Tag Archives: home decor

Interior Decor

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Childrens' roomsDid y’all have a great Labor Day weekend? Lots of cookouts and Home decorpicnics and getting together? Bet you didn’t have as much fun as I did — I spent the whole weekend (and I mean the whole weekend, from Thursday morning to Monday afternoon)babysitting my 17-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable while my daughter and son-in-law went to DragonCon in Atlanta.  And besides all the incredibly good New housessnuggle time I got with the Captain — and the chance to watch endless episodes of Sid the Science Kid, my new favorite TV show — I fell in love all over again with my daughter and son-in-law’s house. When my son-in-law, a high-school art teacher, got tenure this past spring, they New housedecided it was time to move out of their apartment and into a real house. Frugal young family that they are, they had a budget and were determined not to budge from it. Their must-haves: A big fenced-in backyard for the Captain, three bedrooms, two baths and good storage space. It took awhile, but they found it — and under their budget. It was cute and in a good neighborhood and had a fantastic backyard. The bad news? Total square footage was less than their apartment. However, after living in it for a few days, I can attest that this house seems so much bigger than it actually is. The secret is a combination of design and decor. I love the archectural details that make this compact space live bigger: The soaring ceilings, the tiled entry way, closets tucked away in unexpected but efficient places, the big airy windows. It would have been so easy to have let this be a cheap and boring house, but no. And the kids have done everything they could to enhance the feeling of expansiveness — they added white beadboard to the eating area, knocked out some useless kitchen cabinets to create more open space and used paint to their advantage with the Captain’s bed- and bathrooms in bright oranges and yellows and the other rooms in soothing and calm neutrals. Adorable!

And a note to any other grandparents contemplating days of move-in babysitting: Line up visits from friends and family. I could not have made it without help from so many people who brought us food and new toys and drove over just to visit us. Thank you!!!

Home Decor

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Home Decor

My friend Susan Cantrell and her daughter-in-law, Freda ShoppingBrewer, have opened the most wonderful store in Sheffield, Alabama. Called Upscale Resale, it’s a furniture and home-decor consignment shop — but it’s so much more than simply a place to find a fantastic bargain. Both Susan and Freda are so creative and imaginative — there are delightful surprises everywhere you look: A basket of shells, an old door used to highlight hanging shelves, a row of colorful bottles that catch and reflect the light. Consignment shoppingAnd Susan and Freda emphasize the frugal use-what-you-have approach that helps you appreciate what you’ve already got. “We’re eclectic and a little bit funky,” Susan said. “We Furniturelike to think that along with recycled furniture, we have unique investment items that will go up in value for the home — items you will not find at large import stores.  Also, we do think it is a great idea to recycle what is already available on the planet.  Remember: Reduce, reuse, recycle!” This is the place to find a whimsical painting that’s perfect for your kitchen, a pottery bowl that just fits on your coffee table or a simply chic chair that brightens the living-room corner. Or, do what I do and go to Upscale Resale for some conversation and relaxation — a visit always cheers me up and inspires me to actually decorate instead of arrange. Upscale Resale is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Call the store at 245.381.7773 for more information.

Home Decor

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Home decorMy friend Evelyn wowed us the other night when we Decoratingarrived at her house for our monthly book-club meeting and discovered she’d been busy redecorating. Our jaws dropped — I mean, literally, I stood there with my mouth open. Before, Evelyn’s living room was a cozy and comfortable gathering spot, but she said she wanted something completely different — and she got it. Now the room is rich with color and texture and looks about a million times bigger with the emphasis on those gorgeous windows that really you didn’t notice so much before. Evelyn used a professional decorator, with she and her husband, Steve, picking out the oh-so-soft sofa themselves. She said she learned to trust the decorator — many times the decorator would pick something out and she and Steve would think, “Uh, that’s just not going to work,” but once the room came together they understood the vision. I believe this is my new favorite room. Ever.

