making decisions: my office at work

I brought in a couple of pillows from home that were about to end up in Pillow Purgatory (ie the spare room closet). I love the color they bring into my office, but in the sea of creams, browns, grays and secondhand furniture that is my office, they just seem a bit out of place. Instead of being bright and cheerful, they're a bit pathetic. Which just means I need to add a bit more life into the rest of my office, right?

My brother-in-law is a photographer and took the most beautiful pictures this summer when he and my sister were in Vermont. I mentioned to him that he should make some of them into posters, but then kinda forgot about them. But then I was thinking about what I could add to my walls and immediately thought of these picture. They're just so green, they'd be perfect.

I already have a large poster of Grand Central Station and my first thought was to add 3 photos to either side:

I went with vertical because I liked these shots better and I like the neatness of it. I have a scattered gallery wall at home and I love that, but at work I like more order.

But then I thought - hmmmm, what if I got rid of the poster? It's not like this poster has great meaning for me. I had a blank wall in college and this poster filled it up. It then moved with me to my DC apartment and lived perfectly in the foyer there for almost 8 years. When I moved to Greenbelt, this poster no longer had a home (and its purgatory space was under my bed). So I like having it in my office, but it's not mandatory.

If I took it out, I would add a lot more pictures and think I'd do a sort of modified grid:

And I like all the color it adds, but it just feels a bit messy to me. As a nod to work - there's no there there. No real focal point. Plus looking at the first grid, I can see how the light from Karl's pictures mimic the light coming into GCS - it's all coming from the left. It works, right?

Okay, decision made. I'm going with the first option. THIS is why I have a blog, to help me think through all of my decorating options as well as to chronicle them. My mind gets jumbled with all the possibilities, but when I see it in print, it suddenly becomes clear.

The M Project: gallery walls

I love gallery walls.  I think they're great for filling up that big expanse above your couch or for drawing attention to a little nook.  And you don't need big, important pieces of art - small ones are great.  A mix of sizes is great.  You can be neat and orderly with similar prints in matching frames, be really eclectic with different mediums and a wide variety of frames or something in the middle.  Maybe similar frames but not exactly the same.  Not a completely random set-up, but not overly symmetrical. 

What I also love about a gallery wall is that they can evolve over time.  Maybe you only have 3-5 pictures now.  But then you're at Eastern Market and see a lovely little watercolor.  You're at Pottery Barn and they have a pretty little salad plate.  You take a pottery class and put your vase on a tiny floating shelf.  Your best friend took a gorgeous picture while the two of you are on vacation so you blow it up and have it framed.  Your grandmother hands down a silk scarf that's too threadbare to wear but still ridiculously lovely.  Eventually you end up with a wall full of special items and your gallery wall had turned into a memory wall.  What can be better than that?

Or maybe you have a few large mirrors.  Or a collection of salvaged items (or, like in one picture below, a bunch of plaster medallions).  A gallery wall doesn't have to pictures at all.

When I did mine, I found it useful to clear out everything from the middle of the room and lay out everything on the floor.  I moved the pieces around and pulled stuff from other rooms until I had a good set-up.  Then I took pictures of it all and did a rough sketch so I could remember what went where since I had to stack everything up so I could move the couch and get my ladder near the wall.

Supplies are important.  I used a laser level since I wanted certain pieces to line up - but not necessarily ones right next to each other.  A pencil with a good eraser so I could mark spots - and erase and change them.  A hammer and nails.  Picture hooks for the heavier pieces.  A ruler or measuring tape so you can space things out evenly.  I did 3" in between my pictures, but wish I had made the space only 2".  But you have to figure out what's right for your room.  Generallybetween 1-3" is good.

