Home Design

According to my boyfriend, there are two parts of the year: the half where you’re basking in the glow of the Christmas that just happened, and the other half where you’re getting all excited for the Christmas that is coming up next. This is what it’s like for him:

Before you start calling me Scrooge, I want to point out that I love Christmas, too. My whole year doesn’t exactly revolve around it, but I think that it’s a wonderful time. It can also be stressful (especially financially) and busy, but I still get excited for all the decorations and the music and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

This year, we have a place to decorate together, but I’m still hesitant to go all out. Neither of us will be here for Christmas Day, so what’s the point of getting a real tree? We aren’t having a holiday party, either. I’ve done a few things to bring some holiday cheer into our apartment, but I’m saving all the good stuff for years to come. Here’s a glimpse of our festive decor.

I made these pipe cleaner and bead snowflakes with the kids at work. I think they are awesome. I was probably more excited about them than the kids were.

Alex‘s mom gave him these a year or so ago. He made them for his grandparents when he was a little one:

Adorable.

I’ve been doing the brown paper wrapping for a few years now. Painstakingly hand-printing the Desdemona font from Word, however, is a new addition. I thought it might add something. We’ll see how I feel about it next year.

And last, but not least, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

Our mini (fake) tree! I received the ribbon at the top in a package from my mother (wrapped around a chocolate chip cookie birthday cake) and the garlands are tiny gold bells on gold wrapped wire. I found them at Michael’s for $1.99 a strand on sale. I got two, and bam! A beautifully decorated tree. The little red “berries” and the gold pot are part of the original tree package.

And that’s it! I haven’t found the little crocheted Lillian Vernon snowflakes that Alex‘s mom gave me two years ago, but when I do, they will be hanging in all of our windows.

I hope to be able to update before Christmas. If I don’t get a chance to do so, you can also find snippets from me at Twitter and Tumblr.

As I sit here, wishing it was a snow day for me, I wish you the happiest of holidays… whichever of them you celebrate

COLOR INTERVENTION

10 December 2008

Home Design, Lifestyle, North Shore, Photography

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I love color. It is fascinating, it brings life to lifeless things and it is essential for cheering up a living environment. I should be more specific: it is essential for cheering up my living environment on dreary winter New England days. Let’s extrapolate… this probably means that I have a home filled with color in the most beautiful of ways and it makes every day a better day.

NOPE. Untrue. Yes, there is some color, but it’s nothing like that of the apartments and homes that I see every day when I scan the blogosphere. Here are some of the interiors that I admire so much that they have been cemented in my mind:

(all from Design*Sponge Sneak Peaks, click through to the tours)

Our apartment has so much less color than these beautiful places. A mere fraction. Granted, it’s a rental, so I cannot go whole hog and paint the place however I want it every three months. I just walked through our home and tried to pick out the most colorful areas in it- the ones I am proud of. I’d rather not show the parts that are totally void of color. But let’s start with how this all translates into my everyday life, in and out of the home. This is my closet:

Don’t be fooled by the sweatshirt hanging up on the curtain rod (no curtain yet!), it’s there because I just wore it the other day (only around the house!), and it’s probably one of the most colorful things I wear. You can see pops of color, here and there (mostly red…) but the majority of my outfits are in the black/white/gray/blue/brown family. Nothing thrilling.

And here we have the mantle that serves as our headboard. I love the paint color we chose, but let’s face it, it’s a neutral. That little teal creamer is the brightest thing we have in the room (aside from live plants). The one on the other side is a hunter green. NEUTRALS EVERYWHERE. Why am I such a chicken when it comes to bold color??

This is a piece of upholstery from the living room my parents had before I was born (I think?). It has traveled with me to each of the 10 (TEN!??) rooms/apartments I have lived in over the past 7 years. It is one of the more colorful pieces I own, and one of my favorite things. I probably wouldn’t think of it if the house caught on fire (knock on wood), but when I realized it was gone, I would cry about it. The yellow planter was a whim-of-a-purchase I made even before I decided yellow was my favorite color.

And this pegboard that holds my jewelry, hair tools, and other accessories is my crowning glory of newly introduced color. I was inspired by that bright green pegboard you see above, and the owner of that pegboard was even gracious enough to send me right to the tutorial I needed to do my own (although I still have not gotten around to mounting it. Ha!) I try to buy jewelry in exciting colors to jazz up my plain colored wardrobe. The color I picked out on a whim at Home Depot, and as soon as I had that gut instinct, I took it over… before I knew it, the guy was mixing it up and I had no choice! I had to do it!

Maybe I should force myself to be that gung-ho about all color in my home? If I see something, I should just buy it! I asked for bright yellow salt and pepper grinders for Christmas, at least. I gave up on the yellow trashcan I’ve been dreaming of for months- I just can’t conceive of spending that much money on a trashcan, or letting anyone else do it for me. I know I can’t force it if it’s not meant to be. Maybe my brain can’t handle that much color? But then why do I admire other people’s color so much? I’m trying to give myself a color intervention. I just hope I can pull it off.

CURTAINS AND SLOW PROGRESS

23 October 2008

Home Design, Photography

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We’ve lived in the apartment now for nearly two months. I still have a list of projects I want to do, but whenever I have free time, I just want to sit and hang out. One of the projects I’ve started on is curtains. I spent a gray day a few weeks ago on the first of them. Our bedroom is now curtained! And the bathroom! But there are still seven more windows to be treated.

I look at design websites like Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy all the time, and I read magazines like ReadyMade and Real Simple and I’m inspired! I love some of the interiors I’m looking at and I’m jealous of their put-together-ness… but I’ve lost steam in my own place. I think my biggest road block is all about the Benjamins. I’m working full time as a post-grad, but I’m not earning a ton of money and I’ve got bills! Even going to thrift stores for furniture could put me in a financial pickle if I’m not careful.

So for now, I’ve got some inexpensive, self-labored, and attractive muslin curtains. They do the trick, but I hope that I get to splurge on a few things that will really make our home a home.

FROM LAVENDER TO CRACKER BITZ

25 September 2008

Home Design, Photography

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A couple weekends ago, we painted our bedroom! If you remember it was lavender when we moved in. I am not a lavender person-never have been into purple-so one of my priorities was getting it out of there. We went to Lowe’s to buy a bunch of things, one of them being a gallon of Olympic paint in Cracker Bitz (C17-4). Lowe’s is huge! Have you ever been? I was so overwhelmed!

That day, Alex learned how to buy paint… picking out the color, how all the paint starts out white and then they tint it… the whole 9 yards. It was an educational adventure! A successful one. I’m thrilled about the color. Sneak peek below and more photos after the jump.

Also, the heat is finally on in the house and I am so toasty warm.