Hardware treat

Normal women treat themselves to retail therapy at Saks and a new pair of shoes. I, in my twisted desires, get excited by a trip to Lowes (despite the ridiculous frequency of my visits) and treat myself to an electronic staple gun.

I don't know about you but those manual ones kill my hands. Not sure why I waited so long because this is clearly worth its price tag of $50.


First project was to turn the Ikea Ung Drill frame into something useful.


I took out the glass and cardboard backing, cut a piece of screening to fit and stapled it in place.

Amazingly, I didn't staple into my finger once!!

For now its functioning as a earring holder

but the plan is to mount it in my office, get some hooks into and it and use it to hold the office supplies I need most often like scissors, etc. I'd like to keep as uncluttered a desk as possible. I just need to find the right kind of hooks/jars.

Hmm...but looking at this, perhaps I should have used pegboards instead? I think I'll try it with the screen and see how it holds up.

I actually purchased the staple gun for a totally different, non home decor related project but it will also come in handy when my fabric from Spoonflower arrives and I can upholster the guestroom chair seat. In case you're wondering, I scraped the paisley pattern I posted Friday in favor of this which I think will work better in the room as a quirky surprise.

What do you think?
(loose translation in french : please be seated)

Have you heard?

Have you heard of Spoonflower?

Talk about a service that I can't believe hasn't already been brought to market long ago. Spoonflower will print up short runs (as little as a yard!) of your own personally designed fabric. I'm very excited to put this service to the test and I don't even sew.

My first project is to have some fabric printed up to reupholster the seat of the desk chair in the guestroom. You know, the one that I had planned to paint ages ago and still haven't gotten around to it? That one. I still plan on painting it gray - its just taking me longer than I anticipated :)

I was hoping that I could do something very specific to me or the house so I played around with variations of my address or photos of the house but it all looked very cheesy. I still wish I could do something that was personalized but I can't think of anything good. Ideas?

So I moved onto a paisley pattern that would incorporate the green and grays and black in the room. My first attempt at a pattern resulted in this:


Not terrible but after it was all done I realized that its a little too whimsical for me. It might better toned down on a gray background but Im not loving it.

So I'm working on an alternative that might work that involves old line drawings of antique chairs. I'll share what that looks like when I am done with the design.

In the meantime I figured I'd share the good news about this service. I'm not sure what sort of quality I can expect but I'm hopeful its worth the effort.

Ironic progress

Maybe its not ironic but more plain stupidity: the guestroom is the most "finished" room in the whole house. Guess how many guests we've had? You guessed right - none. Why would we invite anyone to stay over when we had virtually no other furniture in the rest of the house? But more importantly, why is the least used room the first one to get done? Lack of priorities? Mental illness on the part of the owner?

Admittedly, its so far along mostly because a) I was mostly using items I already had laying around b) I have a lower standard for this room in general. And hey - at least its progress!

Here is what it looked like when we bought the house. Notice the very chic plywood window treatment. Oh-la-la!


The last time I showed progress on this room, I had added some window treatments with my DIY accent and had set up the bed. (Take a look here) This weekend I decided I was going to hang the Madeline prints in their old frames. Shabby chic may be out but its in full force here. I also dragged up the 5x7 ivory shag rug I had from my last house. Its not quite the right size but it adds a little texture and that's the idea.

And finally I brought up the chair I need to reupholster and paint for the desk.

And before I break my arm patting myself on the back, I still have quite a bit to do in here to get it totally finished. This includes:
1. Painting the desk & chair in bedford gray I bought ages ago

2. Purchasing and hanging the scalloped mirror over the desk

3. Finding a nightstand to go in place of that plastic storage drawer unit seen at left. Maybe something like one of these two from Target?

$79 plus S+H

$42 plus S+H
4. Reupolster chair seat
5. Do something with this big blank wall opposite the bed.

Mr. Limestone wants to put a tv in there. And since we already have the cable hookup, an extra tv, Im down for that. Whats the likelyhood Mr. L will actually get around to mounting aforementioned television in this century? I think its pretty slim but Im holding out hope. Its not that important if it gets done anyway. However, looking at this photo is making me think that I have an even better reason to give a try to the Ikea Trollsta sideboard.

If it doesn't work in my office, I could always use it on this long wall. Hmmm.
6. Once all of the above are done, Ill work on a care package for the infrequent guests we get. More on that in a future post.

Working the workspace...

Picking up where I've left off regarding my office, there isn't much to show. Im a bit stuck on what to do in here. As Ive mentioned, its a very small room. I want it to be stylish and functional. And since its my office and it doesn't really have any interesting architectural details, I'm feeling a little more free with the style. That said, Im quite constrained on the budget. Anyone want to lend a hand?

