Ok dudes, I have maybe four minutes to write this post before Luke demands to be fed and then proceeds to vomit forth said feeding all over my briefly clean clothes, so buckle your seat belts because this is going to be a lightning fast haunted ass trip.

Remember how I said I can’t stop shopping at 4 am? Yeah, I wasn’t kidding. And at 4 am your brain isn’t wired quite properly… it might gravitate towards the quirky end of the spectrum. So when I saw this, my semi wired synapses sputtered and sparked up the old paypal account pretty much immediately. Love at first bleary sight.

Yes, that is a mega giant hand painted Victorian backdrop used for photographs. Like this.

These painted backdrops were used as early as the daguerreotype era, but more commonly for tintypes or carte de visites. Oh, and did I mention that I used to make daguerreotypes and albumen prints and all sorts of other toxic and delightful antique processes? I had to have this thing. Had. To.

Then it arrived in all its crumbling, eight-foot-square glory. Holy shit — BIG. Oh, and look at my new leprechaun green velvet chairs… they are GREEN.

Anyway, lucky for me Ben and my sweet father in law are handy men, capable of nothing less than magic. In other words, they built stretcher bars for this bad boy and then framed him up with cheapo molding from Home Depot that I spray painted gold (duh).

All along I had plans to transform the back wall of our living room from this drab, flat blahdom:

To this splendifirous rendering:

Ok, sure that may be Albert Hadley’s house, but you get the idea. I bought the backdrop to be a backdrop.

But, huh. Hmmmm. Yeah, I don’t know about that. PS, this is about how dark and flat that wall really is for most of the day. I photoshopped the bejeezus out of the other picture I posted previously… before I had a baby. When I had time to photoshop things and use a tripod and SHOWER.

Where was I?

I think I need to rethink my Albert Hadley plan. I don’t like how much of the backdrop is being backdropified by all the stuff piled in front of it. Should I ditch the mirror? The lamps? The credenza?

All of it?

I haven’t had the time or pumped up the muscles to move that credenza out of the way, but I have had time to make some mockups. Of course. Behold:

Option 1 recycles the rug I already have, tosses the credenza and adds a smaller antique oval library table. I saw one similar to this a few days ago… totally doable. I did black library sconces and muted pillows to tone down the rug.

Option 2 is a little more glamooooor. Brass and glass console (this is an actual table I could buy, thus the wonky angle), brass double sconces, same rug and pillows.

Option 3 is muted maximus. The sconces are similar to a pair I’m eyeing… new rug in this mockup.

I guess what I’m thinking is that the credenza has to go. It might fit somewhere else in this room…

Like where it used to be or behind the couch? But I use that white console as my desk, so then I would lose my desk space.

Also, thank gawd my house doesn’t look like that anymore.

Phew, that’s better.

Also also, whatever I do on the back wall needs to flow with the front part of the room. So I probably shouldn’t go too Tudor Regency all up on it. Whatever that means.

Ok, kids. There you have it.

What should I do?

Here are jpegs of the chairs and backdrop… make your own mockups if you want to.

I’m sure you have nothing better to do — like grocery shop and wash the sheets and sweep dust bunnies under the rug before your Thanksgiving guests arrive.

Speaking of, I need to do those things STAT.

Check y’all later.

Sorry for the radio silence yesterday, but I have been alternating between hustling and hibernating for the past 48 hours. Anyhow, part of the hustle was this fancy Sciolari fixture I won on ebay for a song:

Yes, that’s a 1st Dibs picture, because it’s the SAME FREAKING FIXTURE. Somebody had no idea what they were listing, which always makes me kind of sad — like I’m taking advantage. On the other hand, I really needed a pick me up right about now. So I’ll take it.

I’m going to put it in the dinette, and it’s not exactly what I had planned (maybe a little too predictable?), but I think it will work ok:

After much conferencing with Sanders about paint colors, this is the current situation. It’s not knocking my socks off, but it’s a small space so it can’t handle too much insanity. Plus, this is what I can reasonably do with my budget in a non-glacier time frame. I’m not loving the chairs, but I need something simple and cheap. I added a leather bench against the window because the sills sit too low to build a banquette.

Also I’m not super hot on the window fabric, but I don’t see anything else that I love for a reasonable price. Any hints out there?

