Thanksgiving is coming up and I’m very excited! This year we’re going against the norm by going out to dinner. My parents are coming down to visit and we’re all going to Cafe D’alsace on 88th and 2nd avenue. Its a really great french restaurant in our neighborhood that will be offering a Thanksgiving prix fix menu. After dinner we’ll be going to see Hamlet on Broadway with Jude Law. Yum is all that I have to say.
I have included a few pictures of little details in my kitchen. Of course with these photos I can edit out the bad stuff. So I haven’t included an “after” photo of the the whole room. But here are a few of my favorite parts.
This is our welcome sign. I bought in Alsace when I was visiting my family this summer. The knobs I bought for our pantry at the Home Depot. They were only about $2.00. What a steal!
This is Wesley’s new water and food bowl. I had been thinking about buying this cute bowl for a while but I wasn’t too excited that it was $15.00. But after thinking about it for 3 weeks I went back and bought two. They just work so well with our kitchen. The company who makes them is called Harry Barker and I bought them at Three Tiny Terriers pet boutique.
This is just a picture of our counter top. I decided one day after being inspired by John Derian, to decoupage my own stuff, the two containers are from Michael’s craft stores and the flowers are cut out from paper I bought at a local paper store. The hot plate was a great find that was on sale at Anthropologie.
This shelf is a collaboration of finds and favorites. The shelf itself I grabbed from storage in my parents barn. I repainted with a sample can from Benjamin Moore, the color is called Overcast. The owls and letter mugs are from Anthropologie, the Zebra was a gift from my boyfriend. He found it in Berlin, Germany. The chinese containers are antiques that my mother gave me and the tray is a 19th century painted tray.
I hope my color scheme is coming through. Because I live in a rental, I have to keep the cabinets and countertops. The cabinets are that light oak wood, the counter is laminate in dark speckled grey and the back splash is white. I have painted the walls a subtle yellow called Standhope Yellow from Benjamin Moore. (It was the closest find to Pale Hound (Farrow & Ball) that I could find.) The trim and french door is painted Overcast, a very light grey. My accent color is that Tiffany-esq blue with black & white accessories. I can’t wait to finish the roman shade and chairs. Those images will be coming soon, maybe when I have an image of the whole room.
Today I was searching around the internet for storage bins/boxes to put in our bookshelves. We’re having issues with storage which is very common in NYC, but I think the biggest problem for us is organization. We have bookshelves galore and pantries and closets etc. but I don’t have anything to put my small misc. stuff into. Right now, that stuff is just taking up space in boxes. Its all important too of course, you know, the tape measurer, the rulers, the hot glue gun, electrical cords, extra batteries, colored pencils, oh the list could go on and on. I hate the storage bins from Ikea, Container Store and West Elm. Mostly because they’re outrageously priced, but also because they’re ugly and cheaply made. The only solution I guess is to build, which is what we will do.
Now that I talked about stupid boxes, I wanted to express my enjoyment of this rug I stumbled upon. Its so great! Neutral, unique, quirky and INDOOR/OUTDOOR! I really want one for my bedroom, it would be perfect but I’m on the fence about spending money on another rug.
After looking through the rugs from Ballard Designs, I must say that they have a pretty good selection, with the taste level and price point. I mean some of them are hideous. . . . but you can’t expect them to get it right all the time.
Want it. Love it. Wish I wasn’t renting.
I took this photo from Timothy Whealon’s website. He’s quite the designer who seems to have the opportunity to design grand interiors. Ones where my entire apartment will fit in each room. But molding really just makes a space feel some much larger, formal, and better.
Looking for hardware for our french door. Wesley the little doggy has decided to sneak into our bedroom and hang out in the bed well we’re away at work. I wouldn’t mind that so much except that Jack has realized that he’s mildly allergic to Wesley. I would like doorknob or hardware similar to this, and found the match through Van Dykes Restorers. However, the cost of this fixture happens to be $110.00!
So its off to Anthropologie I go. I think I’ll just end up getting one of these.
I love the look of these curtains. They’re bright and energetic. I also think I like the way that they are hung and for the longest time I have been trying to figure how I will hang my curtains.Country curtains has a few options and I’m try to decide which direction I’ll go.
I like the simple ball or the glass ball finials the best, just because they’re classic and can really every be tacky. But, my biggest concern is how one of my windows is super close to the corner of the room. If put a curtain rod up with a finial, I have to take the finial off of that side.
This kind of rod which is also shown in the above pictures will allow me to pull the curtains back all the way to the wall and I don’t have to worry about loosing a finial.
