New Studio Tour

Ahhh, the evolution of a studio. I am convinced that most artists go through this process several times in their creative life. We might be sick of how things are arranged - want to become more efficient - or learn better ways to be organized. Or, in this case, water damage forced a redo. If you'd like to see what the room looked like before, you can do so in this link. From that link, you can see my previous studio as well, although I am almost embarrassed of it. See, we really do change and grow.

The former bright and colorful room has given way to soft neutrals..... orange walls are now brown. Mini blinds have been replaced with proper curtains. Not as much "stuff" came back into the room.

Refinished wood floors begged for a rug. This caused the 2013 rug war between Jon and I. We've been to every big box store in 2 cities, and even a local carpet store. The rug you see here was taken from our dining room. It is a remnant rug from one of the big box stores, bought 10 years ago when we moved into the house. Why he has such an attachment to it I do not know. It's nonstandard size of 6 x 9 coincidentally fits both the dining room and the studio perfectly, making it harder to replace. A the war continues, I am trying to understand why a man cares so much about a rug and home decor in general.

I used to have 2 wooden trays with hooks hung on one of the walls with a lot of my necklaces hung them. As you can see, wall space is at a premium in this room so I wanted to find a different solution. Our metal birdcage, with the glass removed, was a fun option. The stand fits my Dad's toolbox under it perfectly and is flanked by 2 wire peacocks (often used as business card holders at shows).

Of course, a peacock lives in the birdcage, flaunting the most recent creations!

The jewelry chest that I've had since I was a little girl lives in one of the front corners. Upon it is a burlap runner and vintage topiary from my friend Jennie's lovely wedding.

And a peacock! Take note of the mercury glass curtain rods and tiebacks, as that was the third element in putting this room together. Brown, cream, and mercury glass accents. You'll see a mercury glass peacock candle holder in a bit, and sitting on my desk is a mercury glass jar candle from Anthropologie (Aspen Candles "Volcano" which is what they burn in their stores - now my studio smells like Anthropologie!).

My 2 mannequins stand proud, sporting some of my favorite bold looks. We got that table for $2 at a garage sale many years ago, and it has been one of the greatest pieces throughout the house.

Albino feathers to fit the scheme.

I know in a previous post I talked about all the boring drywall, woodwork and floor refinishing. So I don't want to repeat too much, but I did want to show off how the ceiling turned out. We have this scalloped look in a few other rooms in the house, and wanted to try it in here. It took us a day to complete. Jon would roll on the drywall mud, while I would make the designs with a wallpaper brush. It was fun and I am proud that it actually turned out!

I replaced those trays I spoke of earlier with 2 old clipboards - purchased for 25 cents each! They hold 2 pieces that have been published.

The only corner of the room I wasn't quite satisfied with was this one. It's just not quite right for me. But luckily, I have a new piece coming my way tomorrow, and I plan to do another post around it and storage in general (as I have had to become creative in order to keep the room looking good).

When Jon first talked to me about making this room more "neutral" and seller friendly for the future, I have to admit I was disappointed. I mean, it's my space. I am a creative person who should get to do what I want, right? What was I going to do with all of my colorful peacock wares? But now that it is all done I must say that I LOVE it! It looks much more sophisticated, light and airy. I've just the simplicity of looking at it since it's been done, but I better get back to work soon!

Pinned!

I admit, I am not the most savvy blogger. I am feeling like the blog needs a makeover, so I will be making changes as time permits. With all of the social media outlets now, does anyone else find it hard to keep up? I mean, I already blog and do Facebook. I started Twitter after attending a bloggers meet last Fall. I do Pinterest, but only for personal reasons at the moment. Haven't really done too much with Instagram yet, and now there's this new short video Vine thing?!?! Everytime you turn around it's something new. And making sure you are touching each and every one of these to promote yourself is hard! Especially if you are not doing it full time.

 

The first small change you will see, is that I am going to start adding "Pin It" buttons for my pictures. We'll see how it goes - hopefully I did it right (eeek)!

 

I've wanted to post this top for some time now, but the coloring on it has been tricky everytime I've tried to photograph it. Even the Macy's product page casts it more orange. It's truly a really deep watermelon. And I just love dragonflies, don't you?

 

Outfit breakdown:
Style & Co Darling Dragons Blouse - Macy's

A.N.A. Black Jeggings - JCP

Jessica Simpson boots - DSW

Skinny black belt - taken off another top

Bubble Necklace - Dear Prudence

Fins

One of the most iconic images of automotive history is the profile of the 57' Chevy. Back then, the bigger the fin the better. It's been a year now since Prada presented it's Hot Rod inspired Spring 2012 collection, and as you can see retailers are still churning out pieces because of it. Lucky for me that I am loving it! That's what it's all about for me - putting together a closet of items that speak to your personality!

I finally got out into the elements for some pics. The sun was shining brightly when I first got out there, so even though the sunglasses don't make much sense now - trust me!

The pastel pink and teal colors are right on target for the Spring trends, and this sweater will be a great option at those early and late season car shows. Heck, it could even be cold in July - this is Michigan after all!

Outfit breakdown:

Retro Car Knit Pullover - Forever 21

A.N.A. Black Jeggings - JCP

Statement necklace - TJ Maxx

Jessica Simpson sunglasses - TJ Maxx

Franco Sarto booties - Macy's

You can see my other auto inspired looks here, here, and here.



