Home Office Progress

Lots of things are happening around the house these days. We're having a holiday party this year and the pressure is on to finish a few projects before then.

I hung the vintage chandelier in my office instead of in the bathroom, because I'm a rebel like that.

It's looks soooo good. This room needs the bling factor big time.

You may have already noticed that I painted. It looks black but it is very very dark gray. Apologies but you guys are going to have to suffer through a lot of night pics for a while. It gets dark at like 5pm now and I don't get home before that so it is what it is.

Still needs a second coat but with some glossy white furniture, colorful fabrics, gold pretties, it's going to be great.

I went shopping in my bordering-on-a-problem swatch collection for possible curtain and upholstery fabrics. I chose the floral one on the bottom left for curtains. It's from Mood in NYC. It's not listed online so I called to order. Then a nightmare happened.

I remember it being about $25/yard when I picked up, like pretty clearly remember it. But when I sent the associate the photo of the swatch she said it was $50/yard. I need 10 yards. 

I. Am. Crushed.

Swears were spouted (in my mind) tears were almost shed, feet were stomped. I picked out my wall color thinking this was going to be my curtain fabric. I know, I should have planned better but I didn't. My second choice is the on in the top right but I'm pretty sure the place I got this doesn't carry it anymore. I'm going to check it out this weekend. If that doesn't work I'm pretty much back to square one and I reeeally wanted to get these curtains done before our party. Not to mention the fact you can totally see in this room at night from the street, not cool.

Anything crossed of your list lately?

New Photos of My Home

I mentioned before that I had my good friend Monica use her excellent photog skills to take pictures of my home to enter a contest. Here are some photos of the dining room you didn't see before and some new ones of my foyer. These are the only two rooms I consider "done". And most of you design-files know that a room is never truly done but is simply a room that doesn't have a laundry list of projects still to be done!

The dining table is from Pier 1, on clearance for only $300.

The light fixture is a generic one from Lowe's. I simply slipped a large drum shade over it and tied it up with wire.

The China cabinet is vintage, purchased at a garage sale for a song.

The bar cart was purchased at Canton Flea Market for $50. 

The paper on top is from Paper Source, I glued it on with spray adhesive.

I had a lot of questions about this vase. It's from a flea market. And I use the term flea market generously, I bought it from a lady that basically sells garage sale rejects out of a shack in the middle of nowhere. Lucky break I guess!

The paper in the back is from Paper Source.

Curtain fabric is from Mood.

The chairs were purchased on Craigslist for $100 for all 6. I painted them and the black and white stripe is from High Fashion Home.

All the large mirrors are vintage. The two small ones are from Target. The bench is another Canton purchase which I painted and covered in an outdoor fabric. The hatboxes are also vintage.

The console was a Target purchase from college. Just repainted it with glossy black and white paint.

The cup is a 50cent Goodwill find.

I purchased the mask in Venice, Italy on our honeymoon.

The knobs are from Anthropologie and the lamp was a sample from my old job that was never picked up.

I hoped you enjoyed the tour!

Design Profile: M Design Interiors Inc.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming for an important announcement: Living Social has $15 for $30 of fabric today and you can buy two per person. Get yours here! I read all the fine print and it doesn't say anywhere that you have can't use it for phone or online orders!

We will now return to the regular programming schedule.

Last week I saw this room on Gorgeous Shiny Things

It's gorgeous, no?

I clicked the link thinking I might find out more and was pleasantly bombarded with tons of pretty images.

Enter, the amazing work of M. Design Interiors Inc. based out of Los Angeles. You may have seen some of their work before but perhaps you didn't know they were all by the same firm or that there was plenty more where that came from.

Another view of the room above. I really like this curtain fabric.

Very nice styling, kinda drooling over this olive green too.

Yeah, I could get drunk hang out here.

Wow, just wow.

Click here to see more. There's so much eye candy to be had. I think they have a bit of a whimsical style. I hate to use that word but I'm not sure what else to call it. Pattern and color with abandon, great mix of styles, classic elements. They do amazing work.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the US!

PS I sent out the swap information last night. If you didn't receive your info please email me!

Should I Put Something Here?

I'm having a quandary so I think it's time for a reader poll.

Here is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is my living room as it looks now. It needs a lot of work. It's come pretty far but I still have far to go to make the heart of our home the way I want it.

As I mentioned before, I'm building an art wall across the back. So my question is, should I put a piece of furniture on this wall?