This is the Brunschwig & Fils Bird and Thistle fabric that I have been obsessed with for about a year now. I love the feel it evokes, how its beautiful, elegant not stuffy and still has a young look about it. Of course myself being a poor college student cannot afford it, so I found this other fabric from Calico Corners for about $15.00/yard. The colors are perfect for my livingroom as they have the browns of my couch, the greens on my walls, and the pale aquas that I have in my bedroom. I can also use the bright blue in covers for my chairs.
Below is another fabric that I ordered a swatch of to test in the kitchen.
I received another fabric sample today. I recently order about 12. It is pretty nice but it leaves me even more indecisive about what I’m going to make our kitchen window curtain/shade out of. I really need something because I’m so tired of having our neighbors see me walking around my apartment in my jundies. I’m sure they love watching me as much as I love watching them. Jack and I have created character personalities for them. Starting with “naked guy” who yes walks around naked and its pretty horrid as the window only showcase his naughty bits. The “bachelor” who Jack named because we have never seen a significant other, nor him leave his TV lounge chair. And of course “the mexicans” (sorry if that sounds offensive, its not, they’re Mexican) who all watch TV together and walk around shirtless. Yesterday they were fan smoke out of their apartment with towels in their briefs. It makes me think of the movie Rear Window, which is a favorite of mine. Fortunately, I’m not watching any murders.
Check it out. Our neighbors windows: Top window-Mexicans. Bottom two- Bachelor. Sorry I did not include the naked guy.
oh yeah, I almost forgot. The fabric swatches. These are the ones I’m trying to decide between.
The deer one I think will go well because it will play off of the black and white accents that are already in the room. I have black countertops and a white backsplash (that I can not change.) I have hung images of black and white photographs and etchings. The other one is a graphic print that is the same exact color of my dishware. It also is close to the blue color of my bedroom walls which you can see through the french doors in the kitchen. The next picture was taken about a month ago, I have since finished painting the walls, changed out the rug in the bedroom, moved the bed to the other wall and put molding on the french door. Jack built both the door and the wall that is in. The kitchen and bedroom were originally all one room.
I’m going to start doing this blog again, I hope. I’ve been super busy with two jobs, school full time, a new little doggy (!) and of course working on my apartment. First of all I would like to present Wesley. We think he is a German Pinscher, about 18″ tall and 24 lbs. what a lovely. We found him at a shelter in Providence and couldn’t leave without him.
As I continue to decorate my new apartment I have moved on to the kitchen. I am having huge issues with finding the right paint color, or rather the right color at the right price. I have found my “dream yellow” however, a gallon of it will cost me a whopping $79.50. Nice. Thanks Farrow & Ball for being in England. Hasn’t the pound dropped? Well anyways, this color has been suggested to by the Farrow & Ball book, as well as reinstated by Apartment Therapy to be a great color for smaller rooms. My kitchen being 10′ x 10′, is a small room.
The other problem with this color is that it’s impossible to find a substitute. Pale Hound is a warm/neutral/cool yellow all in one. When you look at it on the wall its a beautiful warm yellow, put next to another yellow, it has a green undertone and put it next to a green there is a clay undertone. There is just so much depth in the color, its so hard to recreate. First I looked through all of the yellows available by Benjamin Moore and there wasn’t one that had a similar tone or depth to the F&B color. I also checked Pratt & Lambert, no luck. Then I got this great idea to go to the Green Depot, because I was told this place will match any color swatch. Its eco-friendly and its only $40.00! So I went for it. Too bad, they couldn’t create the color either. I’ve ended up with a color that looks like Pale Hound on paper, but on the wall looks is a weird green. Its so strange and I’m so bummed that the paint has to be $80.00 a gallon. So my search continues, should I just bite the bullet?
Pale Hound is used in the dining area. Its so pretty. xJavierx
I have been away for so long from my blog. I have been very busy thinking and planning and moving and decorating. So for an update on our new place. Jack has built a wall to make the large living room/kitchen into a kitchen and bedroom. The wall also has a beautiful french door which he built from scratch. In the living room he has built the shelving unit/entertainment center. It’s not completely finished because he still has to put the crown molding up and the bottom cabinet that the TV sits on. I also have to paint the entire unit. He has also built up the closet and of course that’s not completely finished either. But things are getting done which makes me feel better. As for the rest of the place, its still a mess full of boxes and extra furniture that we don’t have the right place for. Right now we do not have an “office” because we have decided that the lovely secretary he built for the last apartment is too big. We are thinking of doing a few things.
#1. Cut the thing down and make it a smaller secretary. Which will entail taking the top shelves off and just leaving the desk part with the door and the bottom drawers. This may look a little awkward, I’m not sure. #2. Taking one of the older pieces that my mother has offered me. Which would be a real antique secretary, but the issue with that would be that we wouldn’t have any filing cabinets. #3. Jack could build a new one. This would not be the best because it would be a waste of money and time, he has so much else to do! haha. I love my boyfriend.
I would post photos, but the place is such a disaster.
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