Shopping

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Holiday shoppingThis is — to use one of my dad’s favorite expressions — a prime example of … well, I don’t know what. But Do-it-yourselfsomething. It’s still two weeks until the Labor Day weekend, yet walking around a corner in Hobby Lobby I ran smack dab into a clash of holidays that jarred my eyes and confused my brain. Islands of orange pumpkins and homespun scarecrows competed with rows of red Christmas bows and twinkling evergreen trees. I don’t even know if a summer item was left anywhere in the store — if you’re looking for something to enhance your Labor Day cookout, forget it. And why is Hobby Lobby doing this to us, anyway? On my ever-lengthening Stress List, “get ready for holidays” wasn’t even a contender. But now it’s vying for a top spot. Thanks a lot, Hobby Lobby!

Home

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Ikea I love Ikea. I know, I know — you’re probably rolling your eyes and muttering to yourself, “Hey, Cathy — the ’80s called and want their furniture back.” It’s true that the Swedish home-furnishings company used to have the reputation of bland cookie-cutter cheap stuff, back when when the words “she furnished her apartment with Ikea” described someone without imagination or individuality. Fast forward a couple decades and you find sleek and smart furniture that’s affordable and fun. What’s not to like? My older daughter and son-in-law went to the Ikea store in Atlanta to shop for their new house and came back with, among other treasures, a bed with sliding bookshelves in the headboard, sturdy and colorful storage units for 16-month-old Capt. Adorable and some funky organic curtains and pillows that coordinate with everything. Plus, they brought me presents for babysitting the Captain: The Tecken teapot for perfect brewing, two cup-holder-sized coffee mugs, a cat-proof bag for cat food, wonderful black-and-white notecards I’m going to frame and put up in the kitchen and of course chocolate and coffee. Oh, and a lint roller — with four cats plus the occasional visiting feline, we go through a couple lint rollers a week around here. Anyway, the kids’ Ikea spree spurred me on to want one for myself. I love the modern design and the family-friendly details. However, my husband rolled his eyes and muttered quite loudly, “I think we’re past our Ikea phase, dear.” He apparently was heavily into Ikea 25 years ago when he was a cool bachelor dude, and he still associates Ikea with staying up all night drinking beer and debating Reaganomics. Ah, the good ol’ days! Check out Ikea at http://www.ikea.com/us/en/

Fall

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The first sign of fall isn't football practice or back-to-school shopping -- it's the "seasonal" aisle at CVS changing from sunscreen and beach toys to pumpkins and scarecrows ... in the first week of August.

The first sign of fall isn't football practice or back-to-school shopping -- it's the "seasonal" aisle at CVS changing from sunscreen and beach toys to pumpkins and scarecrows ... in the first week of August.

Food

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Herb shackA couple weeks ago my friend Polly offered to teach a Vintage decoratingbunch of us how to make herb vinegars — using fresh herbs right out of her garden. I had never been to her house, and when she said we could hang out in the “shack” behind her house, I pictured … well, some sort of little lean-to propped up next to her garage or something. Uh, no. Polly’s Herb Shack is the sort of place I’d pay good money to go stay in.  It’s so calm and peaceful and Retro home decorcute. Couldn’t you just while away a whole afternoon on that porch swing? Inside, Herb vinegarPolly’s decorated in a retro style with sweet touches such as red gingham on a vintage white kitchen table, antique photos, old lamps and a typewriter that looks exactly like one my grandmother had. And then, after Polly gave us a quick lesson on herb vinegars, she turned us loose in her herb garden and let us cut all we wanted. We brought jars and vinegar (and food and wine, of course, for sustenance Herb gardenwhile we worked — being creative and culinary is exhausting!). You can heat the vinegar and measure things out and be all methodical and scientific about it, but basically we just stuffed jars full of herb and spice combinations — with other goodies such as lemon peels and garlic cloves — and poured vinegar over our concoctions and took them home to hope for the best. We’re going to let them steep for several weeks (if you heat the vinegar in the first place it doesn’t take as long), then strain and decant into pretty bottles and impress everybody with our homemade gourmet know-how. I’m anxious to see how the herb mixtures turn out. While we were creating in The Shack, we were saying things like “Does coriander go with basil?” and “How do you think lavender and oregano would be together?” Who knows??? My jars are 1) lemon and lime thyme with cloves and cracked whole nutmeg and apple-cider vinegar; 2) orange and chocolate mint with cardamon and white-wine vinegar and 3) chives, garlic chives and garlic cloves in red-wine vinegar. I also added some lemon peel to a couple of the jars but I can’t remember which ones now. What do you think — did I make some good picks?

