#Sewstupid

I don’t know why, but I had never asked to see pictures of my parents’ wedding before my mom passed away.  So one of my favorite parts of the memorial service was getting to see a few old images of her in her wedding dress — a pretty floor-length white and floral piece that she had designed and sewn herself.

In the back of my mind, I was still holding on to that picture of my mom happily sewing away when, a few months later, I saw this float by on Pinterest:

A PDF dress pattern!  That I could print from my own computer!  Too easy to pass up.

This particular design featured an easy elastic waist and no zipper, so only beginner construction techniques were needed.  I grabbed my mother’s sewing machine and decided to tackle the project.

I knew next to nothing about sewing, of course; the most I’d managed to do was alter a few waists and hems.  So if you were following me on Twitter, you witnessed a steep learning curve: I accidentally sliced a 3-inch gash in one of the back panels, I sewed an armhole closed, I ran short of fabric for the skirt, I attached fusible interfacing backwards, I bumped a knuckle with a hot iron.  My first dress took a whole day to complete, and halfway through I realized that it would not actually be wearable.

But I was not frustrated.  In fact, I was doing better than I had expected to (thanks to Pattern Runway‘s very detailed instructions, definitions and blog tutorials, and also thanks to my mother’s relatively foolproof machine), so I decided to push forward.  I figured I’d get all the mistakes out of my system and re-do the whole thing a week later.

The first dress’ main problem was my choice of fabric.  Not knowing anything about selecting materials, I had visited a Joann’s in the suburbs and bought a cotton quilting fabric (which is what they had the best selection of — that, and flannel).  I liked the pattern, but the cotton was stiff and didn’t drape the way the design needed it to.  On second consideration, this was clearly a material more appropriate for a throw pillow.

So I decided to step it up a bit for dress #2: I planned a trip to Philly’s famous fabric row (yay!)… where I arrived to find half of the stores closed (huh?).  Now I realize this was Memorial Day weekend, but it wasn’t Memorial Day itself — this was noon on Saturday.  And I feel that if your website says you have Saturday hours, someone should probably be there to open the doors on a perfectly good Saturday.  /rant

The few places that were open had very helpful staff, but I didn’t find much that I liked.  They mostly seemed to specialize in upholstery fabric and satins for bridesmaids.  So I headed off to a fabric store near Market East — also closed.  Finally I remembered a Jomar fabric warehouse in Kensington — the location had gone out of business.

What.  The.  Hell.  Do you have to live in New York to buy this kind of thing…?

Luckily, Jomar had hired a guy to stand outside of the empty Kensington store and redirect people to the next nearest location.  So I found myself driving way north to Rawnhurst, having started the day driving way south to Queen Village.  But the runaround paid off:

At Jomar I finally found a drapey black fabric with a nice subtle texture — a pre-cut 3 yards for about $7 — sitting in the designer clearance section.

This fabric (maybe some kind of rayon…?) had a tendency to shift suddenly under my scissors, and the edges of my cut pieces wanted to fray.  I was convinced I would end up with a crooked, sad little dress.  And I was totally shocked when that didn’t happen.

I am ready for my Architectural Digest photo shoot!  (My house is not, but hey.)

It took approximately 2 full days of work and about $60 to arrive at a finished product ($25 of which was a pair of really good fabric scissors, which I figured I’d use on lots of house-related sewing projects some day; $10 went to buy the pattern [also reusable]; $13 was on fabric for the first dress; a couple bucks went to buy interfacing, buttons, elastic, etc., with plenty left over).  I wouldn’t say this is a super cost-effective way to go about filling your wardrobe, but I actually enjoyed the process a lot.  Listening to the rumble of a sewing machine (and a bunch of good podcasts) is a relaxing way to pass a rainy vacation day.  And you can’t beat the satisfaction of trying on a finished product that actually fits.

This morning I woke up to an email from Pattern Runway with a customer appreciation gift attached:  a free PDF pattern of a long gathered skirt.  While at Jomar I happened to grab a few yards of a blue-gray wool blend from the discount fabric table as well… I think I see a new hobby forming.  I won’t be making wedding dresses any time soon, of course.  But still, I like that image of my mother and me — separated by decades and unfortunate circumstances, yes — but both pinning patterns, pressing seams, quietly passing a rainy day.