Also also, I tried about 50000000 different paint colors, and it’s a really tough space. Peach is no bueno, but perhaps I should go more muted…?

Obviously the chandelier is going to have to carry the space.

Maybe the chandelier can pick out some paint colors and chairs and window treatments while he’s at it.

You can do it, chandelier. I believe in you.

Have a super swell weekend, peeps!

Sorry for the radio silence yesterday, but I have the pukey virus so bad that I can barely hold my head up. It’s actually taking extreme effort just to type this, and in fact I may have to leave for a second to… That’s better. So before I caught yet another iteration of the bubonic plague, I had been working on a moodboard for our pesky double height living room. This is about as far as I’ve gotten:

New couch, new chairs, new benches, new art: check, check, check and check. Painted fireplace and some kind of awesome screen. Wall mounted tv (sorry y’all, I kind of like it there because I can watch it from the kitchen while I cook) with hidden components.

What’s missing??? The ceiling fans. Yes, they’re still in here, but think how much better this room would look with a pair of badass chandeliers instead of fans… too bad Texas is so damn hot in the summer. We’re going to wait until then to see how miserable it would be without them.

So this is what I’m thinking for now (minus the scale issues… I really should learn CAD). Concerns? Questions?

I may or may not be able to address them today.

First of all, we must come up with a new name for “moodboard,” because that word has jazz hands. Utterly unacceptable. And since I have now spent so much time making virtual dioramas on the cracky addictive program Olioboard that dust has settled on my shoulders and my hair has grown Rapunzel long, the matter has become pressing and urgent. Internet, please be my Prince Charming and rescue me from this tower of dorkiness.

So, let me just tell you that making moodboards IS ridiculous. It’s like playing with a dollhouse on your computer. Wait — that’s AWESOME. Want to play, too? I thought so. Let me introduce you to the cast of characters and their zany spaces, which combine blue blooded traditional elements with a dose of magic mushroom tea.

This room is for the Estelle barbie. Estelle enjoys playing with her King Charles Cavalier spaniels, long walks in Central park, and drinking her martinis sans underwear a la Julienne Moore (be very sure you want to click that link…). She doesn’t give a rat’s ass what you think about that, either. Room highlights include a vintage sofa upholstered in psychedelic Jack Lenor Larsen fabric, Anthropologie rug, Ikea curtains, Soane lighting and chairs, 1st Dibs table.

This room is for Bunny. She dropped out of Wesleyan to start her own “merchandising firm” — at least that’s what she told Daddy. At night she smokes pot and eats a box of pastel macarons while watching Craig and Smokey attempt to outwit Big Worm in Friday. Room highlights include art by Eileen Quinlan, Overstock Aubusson rug, Ikea curtains, Soane lighting and chairs, 1st Dibs coffee table.

This room is for Lila. She loves to host key parties for her neighbors in Aspen. It’s kind of an Eyes Wide Shut situation, so I probably shouldn’t say any more, except that the trunk provides excellent storage. Room highlights include a Marimekko tapestry, Anthropologie rug, Ikea curtains, wallpaper by Manuel Canovas, chairs and pillows by Layla Grace, lighting by Soane, and a leather 1st Dibs coffee table.

Ok playas, I’m really busy today with a laundry list of things to do (some of which may or may not include moodboardzing) so that’s it for today. Hope you enjoyed play time with me.

Check ya later.

Continuing on yesterday’s theme, I finally registered for Olio and started moodboarding away. For some reason, Olio is getting glitchy on me, so I only finished got to a stopping point on one of the umpteen boards I started. This is probably for the best since I need to focus (like, bad). I’ve already been wrasslin’ with the computer for hours this morning and I have a mountain of paying work to do. Sadly, I can’t sit around shopping the netz all day long, so this is what you dudes get for today. Maybe I’ll finish the other ones I started… maybe not. You tell me.

It’s not the most fully fleshed out space and it’s definitely the most subdued room I worked on, but you get the drift. Sofa is Mitchell Gold, rug is an antique Persian from 1st Dibs (I am now totally obsessed with bleached out Persians), coffee table is from 1st Dibs (also obsessed with anything Egyptian), chair is by Soane, art is by Andy Gilmore, the chandelier is Anthropologie, and I stole the pillow from Olio.

