Before & After

Light My Fire

Cold weather has the same effect on me as it does molasses.  I keep on going, but my pace is significantly slower.  Unfortunately, that means that projects take longer which frustrates my urge to have everything done yesterday. A week and a half ago, I showed you this collection of misfit thrift store candlesticks.

candlestick collection before

Today, they're refreshed and are hanging out on the piano as a makeshift menorah.  A psuedo-menorah AND a Christmas tree??  Yup, we're a mixed family.  Neither Hubby or I are religious, however we love honoring the traditions we were raised with.  Hubby knew that if he married me, I came with a Christmas tree.  non-negotiable.  Luckily, I'm apparently worth it.  yay!

candle collection after

Anyway... yes, I am well aware that Hanukkah ended last night, but I assure you I had these up before... even though they didn't get lit.

closeup candles

Of the 9 candlesticks, 4 got cleaned/polished and 5 got spraypainted gold or silver.  I always loved collections of mismatched candlesticks unified in some way.  In fact, I dreamed of having them as my wedding centerpiece (sadly a venue with candle restrictions put the kibosh on that).

brass candlestick

I really love the 2 brass ones.  They polished up amazingly and will probably hang out in my non-holiday decor too.  (You can also play "find the photog" in that pic thanks to a shiny ornament)

I have a few things up my sleeve for this week including a long overdue furniture refresh how-to, so stay tuned!

 

Office 2.0

The saga is over- the home office has been Hubby-fied.  About a month ago I claimed our guest room/den as my new office and forfeited the existing home office to the Hubs, his video games, and his music composing.  As part of his birthday present, I bought him a second monitor to facilitate his music editing and restyled the room accordingly. I'll admit, I'm really pleased with the space, and excited to share with you, but I'm less than thrilled about the photo quality.  Daylight is elusive for the blogger with a 9to5 job and I'm far too impatient to wait for the weekend to photo it properly first.  A proper photo-shoot will follow soon, but until then, please don't hold it against me.

Prior to this make-over, the room had been in a bit of disarray.

office mess before

4 chairs in this tiny space was 1 too many.  Once my parents closed on their house, we sent the big beige chair to go live with them.

Office mess 2

The saga of this room was really about the computer monitors.  A comedy of errors, but less funny.  The new monitor was intended to be a surprise installed before he got home on his b-day, however the delivery man had different plans.  He ruined my surprise by delivering it a mere 5 minutes before Hubby left for work.  FIVE MINUTES!!!  Aaaanyway, the first monitor that I ordered to match Hubby's current discontinued monitor wasn't wall mountable.  I didn't even know they made monitors that you couldn't mount these days.  What is this, the ice age??  So came the second monitor.  The same model, but wall mountable.  Too bad the screen quality looked like poo and had half the contrast ratio of its discontinued counterpart.  So I gave up on trying to match the existing and ordered a 3rd of Hubby's choice.  With new articulating wall mounts, I reworked the gallery wall to be more Hubby-oriented.  He doesn't need pics of my sister and me at her wedding in his room.  (Sorry sis!)

gallery 2.0

Gallery wall 2.0 includes all of Hubby's Sox tickets from the past few years, an antique painting he bought in France, a watercolor by his grandmother, a ceramic carving he got in Cancun this summer, and still a few wedding pics (can't let him forget all about me- with his new set-up, he could spend days in there).

gallery music magic

gallery 2.0 closeup

With my books and items moved to my new office, the built-in shelves got a make-over too.

office shelf style via a year of strategic serendipity

Styling included Transformers, video games, TTRPG books, and a rock n roll piggy bank among other things...  and, yes, an adult male inhabits this space.  (If you aren't familiar with the term TTRPG, it's probably better you not ask.)  What make's this all somehow work, though, is it's juxtaposition next to some more 'refined', 'adult' pieces: an antique chair and another of Hubby's France art finds.

office seating via year of strategic serendipity

office shelves via a year of strategic serendipity

office vignette via a year of strategic serendipity

office hobes

Why, yes, those ARE Calvin and Hobbes books hanging out with the art book.  I knew Hubby would appreciate what the association implied (think about it).

The room isn't 100% complete just yet.  Over the winter I'll be refinishing a craigslist desk that's been hanging out in our basement (check it out here) to replace the aging overscaled IKEA desk.

Hubby seems to be really happy that he has a room decorated for him, and I'm happy that I have a husband who lets me 'style' his Transformers.  Optimus Prime's never looked so good, if you ask me.

Have a Seat

In my recent bout of project energy, I've finally made significant progress on my dining chair collection. chair collection

All 4 got primed...

primed chairs

progress chairs

And the first set of chairs are painted, recovered, and living in the dining room.  It's about time: I started collecting these chairs shortly after moving!

dining room updates

If you're very observant, you may have noticed a sneak peak of these on my new (and in progress) Home Tour page earlier this week.

chairs closeup

The curvy one on the left was the one that needed the most help.  This is what it looked like when I rescued it from a tag sale for $5.

chair before

I'm absolutely in love with the new fabric and the fact that I got an amazing deal on it just makes it all the better (3 yards for a total of $23)!

chair seat

I'm really liking the new look of the room, but I'm thinking about how to take it to the next level- add a real WOW factor.  I have a few ideas, but I need to let them marinate a bit.

dining room updates

Whichever WOW idea I go with, it will certainly have something to do with colors.  A more developed color story in here will go a long way to making it pop.