Glass Menagerie

I solved my shell dilemma the way I solve most dilemmas: with a trip to my favorite thrift store. There, I spotted a “set” of “floating candle dishes.” I think the store’s employees just bundled two random glass bowls of a similar shape together and slapped a 95-cent sticker on them, but it worked for me.

In the larger of the two I put my clam and oyster shells, plus a few feathers and one big seed pod. The pod is from a Philly weed tree. I tell you this to illustrate just how serious I am when I say that I can’t not pick things up — I really can’t. I don’t care if it’s a weed in the gutter. I will get my hands dirty and I will bring it home.

I think the large bowl is too similar in size to the plant pot to sit together like this, so I’ll probably end up moving the shell bowl somewhere else. Perhaps to my office, when it’s finished. I recognize that Armageddon may happen first.

The second bowl found a home on my pipe shelves, where I rearranged some things to create a little sea collection.

The dried starfish is something I’ve had since I was a kid and my grandparents took my siblings and me to a huge store packed with all sorts of ocean-related goodies. What I wouldn’t give for another shot at that store as an adult — with real pocket money! I don’t recall what town we were visiting, unfortunately.

The other item on the shelf is a cast porcelain shell with a Delftware-style painting of a pheasant. It’s hanging out in the little red display case and was a gift from a student sculptor I met through my last job.

So there’s my little attempt at bringing a piece of the ocean to Philly. Hurricane Irene probably did a more impressive job of that (har har), but she didn’t damage this here house so I won’t hold it against her.

Beach Vacation

Living in Philly, it’s traditional to visit the Jersey shore at least once a summer.  My family hadn’t been in a decade, though, so we decided to rectify that this past week.

I’m not much of a beach person anymore — I love the ocean, but an hour of lounging on the sand is plenty for me.  I’m a little uncomfortable with the level of tan-ness I have achieved, in fact.  I hardly recognize myself right now.

Luckily we found lots of other things to do (in spite of the rain, which came and went nearly every day):  we went running on the boardwalk, hiking through dunes, shopping, searching for shells, hunting for a seafood place that wasn’t mediocre, and we cooked up a storm in our rental’s surprisingly well-equipped kitchen.

But now my question is this:  what do I do with all of these?!

I’m incapable of not picking up things that happen to have an interesting shape or texture — especially natural objects.  Call it the sculptor’s disease.  Now I have pounds of seashells, and I have to come up with an interesting way of displaying them in the house.  What do you think?  Bottle them?  Sort them by color?  Hot glue them to something?  (Kidding about that last part.  I promise that this blog will remain tacky craft project-free.  Please don’t unfollow me.)

Housiverary: Year Three, Floor Two

I neglected to post a tour of the second story in last year’s anniversary recap.  I kept meaning to, but I guess the thought of spending any more time documenting that bedroom was too depressing.  No longer!  The booby-trapped blue ceiling has been vanquished.

But before we get there, let’s start out in the hallway.

The baseboards aren’t finished, of course, but I’ve at least purchased them!  And put them in a pile.  A pile that has been there since February.

I hate cutting baseboards.

(When I’m ready to Get Over It Already, the plan is to keep that tall board on the right, but to clean it up a bit by adding trim around the top edge.  Then I’ll do regular baseboards on the left side.)

I did manage to reorganized this little linen closet, though!

It might not be much to look at, but having designated spaces for cleaning supplies and light bulbs makes me happy.  I’m a big fan of designated spaces.

Ignore the terrible Home Depot bargain bin light fixture to the right.  Its days are numbered.  Do I recognize a crazy DIY chandelier opportunity?

•••

Moving on to the bathroom:

The bathroom is kinda meh.  The finishes on the metal fixtures don’t match at all, I only painted half of the room, and I am intentionally hiding from you the acrylic bath fitter.  Which isn’t awful to look at, really; it’s more that listening to water hit a series of hollow plastic soap shelves is the opposite of relaxing.

Someday (maybe this year or next?) I’d like to refinish the tub and tile the shower.  I’ll most likely attempt the tiling myself.  Drama will ensue.

