Many of you have asked for an update on the apartment and so here is a shot I just took of Alex napping on the couch in the aftermath of a day of reading books (and transferring them from bookshelf to coffee table and back again), folding laundry (safely stowed out of toddler reach on every surface), and general running around and making merry in the house with the air conditioners cranked in this NYC summer heat. Of all the updates made with the help of the intrepid and insanely talented Jenny Komenda my favorite is the new light fixture (see below for an earlier version of the room).
I’m embarrassed that in the past year I haven’t always had a lot to share here. I guess I’ve sort of been avoiding my blog as a result. (There, I said it.) Between working full time in an exciting but demanding environment and coming home and being a mother (and trying to continue to be a thoughtful and present wife, daughter, sister and friend) sometimes there wasn’t anything left over. I’ve resisted blogging about motherhood because I neither want to glamorize it nor complain about it. Motherhood is full of polarity; I’ve found it both intensely joyful and painfully overwhelming. It takes time to get your sea legs in the face of the sleep deprivation and the constant evolution of a baby to a toddler. Just when you think you’ve figured it out your child is writhing in the throes of a tantrum on the dirty floor of Target or awing you by engaging in pretend play for the first time (cooking “soup” and offering me “tea”).
Then, of course, the world hasn’t stood still while I was away in the camps of Motherhood and the Metropolitan. Far from it. Tumblr, pinterest, twitter, instragram, Facebook — there are so many more people sharing than there were five years ago when I started this blog (five years!!). Blogging takes a certain sort of gentle narcissism (that you believe you have something relevant and compelling to share) and I think motherhood takes the opposite of narcissism, whatever that might be (unconditional love, or selflessness, maybe). So, sometimes, since Alex was born, I have a sort of stage fright when it comes to the blog.
Now that I finished my year long internship at the Metropolitan Museum (I’m now interning two days a week at the Museum of Arts and Design) I suddenly find myself with more; more time with Alex; more time to myself; more time to blog. I’ve been posting a lot to my tumblr account, so go over and drink your fill.
PS The beautiful lemon tree was a casualty of Alex’s first months of life; I simply forgot to water it and didn’t even notice as it died. I still mourn its passing and that I couldn’t have kept my life together just a tiny bit more in that period (I know, I’m being critical. Which reminds me of a great post I just read on Aesthetic Outburst about being kinder to ourselves). PPS: Thanks to Jules for the title of this post and the nudge to post about apartment updates.
We’ve gone polar (bear) in this house and those two cuties ($15 at Michael’s) may have a permanent place on our mantel. It’s hard to see in the photo, but our wreath has a little polar bear too. I made the stockings last year from a sample of a Josef Frank fabric. See our Christmas decorations last year and 2007.
I thought you might like to see a peek of Alex’s room; I finally got the posters and tea towels up. The little car is made by Haba and was a first birthday present from doting grandparents. The tea towels were insanely expensive to frame, so I just put them up with bull dog clips. The rug is from Anthropologie. If you click each image, you’ll see a larger version!
The globe pillow is perfect for resting my head on while Alex runs around at 5am.
PS this is what his room used to look like when he was a tiny baby!
Right after the baby was born (a year ago!!) I bought these chairs over the phone from Deluxa in Brooklyn (check out their awesome Etsy storefront, too!)
Here’s what they looked like before I had (washable) slipcovers made at Bettertex in SOHO (I LOVE them!). They have a great selection of deeply discounted designer fabrics and they are very creative. Then, I hate staring at an empty fireplace but needed something that was 100% baby safe. These Kid O blocks are Alex’s favorite toy (bought at Jordan’s suggestion). I thought since they are graphic and fun, they might look great in the fireplace. I used three extra sets and really like how it looks. I think they look great in the aftermath of play (see below). The photograph is by amazing Katherine Wolkoff, from her Deer Bed series.
