AT Style Cure Day 13: Do Work

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 13: Make Some Project Progress

Oh, come on, AT, it's Monday. Monday. Seriously.

My main project is to redo the dresser, and I don't feel like sanding today. Instead, I stared at the room for awhile and realized the brass headboard may not work. I rummaged around in the fabric bin and found some old Ikea fabric that has been chilling there for over a year. I draped it over the brass headboard and realized that YEP I now have two projects. I have to make a new headboard. So this counts as starting, right?

AT Style Cure Day 12: SHOPPING FOR REALZ

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 12: Shop 'Til You Drop

I didn't go shopping this weekend. The room is coming along but I REALLY needed to catch up on True Blood since the finale is today. So I did.

But the universe had other ideas because my Joss & Main rug arrived. You know, the one I bought prematurely when I thought I was redo-ing the master bedroom.

This was my first time ordering from Joss & Main and I am super happy. I bought this one, at $198 WITH SHIPPING. Way less than I've seen on any other site on the interwebz. And it's lovely; I'm super pleased with Joss & Main and Loloi Rugs and the Universe. Of course, it's too small for the master bedroom. But it's going to probably look great in the new guest room. And I also shopped in my house and found a shower curtain from World Market that I bought for the office curtains. I actually thought I would need two, but ended up using only one in the office window.

So now I have a new 'pairing'. Thanks to Apartment Therapy, I've been thinking way to much about decor pairs. And regular pears. But that's how my brain works.

It's coming along nicely.

AT Style Cure Day 11: Plan a Labor Day Party...or NOT

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 11: Plan a Get-Together & Send Invites

Today is a freebie day. I get the point of inviting people over; it makes the deadline real. And helps with the finishing. I know that whenever I want Husband's help cleaning the house, I just invite his friends over. Works LIKE A FREAKING CHARM every single time.

This Labor Day weekend, I'll be joining him in LA for business (him) and pleasure (me). But the deadline is still in full effect because we will have amazing house sitters that will be using this guest room. So it's gotta be ready for them.

Different method, same effect.

Done and done.

AT Style Cure Day 10: Make a List

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 10: Make a shopping list and a budget.

Hm. This feels like a freebie day though I know it's important. 

Shopping List

knobs - what kind what color omg i don't know yet

black out blinds

new comforter/blanket/bedspread

side table

probably some accessories, but not yet sure what

Budget: Ok, I realize $0.00 is unreasonable. I'm giving it $200. So far I've spent $8.99 on 3M strips for the board games. $191.01 left. 

I like this table from Target. I like that its under $20 and smallish and wiry so won't take up a lot of visual space. And it will fit nicely between the bed and the mirrored closet. And it has hot pink, but not so much as to be annoying. And the white top should compliment the white sides and legs of our Ikea Lack Hack.

It's not at my local Target (checked today) and it's on back order. Ugh. But I'll order it anyway and just pretend it's there for now. I hate waiting. Anyone else? Everyone else? Yeah, that's what I thought.

While that technically leaves enough in the budget for the $18 Anthopologie knobs, I still say they cost too much. Plus I need a new blanket/whatever for the bed and some blinds. But they did give me a 15% off coupon for my birthday month coming up. What's 15% off of a million dollars?

I have an unopened bathroom shelf from Lowe's that I never hung because I am lazy and also I bought these adorable deer.

(From Anthropologie. Full price at something like $20-$25 each!! So I didn't want anything to compete with them.) I need to return the shelf. I can get credit for the blinds. MAYBE I CAN HAVE MY RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED KNOBS. But I hate rewarding bad behavior. (Bad behavior = Anthropologie's pricing practices.) 

Look at me trying to justify buying million dollar knobs. Anyone else do this? 

At Style Cure Day 9: Kicking it back to Junior High

AT Style Cure Day 9: Research your decor pairing

I am trying to decide if the super neat-o vintage game boards can coexist with the walls in the bright blue summer sky bedroom. I can think of only one way to research this: Old Skool Scientific Method-Style. Finally using those seventh grade science fair skillz. (Honorable mention, yo.)

Question: Will any of the eighteen vintage game boards work as decor in the pretty new guest room?

