't have a dining table centerpiece. I have been looking for 3 years for something I would want to stand front and center...

Perfection!!! I rummaged and rearranged and borrowed from other rooms for the things on top of the table - not 100% happy but very pleased just the same. Now I just need to buy the fabric for the draperies, yep, I bet you already spied the swatch thumbtacked to the trim, it's going to be fun and lovely.

These things make me happy - now if the vases just had flowers in them it would be perfect

So, there you have it, shopping your own house does really work. And to think I thought it couldn't be done because we got rid of so much furniture when we moved from the dream house...silly me. (and we moved our "outside" bench from the screen porch to where the table was in the bedroom. Brilliant. Perfect place for Sam to put on his shoes in the morning!)

Moral of the story - balance is of the utmost importance!! And I bet, more times than not, it's why something just "feels off" and you can't put your finger on it...

Loves.

A Need to Separate

just if you're interested : www.rumerandcompany.com

I've been combining my two worlds in the blog One Little Rumer, design & my wonderful little button, and I've decided that it's time for the two to go their separate ways. I feel bad for talking about interior things that interest me when I supposed to be updating my family (and friends!) on all things baby. Plus - when I get my sweet darling husband to buy the book made out of my blog posts for Mother's Day, hint hint Sam, - it would probably be more appropriate to be more about the baby than anything else.

I am interior designer by trade and I miss it. I was laid off from my job, that I loved, at the end of 2008. Stupid economy. I tried to start my own business but, seriously, there's not a lot of people who spend money on interior designers when money stinks. Though I do love the few people I've gotten to work with in the past year. What I'm trying to say is - there's a big hole in my life where design used to be. And now it is tugging on me hardcore to do something - anything - to fill it back up.

Enter the blog.

Probably I will end up posting about our house and the never ending struggle to get it "done." But I hope to also post about the things that make me most happy design wise as well. Let's see how it goes...

one of my most favorite pictures of all time.

everything about it makes me happy.

white hydrangeas from our old house in a thrift store teacup with the perfect blue walls.

ahh...I kinda miss our big beautiful dream house now.

Loves.