Two's a Collection

I found this vintage gouache painting a year or two ago at an antique store called Granny's Attic in New Jersey (the same trip I picked up those <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/06/tale-of-two-chairs.html" target="_blank">bergeres</a> that I did an <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2011/06/reupholstering-chair-part-1-stripping.html" target="_blank">upholstery series</a> on).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/goucheflowers.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/kidshallway.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>I wanted to hang it in or around the girls room, but it just always felt lonely or something (<i>can art look lonely??</i>), so it stayed tucked up on a shelf for a while. Until I found another vintage gouache at the flea market. This one is by a different artist, and obviously the subject matter is completely different (fish!), but I LOVE how they work together. Harmony in the busy-ness of the patterns.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/kidshallway2.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/gouchefish.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />They are living in the hallway right in front of the girls' bathroom/bedroom. I think it's fun for the art to get a little more child-like in the common areas where the kids spend a lot of time.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/hallwayvignette.jpg" /></div><br />Evie calls the fish painting her "Quardium" (aquarium). Sad and cute :)<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/kidshallway3.jpg" />   </center><center></center><center style="text-align: left;"><i>Thanks again for your vote in <a href="http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/best-home-design-inspiration-blog-the-homies-2013-183531" target="_blank">the Homies</a>!</i></center>

Two's a Collection

I found this vintage gouache painting a year or two ago at an antique store called Granny's Attic in New Jersey (the same trip I picked ...

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Bavarian Forest Walls and Wall-Mounted Nightstands

You might remember a bit of the history of what is now Heather's room.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/heatherafterpaint.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Actually, let's back up, since I get lots of questions about Heather every time I mention her.<br /><br />Heather is my youngest sibling (there are five of us and I'm the oldest). She graduated from college last spring and came to live with us in the concrete jungle where dreams are made. She is working and also helps me with some of my business stuff and she pitches in with the kids (basically, she is saving my bacon. Also she is clever and funny and lovely and a general dream of a person to get to be around every day. We feel lucky to have her.)<br /><br />So Heather was living down on the garden level for the first few months, but <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2013/01/empire-chests.html" target="_blank">we decided to switch things around</a> in December-ish. Michael and I moved downstairs, which made it so much more convenient for us to be closer to the office where we both log in long hours, and she moved into the small room up by the kids on the third floor.<br /><br />She was <i>super down</i> with doing black walls <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/06/black-walls-in-our-bedroom.html" target="_blank">like I had originally planned on</a> for that room. So while she was home in Arizona for Christmas I decided to surprise her with some room progress.<br /><br />Remember those dang <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/06/black-walls-in-our-bedroom.html" target="_blank">shelves</a> hanging above the bed from when the bachelors lived here? Well those shelf rails must have been there for decades because there were probably 17 layers of paint slapped on top, leaving the ugliest deep trenches behind. It was such a pain, but we scraped and sanded and filled up those trenches with as much joint compound as we could pack in there.<br /><br />Here's the sad, neglected before shot, right after we pulled down the shelves and while we were building the IKEA Pax units (those mirrored doors to the right).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_0195.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_0197.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />The light from the windows is casting some funny shadows here, but the walls are about a million times better than they were before after that sanding and scraping. They are old, imperfect walls though, so we went with an eggshell finish with the paint (since gloss would only highlight the imperfections). The color is Benjamin Moore's Bavarian Forest. It is the perfect dark teal. Close to black, but a little softer. Heather's favorite color is green too, so I knew she'd be cool with the small <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/06/black-walls-in-our-bedroom.html" target="_blank">change in plans</a>.<br /><br /><center>    <img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/1DSC_0077.jpg" /></center><br />Since the room is so, so teeny and clothing storage is super tricky, we ended up buying <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KW0D7C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001KW0D7C&linkCode=as2&tag=littgreenote-20">this bed</a> with drawers in the frame. Guys, I don't recommend this route unless you are in dire straights like we were. But the frame itself is pretty non-descript and the drawers actually work well. We ended up screwing <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/11/coral-velvet-bed.html" target="_blank">the velvet footboard</a> right onto the bed frame's existing footboard, so you can't even really see any of the old frame.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/floor.jpg" /></div><br />But as you can see, there is zero space for nightstands, especially because of the drawers in the frame (there's one up by the head of the bed). I looked around for wall-mounted options, but I couldn't find anything right, so I ended up buying a pair of these corbels from the hardware store.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/corbelsbefore.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />They fit the narrow space perfectly. I was on my way back to the hardware store to buy some wood to cut down to act as the table top, when I stopped by Michael's and checked out the wood section.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_0678.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />These little pine boards were about $5 each on sale, and they were the exact right size. Too perfect to pass up, I say!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_0677.jpg" /></div><br /><br />Two quick drywall screw-ins later and we had a nightstand!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/drilling.jpg" /></div><br />Since the table top was securely attached to the corbel, I could just hang the corbel itself on the wall and it sits there securely. I also filled in the screw holes and the small little pine knots with a bit of wood filler and then I painted out both nightstands in the wall color.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/woodfiller.jpg" /></div><br />I love how these turned out! They add a little something to the lines of the room, but they also disappear since they're the same color as the wall.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/corbelnightstand2LGN.jpg" /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">And isn't the wall color perfect with the <a href="http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/11/coral-velvet-bed.html" target="_blank">coral velvet headboard</a>?</div><br /><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/corbelnightstandLGN.jpg" /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">More projects from this room to come. Lots to share!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PS Thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind words in the last two posts. I am so grateful for you all.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">PPS The Apartment Therapy Homies just went up and I'm so flattered some of you already nominated me in the <a href="http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/best-home-design-inspiration-blog-the-homies-2013-183531" target="_blank">Home Design</a> and the <a href="http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/best-home-project-diy-blog-the-homies-2013-183534" target="_blank">DIY</a> categories. Thanks a million for your votes! xoxo</div></div>

