One Room Challenge: Week Four -- Art Show

October 23, 2013 erin

Hi friends, welcome back to Design Crisis for my latest installment in the One Room Challenge! If you'd like to catch up on previous weeks, please click HERE. If you're already caught up, then you know that last week hammered nails into the coffin of my marble Saarinen dinette dreams. Keywords: fire, brimstone, inferno. I was pretty bummed, but you fine people left so many kind comments and suggestions that I just want to thank you from the bottom of tired and overwhelmed heart. Know that I am cooking up multiple scenarios and basically decorating three rooms simultaneously until I know for sure what will work out in time, but rest assured that the finale will include a table... or perhaps just a Moroccan style pile of floor cushions. I kid, I kid. Or do I??? Let's not talk about my dumb table, or lack thereof. Let's talk about art. Let's talk about how I have 26 pictures worth of stuff to show you, and that's AFTER I edited the selections down. I need to edit again, and obviously I really need to clean out my garage.

While other things are busy falling into place (I hope), I decided to browse my ginormous collection of art to find the best and brightest selections for the room. This lady is one of my favorites. The frame weighs at least 500 pounds and the vintage needlepoint is magical in its softness and coloring.

I just wish it were bigger... It doesn't fill the space as well as I'd like, but the mix of old and dirty with new and crisp does it for me.

So pretty. So sweet. I so do not have a daughter, and I bet my two sons are jealous of this beatific mother who does not look the least bit haggard or unkempt. I suspect she dares not feed her child cereal for dinner, either. There are words for moms like this.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I have this vintage Vasarely poster in dire need of reframing. Acid trip acid wasp, for sure.

Yeah, baby. I can feel my brain getting all swirly and I like it.

Meanwhile, how j'adorable is my vintage Mark Sabin print with that nutty Robert Allen fabric?

I think at the very least I need to reframe so it doesn't infringe on the curtains... also not loving the horizontal on a vertical wall.

Then again, I'm not loving this vertical abstract painting either. It veers a little too Palm Beach against that wall color.

Old dirty prints. I'm down with ODP (yeah, you know me), but maybe these are a trifle too old and dirty to command such a central space.

These on the other hand... these are cray. I bought a set of vintage Alan Davie lithographs off ebay for a song, and they're pretty awesome. The framing would be tricky, though.

But are they too cray? Will that flying, ahem, object disturb the digestion of my more delicate dinner guests?

Speaking of, is this too much? I do think that a grouping of small pieces provides a nice foil to the low hanging blobbiness of the chandelier.

Another random ebay purchase, this portfolio of prints from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair shows depicts the evolution of science over the ages. These prints are WEIRD. The print quality is superb, though.

And finally, I have this behemoth of a mirror designed by Gio Ponti. It goes with my Italian Sciolari chandelier and Italian chairs, but is it too... Italian?

That's not even possible, right? This sucker is very large and very heavy, though. Securing it to the wall would be a challenge. And is a mirror the best way to finish the space? Do I go for more light or more color? Does the pretty arched panel of the mirror look weird with the ugly arched panel of the door?

Also, I have two other stellar mirrors (LaBarge!) and tons more art. Anything could happen, and everything is dependent on the dreaded table and seating and fabric choices. It's the decorating domino effect.

Out of curiosity I'd love to know your thoughts, but please don't be offended if I don't take your advice. If our government is any indication of speed and efficacy, then decorating should not be a democratic sport. I aim to run something more of a benevolent dictatorship. It's for the greater good.

So that's what I've been working on for the week. Please stop by my fellow challengers to see where their projects stand. There are only two more weeks left to go...

The Green Room Interiors

One Room Challenge: Week Three -- Make it Work Meltdown

October 16, 2013 erin

Hello everyone! Welcome back for the latest installment of the One Room Challenge, hosted by lovely Linda of Calling it Home. For just a minute, might I divert your attention to my captain amazing new blog header? Designed by super buddy and Design Crisis alum Karly Hand, it represents pretty much everything I want to say about my life as a decorating lioness. I love it so much. And that is the end of this week's good news. Bust out your kleenex -- or handkerchiefs, for all you neo Victorian lads and lasses -- because this is going to be a Steel Magnolias of a tearjerker.

