Signing Off Early (and a little poll)

Last night was scary and weird. I have this problem where food gets stuck in my throat. Once a couple years ago an Ibuprofen liquid gel pill got stuck and it was very scary and painful. It happened again late last night and it looks like the pill did some serious damage to the lining of my throat. I'm headed into a procedure that will help us know more. The whole thing feels silly and it's just about the worst timing. Deadlines galore and new, exciting projects that need research (I'm excited to share a big one with you in two weeks), but all of that will have to wait while I focus on getting healthy for the next few days. Thanks for your understanding while I take a little break here, too.

When I come back I'll be sharing some cool things we've done in our bedroom and (hopefully) some good progress on the chevron floors. Speaking of, I've waffled a lot this week with the angle choice - 22.5, 30 or 45 degree cuts.

I like both the 45 and the 30 best for the space (the room is no quite wide enough for the 22.5 long slope). The two longest cuts in both the 45 and the 30 here in the photo below are what the finished cuts would actually look like (24" long planks from miter cut to miter cut). You can see that the 45 degree angle makes for a much more narrow row than the 30 degree cut plank even though they are both 24" long. Trigonometry at work!!

What's your preference?

And, of course, some of my inspiration images to take you on through the rest of the week. Have a good one friends. Wish me luck with this dumb throat thing. xo

images found here, here and here - I'll try to update the specific photos with links later. :)

Jenny Bedding at Biscuit

I feel as if my life is essentially complete - there is a bedding line pattern named after me. (!)

Bailey McCarthy, who I'm sure you know from Peppermint Bliss, owns a store and bedding line called Biscuit Home. I need, love, want it all.

Bailey is a classic designer triple threat - she's smart, she's ambitious and she's incredibly creative. She's doing cool, new stuff with bedding and decor and the world is noticing (did you see her in House Beautiful this month?) I'm happy to call her friend and couldn't be more thrilled to be included in her patterns namesake lineup. Check out the little interview I did with Bailey here.

Reader Laundry Room Re-Design

Remember the giant laundry room give away I did with The Home Depot, Tide and Maytag a while back? I redid my own laundry room on a budget and shared my six best tips here.

Well a few days ago the winner was chosen and was asked to email me photos of her space. She is a busy mom and food blogger named Jamie. Her laundry room is tucked away in her home and is definitely used as more of a utility space, but that doesn't mean it can be pretty!


In the space there needs to be room for a foldable treadmill, prop and holiday decor storage, and storage for Jamie's cleaning supplies.

The rest of Jamie's home has a cool, eclectic mid-century vibe and I think her laundry room is begging for some of that look.

She and I will be working together to come up with a cohesive plan for her space, but here are my initial thoughts:

The room is a good size, so there's definitely space to put everything away once the storage organization is worked out a little better. I think the general layout she has right now works as well. The furnace and water heater and the washer/dryer areas can't be moved obviously, so it makes sense to have her closed storage on the opposite side of the room, near the hallway door. Her folding treadmill can stay next to the washer/dryer units.

I think it makes sense to hire a framer and a drywall company to come out and finish the walls. I'd have all the walls painted a bright white, which will help with the darkness factor and make it easier to get tasks done in the space. Depending on how much Jamie wants to spend, I'd have at least the washer/dryer wall tiled, if not also the treadmill wall. I'd love to see subway tile in an interesting pattern. Herringbone is always nice, but how about this tumbling block pattern?

design sponge

I'd also have the floors tiled in a white penny tile and I'd used dark grout on both the walls and the floors.

4men1lady.com

On top of the penny tile and in front of the washer/dryer, I'd love to see a bright rug, like this chartreuse one.

The furnace and water heater need to be easily accessible, so I'd install a simple curtain panel to cover that whole side of the room.

Since the walls and the floors will be a bright white, I think it would be fun to really go for it on the curtain fabric with a bright color like cobalt blue or electric violet. Wouldn't that be pretty with the chartreuse rug? Gray line linens is always my go-to source for beautiful linen in interesting colors at less than $10 a yard. While they also have an upholstery fabric line with less color options, the colorful Barry line is good for drapery and pillows and the Warsa line works well for lighter weight upholstery (like headboards and light use armchairs).

I can't recommend a folding station enough. I had a piece of MDF cut to fit the top of my washer and dryer so that no socks fall behind or between the appliances while I fold. We didn't have this in the brownstone and I found about a dozen little socks behind our dryer when we were packing. :)  By the way, the faux bois treatment I did on the MDF is turning out to be one of my favorite things in the laundry room. I love it and think something similar would be really fun for Jamie's laundry room. If she's not feeling creative, she could decoupage some marbled paper and seal it good with polycrylic, like what I did with this waste bin.

One of my big tips is to hang art in your laundry space, which might seem a little silly. But I always think it's a good idea to put art in every space - even and maybe especially rooms that are usually only seen by homeowners. Putting up something cheap and cheerful, like this bright pink and red print will help to finish the room. When there's art on the walls, it's a room, not a storage closet. And rooms stay tidier than storage closets. :)

Above the art leaning on the folding station, I'd hang a series of 12" deep shelves for open storage. I like these heavy-duty brackets with their interesting curves, but wouldn't they look better in a bright brass? I'd use my favorite gold spray paint here.