Time to work for real. Le sigh.

Later, pals.

When Elissa wrote to us for help designing her living room around a newly purchased vintage couch, she appealed to our sense of Texan loyalty. Ok, plus she told us how much she liked the blog, and we’re total suckers for flattery. Buckle up, kids. This is going to be a looong post, because as a Texas ex-pat now renting a gorgeous 30s apartment in Seattle, Elissa really needs our help moving forward.

Elissa says:

PLEASE HELP ME. Here’s the thing, I got this couch off of Craig’s List. I call it my “grandma couch.” Because it so is… I just love it. The problem is… I’m terrified to buy anything else. All I have is a hand-me-down unfinished Ikea mission-style couch table that is against the wall for my record player that I figured was better than the storage stubs my record player was previously on. I’d really like to make my front room nice, but I’m terrified that if I get something not in the style of my couch, the couch will look really weird, and if I DO get something in the style of my couch, I may as well put out a bowl full of unwrapped hard candies and cat hair and call it a damn day.

I want to make my place awesome but I’m totally commitment phobic. I need guidance rull bad y’all.

Dude, there is nothing in this apartment. How do people live like this??? Nature abhors a vacuum, Elissa. I would have filled this placed with tschotskes five seconds after moving in.

Well Elissa, you’ve come to the right place. I love to play decorating party, and I love an empty space. So, looking around I notice some fairly modern pieces that need to be integrated with the awesome grandma couch. I also see that the front room is pretty tight and needs to remain open. She can’t paint because the apartment is a rental. When I asked Elissa if she had any ideas or if there were any things she wanted to avoid, she mentioned that she liked Persian rugs and hates glass.

HATES GLASS?!

I’m going to overlook that for now, Elissa. Let’s get started with some inspiration:

So is it possible for a grandma couch to look modern? If the homes of Nanette Lepore and Annie Schlecter are any indication, then absolutely — especially if you want to reupholster it in a punch color. I’m just guessing that isn’t an option right now.

This room gave me a mini brainwave: Elissa can’t paint, but she can add big color and/or texture through a folding screen. Putting something sculptural in that back left corner would rock, too. So, I propose she buy a cheapo screen off CL or Overstock and staple some fabric to that bad boy. It couldn’t be easier. Even duct tape would work.

Keeping that in mind, I found this groovy bird of paradise fabric that I felt had a Persiany feel. I really like the muted but interesting colors:

And then I made it into a folding screen… ok, I pasted it onto the wall in photoshop.

My formula for designing her space went a little something like this: CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. I mean, why else would she ask the world’s biggest penny pinchers for advice? Ok, seriously — to create an eclectic/transitional vibe that would embrace the grandma couch yet avoid going Miss Havisham on Elissa, I mixed an organic pattern with a modern, geometric pattern, and kept the furnishings light and airy so that the room would feel open.

Room #1 source list: Tapestry is $30 from Amazon, Rug is $179 from Ikea, floor lamp is $79 from Ikea, coffee table is $40 from Seattle craigslist (I might paint the base black…), sweet Thonet chair is $25 from Seattle CL, velvet pillow is $32 from Urban Outfitters.

Did you see all that craigslisting I did? Hells yeah.

I also did another room with a Persian rug I found off Seattle CL. I’m calling this one, Ike’s Room With Grandma Couch.

Room #2 source list: fabric is $7/yd Ikea Kajsastina, rug is $150 off Seattle CL, floor lamp is $249 from CB2, reclaimed wood and metal coffee table is $116 from Overstock, leather Wassily chair is $70 from Seattle CL, velvet pillow is $32 from Urban Outfitters.

At this point I became weary of photoshop,and then I decided to just pull a textile combo that could be used with the furnishings I selected above. You can use your imagination goggles, right?

Tree of life tapestry is $38 at Urban Outfitters, Ikea rug is $179, magenta velvet pillow is $28 at UO. Dizang this would make a cute room. Also, apparently I love stripes. And hot pink. Who knew?

I’m sure that once art and accessories are added in, Elissa’s pad will be killer. I’m pretty excited about this room, in case you couldn’t tell… maybe I went a little overboard?

Do you guys have a favorite combo?

Thanks, Elissa, for writing in with your question. I had a super fun time playing decorating party with you!