Baskets & Bins

I have come to realize that baskets and bins have taken over my home the last few years. Need something organized? It's the first thing that comes to mind. Probably because no matter what store you go to now, they all offer these storage solutions. And, we've become so used to it that if we see a picture in a magazine or online of a room that includes some sort of shelving with baskets/bins we think "that looks nice".... because that's what we do now.

The above picture is in the new studio, where I lost a lot of storage space because we did not put my long folding table back in there (which I had fabric over so that I could stash tons of stuff underneath it). So, I had to find 2 baskets to fit under this table.

The picture below is of our entertainment center in the living room. Jon's uncle built it probably in the 70's, and while you can't see the whole thing here it is still very relevant to today's styles. So relevant in fact that it has sections perfect for said baskets. Once Richard started becoming more mobile, and his toy collection grew, I replaced the knick knacks that were there with baskets for his toys. The dragon head coming out makes it extra chic, don't you think?

Here's an example of a piece that specifically fits the standard bins. I bought this 9 cube shelf about 11 years ago when we first got married. Unfortunately, many of these are not units are not built of the best quality..... mine has severe sagging in the middle. It's kindof in limbo right now in our home decor, but I know it would still make a great organizer in a play room or basement perhaps in the future.

Shelf in mudroom - did not come with bins but I found ones to fit perfectly!

How about you? Are you a big basket/bin organizer?

And don't even get me started on totes........ the basement is full of them!

50 Shades of Brown

The studio is done!!! Besides some finishing touches.... I promise I will take you on a tour very soon. I haven't had time to fully enjoy it myself, as we jumped right into refreshing our living room. It had not been painted in the 10 years we've lived here, so a fresh coat on the walls and ceiling was needed. AND, since there is now new woodwork in the studio, and the dining room got new woodwork several years ago, we decided to also do the living room so everything matched. Might as well while we are in this mindset, right? It's not like there's anything else much to do in the dead of winter.....

It's funny how we are gravitating back towards browns, tans, creams, etc..... When we first moved in, we couldn't wait to inject COLOR! The first 3 rooms we initially did (this sunroom/studio included) all had floral wallpaper. And they promptly got painted pumpkin orange, mustard yellow, and a faux finish. I had to admit I am enjoying the neutrals, and part of our motivation is thoughts of selling.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many shades of paints and stains I have looked at over the past few months! Trying to match what we already have. And this outfit was no different....

 feather maxi skirt - Nicole Richie for Impulse c/o Macy's

ombre sweater - Apt 9 c/o Kohl's

quadrivium belt c/o Anthropologie

boots c/o Zulily

Hello Blog!

Well, hello there blog! I have missed you! Of course, I have a ton of reasons why I haven't posted. There was that whole Christmas thing...... And then I missed the boat on doing one of those "year in review" or "here's to 2013" posts. To catch you up to speed, we had 2 weeks off over the holidays and it was a mix of traveling as well as relaxing and/or working on the studio.

Yeah, remember the studio??? Back in September, we had some water damage due to the flat roof needing to be replaced. We had a company come out and replace the roof and I don't even have the energy to get into the story of the hassles there. Then, we planned to redo the interior ourselves.

It has taken us this long to get this far. But keep in mind, we both work full time and have a toddler. Life moves at a different pace here. We can really only work on things when he is sleeping or if we take a day off while he is at daycare. Luckily, he is such a good sleeper that he does not wake up to the sound of saws, nail guns, hammering and floor sanders!

We replaced the entire ceiling with new insulation and drywall. Mudding/sanding came next and then we applied a "texture" that was the same as what we have in our living room and dining room. However, this was the first time we tried it ourselves. Jon would roll on one section of mud, and I would create the swirls with a wallpaper brush. We are pretty darn proud of how it turned out! The final step was a coat of paint on the ceiling.

 

All eight windows in the room had blinds on them - which I didn't mind - but we decided to do "real" window treatments and purchased the rods and fabric panels after lots of debate on the design (I won)!

 

We then picked the paint color based on the widow treatments. The first color we put up was all wrong, so that was a redo. The brown is nice and it really changes a lot depending on the time of day and light.

 

All of the wood trim on the windows is new, and this weekend my job was filling the nail holes, taping off, and then painting it 2 coats of cream. We also rented a floor sander to prep for new stain/varnish.

 

So - next steps? Stain/coat the floor. Purchase/cut and stain baseboard trim and put it up. Install the window treatments. Touch up any minor paint flaws. I think we've agreed on a rug, so we need to purchase that too.

 

I have off next Monday, and I would REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like to use that day to put everything back into the room and thoroughly clean the house. That is the goal anyway. Hopefully it will happen. I am ready to be done with this project and get back to creating.

 

We have been in this house 10 years now, and have redone several rooms whether it be by choice or by some natural disaster. I am kind of over the whole DIY thing. Yes, it saves money and yes we know how to do it. When you are new to home owning, it is exciting. But at this point in my life there are a million other things I would rather be doing! The other option though is to have random strangers in your home (I get weird about that) who might not do things exactly like you would. Either way, home improvements are stressful!

Anyway, wish me luck! I can't wait to show pics of the completed room here! I thought it very appropriate to take an outfit pic amongst the construction:

 

Tops - Macy's (last year)

Pants - A.N.A. c/o JC Penney

Belt - Quadrivium c/o Anthropologie

Necklace - Maurice's (years ago)

Boots - Croft & Barrow c/o Kohl's (Christmas Gift)

 

Lotsa buckles on the belt & boots to tie it all together! I love buckles!