In search of some economical choices, I found myself thinking of that mecca of cheap furniture, Ikea.

So this weekend we ventured to the new controversial Ikea that just opened in Red Hook, Bklyn.
I considered just buying everything right there - desk, chair, storage piece, rug, etc.. On further consideration, I didn't want to go too hog wild with purchases because Im concerned about space layout and I didn't want to waste money buying pieces that might not fit or work. So I sacrificed instant gratification with a more patient approach. I'm starting with a desk and working from there.

I had spotted this desk on a prior trip.

I liked how they paired the cabriole legs with the industrial material. I liked that it came in two sizes so I could choose the scaled down version to work with the small room. I liked the price at a sweet $140. It had a little oomph and I like oomph :)

Ok, now onto the layout. I a little bit stuck since in a very poor decision making moment on my part, I allowed the internet & phone lines to be installed on the left side of the room. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have put them on the right side which would have given me more layout options. But Monday morning quarterbacking will do me no good now. (In my defense, I was sort of overwelmed with a thousand of these tiny decisions at the time so I'm giving myself a pass on this one). Im nuts when it comes to seeing wires tacked along the wall so I don't want to do that here. So my two options for desk placement are: a) pushing the desk up against the left wall long ways or b) pushing the short end of the desk against the left wall so the bulk of the desk juts out. I went with option b for now. What do you think?


While I was at Ikea, I stopped to make an inspection of this bad boy.

I liked the look. Its a bit large at 72 inches but its less than 30 inches high so that should help keep it from being overwelming. Im thinking it *might* work along the right side wall for storage inside and display on top. Is it too much?

And yes, that is a totally trashy brown paper + masking tape window treatment you see. Isn't it fabulous? NOT! It gets really sunny in here so I needed something to block the sun from melting me. Its also an odd size window so I can't just buy any old thing and tack it up there. Once again, I'm stumped.

Once the large pieces are in, I have some fun accessories all ready to go in including a crystal desk lamp, a chanel poster, a postcard rack, etc..


So to recap, what else needs to be done in here?
a) decide on layout
b) office chair
c) storage piece
d) rug
e) window treatment

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ta-da!

Without further ado, here they are


I still would have preferred the original couch I ordered in terms of color and comfort but these work too. I love the lines and how they aren't too high or large. Im just so happy I can finally put my feet up in my own living room.

At the same time, it feels weird to be in there relaxing at all since its been empty for so long. Im sure I'll get used to it very fast.


Hardly a voila moment as there is a lot missing here but we're making due for now. Ignore the table under the tv...that is going bye bye at some point. We carried up our old coffee table from the basement. Its not what I wanted in here but until I find a coffee table that works, this one will be living in this spot so at least my cold drink has someone to sit while I'm watching my trash tv :)



I also ordered the gold patterned rug. Im still not sold on it but I ordered to see how I like it in the room. If it doesn't work I can return it or it can go in our bedroom. So more to come on that.

I'm going to need a bigger vase...

While strolling the street fair last weekend, I decided I needed some fresh flowers in the house. I stopped by a deli that happens to have a huge flower selection and didn't see anything I was too keen on except a nice green cymbidium orchid. It was $25 which really shocked me - this was the deli afterall. But the saleswoman told me it would last a month if I made a fresh cut at the base of the stem every other day. Doubtful but sold, I took it home with the idea that I would take my large vase and submerge the orchid in a zen and easy to accomplish arrangement sort of like this


image from HGTV.com

Clearly, I have issues with size. This is the biggest vase I own. Was I on crack thinking I owned a vase 3x as tall?


Its been a week and the orchid is still going strong. So maybe in another two weeks of stem cuts, I'll be able to squeeze this orchid underwater to get the look I had in mind. Until then, its very nice to come home to fresh flowers everyday.

PS: sorry for the delay in sofa photos. I have been droning on and on about this furniture delivery for months, the least I could do is show you what Ive been waiting for. Unfortuntely, Ive just been really busy with work this week and haven't had a chance. I promise Ill post a photo as soon as I get the chance.

Edited to add: Its been 9 days and the orchid is definitely looking the worse for wear. Its not terrible looking yet but there is no way its going to last a month. And yes, I have been changing the water and cutting down the stem every other day.

We have liftoff!

Im sure everyone was at the absolute edge of their seats about my furniture woes. Im happy to report the couch and chairs have arrived safely. Woo-hoo. Its weird to even have furniture in that room after it being empty for so long.

Sorry, Im a bit tied up with work this week so photos will have to wait a few days.

A welcome gift for my chairs...

