decor

Contrary to popular belief, Scrunch Shibori is not the name of the hipster gas station attendant who sells poems about his goat; it’s what you can do with a nifty die kit and a duvet.

Want to make one? Yeah. You do!

Welp. I did it. I painted my living room black.

Okay, almost black.

In my heart I wanted navy blue but the sample looked horrible in the space (I might even get rid of blue stuff in the room in general — it just doesn’t play well with others in here). I tried out a few swatches, but this was the clear winner and I’m delighted! In the can it looks like a true gray, but up on the wall it reads as an all-over black. Actually, that is what I love about this color – Cracked Pepper – it looks blueish in some light, brown in others, and sometimes at dawn it looks like a deep eggplant…but you look at the room as a whole and it reads black. AND I LOVE IT. It will look better when I hang the art and bling out the flat surfaces, but I like to live in a space a month or two before adding frosting. I need to bring some more white in the space to balance off the dark, and my recent foliage kick gives it that glamorous, Floridian swamp feel that I love so dearly.

Also. Shout out to this paint. Major shout out.

Actually, the shout out belongs to Eric when he read my post a couple months back about wanting to paint a room black. Dark paints are notorious for requiring multiple coats and a tinted primer, but he suggested I try Behr’s Marquee line and “you can skip the primer and get it done in two coats.”

Well Eric. I did not get it done in two coats.

BECAUSE I GOT IT DONE IN ONE COAT.

Bam! 

Okay, maybe one and half. But that’s mostly because I was sloppy with the roller and expected to go back for a second. I bought two gallons thinking I would need that and then some, but you know what? I barely used half a can. This stuff is the best. And that’s not a paid endorsement, and I might even get in trouble with paint companies that have sponsored in the past, but I’m keeping it real and spreading the good word. Y’all. This is it.

Behr Marquee, you have me for life.

Living room, I’ll see you with a hammer later tonight.

For most people, spring cleaning means deep cleaning their closet. For me, it means giving my fridge a new party dress. Get a load of her!

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know I wallpapered my fridge back in 2013 thanks to the folks at Chasing Paper. The wallpaper is removable, not to mention, highly durable. I was planning on it lasting a few months…maybe a year. But two years on the hexagons were still growing strong.

This was a VERY popular post. It seems I am not the only person on the planet who thinks their fridge deserves a cute new outfit once in a while.

Weird thing someone told me: if you search “Fridge” on Pinterest, my fridge is the first image to show up.

Dude. That is a lot of pressure to put on one little refrigerator. And as much as I loved it, it was time for a change!

Before I get into this, please do not get the wrong idea. That paper could have stayed up another two years, if not more. The problem is/was me. More specifically, me picking at a spot by the handle every time I went to clean. Not a big deal, but enough to bother me. A few weeks ago I popped over to Chasing Paper to see about buying a replacement panel and got totally caught up in their amazing patterns. Two years ago there was a small but impressive collection….now it’s a smorgasbord of pattern and color. So awesome. I’m so thrilled to see this business thriving. People know a good product when they see it!

Okay. At first I saw this BEYOND RAD tropical palm leaf print, which, as you will well know, is not unlike Blanche’s bedroom from the Golden Girls.

As much I love the tropical vibe in the kitchen, these black and white bacterium speckles stole my heart and ran away with the key.

For my particular space, the speckles brighten the room in a big way. The pattern is much less-on-your face than the hexagons — more of a background rhythm compared to the hexagon grab-your-attention drum solo. Both are seriously nifty. I’m going to love the speckles for a long wile, but part of me is sad this paper lasts so long. I would really love to switch it around all the time!

So. I’m guessing, if you are ever in the market to replace the removable wallpaper on your fridge, you have three questions.

Didn’t it get dirty on your fridge? Could you clean it?
Yes, it did get dirty. Yes, I cleaned it all the time. When people hear “wallpaper” they hear “paper” and then the thought of cleaning paper makes this sound not fun. Not true. The panels you get from Chasing Paper have a satin finish that is 100% wipeable. Like I said, mine got a little worn around the handle, in part because that’s where it gets touched the most, but also because that’s where I rub and scrub the most. If you are paranoid about this, I suggest ordering an extra panel should you want to replace a sore spot down the line. No biggy.

Was it easy to take off the old hexagon wallpaper? 
Yes. It was VERY easy to take off. The whole fridge peeled off in under 60 seconds. It left no residue or adhesive. I wiped it down before putting up the new speckled paper, but honestly, I probably could have skipped that part the surface of the fridge was as clean as the day I put up the hexagon paper two years earlier.

Was it easy to put up the new speckled wallpaper?
Yes. It’s also pretty easy. Your method might change depending on the configuration of your fridge, but I just started at the top corner and worked my way down. See for yourself!