I'd just use primed pine boards (they're perfectly smooth and much lighter than MDF - check them out the next time you're at The Home Depot) for the shelves. 12" would be plenty deep enough for detergent and dryer balls/sheets, and a row or two of baskets. I like these baskets from Crate and Barrel's great housekeeping line, called Clean Slate:

It's nice that Jamie's treadmill folds up. I'd buy (or make!) an upholstered folding screen to hide the eye sore when it's not in use.

Nick Olsen via Lonny

This one from World Market is simple and pretty affordable.

Another fab World Market find is this black iron pendant light. I've actually been eying this one for my own home. The gold on the inside is such a great touch! I think two or even four of these pendants would be perfect for Jamie's laundry room.

Jamie has a ton of prop and holiday decor to store.

I'm obviously a huge fan of IKEA's Pax units - you just can't beat the price for the amount of closed storage and the tons of organizational options. I'm working on a post right now where I share my tips for painting IKEA's notoriously finicky laminate finish. I'd paint Jamie's two 40" wide units a glossy, light mint (this is my favorite shade). If she's really wanting to go all-out, I'd add these O'verlays to the door fronts before painting. Then no one would ever guess these were from IKEA.

And since mint looks so pretty with orange-red, I'd put this gorgeous Saarinen style chair next to the Pax units, seen below in the room board. I'm so excited to keep working with Jamie on this laundry room. I think it's going to turn out to be a fun, fresh space. Peace out, dark storage closet!

This post was a part of a collaborative series brought to you by The Home Depot, Tide HE and Maytag. Check out my laundry room makeover tips here.

Lately on Fab (Home Edition!)

I went over to my friend's house yesterday and I marveled over how pretty she had decorated it. She bought a house about a year ago that needed some tweaking like ours did (and does) and she put her little heart and soul into fixing it up top to bottom for several months. I remember her calling me when we still lived in New York on the day she was finally finished enough to start decorating. She was hanging the first piece of art in her home and she was excited, ecstatic, thrilled. I thought I got it then, and I was happy for her over the phone, but I think now, after living in a construction zone for months with nary a sofa, lamp or piece of art in sight, I totally get it.

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We are so close to getting to bring in the furniture. The idea of actually living in and really using our house is giving me the energy burst I need to finish up. As I lay the (chevron!!) floors this weekend, I'll be dreaming of the sofa I want to put in the library. While I paint the stone on the fireplace in our bedroom tonight, I'll think of the mirror I want to hang over the mantel. 

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I'm most excited to do a little shopping for a few furniture pieces that we need! So when Fab invited me to share some of my picks from their furniture and home sections, I was thrilled to oblige. Right now they are running their Iconic Brands sale through Wednesday. Big names in the design world, selling at discounted prices. I'm also really loving some of the collaborative pieces from their Blue Dot section.

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Like I needed more reasons to be excited about the decorating phase! :)

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This post was brought to you by Fab.com. Thank you for supporting LGN's sponsors!

How I Painted My Stairs

I've decided I definitely want to change the stairs (treads, banister, balusters - everything) down the road a bit. But for now, I knew it made sense to just paint what I've got. Most of you agreed that I could change the look enough with paint that it would be worth the time and effort.

Well, there was definitely time and effort spent! And I'm pretty happy with the change the color makes in the space.

I think it will be worth all the effort in the end, once the runner's installed. The hardest part by far was all the sanding. And thank goodness for Bondo!

Bondo is one of those products that might look intimidating, but is actually pretty easy to use. You mix a hardening cream with the epoxy base putty in small batches and then smear on the mixture quickly before it starts to set.

The stuff stinks bad, but it works miracles and fills any hole/crease/crevice/seam you present it with.

After the Bondo had dried for a few hours I sanded the filler down. This was seriously a full day's work. Every tread took about an hour. But by the time I was finished, the Bondo had perfectly sealed all the imperfections and all the hand-scraped detail on the old wood had been sanded away.

Michael helped me hang plastic sheeting on the walls and we wiped everything down twice.

I used my favorite Critter sprayer to paint the stairs with the first coat of tinted blue-gray primer.

And some of the imperfections started to reveal themselves.

As Linus would say - Ruh-ro.

So I caulked and did another coat of Bondo where it was needed and then sanded the whole thing again. (and sniffed and sneezed and coughed the whole time - stupid cold.)

I sprayed a second coat of primer on and then the first of two coats of Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray in the Advance line paint.

The color is light enough to brighten the space a bit, but dark enough to hide dirt perfectly I think. 

The treads look almost like solid planks now! I'm so happy with how they turned out. We just saved ourselves a couple thousand dollars by not replacing these oversized treads!

I have no ideas yet for what I'm going to use for a stair runner, but I'm really excited to pick that out next. I'll be trying something similar to this tutorial.

Also, on a whim I pulled out one of my old gold leaf pens and painted one of the round screw covers. The pen was pretty dry so the color's not very saturated, but I kind of like the look. What do you think of the gold just on the screw covers?

Before I buy the runner I have lots of touch ups to do and I think I'll paint the walls before installing the runner as well. But at least I'm happy with the direction we are headed in. It was well worth the labor, paint and about $12 in Bondo!