From me, Evan, Bruno and Fritz: Happy New Year! Here’s to 2011 being a year of health, wellness, snacks, Moomins, organized closets, laughter, good design, good movies, good books, friends old and new, family, piles of blankets next to the radiator, and a decent cup of coffee whenever you need one.
Party animals that we are, we’re spending the night at home eating nachos, drinking wine and…painting the living room! Of course.
Yay! The hallway is DONE! I took a ton of really redundant photos. It’s just so hard to get the right perspective in a 33-inch-wide space, particularly one that’s lacking in natural light.
We just used standard, off-the-shelf pine molding for the chair rail. It’s attached to the wall with construction adhesive and a few nails, and I caulked the top edge. If the wallpaper looks like it’s rippling, that’s just because our walls are plaster…and old.
I’m really, really happy with how everything turned out. The hallway used to just feel like a pass-through from one place to another (which, um, I guess is the whole point of a hallway), but now it feels like a room. Like a real place. It feels connected to the rest of the house. Most of all, I’m totally in love with Julia Rothman’s beautiful wallpaper!
Finally putting that Cornershop poster into a frame (something I’ve been meaning to do for at least 13 years…yikes) felt like an accomplishment. Since I think the breakdown of reaction to the poster is probably something like 75% “Cornershop?? WHO?!”, 20% “Cornershop?? They SUCKED!”, and 5% “Oh yeah, Cornershop!! Tjinder Singh!! I wonder when their new album is out!*”, I thought I’d stick a video on the end of this post. It’s pretty awesome. *New Cornershop out soon! Go here to help fund it.
Posters: Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names, Pop Chart Lab // Apple Papple, Elisabeth Dunker
And then, alas, there are the days when I somehow manage to get nothing done. The days when I look at the clock and it’s 7:00 AM, and then I look again and it’s midnight.
Where do these days go? Such grand plans, all washed aside by…what?
Bruno had a teeth-cleaning appointment (he’s fine, just really tired), we went grocery shopping, and we bought wood for the chair rail. And…that’s it. How did that wind up taking 17 hours? I have no idea.
Here’s a reasonable list of things I’d like to get done before Friday:
• Paint and install chair rail above the wallpaper.
• Touch up paint on baseboard molding.
• Go to IKEA; buy picture frames and window shades.
• Frame some posters and hang them up.
• Cut window shades to fit, hang in living room.
• Put the white cover back on the sofa.
• Empty small dresser in dining room, move to basement.
• Paint the antique oval mirror that’s been gathering dust in the closet for four years.
• Try out Kathleen’s stuffed delicata squash recipe.
• Write and send thank-you cards.
That’s not so bad. I can do this. I can, I can.
I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about the huge snowstorm we had in the Northeast over the weekend, but boy oh boy…it’s really gorgeous out there. This is the view from our bedroom window. Oh, how I love snow!
By now you’ve probably seen this amazing time-lapse video of snow accumulating over the course of 20 hours on a patio in New Jersey, but here’s another view that the creator has just put together. Even more amazing and beautiful.
I’ve been wondering for a while what I should do with my long, skinny hallway. I knew I wanted to use Julia Rothman’s Pieces wallpaper from Hygge & West, and I’d pretty much decided the best application would be at the bottom of the wall, under a chair rail, but it’s taken me forever to get around to actually doing it. (You may remember “wallpaper the hallway” from this to-do list…oh, and this one, too…)
Well, I finally did it today! Here are a few progress shots—please excuse the quality, it’s a tough space to photograph, and the light wasn’t great.
First I sanded off any big lumps and bumps on the wall so the wallpaper would go on smoothly. I own a palm sander and an orbital sander, but my cheap-o Black & Decker Mouse (I have an older, discontinued model) is the one I reach for most often these days. It’s incredibly practical for lightweight sanding jobs and little detailed areas. Recommended. (I know Benita loves hers, too!)
A couple of years ago, I saw a spread in a magazine (I want to say it was Dwell, maybe? ETA: It was in LivingEtc—here’s the photo!) that showed a living room with Timorous Beasties’ McGegan Rose wallpaper under the chair rail, and the homeowners had hung it horizontally to reduce waste and save money. Since the Pieces wallpaper is non-directional, Evan suggested that we do the same thing. Great idea!
Now, of course, this meant I’d be hanging a 14-foot-long piece of wallpaper. No easy feat, and not one I’d recommend attempting if you’ve never wallpapered before. I’ve had a lot of experience with wallpapering over the past few years, though, so I felt pretty confident.
Brushing the paste onto the full length of the wallpaper took a long time, and I think I probably should have used a paint roller just to make things easier. I had to book it in stages to keep the glue from drying, and the whole ordeal was just kind of a pain. Evan helped me get it roughly positioned on the wall, and then I spent the next hour squeegeeing out the bubbles, rolling down the seam, trimming the edges, and wiping off the glue. The thing about wallpapering that always surprises me is how hectic and stressful it is, but it’s all over and done so quickly. It’s very satisfying. Sometimes I like to pretend I’m a surgeon when I’m wallpapering. (Excuse me, I’m a little tired…)
Here’s a little sneak peek of the hung wallpaper. We still have to buy, install, and paint the wood for the chair rail that will run along the top. Hopefully tomorrow!
To be continued…