The only tricky part is getting the proper slice between the freezer and the fridge. For me, it was easiest to just lay it down flat, then go back with a razor blade to slice down the gap. Then I opened the fridge door and trimmed off the excess from the inside edge.

There were a couple of screws to work around near the handles. It was easy to accommodate with a poke of the blade, but the back-and-forth left a couple of air bubbles. Those were easy to smooth out using the end of a flat-edge wooden spoon. I used the spoon on an angle and pushed the bubbles to the edge until I heard a very satisfying snapping sound.

Here is a little video from the folks at Chasing Paper to show the magic in action.

I thought I would need five panels to cover the front + one side, but I managed to cover what I needed with four panels (no one will see that bottom left corner) and I’ll save the fifth for another project. This paper is too cool to waste! If you only wanted to cover the front of your fridge, I’m guessing all you would need is three panels. That means you could have the niftiest fridge in town for around $100. Not too shabby, huh?!

It’s not at all like me to choose a neutral pattern like this, but I adore how these speckles make the other colors in the room more…colorful. This is a muchos-muchos colorful room even though there are zero significant items of color in it. Isn’t that funny? That’s a great backdrop for someone like me who changes their mind every ten minutes. I’m making a bunch of changes in the kitchen this spring so you’ll have to stay tuned for more in the ‘color without color’ scheme.

Also, speaking of things that last surprisingly long, my newspaper decoupage cabinets are still kicking. The hot pink paint? Not so much…

Thank you so much to Elizabeth at Chasing Paper for, again, giving my fridge a new party dress and for giving me a new outlook on my whole kitchen!

Thank YOU for supporting the brands that make this website possible. Visit Chasing Paper today!

Not unlike nose piercings or bullet-proof coffee, the black painted wall trend is something I have always been happy to admire on others. From afar. For somebody else. It’s one of those things you hear about people doing and think it’s really neat, but in equal measure, you’re delighted you don’t have to mess around with it. Until now. I’m thinking about it. If you follow me on Pinterest you might have seen me staying up half the night pinning images of black walls (and if you follow me on Facebook you know why I was up). There is nothing like a good long night of Pinterest porn and the start of open window season to put a bug in your ear about paint. Amiright?

House & Home | Oh Happy Day

Last summer, after extensive research and internet stalking, I painted my living room Benjamin Moore’s Super White, which is, I am told, the brightest white you can get in a can. I’m not happy. It’s supposedly ultra luminous with a lot of reflective qualities. And while I’m not saying it isn’t really bright, it’s not really doing anything special for my living room. Maybe it’s because there is already a decent amount of sun exposure, or maybe because I didn’t go high gloss on the moldings, or maybe because 70% of the walls are hidden by furniture and frames and doors and stuff…hard to say. But it’s a bit of a thud. I really dislike the way my art looks on it, so it’s gotta go. Question is, what to replace it with?

I am through with sewing the seeds of ultra colorful walls. The hot pink kitchen of 2012 was my last hurrah. These days I’m into brightly colored doors with ultra neutral walls. White. Off white. Whispers of pale gray and pink. But what about black? It didn’t occur to me before, and now it’s all I can think about. In my anxiousness last night, I photoshopped my living room a warm charcoal gray to try and convince myself the idea was nuts, and surprisingly, I’m digging it. I am really digging it!

So maybe not black. Maybe just dark gray. Or inky-black indigo blue. That desk up top is actually a super dark green, and it looks awesome. Mind = Blown.

 

Have you ever painted a room black or nearly black? Tips? Tricks? I’m all ears.

About an hour after my home was featured in Design Sponge last week something happened; I walked around my house, gave a moment of grateful thanks to live in this wonderful place, then took a deep breath and decided I wanted to change everything.

Everything.

Why is that? I can’t imagine I’m alone in that, am I? I have a friend who spends huge amounts of time and money decorating her house, then, as soon as it’s done, she wants to move. Crazytown. Look, I’m not that bad. I certainly don’t want to move, but I do want change. In particular, I want to change the room that gets used the most: the kitchen.

So, let’s go in the kitchen. My cluttered, happy, well-loved kitchen. Keep in mind, this photo was taken this morning. No special styling or editing. Dishes in the sink, cat food on the floor. We are getting real y’all.