•••

Checking in on the middle bedroom:

I like it much better without its terrible closets.  But this room, like the dining room, still feels like it needs some tweaking.  When I walk in here (and I find that I hang out in this room often), I tend to sit right down on the floor.  So that might be an indication that we have a furniture problem.

I think it’s that the wire legs of the butterfly chair make me nervous about scratching the laminate.  Everything makes me nervous about scratching the laminate, though, because everything does scratch it.  Rugs.  I need rugs.

•••

We’re going to skip the office this year as it is currently a big pile of boxes left over from emptying my bedroom.  Whoops.

•••

But let’s end this post on a high note!  Here’s that bedroom with the fun purple closets again:

Slightly less pretty now that we have the air conditioner to deal with, but hey.

Still love the purple doors.  Love having the new bookcase/vanity.

The fan was also such a crucial improvement.  It was my contractor’s idea, but I use it all the time.

I’m still waiting for an inspired idea for dealing with this empty wall.  I’m thinking maybe a collage of old botanical illustrations, but I don’t want it to compete with the ferns over the headboard.  Might be to matchy-matchy.

Hmm.  Glow in the dark stars?  Kidding!

•••

So there you have it!  A full house tour, minus one bedroom.  In summary it was a productive year, but I still have lots of project ideas brewing and I’m not sure which I’ll end up tackling next.  Hopefully you’ll hang around and see?

Housiversary: Year Three, Floor One

Throughout the past decade, my mother has witnessed me make all of my life’s risky decisions.  To go to art school.  To move to a big city.  To turn down a teaching job.  To take a job at a non-profit with an 80-mile daily commute.  To quit that job a few years later, in a down economy.  And, of course, to buy this tiny house in a neighborhood on the fringe.

I must have given Mom a few good scares along the way.  But even if I did, she never wavered in her support, saying only “send me a map of the neighborhoods you’re looking at” when I first shared with her the itch I had to own a little home of my own.

She helped me buy this house and she helped me move all of my things.  But she never set foot in the place again, choosing instead to let me paint and drill and make mistakes and find my own way, while relying on this blog for pictures of my progress.

She was wise and brave and loving — straight through the end of her life.

I get to do interesting things — blog, create, work as a designer (I do!?  I do.) — because of my parents’ support.  Right now it’s not easy to be creative, though, and it seems almost silly to catalog the last year in terms of the changes I made to this house — what inconsequential changes they are.  But I know I need to keep going, keep working, keep taking risks.  And besides, Mom loved pictures.  So here they are.

The kitchen.

Not many changes to report in here.  Hmm.  I got a new trashcan…?  But I kind of hate it?

The kitchen is in pretty good shape at this point.  A quick sink and countertop upgrade is all that remains on the to-do list.  (It would be great to knock out some walls and create an uber-eat-in-kitchen out of my tiny kitchen + tiny dining room, but my wallet weeps at the thought.)

Now, the dining room.

Really, the best upgrade is here has been to the selection of booze, as previously there was nothing to select from.

This window needs work.  Bigger, wider, longer curtains, and a rolling screen would be a good start.

I feel like the rest of the dining room needs work, too.  The table is problematic in this confined space; maybe something longer and narrower would be better?  A rug would also help, and something to fill the blank wall behind the table… a picture rail?  A shelf?  I’m not sure how I want to tweak this room, but it doesn’t give off the inviting vibe I’m looking for just yet.

So let’s jump to the living room.

Not bad, but I can’t believe I’ve lived this long with those scrawny throw pillows.  And both of those stumpy lamps.  I could be lounging with much greater style and ease if I gave the couch situation a little attention.

Speaking of attention: the cow rug demands yours.  I have now positioned it in such a way that you have to walk on it.  It points across the space to the pipe shelves.

(Ox is sleeping in the plant on the left, but you can’t see him.  And that’s how he likes it.)

I’m pleased to report that the pipe shelving unit is still going strong.  I’m especially pleased that the shelves haven’t sagged over the last few years.  This thing may be indestructible.

But the pipes are old news.  The new feature in the living room this year is the media cabinet I DIYed.

Season 5 of Lost, what are you doing in my picture?!

The more I look at this little cabinet, the more I really like its simplicity.  I think it’s inspiring me to pare down my collection of stuff a little bit.

