my new project space

I love to see where people work. And this is our newly created basement project area. Our basement flooded for two months two Summers ago and I am embarrassed to say that it is finally back together. No carpet, just rugs. And rugs from IKEA. This is a project area for either of us. We baptized it by doing our taxes there. With the cement floor and cheap rug I have a place to work with paint, ink and make junk sculptures. Basically make messes. (Sorry for the poor lighting on the photos, there is almost no natural light. Still working on the right lighting.)

Lots of repurposing always. The desk against the back wall is Techline from the 80s. As sturdy as the day we got it. The table is IKEA. I hauled those pretty legs thru 3 states before they were put into good use. The table top was in the AS IS section at IKEA. The screen which had ugly graphics on it came from the ReStore. With a coat of paint it hides the sump pump. Sweet John put up the shelves using these pipes. That idea was stolen from Will who lives in the front condo. The white covered containers are also IKEA.

Birthday and Christmas brought new watercolors from Laurie and vintage dip pens from Justine. Nothing is more exciting to me than good and interesting art supplies. This inspired me to go thru bins of art supplies and put many in the white containers.

Then there are the cigar boxes of semi random things and tubs of rusty metal and odd parts for more robots.

If you turn around here is the rest of the room. A dark, cozy, man cave TV space. This is much better feng shui. When we moved in we had shelves around this space and it was filled with boxes of stuff which we ignored for the first year and a half.

Thanks for taking a peek.

A little mid Century spiff....

We got a lot done this year on our condo. Re stained the deck, new faucets,  re grouted the shower, new plants in the flower bed. By we, I mean John. I provide moral support and lunch.

I am still dealing with knee problems and we have almost no comfortable furniture. So it was time. Poor John, when I make a major purchase we look at things in multiple stores in multiple cities in multiple states. While we were at a local store where I was buying a new Polywood Adirondack chair that fit me John, also known as Scout on these shopping missions, headed back to the clearance corner and texted me this lime set. Needing both main floor and man cave furniture we got this. While I was really thinking about gray or black those mid Century lines totally sold me. Bonus, total time shopping for furniture less than half an hour. Go Scout!

I love mid-Century furniture. I like the lines and the small scale. It works here. To tie the blue chairs with the new green furniture John painted the wall behind the painting lime green. I am not allowed to paint anything. There was an incident in another town with a red wall, but that's a story for another time.

I do love these Bertoia Diamond Chairs. They are vintage. And were my friend Nita's. Too make our small space look bigger I use dainty legs and as much see through furniture as possible.

I can't decide if I ended up with a Barbie Dream House Living Room or a Mad Men Cocktail Lounge. Either way it is fun and fresh and a colorful update.

office with a view...

Recently my office was the Sunday Favorite Space feature. I like to see where creative people work. In case you do too here is the link.

color and texture & a tree

 

just a pretty shot in my office of pattern, visual texture and that pale pink color against the soft grays and black.

We were just driving down the street one day and there was this tree. Amazing! Wish it was in my yard.

And I finished the update to my website!!! Unfortunately it won't look any different to anyone unless you buy a font. Or you click on some links in the navigation bar. So now I am back to living in the creative world again. Next up is finishing a printable calendar for etsy and a new font. More soon.....

tomatoes

 

Every year I try and grow tomatoes. Every year I have less than great results. Each year I learn a little more, try something different and try a different location in our small condo yard.

Now I am buying the biggest plants I can get at the Farmer's Market. That does help. Plus the woman told me that I have to water daily and water 1-2 gallons per plant. And in the heat of the Summer water twice a day. Watering certainly has been part of my problem.

Location is another as we don't have a really sunny spot. This year I am using the sunniest spot in the yard. The wooden slats were on our upper balcony on the rubber roof. We are replacing those and the good little recyclers we are decided to use them for the garden area.

John moved some perennials and dug down and leveled the ground and put two of these in, one on top of the other.

Got some deeper, bigger pots for the tomatoes. Other pots are for basil. Will add another row of smaller pots for other herbs and some maybe some flowers.

