Middle Ground

Well fair readers, I apologize for the long gap in postings.  See, I was hoping to be able to have my next post be this wondrous compilation of beautifully decorated rooms that had miraculously snapped into being.  The reality of unpacking is that most of the rooms in the house are in a state somewhere between gorgeous-done and barely-liveable.  So, I'm trying to be content with this middle ground, since it is actually a vast improvement over where things were a month ago.

Today I went around the house and highlighted my favorite parts of the middle ground to show you guys.  There's still a lot to be done, but a couple of things are looking pretty good.

The living room is shaping up fairly well!  My beloved blue couch and vintage coffee table are clearly loving being in the bay window.  I love the wall color.  Clearly, I have a problem with the color turquoise.  Let's not talk about it...

 I managed to unpack some books and wedge them into this bookshelf, and my beloved Airstream trailer lamp made it through the move unscathed.

On Friday after Turkey Day we had the Art Hanging Rodeo of 2010.  The Art Hanging Rodeo was an effort to not be one of those couples who live in their house for a year and never hang their art.  We only managed to come up with a couple of pieces we definitely wanted to hang, but it's definitely feeling a little better.

The first thing to go up was the mirror seen above.  Although not technically a piece of art, it is essential in the art of making sure you don't look like a trainwreck when you leave the house.  The adorable Pyrex bowl on the left is the key bowl (essential for a forgetful person like me) and on the right I managed to get one of our wedding photos in a frame.  Everything feels like progress here.

We also made some progress in the kitchen!  Part of that progress was finally getting the wallpaper underlayer up, in preparation for doing a skimcoat on the drywall in the room.  Unfortunately, that rendered the walls a patchy, shredded mess, waiting for the loving touch of Tracy the Taper.  So let's not look at that, but let's look at what else we did!  The husband put up a third shelf, the better to accommodate our burgeoning Pyrex collection.  He says we can pretend to be chic and eco-friendly and say that it was made with "reclaimed wood".  Which means it was made out of an old section of bleachers he had to scrape the gum off of.  Don't worry, he sanitized it later.  Hopefully the germs of long-gone jocks won't hop into our Pyrex.

He also cleverly mounted some hooks for our skillets above the stove, so my new treasure, the Le Creuset grill pan can be seen in all its glory.  (What was I just saying about a dangerous obsession with turquoise?)  Well anyway, these shelves are still in need of a good sort, but they're on the right path.

We even managed to hang my favorite kitchen art.  To me, Nikki McClure means you're home.  (The wood paneling means you're in Texas.  Wait, no..)

We have a guest room!  With clean sheets and a nightstand with a clock and a lamp on it.  Whoa.  This is a major level of achievement in this room which was previously just stuffed to the gills with boxes.  (Aaaand there's a couple stuffed animals snuggling on the bed.  Why didn't I think about how embarrassing it would be to reveal that my decor still includes the stuffed bear that I was given at birth?  Oh well...)

This area I'm trying to turn into a cozy reading nook.  I don't think I'm quite there yet.  How can something look sterile and messy at the same time?  Hmmm.  Not my finest decorating half hour.  Hey, nowhere to go but up, right?

I've been slightly more successful with this reading nook.  The chaise we already had in this location, but this weekend we got one of my favorite paintings up on the wall behind it.  This piece was done by a dear friend of my family who has since passed on, and it was given to me by another dear friend of the family, so it has lots of love wrapped up in it.  The perfect thing to grace our new bedroom.  Speaking of new, remember how this same space looked a two months ago?

Yay for progress!

The bedroom continues to get cuter in other ways too.

 My new dresser setup.  During the Rodeo, we put up a print of the swan boats in Boston Common here.  This corner makes me happy.

So that's about it from the home front.  Because my mother would have a conniption I won't show you pictures of the mess, but I'll try to keep showing you our small successes.  Hopefully our next installment will feature kitchen walls and a craft room!  Cross your fingers!