Pare fail.

(It’s a process!)

I still need to address the dirty brick fireplace area.  I know I don’t want to leave the brick completely as-is, but I’m not sure I want to paint over it with the standard opaque white, either.  Perhaps the solution will be some sort of color wash and a good sealant?  I’ll need to do a lot of research before I pick a method, but if any of you have experience modifying interior brick I’d love to hear your ideas.  I even fed this question to Apartment Therapy, but the responses were either “leave it the way it is!” (no way) or “rip the entire thing out!” (no way).  I want to keep it, but I want it to be a little less loud.  And a lot less grungy.

Otherwise, I think the living room is shaping up nicely.  At the moment my storage solutions work pretty well, which helps keeps the space tidy.  I clearly still need baseboards, though.  Just how many yearly wrap-up posts will you have to suffer through before I can show you pictures of baseboards?  Stay tuned.

Also stay tuned for the 2nd floor wrap-up later this week.  That’s where all the big changes happened (and where all the big money went).

Weekend Project Wrap-up

The TV unit project is finished with barbecuing time to spare!  Before I get lost in a pitcher of margaritas, though, here’s a quick run-down of what I did (and why).

For those who missed yesterday’s post, the middle of the unit is a simple Ikea kitchen cabinet.  It has one of those nifty hinges that eases the door closed for you.  (Hung low to the ground like this it would probably make more sense for the door to open from the top instead of the bottom, but I’ve decided to refrain from messing with the hinge mechanism unless this configuration really starts to bother me.)

But a single cabinet wasn’t long enough to visually balance the TV, so I set about adding length.  First, I built little 12″ x 14 3/8″ cubbies, for lack of a non-kindergarten term.  Each has a bottom, a back, and two sides.  Cutting the pieces took a while since 14 3/8″-width boards do not exist in the wild, and also because my miter saw only has a 12″ throat.  So I made two cuts to chop each piece to length (flipping the board over after each cut), and two more cuts to trim the width.

Then I screwed all the faces together.  This is probably the part where a real woodworker would countersink things and glue things and throw some biscuits or dowels in there, but me?  Pre-drilling screw holes is about as fancy as I get.  Luckily, that’s really all I needed to do in this case.

Then the cubbies got a good sanding, priming and painting.  I attached them to the sides of the cabinet with more (non-countersunk, so sue me) screws.  Satisfied with the additional two feet of length, it was then time to cover everything with a “nice” top.

I knew I wanted a funky, industrial-looking board to use as the top of the unit — in part because I like the aesthetic of rougher, knotted pieces, and in part because they’re so much cheaper than the unblemished stuff.  In previous trips to Lowe’s I had spotted some pretty wild contenders:

But with no project idea in mind for them at the time, I passed on buying any.  And of course, they’re not in stock anymore.  So I picked the next strangest board I could find.

Did this tree have the chicken pox, or something?  I love it.

My uniquely-diseased board got cut twice to length on the miter saw, and then I trimmed the width down with a jigsaw.  After lots of sanding and few coats of polyurethane, it was ready to be attached to the cabinet via some hidden interior screws.  And there you have it!

Obviously, this isn’t your traditional media unit.  I’m not much of a TV person these days — I have four DVDs to my name and no A/V or gaming peripherals save for the cable box* — so my main goal here was creating general-purpose closed storage.  I’m currently using this puppy to store pet supplies and a yoga mat.  And art, of course — here’s a shoutout to Ruth, who gifted me the hand-thrown mug in the left cubby.

I knew on some level that I should try to ensure that the cable box would at least change channels when you pointed a remote in its general direction, but I refused to make concessions for that clunky sucker in the project’s design (seriously, when are cable boxes going to get smaller?).  Instead, I suspended the box below the main cabinet with a couple of metal brackets.  It’s still floating, but it has a few inches of ventilation room.  I think it looks pretty good for an afterthought!

(No, I still don’t have baseboards.  Shhhh.)

OK.  Enough blogging, and enough power tools.  It’s time to let the holiday weekend begin.  Hope you’re all enjoying yours!

*My DVD player is built into the side of the TV, which saves me the grief of figuring out where to store one more thing.

