Howdy, y'all! How about some week 4 updates? Have you checked in on the 20 featured bloggers lately? I have, and I am on pins and needles over the timeline for some of these renovations - 6 weeks seems like a LONG time until you have a few hiccups and then 6 weeks feels like a second. The other guest bloggers are getting 'er done too - check out the progress!!!
I was plugging away this week, myself. However, I am a wee bit late getting the blog updated. Not enough hours in the day and all of that. With a small person at home I get a bit distracted, but things got done! I swear!
My week in pictures:
Superhubs procured the supplies and built me a frame on which to mount a beautiful, large tapestry cartoon that I found last fall in Round Top. I had purchased it knowing that I had several large walls in the new house that would need larger scale artworks, but I didn't really have any real plan for it. The trouble is, when paper is a (few?) hundred years old, and has been handled roughly (this was rolled up, smashed, and then stored the basement of a French chateau,) it needs to be hung where nobody can bump against it or tear it. The dining room niche felt like the best spot for it. However, it caused the displacement of one of my favsie finds since moving to the KC:
(Nevermind the stuff on the buffet. I didn't actually take this photo with intentions of sharing.) I loved the giant pagoda mirror here a LOT, but this nook feels like the most protected spot in the house for a fragile artwork, so the cartoon will reside here. I miss my mirror, and have toyed all week with switching it back, but something's got to give, so the mirror will be relocated. I think the other thing I struggle with is that this cartoon is quite serious and my chairs and the mirror feel playful, which helped tie things out. The cartoon is more staid, so now I need to find a clever way to bridge them... I call this little phenomenon the "snowball effect" - you solve one problem only to create a new one, and often more on the heels of that... I guess me overthinking things lead to some analysis paralysis/frustration this week, so whenever my brain locked up, I went out to the porch for some change of scenery.
The landscaping on this side of the house needs some serious attention, but this is a summary of the treehouse vibe you get when you're in the porch. (That's the porch on the right.) It is so lovely to sit out there and have dinner or cuddle under a blanket and listen to the birds or the rain and not be harassed by bugs.
This little corner came together this week. My #thriftytreasure table got matched up with more thrifty treasures! I found the lamp this week for $4.99 at Goodwill, and the little metal trays came from GW and an estate sale. Even the Pottery Barn candle was thrifted! Ha! I figure this porch will be dusty and dirty at times, so I have had to show some restraint. The only thing I planned on buying new is the seating piece for this corner and the plants. Everything else will be second-hand. I toyed with getting an indoor-outdoor rug, but that felt like it would require more maintenance than the painted wood floor, so I'm skipping that. However, I just had a lightbulb. Painted. Wood. Floor. Maybe I'll try something fancy with paint!!!! Oh dear. Stop. Scope creep...
I went to a home consignment shop this week and found a pair of planters. I have such trouble restraining myself to a simple palette. I know how successful it can be/is for so many designers, but I have SO MUCH TROUBLE with that in my own house! I figured if I had any chance at all of sticking to it, I could require things on this little plant stand to be blue and white. And terra-cotta. So, these fit the bill and appealed to my Chinoiserie-obsessed side. Speaking of, check out this week's estate sale treasure:
I joke that I live in the land of unicorns. Or my version of unicorns, at least. I have adored these hand-carved gilt Chinoiserie mirrors, but at prices starting in the thousand-dollar range, I was not about to own one (or three) anytime soon. But when I saw this one, that merges my love of BIRDS into the mix, I made a point to be at the sale when it opened. Nobody fights me for these things! I guess that's the lovely side of not being an on-trend person. I think "fancy" is not the hot style now, so I'm also grabbing up antique wood furniture for a song (people want painted/lacquered and mid century.) It seems you can't GIVE away silverplate and sets of china these days. Gosh. It is a good time to be grantastic. Sorry, off topic.
Anyhoo, I'll leave this little update at that. I hate to take away too much from the final reveal, but maybe that's not such a big deal, really. I'm not making magazine-worthy spaces, after all. Just some real-life tweaking and useful updates, while creating some self-imposed stress because of wanting perfection and magazine-worthy rooms on a budget! #firstworldproblems That may be a post for a later date...
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