Research:  I held each game board up to the wall. Anything clashing with the current wall color, or anything with too much blue, was eliminated. I laid the remaining game boards out in different configurations on the bed, sipped green tea, and looked at researched them.

Hypothesis:  If I hang six of these vintage game boards grid style on one wall, then it will be amazing.

Experiment:  My control is the wall color. My variables are the game boards. But I only have enough 3M strips to hang six game boards. I better get this right on the first try.

Conclusion:  You tell me (please). I've never been a judge for my own science project.

I did this entire science experiment on my lunch break. Gotta love working from home.

AT Style Cure Day 8: Pick Paint and and a Pair

(And a peck of pickled peppers.)

AT Style Cure Day 8: Choose your paint color & think about a decor pairing

I chose the wall color four years ago and I'm sticking to it. I will, however, paint the dresser and change out the knobs. The dresser will be white due to the bright blue paint's non-compete clause, and the knobs are currently TBD. I found some really great ones at Anthropologie that were like geodes turned knobs, but at $18 a pop for nine knobs...what's that? Like a million dollars or something? No way. I'll keep looking.

Apartment Therapy describes a decor pairing here.  The gist is to think about what is lacking in the room. My room lacks art. It also lacks a crib which I really wanted to add, but that I've now realized will not fit. I can fit a pack-n-play in the newly cleaned out closet for a visiting Vera and -- breaking news -- my next little niece or nephew that is currently cooking in my little sister!! So, back to art.

I just removed all color and pattern from the room and it is much calmer now. Like a bright summer sky with a little ray of headboard sunshine. I'm kind of scared to add it back now. Perhaps I should hang blank canvases on the wall in a sort of High Art Installation. A postmodern commentary on the thoughtfulness of decor.

But that would be stupid.

I kind of like this giant picture from Ikea. Nice and muted and would take up most of one wall.

But it's $149 and I'm trying to keep this project as close to $0.00 as I can. I already bought that rug for almost $200 back when I intended to Style Cure the master bedroom so there isn't much left in the Home Improvement portion of my bank account.

Remember long ago when I mentioned the stacks of vintage games in my mother-in-law's basement? Well, they are currently on a shelf in a closet in my house.

How can I sanely pair these awesome game boards with that bright blue wall color? The games themselves are all less fun than Candyland. Spin the spinner and move to red, draw a card and move back two, blah blah that kind of thing. No self respecting kid that has ever heard of Angry Birds wants to play these games. But the game boards themselves are excellent. Plus they are sweetly from Husband's childhood. And plus they are free.

I have eighteen game boards to choose from so I'm thinking SOME of them should work. Maybe if I go for the non-primary-color based ones...you know, the ones rocking the awful awesome 1970s fuchsia-esque palette. What do you think? Can I make fetch happen? Non-framed, just chilling on the wall? I'll get some 3M strips and let you know how it goes.

Bonus Question: for 100 points, can anyone tell me how to add pictures in a grid format instead of one after another? I CANNOT figure it out.

AT Style Cure Day 7.1: Cinderella Part 2 -- The Fairy Godmother Strikes Back

I cleaned my room! Where's my gold star?

I even cleaned the window, which was super dingy and had never been completely cleaned in the five years we've lived here. Sure, I wiped down the easy to reach inside bits from time to time (year to year), but this time I cleaned the inside and outside of all four panes. I am way too proud of myself over this. It was really hard, but I only fell out of the window one time. Just kidding, I fell out zero times. But it was super scary leaning out of the window to clean the outsides. And I have regular sized arms so I had to clean half of each outside pane by leaning out the bottom and reaching up and the other half by leaning out the top and reaching down. Has anyone ever done this? Is there an easier way that I am missing? And what is up with that creepy inclination to just jump out the window? Just me?

I also removed all the crazy patterns from the room, and I am starting to believe that I will not have to paint.*

*Except for the closet which I totally just painted. After sanding and spackling and wishing upon stars four nights in a row, the former mountainous region in the closet was finally smooth enough to paint. Smooth enough for the inside of a closet, anyway. I used the same light blue-grayish color that I painted the living room and basement with because it matches everything. Voila!**

Remember the before:

**Anyone know how to make an accent over the a in 'Voila'?