Also, thanks go out to my Dad, who helped me move an outlet to get this project done.

Memorial Day Weekend Project

With the boyfriend on a business trip and a 3-day weekend looming, I’ve decided to participate in that fine American tradition of the Memorial Day Weekend DIY Project.

This particular project is something I started over the winter.  The goal: to fix this situation…

…by DIYing a proper media cabinet.

As inspiration*, I looked to DoorSixteen’s “Fauxdenza,” a floating storage unit that Anna created with simple IKEA kitchen cabinets.

As Anna pointed out, being able to see the entire stretch of floor does make a room look bigger.  And my space is even tighter than Anna’s, so the float factor seemed pretty key to me.  My little TV wall is so small, in fact, that I could only fit one cabinet mounted horizontally.  Like so:

Yeah.  It was an improvement, but it still wasn’t great.  The length of the TV and the cabinet were too similar.  I lived with it like that for a few months, debating how to finish it, until the plan finally came to me:  lengthen the cabinet with a book cubby on each side.  And cover the whole thing with a funky industrial wood top, to connect it visually with the pipe shelving unit.

This plan required carpentry skills, however.  And if there’s one thing I regret about college (one thing??  How about most things), it’s that I didn’t learn any real carpentry skills.  So I’m faking it.  But so far, so good!

This is the left cubby.  A little sanding, some paint, some screws, repeating the process for cubby #2… this project should come together in no time!  I have 48 hours to get ‘er done.  Then, finished or not, I’m off to nom some BBQ.

*If you’re at all interested in seeing what inspires me (house-wise, style-wise AND food-wise!), I’ve started cataloging some idea on Pinterest.  Pinterest is a nifty visual bookmarking tool that lets you grab images from the web and post them to “boards” of your thematic choice.  It’s also a place where people compulsively post pictures of very, very thin womens’ stomachs with the tag “fitness!!!”, which is a sad side effect of our culture’s bullshit beauty standards, but if you follow my boards I promise to spare you such nonsense.

Bedroom 2: Electric Boogaloo

I wanted to get better pictures of my current project, but my camera equipment is buried in the rarely-photographed third bedroom:

Is Hoarders: Buried Alive accepting new applicants?

Bedroom #3 has been collecting all of the tools from the renovations of bedrooms 1 & 2, plus about a year’s worth of bank statements, shoe boxes, and other crud that just needs to be tossed out. We’ll get there. In the meantime, excuse the hazy pink-and-cyan iPhone photos.

This is a post about bedroom #2, so let’s start with some before pictures:

Sad trombone.

This room had/has a really difficult layout. It’s very narrow and the door to the hallway is smack dab in the middle of one of the two long walls. When I purchased the house, one end of the room was taken up by a full wall of closets. This left only one possible position for the bed: crammed up against the opposite wall, as seen above.

A few years ago I did what I could to spruce the room up; I lightened up the walls and removed the closet doors, which I hoped would make the room feel bigger.

The facelift helped a little, but in the end I decided that I really wanted those closets to go. They were built so badly and were greatly restricting how the room could be used. So in a fit of temporary insanity I ripped them out myself.

My lovely contractors stepped in at this point and smoothed out all the drywall for me. A little paint here, a little repairing there… skip to some hazy shots of the finished product!

This picture really shows how tight the space is. I don’t use bedroom #2 as a bedroom, of course — this room is reserved for arting, crafting and… ironing? — but I think it would function a little better as one now. I could fit a twin bed in a few different configurations on this side of the room now that the closets are gone. Or maybe even a full bed if I were crazy.

The wardrobe is a super cheap Ikea piece that I believe my old roommate and I bought as a coat closet for our last apartment. It now holds dresses, jackets, some art supplies, and the sewing basket that inspired me to rework this room’s closets in the first place.

The fabric and paper display is a super cheap Ikea towel rack (sensing a pattern yet?). The overstuffed butterfly chair was a gift from my parents for my first dorm room. It has definitely seen better days. The time is coming when I’ll need to decide whether to retire it fully, or replace the cushion part with a simpler, more modern sling. Like…

…this? Mmmm. Not that color, though. Maybe a caramel would work.

And facing the other way:

Hazy hazy. Sorry.

