Occasionally, I do write more than 2,200 characters (thanks for the limit, Instagram), and when I do, you will find those words here. I also love participating in Calling It Home’s One Room Challenge, which happens every spring and fall. You can find past rooms I’ve worked on here. Want some help with your own One Room Challenge? Let me know so that we can get planning for the next round!
It’s Week 6 of the One Room Challenge, and as promised in last week’s post, we are not *quite* ready for the final reveal. I am excited to spend some time looking through the completed project posts of my fellow participants, but before I do that, a quick update on our beach A-frame project status:
Read MoreIt’s Sunday night as I write this post, despite the fact that most participants posted their One Room Challenge week 5 updates on Thursday. Not me, though. I’m sitting on the floor of the A-frame looking at piles of stuff in every direction. Any of you procrastinators out there feel better about what ever it is you haven’t done?
Read MoreYou know you are a design dork when your daughter says her future college roommates are planning on a pink and light blue color palette for their dorm room and your immediate response is “As in the Pantone colors of the year 2016?” instead of “Sounds great, Honey. Let’s go shopping.” I’m just saying that may have happened to me last week and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t judge.
Everyone is getting on the dorm room decorating band wagon these days. Dorm room decorating – like other forms of trend decorating – is big business. Target has its back to school section, of course, as do teen standbys like Urban Outfitters and PB Teen, but even more traditionally full service furniture and décor sources are getting in the mix. This month’s Better Homes and Gardens has a small feature about dorm décor from the 1962 at the very back. For better or for worse, we’ve come a long way in what is available to decorate dorm rooms. Planning ahead and “matching” with dorm mates is a thing now. There are even dedicated dorm décor websites (check out Dormify and Room 422). It’s all I can do not to pull out one of those, “In my day, we…” Honestly. Anyone else just go to Bed Bath and Beyond, buy some twin XL sheets, and call it a day?
Read More“If the Fab 5 came to our house, Antoni wouldn’t have much to do but Tan would go crazy with your closet,” my 8-year-old son told me yesterday while seeing no irony at all in his wardrobe choice of graphic tee and sweat shorts.
The twins and I have been watching Queer Eye together over the last week. “Wait, what?”, you say. Is that even appropriate for 8-year-olds? As my daughter would say, don’t judge a book by its cover. And really, that is the basis of the whole show. Every episode seeks to help people find their own confidence so that they can go out into the world and be who they were meant to be. Sounds a bit like the Hallmark channel? In large respects, it is. But so so much cooler. And with sometimes inappropriate to 8-year-olds but over their heads so whatever humor. We are totally on this bandwagon.
Read MoreI want you to read this quote from a 1986 New York Times article about the late design superhero Albert Hadley:
“While Hadley always has his design principles firmly in mind, he also understands that interiors are for living, and that they should be enjoyed by the people who live in them, rather than reflect an idea of perfection imposed by a decorator.”
For some of you, 1986 doesn't even register. I may well have said the article was from 1886. For others, 1986 was all about dancing to Madonna in your bedroom and Top Gun and posters on your closet wall. Whatever. Suspending your age for a minute, what was true about design 32 years ago is still true about design today. Interiors are for living. Albert Hadley understood that. It would behoove us to remember this idea in the age of Pinterest and Instagram.
Read MoreAnd so we come to the end of another One Room Challenge. Or do we?
Read MoreI had every intention of sharing our progress on picking paint colors last week. I even spent much longer than I’d like to admit drafting a post that I scrapped because it was totally not worth posting. I realized after letting go of the need to stay on an arbitrary posting schedule that I was using the writing process to try to break thru our color scheme for the house. Words are good for many things. Picking paint colors is not one of them.
Read MoreFive weeks down and one week to go in this shared kids’ room decorating project. The kids are excited to finally move into their new bedroom but Mom and Dad have quite the list left to accomplish.
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