before & after

remember this post? well, as part of what i'm now going to dub "the great house renovation of 2010", steve and i gutted our fireplace and redesigned it. here's the before once again. i hated everything about it. the so-called mantle was extremely narrow, so you could barely rest anything on it. forget about decorating it for the holidays. there was no room. i hated the inset. i hated the moulding. i hated the boring, beige tile. did i mention i hated everything about it. oh yea, there were silver louvers surrounding the firebox (we took them off before i took this photo). i hated those too.

before

and tada, the after!

steve designed and built the mantle. i painted it in urbane bronze by sherwin williams. it's also the trim color on the outside of our house. i love it. this was our first attempt at laying tile and grouting. the tile is a mosaic made of glass and marble. we changed the silver louvers to black. and steve took out the inset in the wall above the mantle. it's so much more substantial now.
i think it's much more "pacific northwest". and it better suits our style and the style of the house.


and here's one more look of the before and after, side by side.
what do you think?

it's a small world

no, really, it is. here's proof.

last week sophie (a seattle-ite, like me, but complete stranger) contacted me via etsy to ask if i wanted to display and sell my stationery at an upcoming event she's organizing. we exchanged a few emails.

a few days later, i went to a garage sale and bought a box of knobs. i photographed them and posted them on my blog.

yesterday, sophie went to my blog and found herself staring at HER KITCHEN KNOBS!

yes, i bought sophie's knobs. she had donated them to a charity garage sale.

sophie and i spoke on the phone today. we agreed we were somehow meant to meet. needless to say, i'm excited for sophie's event. (sophie has upgraded her kitchen and her knobs... to binpulls. i can't wait til she sells those.)

recent finds of the week

our community garage sale (one of 3 every year) was yesterday and friday. yesterday hubby and i went out scouting. i got these. knobs. heavy, top quality, retro-looking knobs. a box of 40 for $25. yes, that's right. only $25. i spent time yesterday cleaning them and replacing my old kitchen knobs.
my old knob on the left. half a dozen of the old knobs weigh the same as one of the new knobs, they're that heavy.
on the cabinets. and they'll look even better when we have the cabinets painted, wayyyy down the road.
butter dish. $2. i needed a fancy one. i thought it would look good on my rustic farmhouse table.
oil painting from an antique store near pike place market, seattle. i liked it because it reminded me of here, where we live.
bought it and then lost it. well, my sister lost it. she left it propped against the parking booth when she paid our parking lot ticket. we drove 30 mins home only to find out it wasn't in the car. luckily, hubby and brother-in-law were just leaving baseball game downtown and were able to swing by and pick it up. the garage attendant still had it.

mom bought me this print of the seattle market at a little art store on whidbey island where we visited this week. i found the frame in the as-is department of an art store, 75% off. i like it better then if it were not as-is.

sunday in the city

pike place fish market. seattle.
you know. that place with lots of fish. and seafood.

the place where men in orange bibs throw fish (sorry, no photo of that... way too crowded) and are willing to pose with tourists for christmas card photos.

(my brother-in-law and sister)

and where there's a bronze pig with no sign that says 'please do not climb on' so grown men do.

my inspiration...

for the accent wall i'm forced to paint. before i talk about the accent wall, check out my inspiration. it's a satellite image of the gulf coast. i used to live there. near apalachicola and st george island. the chamber of commerce gave these posters out free when i lived there. i love the colors.
i framed it. it hangs in a guest bedroom. a green guest bedroom. the same bedroom where hubby and i removed some shelving on an opposite wall last week and spackled the holes so that it looks like this.
it was after we did this that i ran to the garage for the leftover green paint. and searched. and searched. and found out there was no leftover green paint. and found that i didn't remember the name of the paint color. or the brand. very unlike me. i can tell you every other paint color in this house and our previous house. well, and probably the house before that. this room, nope. not a clue.

hence, i'm forced to paint an accent wall. tempe star from sherwin williams. it's a dark blue with a hint of green and grey. i think it'll bring out the blues in the poster nicely.
oh, and did i mention.... in 72 hours company arrives.

in love

a few weeks ago house of turquoise did a post on a house designed by lakbdesign. the house was painted entirely in wythe blue by benjamin moore. i haven't stopped thinking about it. so i thought i would share.

look at that awesome kelly green parsons table.

at first i thought.... wow, i'd never think to put kelly green with aquas. then i remembered....
silly me. i've paired those colors together.

the kitchen is gorgeous. click on photos to enlarge and get the full effect. i love the mix. the industrial stools mixed with the ornate chandelier. aqua mixed with red (even though i'm not a huge fan of red). the smooth, shiny granite with the rustic farmhouse table. mixed metals.

it has all my elements of a great kitchen.... a little glamour, a little rustic-ness. fireplace. tv. farmhouse table right there. lots of natural light. huge fridge. open shelves.

love. it.

the state of things

this is our living room currently. like right now. steve and i took a mini vacay this week to a nearby resort where we relaxed for a few days. we ate wonderful meals, slept in, and watched u.s. open tennis all day. while we were gone our first floor floors were refinished. we arrived home to a mess. every wall had to be wiped down. they were coated with a fine sand. kitchen cabinets needed to be emptied and cleaned. chandeliers disassembled and cleaned. like i said, a mess.

this is how the floors now look. they're beautiful. workers reinstalled baseboards yesterday. they're here now to paint them. tonight we'll be able to move back our furniture. we're in the home stretch of our renovation projects that we started in february. it's been a long haul. but we're super pleased with the results. i'll take photos next week so you can see too. and hopefully by then i'll have found the camera cord so i can download the photos.

this is how you look....

after a 10 hour day of hunting birds. well, it's how pixel looks. yesterday was day one of bird hunting season. these two left at 430 am. yep, 430 am. i personally would not get out of bed at 430 am to go walk through fields and search for birds. but they did. and they loved it. pixel came home, had a bath, had dinner, and curled up into the smallest ball imaginable. the blanket is compliments of me. i thought she might be cold.