As you might be able to tell, the super cheap Ikea trend continues over here. Shelves, brackets, and desk are all courtesy of the Swedish giant. I had been using a shorter work table and desperately needed an upgrade, but I had a lot of trouble finding a pre-cut size that would work for this space. None of the Ikea desks were the right length, or affordable enough to spill paint on without triggering a panic attack. The solution ended up being this $40 heavy-as-hell tabletop, which was originally designed as a dining room table, cut down a few inches by me and my handy reciprocal saw.

You should have seen me stuff the sucker into my trunk. And carry it a block and a half from the car to my house. PICKUP TRUCK: I NEED ONE. Also, strapping young assistants. Apply in the comments.

My thrift store mirror and picture frame collection hang out over the radiator. Postcard from an old boss. Oh hello, my elbow!

This room hosts and interesting collection of artifacts from the different phases of my career so far. The art supplies are all from my college days. The plant by the window was my desk plant at my last job. The peacock feathers came from there as well.

The blueprint is of the Fisher Fine Arts library at the University of Pennsylvania, and was rescued from the garbage by my manager at the first job I had straight out of college. Now, at my current job, I attend meetings in the very same building.

More art supplies, and more art. And the brick that fell from my bedroom ceiling, which I saved and am itching to spraypaint. Maybe gold, as a hat tip to Filmspotting?

For the moment, though, I’m calling this room finished. I’m pretty pleased with the way it came out; it’s a small space, but now it feels more cozy than cramped. It’s especially nice to catch a glimpse of the plant and mirror in the bright light as I come up the stairs from the living room. Some day, when I have time to put pencil to paper again, this should make for a pretty nice studio nook.

2 bedrooms down, 1 to go!

I spy

I have been so intensely focused on completing my largest bedroom, I let the other two disintegrate into dusty collections of tools, art supplies, and linens that have been displaced from closets.  Things are looking pretty dysfunctional around here.  So even though I never want to measure another baseboard ever again, I’m slowly plowing my way through the finishing details of my middle bedroom.

When the old closet walls came out of this room, they left two long gaps in the laminate flooring.  And even though the previous homeowners left a personal museum’s worth of stuff in the basement, when I ventured down there to check for more laminate, none could be found.  (Why??  Why leave me a fishing pole and a box full of arrows and a car maintenance manual from the 70’s, but no extra flooring?  You must have had some!)  The stuff isn’t marked with a brand name, either.

Since I figured it would be impossible to track down, last weekend I went off to Lowes and bought the cheapest box of laminate that I could find in this color family.  I quickly discovered I had bought a different brand when I attempted to insert a new board into one of the gaps and realized that the arrangement of tongues and grooves was slightly different.  Out came a chisel, a knife, and more than a few nasty words.

The good news is that in the end, I got them to fit together very well.  The bad news…

It’s like playing a game of “What’s wrong with this picture?”

OK, so most of the floor is printed with a pattern of 3″ boards, but in a few spots it switches to 2″.  You’d think I’d care, but I just don’t.  I suppose it’s because I straight up hate laminate flooring anyway (a picture of wood glued to particle board?  Seriously?), and the only reason this floor isn’t getting torn out is cost.  And inconvenience.  And the generation of more dust.  And the probable poor condition of the sub-floor below it.  And my mom’s advice to stop ripping my house to pieces.

Let’s file this floor under “good enough” and move on.  I’m probably going to stick a bunch of furniture over there, anyway.

Day 58: Finished, with pictures to prove it

The day (glorious day 58) has finally come. My main bedroom is complete. But before I show the rest of the finished product, we have to dwell on these hideous “before” shots one more time. I know it’s painful.

I took these in March ’09, which is when I thought I was about to start fixing up this bedroom. Ha. Hahahaha.

This is how the adventure starts: with yellow and blue paint, green awnings, and a drop ceiling. (Note that the ceiling hits right above the window trim.)

Small closets with poor organization systems.

Wasted space and awkward bed placement thanks to the stovepipe hidden in that drywall…protrusion? Box? Thing you have to walk around in order to enter the room? Constant source of aggravation?

Anyway. I won’t subject either of us to any more photos of fug.