And patience.  Patience might be the most important supply.  Make sure you have a lot of it!  I had to rehang almost every piece 3-4 times, even with my laser level, measuring tape and gobs of pencil marks.  So frustrating, but so worth it in the end.

my house

Centsational Girl

Emily A. Clark

SHELTER

unknown

HGTV Canada

Peter Dunham

 Houzz.com

Houzz.com

 Dave and Joi

Domino Magazine via Houzz.com

rejected

I can't lie - I'm more than a little hurt that my living room didn't make it to Apartment Therapy's Room For Color contest.  I mean, would you reject this?

Of course not.

One of their FAQs is "I received confirmation that you received my entry, why wasn’t my entry posted?"  I never received a confirmation.  So I'm consoling myself with the thought that maybe they just never received my entry.

Though maybe they were confused that my room looks so green in the above shot and so blue in this one:

But that's how my living room rolls.  It changes color based on the amount of light and the type of light.  Sunlight is different from the lightbulbs that came with the house is different from the lightbulbs I've bought is different from dusk is differnent from morning.  And, of course, flash vs. no flash.  My house is a chameleon.

By the way, these pictures look waaaaay different on my monitor in the office than they did on my laptop at home.  So I kind of have no clue what you're seeing.  This next shot is still in the blue family.

But I'll make it through. 

There are things I'd like to fix anyway, like my coffee table.  I want something with a glass top.  And since I'm probably not recovering the orange chair anytime soon, maybe I just need to add some more orange to the room.  Like a pillow for the wicker chair.  I want a new one anyway.

I also need to dress my entryway a little more.

So I'll make the changes and take new pictures and be ready for next year's contest.  I'll enter right away and will make sure I do it correctly and I'm sure I'll be selected.  And win, of course.  I don't even know what the prize is.  I just want the world to love my colorful living room.

That, you know, I want to repaint.  But we'll keep that a secret.

And check out my lamp!  The best thing that came out of this contest - I finally go around to fixing the lamp.  I had to glue the socket a little more and I added some lime green ribbon to the shade, which makes it look SO much better.  The brown trim just yelled out "70's!"  In a bad way.  Now it's all fresh and pretty.  The glue I used shows through the ribbon so I do need to fix it, but I'm not worried.  I have lots of ribbon leftover.

 
Enjoy the pictures and get ready to vote for me - next year. 
 
In the meantime, vote for your favorite rooms here.  But don't vote for this one.  It's too close to my living room.  Yeah, I'm bitter.  Whatevs.  I've accepted it.  I do think my favorite is this bathroom.  That green!  I love it.  I also rather love this purple living room.  I think it best reflects the spirit of this contest.

Christmas at the Mint Green house

Snow came early in Maryland this year - just in time for my almost-annual holiday happy hour.

Here's a few shots of my house all covered in snow. It was so pretty!



I hung lights in my backyard - fat little round bulbs along the clothesline and little warm-LED rounds along the deck and around the window.

My party started at 5pm so I had to take the pictures while it was still daylight, but you can get the idea.



Back inside it was warm and cozy.

I've learned that it's good to have food in multiple locations so people don't bunch up too much. During the party I rotated food. The long aluminum dish on the coffee table held cut-up CPK thin-crust pizza and when that was kicked, I put the baked brie down for it to be devoured.

And do you like the gold ribbon in the corner? Yeah, that's to cover up the painted-over wallpaper because I haven't put the molding back up. And everyone complimented me on it!

New things to check out:
1. the large painting above the dining table.

Found this in my mom's cellar and almost didn't look at it. I'm so glad I did! The water is the same color as my walls and the size is just perfect. I hung it at the same height as my salon wall (well, it's maybe 1/4 or 1/2" off, but whatevs). It's very important to me to have things at the same height. I feel like it adds order and when you have really bright turquoise walls and tons of stuff on them, this helps keep it all in balance.

2. new foam for the couch.

I bought it the day before at JoAnn's and though I measured carefully, it still ended up too wide and too short. Luckily the amount I needed to cut off to make it narrow enough was enough to add to the edges to make it long enough. And inside my slipcover, one can never know.

3. new pillows for couch and orange chair.