A console, a dresser, a credenza, or just have nothing?

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, the chairs are going to be upholstered very soon. And that will be amazing. The new chair fabric will clash with the rug. I think I'm going to put my sea grass rug in here for now. I'm still waiting to find the perfect rug for in here. I need a new coffee table. Something mid-century but I haven't found "the one" yet.

This is what is on the other side of the room and no, I haven't painted the wall in that little nook yet. This little nook used to be a fancy pants mirrored 80's style wet bar.

So what do you think?

What would you do if this were your home?

Please share your wisdom!

Edit: Forgot to mention in my haste about the suzani fabric I posted yesterday. It is from my favorite store High Fashion Home. It's not listed online but if you'd like to to order just call them and ask to speak to Veronica. She's awesome and very helpful!

Headboard is done, Finally!

Long time readers may know I have been planning on making my own upholstered headboard for forever. As per usual, I had trouble finding the perfect fabric. This is my hangup in everything I do design-wise. The never ending quest for the perfect fabric for each and every project. Does anyone else have this issue?

Upon my first visit to the Wisteria Outlet store I finally found the perfect thing. Kantha cloths! They are so full of character and vibrant color, the perfect bohemian vibe. Of course I had to get a purple one, of course!

I really like it! And don't worry, I just pinned the cloth, no staples. So should I change my mind later and want some different fabric, the kantha cloth will still be perfectly intact and ready for its next home.

I'm soooo ready to get this room together and finished. For some reason the master has been the hardest for me. I don't know why. I feel that I've come a long way but I still have so far to go.

My white bedding stint isn't really working out. One of our dogs sleeps at the foot of the bed every night and the oils on his fur have stained the duvet a dingy yellow that bleaching can't cure.

I think that's why I have so much trouble. I have a really hard time finding bedding that I like. I recently bought a duvet from Anthro and brought it home and immediately decided it had to go back, sigh.

Ideas for bedding would be much appreciated. It can't have too much white and must be easily washable.

In other good news, I got the fabric in for my wing chairs!

I mocked up how it's going to look and I can't freaking wait. My goal is to have them done by Christmas. I just don't have a vehicle to get to the upholsterers, ugh!

**Update** The fabric is from High Fashion Home, it's not available online but you can call to order it!

I think they are going to look amazing!

And I'm all moved into my office! It's not much right now but I'm so happy to have my own space to work. Now my breakfast nook is free and I can put a real table there.

Paint swatches are going on the wall as soon as I'm done typing. We'll see how many I go through this time!

And yes, that is my fat cat in the corner there.

Happy Monday Lovers!

Shunned by Apartment Therapy?

I'm sure most of you have heard that Apartment Therapy is hosting a contest called "Room for Color" right now. Well I entered my dining room in the contest...

You know the one, you've seen it before. It may not be bright color but I have a lot of bold color in this room so I thought I would give it a shot. 

I'm not even going to include the countless hours I spent designing this room. But I did spend a lot of time cleaning it, touching up the trim, buying flowers, photographing it, editing the images, writing the entry, all in order to compete.

Then they decided not to even let my room compete.

I understand that there may be bad entries or spam entries so everything has to be approved for the contest. They also said they only select the strongest entries for the competition.

I thought no problem. My entry is certainly strong enough. Plus at the time I submitted, there wasn't near as many entries in the southern category.

I submitted my entry more than 10 days before the deadline.

and waited...

and waited...

then the deadline to submit passed and still no word.

I double checked the rules and requirements to be sure I'd done everything right and sure enough I had.

Then I logged in to see this message...

Thanks for your entry, but due to the large number of entries received yours was not included in Room for Color 2010. We hope to hear from you again in the future. Enjoy the rest of the contest!

WTF?

I can't imagine why I wasn't even given the chance for my entry to be seen.

And I hate to sound shallow but there are entries that I definitely do not feel are as strong as mine or photographed as well...

BTW, these images you see here are the exact ones I submitted. My photographer friend took them, another person's time wasted.

So that's how I got shunned by apartment therapy. Obviously I am quite bitter about it. To me it makes no sense. 

My friends said to email them but I guess I just don't see the point.

Sorry to bring down your Wednesday but I'm just upset about this.

PS. There's still time to sign up for my gift swap! I'm extending the deadline because I would like to get as many people signed up as possible. So tell your friends and email me at myflightsofwhimsy(at)gmail(dot)com to sign up!