The couch & chairs are scheduled to arrive in less than 36 hours. Keep fingers crossed for a smooth delivery.

Look what I found on sale at Target. These little rectangular fellows should work nicely as a pop of contrast on the chairs that will face the couch. I couldn't resist getting them a little welcome home gift.

They are the perfect color combo with stripes of gold, gray, beige and cream with black piping. They called out to me.

Now I need some pillows that work on the couch. Any ideas? Im working in the same shades - creams, black, grays and golds.

A look back...

Im going to try to do one of these before/afters on a regular basis. Ive done the dining room, now its on to its sister space, the kitchen. As I mentioned earlier, these aren't true "afters" as there isn't a single room that is completely finished but Im going with the concept that waiting for perfect is a waste of a perfectly good today.



My plan is to put a more detailed picture book together of the before/in progress/afters (I have more than a 1600 photos to sort and arrange) but until then, a single before and after collage will have to do.

Anyone who has been reading since this beginning, this will all be old news so feel free to ignore. For those that might have stumbled upon my blog more recently, hope this serves as a cliff notes version of how far this house has come since we started.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Beneath our feet.

With the couch delivery countdown ticking away, I want to get a rug in place as soon as possible.

My first thought was to get a rug like this shag number.

But then at looking at the color of the couch, there isn't much of a contrast


An easy alternative is just to switch to an ivory rug


But then I spotted this rug yesterday. The photo looks a little strange but it doesn't dirty in person. I like the style and the subtle pattern but Im not sure about the color. Is it too yellow for the room?


What do you think?

Edited to add some very rough mockups for reference. Ignore the extra furniture in here...it won't be staying. I'll also have two chairs facing the couch but this should give an idea for now. (Click on the photos to see larger)

Tagged!

Its now offcial - the couch delivery countdown has begun. Room & Board has told me delivery will happen on Tuesday, June 17. Do I believe them? Only partially but I will not let my past traumatic couch incidents mar this otherwise happy occasion. Check out the countdown-->



Freckles chick was kind of enough to tag me in one of those questions pass it along games. I'll admit, Im never quite sure what to write but its nice to be on a short list of any kind, you know? For those uninterested in my personal boringness, feel free to skip over this post.



Without further ado...

1. What did you do 10 years ago?
Its all sort of a blur but around 10 years ago, the man that would become Mr. Limestone was moving in with me in my first house. I had just graduated college and was about to start my new job at a soul sucking industry in which Im still involved. Ah, good times.

2. Five items on your to-do list today:

I don't really have 5. I have a bunch of work related ones that are entirely too boring to share. I don't plan on accomplishing much after I get home except perhaps finish watching Design Star. Ive tried to watch it 3 times this week and I'm always getting distracted by something.

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Sugar cookies from my cafeteria - yummy!

Cheesy Poofs

Ice Cream - ( Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is a good one)

Smarties

Cotton Candy

all other manner of fattening junk

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Quit my job, take a major kick ass vacation with a select few, hire a fabulous decorator to furnish my house (no, I don't think I would move), hire a staff of personal attendants to cater to my every whim.

5. Places I would live:

This is a tough one as I really have no desire to permanently live anywhere but here. So Im going to switch up the question to make it places I would want a second/third/fourth home. North Shore of Long Island (a posh cottage on the beach would be great) & Paris (a little apartment for European stop overs)

6. Bloggers I am passing the challenge onto are: Chris Bryn Patricia Laura Amy London Thanks so much for reading along and always providing an encouraging word.

For all the home decor sticklers out there, I suppose you could call this "stalling for time" as I wait and wait and wait to get furniture. But Im going to call it blog networking. Hehe

Google Reader help!

Can anyone tell me how I can make the title up there be the title on google reader? Every other blog I read has no problems with this. What am I doing wrong?

PS: I now have 76 subcribers - Im over the moon with excitement that people actually read what Im writing (and hopefully care!) but a little confused at who are all these people who don't comment? Am I the only blabbermouth who loves to comment on other people's blog.

Please be seated.

This is a very exciting development here at casa limestone. I know I shouldn't be too excited about ballroom chairs that are just going to be used for special occasions once I get "real" chairs - but I'll take any small furniture delivery as a triumph.

The chiavari chairs have arrived! They look just like the advertising photo above. The paint on the wood is matte which makes them look a bit more plastic than I would prefer (I think a slightly shiny antique brass finish would be nicer but as Ive mentioned before, I think people shun shiny for some reason). Maybe one day I'll add a thin layer of gold leaf?

I ordered from Vision Furniture which took a little longer than promised but then FedEx'd me the chairs when I followed up - so that was a nice touch. At a bit over $50/pop, I really can't beat the price.