Bought these at Pier 1 on sale. I had seen them at the end of the summer and loved them, but not at full price. $12 each? Done. 4. the orange chair, of course! I originally thought I'd move it upstairs after the party, but I really like it where it is and how it helps define the living room area.



Here's the other side of the room. Fake garland up around the window and my mom's lamp in the corner. She gave me permission to paint it white! Yay! But I'll save that project for the new year.



Here's the room without the flash so you can see the lights and candles sparkle. I love how the walls turn almost purple without the overhead lights. Watching TV in the evenings I usually have just these lights on and it's just so warm and friendly.

You can also see how I've transformed my crappy little Target bar. A bright red tablecloth pinned tightly, a planter filled with ice and I've got a bar!

I had pretty good attendance at my party - only a few people couldn't make it because of the weather, which meant I had about 20 people in my little house! It was loud, crowded and really fun.



My tree fits snugly in the corner next to my TV and a table runner acts as its skirt. There's still enough room to open up the closet to get out the ladder or extra folding chairs.



Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Joyous Yule!

living room ideas

Walls: Bright, clear, dark sky blue. The color of a perfect summer sky.

Floor: rug in sisal, jute or pale wool.
 

At first, I was very anti-rug. But I like to slide my coffee table closer and further away from the couch and want to protect my floors. I will probably have two rugs - one in the living area and one in the dining area.

Couch: slipcovered in natural or white. Ideally I’d get something new and a little higher than my current couch, even though I am attached to it for sentimental reasons. But I don't want to get just anything so a slipcover will do for now.

Accent chairs: Current is a wicker armchair, but it’s a bit too large. I’d like to get two matching chairs that are a bit smaller. Recliners would be awesome as then they’d be good for when I have guests over to watch TV, but the overall scale would have to be on the small side.

(no picture - need to research this more)

Dining table: I assembled my old Ikea unfinished dining table and there’s plenty of room for it. Like I could also have a corner cabinet and there’d still be plenty of room. But I don’t know if I should get a corner cabinet or if I should get a larger dining table. I do know I need to wait a bit until I decide if I am getting different accent chairs or a different couch or both. I do like the idea of a drop-leaf table, like the Pottery Barn Shayne table in white with stained wood chairs:

Or the Crate and Barrel Trestle in dark wood, maybe with gray wicker chairs:

Of course, that would be if I didn’t have my current wicker chair in the living room. Otherwise it would be just too much wicker.

While I wait, I think I’m going to get some cheap chairs from Ikea and stain those and the table the same brown.

Sideboard: something large, wood and a bit rugged. I definitely want enclosed doors so I don’t have to worry about making sure my platters and such are attractively arranged. I want to be able to just stuff it all in and keep it dust-free.

TV stand: more of a dining room buffet, but with sliding doors so I can keep them open without worrying about someone running into it. I’m not really sure if I want something with glass doors or solid. Probably glass to balance the sideboard since they’re kinda along the same wall.

Art: My mom is giving me one of her antique quilts – it was made by a great-aunt or great-grandmother or some other great-ancestor. If I’m remembering correctly, it’s a gorgeous quilt made out of silks in blues and purples. I am going to hang it behind the TV to help make the focal point of that nook not the TV itself and to add a different type of art to the room.

Behind the couch, I am going to do a gallery wall. I have four paintings by my grandfather that I just love and in previous places have scattered them throughout. But this time, I am going to buy a mirror to center above the couch and then cluster the paintings around it. Will also add one or two of my assorted decorative salad plates, maybe a smaller painting or framed photograph, maybe a vase on a very small shelf. But it will be something that will grow with time and eventually take over the entire wall.

I might add another mirror to the dining area wall that faces the windows. It will help reflect the light and the view and expand the space. And I love mirrors. I don't like overly ornate frames around pictures, but I adore them around mirrors. It might be mirror-overkill since the space isn't that large to begin with, but I do think I'll at least try it.