But one more thing before we get to the after pictures: I need to thank my parents, who were major financial contributors to this project. So much so that I joked with my boyfriend that there ought to be bench or a brick with their names on it somewhere in here. Perhaps I could engrave the brick that fell out of the ceiling as I tore it down. Or perhaps we should start referring to this corner of the house as the “Pat and Mike Honorary Wing.”

Either way, I just wanted to be honest and admit that I did not do this alone. My contractors were also awesome, leaving this blog with a complete lack of painful-yet-entertaining contractor horror stories. Also awesome: my boyfriend, who shared his tools and who helped me paint this sucker twice.

OK, here goes. Let’s start with the biggest change: the ceiling.

As you can probably tell from those windows, the contractors were able to raise the ceiling about two feet. I can’t stand on my toes and touch it anymore! They also gave me lots of insulation, plus four recessed lights and a brand new ceiling fan.

The closets were completely torn out and rebuilt. Unlike the old closets, these have doors that match their full width (so I won’t be fishing around for sweaters that have fallen into corners).

I went with a deep glossy purple paint for the doors, which I love. Love. It’s fun and bold, but with just enough seriousness. The color also looks killer against the orange of my dresser. It took five coats of paint to reach this level of saturation, but it was worth it.

Live and learn. And then buy a darker primer.

But the insides of the closets are obviously the best part. The big double closet on the right for clothes…

…and the little closet on the left for shoes, bags, belts, laundry, and toiletries.

This is all organized with the Ikea Antonius system. I have to say, even though the pictures make me look completely OCD, it’s so nice to have all of my accessories visible! I find I’m far less likely to grab my standard uniform of a black shirt, gray pants and black shoes now that all of my other options are laid out infront of me.

And in between the closets:

The old stove pipe space is completely inverted; where there was once a protruding box, now I have an inset bookshelf.

I’m using the middle shelf as a tiny vanity, with an adjustable wall-mounted light from Ikea to help me see what I’m doing.

The jewelry stand is from Urban Outfitters, but the jewelry itself is largely Etsy (I love Edor’s shop for its simple, classic necklaces) and local craft fair purchased, with a few pieces from my Mom.

The top shelf is more flexible and will probably get rearranged often as I amass more books and art.

More craft fair purchases (bird by Rachel Reinfurt), plus a cyanotype that I made with lots of help from Jorj Bauer.

This is all that remains of the stove pipe. Since I converted the wood stove in the living room to gas, it no longer needs to vent through to the ceiling. Now I just have this little floor vent to carry up some heat from the living room below. The carpet is working out well, too. It’s unobtrusive and fun to walk on and easy to clean.

So that covers the new layout. Now let’s talk about furniture!

My bed is a basic Ikea Malm (also known as the bed most likely to bruise your shins), and I’m so happy to have it in a place where both sides are now accessible without climbing. The painting above was done by me, on an old window pane that the previous owners left behind. (I’ve got another in the basement — want a painting?)

My side table was trash picked. I’m not sure if it really fits my style, so I haven’t attempted to refinish it. I would probably prefer something a little less frilly. But the new modern lamp (Ikea) against the old scroll-legged table is oddly appealing to me, so for now it stays.

I had wanted a big leaning mirror here — one that would rest on the floor — but Ikea’s version was too wide for the space. I might look at other options, but this old $10 Target mirror (with a fresh coat of paint) works pretty well.

The dresser is from my original childhood bedroom set. I think I’ve had it since I was six. It has definitely seen better days — I regularly spilled nail polish remover on it as a teenager — but with a little oil and wax it still cleans up pretty good. I decorated it with a little succelent garden.

The chair was also trash picked; at some point I’ll reupholster it. The bag is by Etsy seller valhallabrooklyn, who I am reluctant to link to because each time I do a friend buys “my” purse in a different color. Aww who am I kidding? I love giving props to talented people, and she was such a pleasure to work with.

The windows have two roller blinds; an outer screen and an inner blackout blind, both from Ikea. I didn’t want to deal with complicated curtains in the bay window, and this arrangement works perfectly and looks elegant.

So that’s it! A two-month project is finally finished. The house is not finished, of course, but I’ll still be sipping an adult beverage and doing the happy dance later today. What do you think?