Busy Bee

Construction workers must be in awesome shape- demo is TIRING!  The good news is that the demo is almost done in the kitchen and bath.  Demo-ing everything AND the kitchen sink.

I've been trying to figure out how to chronicle this project for you guys without turning this blog into one all about the flip.  I've come up with the answer.  I'm going to give you weekly updates (I'm thinking on Thursdays or Fridays, any preference?) of everything that we did in the past week.  If I have a specific DIY project that I'm tackling, I'll share that with you on another day.  So instead of talking about Clark everyday, you'll get an average of 2 flip posts a week.  I can't wait to show you what's happened in the past week!!

In addition to my blood and sweat at Clark (no tears yet, and I hope to keep it that way) I've been chipping away at a few things here in our home... cuz apparently one ginormous project still isn't enough for me, I have to do several little projects at the same time.  That's just how I roll.

Remember how I VOWED to have dining room curtains before we dove into flipping?  We'll I didn't get them up before we closed, but they went up over the weekend.

The curtains are these from IKEA and the mercury glass finial curtain rods are these from Target.

I still have a nagging feeling that something's not right in this room.  My gut says the table.  I can totally see a lighter, rectangle farmers table or butcher block table.  Hubby's gut thinks my gut is wrong and doesn't want a new table.  When will his gut learn that my gut has a better eye for design than his?  In addition to the table, I need to finish refinishing my chair collection in the basement.  These 2 that I refinished are the curvier ones and this room needs some rectilinear shapes for balance.  I also have a plan for new art for between the windows, so stay tuned for that.

Are you guys able to focus on one project?  Please tell me I'm not the only one with design ADD.

Dining Dressings

Thank you guys so much for all your support of my Big News on Monday! In addition to my new job, this transition will also mean great things for this blog!  The most obvious thing is that I'll be able to blog about my flip house.  I don't know how to tile a bathroom...yet...but you can rest assured that I'll tell you all about it.  In more detail than you'd probably ever ask for.  The other blogging perks that come with my career shift is that I'll have more flexibility to work on projects, take photos in the daylight (kind of hard when its dark by the time you get home from a 9to5), and generally blog the way I really want to blog.

Until we close on our first flip house on Valentine's day, I've been naturally keeping my mind busy (much to Hubby's dismay) planning a few projects here.  One design target is the dining room.  I've been thinking about curtains in the dining room for quite a while.  It's felt pretty naked in there since it's wall make-over, but I really wanted to step back and see what curtains, if any, the room wanted.

I had been thinking about one curtain per window to keep the space open and bright but still add some softness.  A few months ago, I saw this dining room on Pinterest and it confirmed my plans.

It wasn't until I noticed today that West Elm is having an amazing curtain sale that I decided to finally pull the trigger.  The dining room's been naked long enough.  Now I just have to decide what I really want (the hardest part!)

These have a nice, subtle pattern, but may be too beige for the room.

Simple and elegant.  Too simple?

Normally I'm not drawn to florals, but the watercolor feel to this one appeals to me in some way.

I'm not sure if any of these are quite right, but my design brain is on the job!  With you as my witnesses, I vow that the dining room will have curtains by the time I refocus my energies to the flip house.

West Elm curtains 1/2/3

Have a Seat

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

All 4 got primed...

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!

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.

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.

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)!

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.

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.