Bavarian Forest Walls and Wall-Mounted Nightstands

You might remember a bit of the history of what is now Heather's room. Actually, let's back up, since I get lots of questions about ...

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Rock Walks and Remembering Grandpa

<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_1012.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />When I was a kid and long before my parents built their house in this windy little valley filled with cottonwood trees, back when my great-grandparents owned this piece of land, we'd walk out into what felt like the wild, down to the little creek. We'd climb up the sandstone banks and collect pretty rocks and raw, bright turquoise clay to grind and use for art projects. It was a magical way to spend a lot of my childhood summers and practically every Thanksgiving (which is decidedly <i>a DeWitt holiday</i>).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_1002.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_1006.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Now when we come to visit my parents, I get to relive some of that magic when I take my kids out for walks to that same creek. They love to search for rocks and shells, to pet the horses that live nearby, to skip stones on the water (though this time the creek was frozen and Heather was brave enough to venture out onto the ice!)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_1064copy.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_1019.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div></div><center></center>Claire said to me yesterday, "Mom, we don't do things like this in the city and that's why I love Grammy's house." And I felt a little guilty. But also grateful we could come home for this bonus visit - a bittersweet time for all of us who loved Grandpa DeWitt so much.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_0992.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>He was a bit of a toughie, but mostly a softie. A war hero, a perfectionist, an amazing violinist, a great hugger, a teacher and advisor. He had a twinkle in his eye that just wouldn't quit and an incredible gift for making every person he knew feel like they were his favorite (<i>I totally was though</i>). Also, he was pretty much the strongest old guy around. He could arm wrestle a twenty year-old with what seemed like ease back when he was 70. And even at 90, his strong body was determined to hold on longer than his heart wanted to. It makes me endlessly happy to think of him now reunited with my grandma, his life-long sweetie.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/IMG_1057.jpg" style="text-align: start;" /></div><br />He loved this sweet little town called Snowflake, and all its windy, quirky beauty. He loved his family most though, and all of us have a hole in our hearts the size of a cottonwood tree.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><img src="http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd246/jkomenda/Album%203/ScreenShot2013-02-03at101853PM.png" /></div><br />Love and miss you Grandpa.

Rock Walks and Remembering Grandpa

When I was a kid and long before my parents built their house in this windy little valley filled with cottonwood trees, back when my great-g...

Read more »