So, if yo have been following a while, I have shared what feels like seventy thousand photos of my kitchen over the years, but I have never shown the floors. Now you know why. It would one thing if they were just beige and boring linoleum, or, plain white tile. But no. I have beige and boring linoleum AND white tile. Why? No clue. I suspect this is because when I first moved in the dishwasher leaked a little. That might have caused the floor to peel up, and instead of fixing the leak they patched the floor. Because that totally makes sense, right? (Read: sarcasm). I want a single surface. One or the other. Or something new altogether. The almighty authority called The Interwebs tells me I can lay down vinyl tiles on top of everything in an afternoon. Has anyone actually done this? Do you have experience or advice to share? I’m all ears. I have zero interest in investing time/effort/money into hardwood or anything quality. I just want a functional floor that is easy to clean and that creates a single flat surface across the room. The existing tile/ridge situation divides the room in a way that makes me want to keep things as open as possible, which has thus far prevented me from getting what I always, always, always wanted: a kitchen table.

As much as I love having that yellow rocking chair in the room (and was just talking about the virtues of a comfortable chair in the kitchen!) I desperately want another flat surface in the house. Like a table. I need a table. Any given day of the week, I have 3-4 projects going on, and my dining table isn’t cutting it. I love the idea of having an old wooden farmhouse type of table in the center of the kitchen where I can eat lunch, or sit and paint in the morning, or take photos in the afternoon. It’s going to be a challenge to find one large enough to be worth the trouble, but narrow enough to not swallow the space. But I’ll find one. I have decided it. Lia Griffith is always taking the most fantastic tutorial photos on these textural wooden backgrounds and every time I see one, I always think WHY DON’T I HAVE A WOODEN TABLE? And then I’m like, I DON’T KNOW. YOU ARE A BIG GIRL. HURRY UP AND BUY A TABLE ALREADY.

So now I’m just talking to myself.

Let’s look at this other corner of doom that you never see on the blog.

Okay, usually that black and white curtain is pulled closed. But why bother toady? Let’s get in and dig up the dirt Dr. Phil style. And by “dirt”, I mean plastic laundry baskets with small appliances and cookbooks. Because I’m classy like that. And, obviously, this little under hutch situation is a huge waste of space. I think it’s intended as a breakfast bar where you put stools and stuff underneath. Good idea, but the thing is, the counter is actually cut on a diagonal and is less than 11″ wide towards the left end. Enjoying breakfast on 11″ of flat surface against a flat wall isn’t exactly the way I want to eat my eggs. I contemplated putting up doors or tearing off the counter, but neither one of those is a viable option (long story). Three years later, the curtain remains and the pile of stuff continues to grow. Not good.

Good news: Dale suggested I leave the counter situation as-is and install some diagonal cut shelves underneath. I’m having a hard time visualizing, but he also offered to do the installation, so I’m enthusiastically all in. And as long as this corner is getting overhauled, I think I’m going to take out that single wall shelf I put in and replace it with three smaller stacked shelves. I can do those on my own, but the under shelves are the big deal as I cannot cut wood to save my life. I hate saws. I’d like to think I’m pretty handy with power tools, but there is something about electric saws that I cannot handle. It’s usually easy enough to get around by getting the folks at Home Depot to do it for me, but they only do straight cuts. No diagonals. All the more reason to be thankful for Dale’s intervention. Thanks Dale!

Anyway. None of this is going on for a while, but this winter has me itching for change. Part of me wants to just overhaul the whole thing nice and white and clean, but the reality of the way I live and the things I love…yeah. No. Nice and white will never be me. I just want something comfortable and interesting and with room for growth!

Welp. First up is the flooring front. I’ll keep you posted, but if anyone has any idea on first-time vinyl floor installation, holler.

 

 

Long ago in a time when dinosaurs roamed earth, before the dawn of the iPhone, before there was Netflix, before I had a blog, before I worked for myself…I used to sit in a cubicle all day and gawk at home tours on Design Sponge. I used to wonder who lived in these places and what it might be like to one day live somewhere like that. Some place interesting. Inspiring. Some place that that somebody wanted photograph.

Welp. That day has come!

Design Sponge featured a full our of my home today.  It feels a little surreal. I’m still flabbergasted they asked in the first place. The photos are from last fall, which is just enough distance from things for me to look at the images and almost forget that I’m looking at MY HOUSE. If you are long time readers, you will probably recognize most of the spaces but perhaps you can get a little more context. If you are a new reader because you popped over from Design Sponge, welcome.

Special thanks to the folks at Design Sponge for featuring my home. To Grace Bonney for being one of the first people to support this blog and get it off the ground back in 2010 (that yellow coffee filter flower tutorial keeps on clicking) and to Max Tielman for his generous words and putting the whole thing together. I am blown away. Thank you.

Day = Made.

 

I have a new decorating itch. It involves lampshades, fabric dye, and a garbage bag. Watch closely and you can see it in action…

A video posted by Peaches (@aunt_peaches) on Jan 17, 2015 at 2:52pm PST

Interested? Check it out over on ILovetoCreate.com!