Sorry for the blurry photo. I wasn't paying attention.

The photo above shows them in place on the table. I was sort of hoping some magical furniture fairies might visit and make the issue with the table base go away but that didn't happen. As you can see, we have a pretty large table but because of the curved table base, it only allows 2 chairs to be squeezed in on either side. That's more than fine on 363 days of the year but on Christmas Day, we have 10+ people to seat. So those few feet on either end of the table that can't have a chair in front becomes a real space waster. Thus, we will need a new table at some point. But Im having a hard time justifying this one leaving. (And yes, I have tried to come up with an alternate use but its way way way too large to even fit half of it in any other area of the house).

But I'll worry about that problem when the weather gets colder. Until then, Im so happy to finally have some chairs. This means we can have people over for a proper, grown up dinner party. Wow, that makes me feel very old.



And until I find permanent chairs and a functional table, this room is as "finished" as its going to get for a while. Yippee!!

And speaking of alternate pieces, Im not quite ready to buy but I found some interesting pieces at ZGallerie. Anyone have an opinion on their quality?

Keeping cool.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Temps were near 100 degrees this weekend here in NY - guess who didn't sit in her backyard and paint the guest room desk as planned? Sorry, no progress on that front and I have to say - I don't even feel guilty about it this time.

The one positive thing about all this heat is that we've throughout tested our central air and its working nicely. I swear, I never get tired of air conditioning. Its one of the few modern day luxuries that I'm sure I'll never take for granted. Sweet, sweet cool air on a hot day is a little slice of heaven.

So while keeping cool, I spent a little bit of time entertaining myself in front of a computer screen on Sunday. I don't usually participate in other blog activities but this one is right up my alley. Sara of Sadie Olive started it a few weeks ago but this week's assignment is "green". Anyone can play along if you want to join in - its a fun way to troll down memory lane with my photos.

Here are my contributions for the green challenge:

In case you are wondering, Sadie Olive owns a boutique full of adorable european home accents. I always have a few items Im lusting for but these brass photo holders are is high on my list right now.

I haven't had a chance to upload photos yet but my chiavari chairs arrived. Woo-hoo. And my couch is allegedly on the way. For some reason it can't be delivered until next week. (Do they realize how long I have waited for a couch? Clearly not!) I'm keeping fingers and toes crossed that there are no hiccups this time.

Don't adjust your dials...


...you haven't stumbled into the happy homemakers blog. Its me, good ol black thumb and mediocre cook Mrs. Limestone having an off day. Yes, I baked!

We had the pleasure of having dinner with some friends a few weeks ago at their home. And the gracious hostess served us something called Pear Clafouti for dessert. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? I thought so. Gracious hostess told me it came out of one of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Its really a sort of pear custard pie. A rustic but not overly sweet dessert.

I happen to love pears and find it a highly underused food. Add that to the fact that it was generally yummy and seemed easy enough for me to make, I tried my hand at it this weekend.

(FYI: I'm not a terrible cook - I can do the basics and get by. But baking a whole different ball of wax. It requires more precision and techniques I have no ability to master. So I generally stay away.)

I bought the pears a few days before so they could ripen a little. The pears need to be sweet.


For those still interested - here is the recipe. Naturally, I didn't stick entirely to the script. For one thing, I didn't have any pear brand laying around. Or any brandy for that matter. And even if I did, I wouldn't have opened a bottle of brandy for two spoons full. So I threw in an extra spoonful of vanilla extract.

I don't even own an electric mixer and definitely not one with a paddle attachement. I used a whisk and some elbow grease. I don't think it impacted it in a bad way but I can't be sure.

Another small asterisk is that while I followed the directions about zesting two lemons, I think my lemons were unusually large (heh - that sounds sort of dirty!) so it had a fairly strong lemon flavor. I'm not a big lemon fan but I really liked the zing of the lemon with the sweet pears.

Lastly (you probably expected this one) I didn't have any creme fraiche so it got a treatment of ready whip. Yum!

Anyway - I was a bit worried b/c when it comes out of the oven, its still pretty goey. But once it cooled down, it was really delicious. I was quite proud of myself.

It wasn't as good as original version I had sampled a few weeks ago but its definitely going to be making its way onto my list of recipes I can make to bring to a friends house or serve at my own dinner parties (should my furniture ever arrive!). I highly recommend it for insecure bakers just like me.

Addendum: For those that look at my flickr account, you might have seen a photo of my attempt at pear scones (I had extra pears). That wasn't so sucessful. Not inedible but it was more like a pear bread cookie rather than a scone. That recipe is going in the bin.