My obsession with gallery walls is well documented on this blog and I’ve been squirreling away potential gallery wall pieces for literally the last ten years. So, you can imagine my great delight in finally installing a gallery wall in my own house! This strange little nook is between our hallway and our bathroom where our washer and microwave live. I used a combination of custom framed pieces, ready made frames with custom mating and, inspired by Stephanie’s apartment, bull dog clips to hang the pieces. My favorite piece is the original illustration of a red telephone by Samantha Hahn, inspired by our old red phone.
Two weeks ago, the babe slept through the night for the first time and I woke up the next morning suddenly raging to get back to decorating our apartment. So, here is a WIP shot of the dinning room, which is looking less sad these days (see the sadness here). I bought the CB2 lamp (thanks for the encouragement), moved the citrus tree, and since is usually just Tim and me eating dinner at the table, I put some of my favorite design books as our dinner guests. This image below was my inspiration for the books-on-the-table idea.
If you know where this image came from, remind me and I’ll link to it! Thanks to reader Dean, this is architect Gil Shafer’s house Ho Me decorated by Miles Reed.
We’re into the final stretch and just to prove I’m ready (ha!), here is a shot of our nursery. In the beginning of my pregnancy I somehow felt that the nursery should be as “decorated” as the rest of the house and incorporate lots of cool vintage items which then of course started to feel like too much pressure on me and on the baby. In the end, we decided to keep the nursery as simple and low key as possible. It still looks nice, but isn’t overdecorated. I’m sure this will evolve over time, as our son develops his own personality and desires (and I find the perfect vintage poster). We also kept it affordable – the crib, changing table and flag decals ($10 dollars a set and I used two!) are all from Wal-Mart. The Anthroplogie rug, trashcan and Oeuf baby lounger were all gifts. The sheet has sweet clouds (6.99) on it and the crib skirt ($16.99) is striped — both are from Target. I nearly fainted when I saw how much designer crib skirts cost (seriously, at $250 dollars a skirt, that is a business I should get into). I used myregistry.com for my baby showers and what is genius about the site that you can add products from ANY website to your registry so I was able to get what I really truly wanted.
I’m lusting after this lamp from CB2 — It’s huge and on a dimmer so I can see it over the changing table in the nursery or over our dinning room table. At $199 it doesn’t break the bank….
Inspired by Jordan’s use of removable wallpaper from Sherwin-Williams’ “Easy Change” line in her entry way I’ve been browsing the Easy Change line website (which is NOT user friendly) and thought I’d share some of my favorites with you (see all of my picks in my Flickr). If you like any of these and want to fine them on the Easy Change website, try searching on the “skew” number, ie SW7KC4073 in the image below.
I thought this would be nice for the nursery…
This could be great on one wall of our entry way…
For a wall of our bedroom?
This is the same pattern Jordan used, but in green. It could look great in on one wall of our entryway too.
PS you’ll remember how much I liked Jordan’s old entry way.
Our kitchen has dirty white UGLY tiles that date to its 1980s renovation. I’d love to cover them with some wall to wall carpeting which I know at first sounds like a terrible idea — carpet in the kitchen? However, I love this image for Domino featuring navy blue carpet. I’ve been thinking about using faux sisal (basically a polyester rug) but cut to fit like wall to wall since one of my least favorite things (after ugly tile) is rugs that slip.
I like this example above (although I think I like navy more). You can find more faux sisal here where it costs $8.70 a square foot.
This galley office and
this FLOR tile carpet found via the Dooce are inspiring our new office space.
Here is the office/baby’s room before we moved in…
… and here is a “under construction” shot that shows off the results of yesterday’s labors. The baby’s room will be on the left and our office on the right. I will need to worry about “baby proofing” but in the near term, this will do! I’m planning on putting FLOR tiles as “wall to wall” in the office and on adding another Ikea bookcase to really finish defining the office space. Then, I think that two long narrow shelves above the desks will look great.
Here’s another photo shelf from new to me blog Loving Living Small…. delicious!