Home Decor

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Painting the houseWhen I first started thinking about having the inside of our house repainted, I always knew I’d want to go simple and neutral. For years I’ve lived with my misguided attempts at rustic-Tuscany-sponge painting in the kitchen and my older daughter’s more successful vegetarian peach-and-eggplant bedroom. I’m ready to change my style to calm and serene — with an eye to selling the house someday. A Realtor who came to give us redecorating tips said to go neutral. Our painters said to go neutral. When we went Repaintingto the paint store, the folks there said to go neutral and recommended a Pittsburgh Paint color called Dusty Trail. It was the newest most-popular house color around, they said, and I would be so happy with it. But I hesitated. I couldn’t decide: Was it too dark? Too olive-y? Too green? Too non-neutral? Husband painted a sample on a box — and did it very well, I might add — and we all agreed that it was a “yes.” But this past week when the painters first started putting Dusty Trail up on the walls, I did not like it. At all. I was second-guessing. I had paint anxiety attacks. It was the dark olive-y green all over again. I wondered how much it would cost to start over. But then, when the wall was completed and it was a solid block of color, I fell in love with its rich creamy neutral wonderfulness that adds depth without darkness. I finally understood why everybody said it was so good. For whatever weird reason, I’m telling you, the color looks so different when it’s right next to our old off-white than it does when it’s up on a wall all by itself. I do not know why this is. I’m sure it’s something that happens with paint and colors. But I’m glad it’s happening in our house on our walls.

And I love our painters. They are like your friends who come over and sweep up their messes and eat their lunches outside and tell you that the sofa really would look better over in that corner.

Wallpaper

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Today, for the first time probably in years, I actually did an honest day’s hard labor. This morning when I offered to help out the folks who’d come to do painting/remodeling work in the house (remember the loose-wallpaper incident?), I had no idea they’d actually take me up on it. But the head-man-in-charge was not impressed with my earlier effort at wallpaper removal in the bathrooms and said it would free up another worker to get started on painting if I tackled the wallpaper leftovers and really prepped the walls properly. I had a free morning, I shrugged, so why not? How hard could it be? Seven hours later, these are the things I have learned:

1) Never ever offer to help painting/wallpapering/remodeling people unless you are prepared to actually help. This is the not the time to be meaninglessly polite.

2) Little stripped-off wet wallpaper pieces stick to everything: Shoes, feet, floors, cats …

3) Even if you like Rascal Flatts and think Keith Urban is hot, seven hours of country-music on the industrial-strength radio turned up to an industrial-strength volume is plenty, thank you very much.

4) Patience and relaxation are the keys. “You’ve got to get the wallpaper wet and then let it relax,” Boss Guy said as he, patiently, showed me how to take off wallpaper the Right Way. “Patience, patience, patience. If you’re patient enough, it will slide right off.”  He was right. Who knew?

5) And the final thing I learned after a day of pumping a spray bottle and scraping and scrubbing walls to a shiny smoothness? I’m glad I don’t have to do it tomorrow.

Home Decor

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What happens when you decide to see if the wallpaper in the bathroom really is as loose as it seems. Yes, it is.

What happens when you decide to see if the wallpaper in the bathroom really is as loose as it seems. Yes, it is.