To summarize my progress since last week, I scrubbed dirty grout on my hands and knees for 47 hours, popped my cowhide cherry with this rug I scored at Round Top, ripped down my blindingly orange blinds, talked Karly into sewing grosgrain trim onto my linen Ikea curtains, and whipped out the fab four mid century Italian chairs I scored for $5 each. That kind of seems like a lot, but something is missing...

Oh yes. MY TABLE.

Let us hearken back the the glory days, full of promise and optimism -- the days when I thought I was going to have a marble Saarinen table. Despite being assured by multiple professionals that cracked marble was repairable after being literally dropped off the delivery truck, I am sad to report the dream is dead. Complete and utter fail.

Look how sad my chairs are! Like a bunch of jilted wallflowers. But at least my grout is clean. Yes, let's talk about the good things before I work myself into a lather over the whole sad situation.

The tape trim on my curtains is nice but not crazy overpowering. I'm going for arty and sculptural rather than preppy polished, so we just did the sides and not the bottoms. I hung two panels at each end for extra fullness.

The Sciolari light looks swank next to jade walls. Can I just take a picture of the chandelier and call the room done already?

This is a very unsexy photo, but a very important tip: when you have a strong wall color you MUST paint out any offensive functional items. I painted all my switch plates, outlet covers, and even the AC register. It looks mo better. Now your eyes don't zero in on the ugly things.

All the better to see the pretty things. I'm happy with this color combo, but I also feel like there is something missing...

I'm pondering these fabrics hardcore, perhaps for upholstery. We're just a family of four but I'd still like to have six seats around the table. That means we're short two seats... and a table.

I need furniture. Stat. And I'm on a budget. Big time. Like many people my panicky first instinct is to throw money at a problem, but over the years I've gotten better about coming up with creative solutions that don't give me morning guilt. Do I upholster a fancy banquette that my children will surely destroy, or do I figure out how to add color in a more cost effective way? Do I refinish my old table, or do I attempt to cobble together a new top for my Saarinen pedestal? I would love to have a new marble top cut, but it costs as much as the table originally did and I'm on the verge of a kitchen remodel... must pinch pennies.

I only have three weeks to get over the hump, but I shall prevail.

Please pass the Tums.

While you're busy having sympathy anxiety hives for me, visit my fine friends to see how they are weathering the challenge. I bet they have furniture.

The Green Room Interiors

Come back next week to see live video of me crying.

One Room Challenge: Week Two -- Hemlock Grove

October 9, 2013 erin

Hello everyone, welcome to week two of the One Room Challenge! By now most assuredly you've had the opportunity to visit some of the other blogs participating in the challenge. So have I. Those people are talented. It's a little intimidating, but here I am powering through all of my self preservation instincts to bring you updates on the rehabilitation of my hideous dinette into proper society. You may recall that I spent last week hemming and hawing, holding a paint swatch of Farrow and Ball's Arsenic next to anything that would sit still.

Now I know lots of you out there wouldn't blush at the thought of a bubblegum pink living room or a lilac boudoir or an Hermes orange office, but I am Misses Conservative when it comes to paint. I like light neutrals and moody darks. I don't do midtone brights. But -- let's all say it together -- it's just paint. And it's a tiny, dark, boring room. I honestly couldn't come up with a reason not to spend a whopping three hours of my life painting this dinky dinette something transformative.

Like, LSD transformative.

And you know what, it's not half bad. I mean, my floors are bad, the soffit is bad, that unpainted register is bad. But the color? I kind of like it. I also think the name is cool... does that make me weird?

Arsenic is a super weird color -- it's not blue and it's not green. It's darker than the previous peachy pink yet suddenly I need to dim the lights at night.

It looks not too shabby with the things going on around it, although the dirty grout on the tile floors is KILLING me (spoiler alert: I already cleaned it).

I don't hate it. Does that mean I like color?

Will I pair it with neutrals as is my usual modus operandi, or do I go full on acid trip with mega bright art and upholstery? Perhaps somewhere in between?

Only time will tell. Tune in next week to see me pour a gallon of gasoline on that dining set and burn it to teeny tiny splintery ashes.

Just kidding, although I would pay to see that show. I do however need to get the furniture situation on lock. It's keeping me awake at night...

Until then, please do visit my lovely co participants:

The Green Room Interiors