This is this Summer's attempt at container gardening. Can't wait to plant but it is still too early here. What plants I do have need to go out during the day and come in at night. But a sure sign that Spring is right around the corner.

bathroom remodel

 

Drum roll please... here is our renovated main floor half bath. It has been a 2 month DIY project. My part is to have the vision, source the things needed and get them. John has the much bigger part where he learns the skills needed and executes the plan. And he did a fabulous job.

The mirror came from Crate&Barrel years ago and was in our bedroom. I often use something in one room and then move it to another.

These are the sinks in all 3 of our bathrooms. Circa early 1970s. While still sturdy and usable they are dated and showing wear. The worst one was in this bathroom. It never looked or felt clean no matter how we scrubbed.

John tore the sink and cabinet out and put it on the curb during a week of off and on snow. And someone came along and took it. We were delighted. He took the mirror to the ReStore. They were happy to get it and we were happy to take a tax deduction.

Our new sink mounted on the wall so we needed some matching tile for the empty space where the bigger sink was. John learned to lay ceramic tile and did a perfect job. We scored matching ceramic tiles at the ReStore. We bought all they had since we have a lot of this tile. John found someone who cut the tile for him.

Next came painting. Two charcoal gray walls, two white walls and new white trim. In March Ace Hardware had Free Quart Saturday so we got our wall paint for free. The trim paint was outrageously expensive but went on beautifully. We did have a $35 Bucky Book coupon for part of one gallon.

We did have our guy Scott come in and rework the plumbing for the sink. It has two drawers and is from IKEA. The shiny white cabinet will someday match the kitchen and buffet cabinetry. IKEA sinks have plastic pipes which lay flat against the wall. So Scott reconfigured the old metal pipes so John could attach the new plastic ones once the sink was installed. Since the sink mounts on the wall John had to reinforce the wall. We are still looking for some simple feet to put under the sink just in case someone ever decides to sit on the edge.

This is an average small half bath. Putting a smaller sink in gives the illusion of the room being bigger. And I like that. Plus instead of just one empty space under the sink I have 2 nice, far more useable drawers.

Added a simple IKEA hook to hold the hand towel.

I then hand painted the dots using the slightly shiny trim paint. Did not take much time as they are kind of bloby dots, quick and easy.

And I finally framed and hung two collages I made probably 6 years ago. I am delighted with our major Winter project. Happy to have it done as Winter is ending and happy to have a fresh new bathroom.

a peek into my office

having a great place to work is important to me. It is hard for me to be continuously creative in a bad space or in a bad place. Whatever I put here needs to work with the whole main floor as this is one big open space that has the TV, small living area and dining area. My office is on one side of this open room. The mid century desk was my Dad's and I use it for my etsy inventory.

I also run a business that has very few expenses so I decided to treat myself to a new piece of furniture to help with taxes and make my space even more enjoyable. I found this little armless loveseat in the window of Rubin's in Milwaukee. Unfortunately they would not sell me the one they had and I had to wait my 8-10 weeks to get my very own.

This is scrabble fabric which I love. Seems like a perfect piece for a font designer. And it gives me a second spot to read and think in my office area. It is very comfortable too which is important.

This is the rest of my space. Old rug from IKEA, really, really old Techline desk and file cabinets. I had 2 and found another 2 at a garage sale last Summer, new desk chair. The foot stool was a garage sale find and I recovered it in an IKEA dot fabric. The lovely chandelier came with the condo. And while I would never have sought out a conservative glass chandelier I love the contrast to my sleeker pieces.

And this is where I work, merrily, happily, daily.

decorating

 

Spring means getting ready for guests... my mother would call it Spring Cleaning. I don't do Spring Cleaning like she did. But I did spend a day on the guest room. I started with new furniture for the guest room balcony. Chaise and small table from IKEA and the lime and gray rug from CB2. I like the nice fresh look.

Edited the shelving unit in the guest room and put out some hat and purses.

We have lovely balconies that we don't really use. Now that we have some fun furniture I hope we will. These pink & white plastic chairs also came from IKEA. These are on our bedroom balcony.

Maybe next week I'll show you the basement...