Living Room Updates

Interior photography should be an olympic sport. There would be the sofa lifting component, the squatting competition, and the tensed muscles/breath holding element. Also, extremely pregnant ladies should automatically get a blue ribbon. I'm telling you this because I threw my back out whilst attempting a living room photo shoot, ostensibly to show off my new curtains.

Why would I choose the hardest room to shoot, praytell? I think we've already established that I am not always the most rational being. Ok, and I don't want to shoot the very nearly finished rooms until they're as close to done as possible, because I'm weird like that.

Meanwhile, the living room is never going to be done. It's huge, has a difficult layout, and is frequently inhabited by small people and their tiny but obnoxious plastic toys. Fixing this room will cost a zillion dollar billz -- largely spent on new seating, rugs, upholstery, built ins, and custom curtains. Oh, and I would also like a pile of money to swim in like Scrooge McDuck.

Just because.

Enough excuses. On with the show.

Hey, look at that -- I have new curtains.

They came from the West Elm outlet, $130 total for all four panels. They are silk. They are sheer. They are not overwhelming and I like that. I probably need to hang them higher but I'm not in any hurry to nag Ben into conquering that relatively piddly task.

Dear jeebus that chesterfield needs to get out of there... but it's so comfortable. Like sitting on your grandma's lap and listening to bedtime stories about the good old days, albeit with crumbs and jelly smeared all over your ass.

Here is the back end of the room that I never show because it's sorely under utilized and generally functions as a crap repository. You can see the unpainted hallway in the background... it's not papered because I may have miscalculated the amount of paper I need to cover the space. May = definitely.

Kind of embarrassing back wall. Someday the tv may go back here. Or not. Until then I am unwilling to invest more than a few bucks jazzing up this space. What do you think: New chair upholstery (it needs to be resprung anyway)? Or maybe paint the mirror? New lamps? Rug shakeup?

I don't know. Blank slate. I'm not planning to spend a lot of time worrying about it. I wish I could paint that wall a crazy color, but it would be weird with the other stuff going on around that space.

And there you have it. I just made myself totally depressed.

I am trying to remind myself that the room looks ever so much better than it did when we moved in less than a year ago:

Hahaahaaaaaaaaaaa.

In other news, Ike's room is totes cute but I might buy him a new bed... Also it is insanely dark in there until about 7:30, which is bedtime. Hence the lack of pictures that might make me feel better about myself.

Master bedroom is looking cozy but needs art and bedding. Hopefully these things will happen over the weekend.

Front room looking kinda awesome but needs pillows... I am eyeing these but so far have been too cheap to pull the trigger:

Baby nursery is finally coming along, but I now have an unopened roll of Thibaut's Cheetah wallpaper to sell:

I kept trying to make it work in there, but it felt like hammering a square peg into a round hole. Let me know if you want to buy it and I'll ship it to you.

And finally, all the onesies are washed and blankies are folded. So if Baby X decides to squirt out of ladytown any time soon I am "prepared."

As if.

Calculating/Decorating

Sorry for the quiet around here of late. Ike's out of school again and I've been whipping us both into a frenzy of day trips and play dates. Today is dr. appt # 8million, so I don't have a lot of time but I thought I'd report on what's been going on around here.

A whole lot of painting, and none of it's good.

You're probably thinking: But, Erin -- you have Sanders! Every paint color he picks must be magical!

It is. And yet sometimes I foolishly do not listen to him. Sometimes I chicken out and second guess him. Sometimes I am an idiot.

Now my bedroom looks like this:

Also Ben is pissed that I didn't just use the extra gallon of dark gray navy paint from Ike's room instead of trying to pick a new, slightly different dark blue paint.

Did I mention that I'm an idiot?

But you know, it's hard picking colors for the last rooms in the house. The first ones go up pretty easily -- limitless choices! And then the possibilities narrow into a handful of pathways... and then I get confused.

Should I repeat a color, or choose a new neutral color? Because I'm not sure I love the dark blue. And peach didn't work (promise! and I did try Jumel Peachtone, aka orange sherbet, for the person who suggested it).

I am inspired by this trio of beautiful rooms:

This paint looks like Ike's room color, BM Deep Secret.

This one looks like the front room paint color, Dark Harbor.

And this is the missing element. Kind of gray, kind of purple. Kind of amazing.

Could be BM Evening Gown.

Or perhaps Evening Skyline.

And my wild card pick is Arctic Seal.

So you can see I'm thinking something purpley, but not Violet Beauregardey. Something warm and enveloping or perhaps deep and mysterious.

Or maybe Sanders will tell me to do something else entirely, and I WILL LISTEN.

Details to follow.

Also, I may be getting a new rug for the bedroom. And possibly designing it and the paint color around these curtains that didn't work for the living room:

Because, when the choices narrow down I try to make things more difficult by adding another level to the equation.

I can derive a polynomial function in my head faster than I can decorate (remember the shortcut, calculus nerds?).

But I am learning.

[photos via design traveller]

Housekeeping

The nice cleaning lady is here for her inaugural visit... I think she was kind of scared when she looked at the floors. I am having some terrible guilt attacks about sitting here doing nothing, so I'm going to show you a bunch of mockups I did for our bedroom and then email bombed to Naomi last night. Now I look busy and important enough to have someone else doing my dirty work.

Our bedroom is currently a barfy shade of green khaki that must be stopped... we already painted the ceiling and now I must settle on a color to cover up the patchwork quilt of paint samples that is spreading up and down the walls like mildew.

I have been desperately trying to create a sunny peachy ivory oasis, kind of like this:

But our bedroom is too dark and unoasisey to make it happen. I think I have to go bolder. Cooler.

I could use the extra gallon of paint I have from Ike's room, but would it be weird to use the same strong color in a master bedroom and a kid's room?

Would the fact that the color is named "Deep Secret" make it even weirder?

I also have a sample of this greeny blue color, but I think the green may be too cloying. Not that I'm picky or anything.

Perhaps a cool purpley blue? I don't know if I look good in this color, so my vanity may prevent this from happening.

I'm generally obsessed with this room. I already foisted it upon Jenny, who is having paint issues with her own bedroom:

But I'm also a little concerned that three cave rooms in one house is at least one too many.

However, our bedroom is pretty dark... we have one big bay window that faces south but it also faces the street. We live at the back of a culdesac so there's not much traffic. But still, I don't want the whole neighborhood watching our private business.

I'd prefer to keep that a deep secret.

So what do you guys think? Do you like any of the mockups? Suggestions for other non crazy colors?

I can't handle uber coral or pink pizazz in the bedroom. I think I'd like to keep things in the green or blue range, for continuity's sake.

If you have favorite paint colors, spill it.

Headed out to bother Sanders now.

He is so nice not to kill me.