Mega Wall in the Making

Our mega wall's name was inspired by The Office's mega desk. As I have discussed previously, older Boston apartments do not come with storage. period. I have been pretty proud of our efforts to create storage in both of our apartments, but this one little wall has by far been our greatest creation.

Enter Mega Wall...

It may not seem that impressive, but look at how this wall (and room) was used before we moved in.

Boys lived here. One day I will give you the full tour. But you see now, much more efficient.

And it may not be obvious at first glance, but Mega Wall houses a ton of junk, everything from craft supplies, to design samples, and more. It is constructed of standard KV brackets from Home Depot and cut to fit MDF boards (also from HD). The entire wall was less than $100 to install. Remember our trip to Plymouth last summer? Those are the crates I got for $2.50 each.

And continuing my nesting efforts, I decided last night the crates were doing no good in terms of me staying organized if I had to dump them every time I needed to find something. So I made labels.

Organization really is bliss. My husband calls me a tornado...i.e. I'm not naturally the most organized person.

I stapled the top of the ribbon to the box, but left the bottom piece open in case I needed to switch out the label. Below is what I used if you want to make your own.

And here are some circles you can print.

You know what I love more than organization? Efficiency! Maybe it's years of space planning corporate office buildings, but when I can make a space super efficient, without compromising comfort or aesthetic, I am one happy designer.

Bostonians! You Should Visit My Church

Visit the website here. We meet in the auditorium of this school. Plenty of free parking! 

I would love to see it get a little greener up here.

The Nursery: Chapter 4

I am working on a nursery today for a new client, which is so exciting. But it of course got me thinking about the long list of things I need to do for my own nursery. So just a quick update.

Don't you love this kitchen?

So clean and fresh, with those amazing green pendants.

I think I'm going to DIY something similar for Baby Sabbe's room.

Orange because the rug from Chapter 3 had to go back. I ordered it, it arrived, I rolled it out, and it looked like constructions workers had walked all over it. It's also been a huge hassle to return. Do not buy that rug.

But it's already been replaced with this one. Cover your ears, but I'm usually not a big animal print lover and I know I have friends and clients who are laughing at me for buying this rug, because they know my opposition, but I love it. I never said never.

And here are a couple more things I am on the hunt for.

9 more weeks! tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock and I just took on two new projects! exciting times.

One More and Then I'll Stop

His first hipster outfit...

Yes, I bought my baby jeggings while out for lunch today.

Don't tell his daddy there are from the girls' section.

The shirt was $4.50 and the pants were $9 at The Children's Place.

I think he needs these to complete the look. They would be a quite a splurge,

but if they are cool enough for Mason...

I've heard people say it's harder to find cute stuff for baby boys.

To my husband's disappointment, I'm not so much having that problem.

I Won't Creep You Out With an Ultrasound Pic

I really think those pics are something only a mother can love. My friend Jenny told me she had nightmares for weeks that her baby was going to look like Sloth from the Goonies after the doctor gave her her first round of 3-D pics. I prefer the old fashioned, black and white, silhouette myself. And instead of looking too closely before he's done cooking, I prefer to look at his clothes. Here are some of my recent faves.

Bryan's grandmother knitted this...amazing

 My sweet friend Erin sent him this hat last week that she found on Etsy.

I love handmade gifts and sweet friends.

And I found these little booties at Baby Gap last week for $4.50. Score.

Baby clothes, much cuter than 3-D ultrasound pics, right?

Slipcover Progress + tips

Last night my husband was on call, so I took the opportunity to watch a girl movie and destroy the living room with my slipcover project. I thought I was going to hate this project. I was 90% sure it would involve tears (not to count my chickens, still could). But so far so good. I finished one of the arms/wing.

One tip I have learned so far is to go by the seams and pleats that the chair already has. I had plans to delete the little pleats on the wing to give it a more modern look, but once I pinned everything on there I realized it was not happening.

I plan on attempting to add Velcro to the underside of the slipcover and face of the chair to get the underside of the arm to cling tightly to the chair. In this photo I have it loosely pinned. I think I am going to re-do the front face of the arm and add piping. See the original piping showing through? I didn't really hit right on the old seam line and that is bugging me.

Here was the key to getting the pieces to fit correctly before I sewed them.

There were about 3 or 4 versions of each of these before I got the right shape. I used some left over drapery liner, but I think most people use muslin for a template. I have seen a few tutorials where they use their finish fabric right from the get go. I would have had some major issues if I would have gone that route (tears).

And lastly, this is how I figured out how much fabric to order and how to cut it once it got here.

I measured each panel of the chair, according to how the existing pieces were broken up, and rounded everything off into a rectangle. Most of the Internet sites say that wing chairs take 7 yards to cover. I am doing it in 5. I am using white cotton duck. I got 5 yards for $34 after using one of these coupons, which is way cheaper than a store bought slipcover. I reasearched what was best to use for slipcovers and everything was pretty much cotton duck or denim. I opted for the duck, but I am not loving the wrinkle factor. Hopefully I can give them a good iron and starch when I'm finished to clean them up a bit.

This is the most planning I have ever done for a sewing. I am determined to not let this one go into my long list of failed project.

Hope you had a nice weekend!

My Latest Challenge

For months now I have been trying to get into an upholstery class at the Eliot School here in Boston. Why is every school, including pre-school, hard to get into in Boston? A couple of weeks ago I had Mr. Sabbe drive me to some town in Rhode Island to purchase two wing back chairs off of Craig's List. $70 for both, pretty good deal. I had intentions of re-upholstering them.

When people come over they never want to sit in the little wooden chairs I currently have around the table, they are not cozy and squeak like they might break. So I would like our little tiny dining area to have a table, two wing chairs, and eventually an awesome high chair that I also scored for an amazingly good deal on the ole' CL. It's hard to explain, so here is a progress shot from December, don't judge.

So I bought the chairs and could not get into the class. Luckily the BCAE will always have me, so I signed up for an advanced sewing class. You can bring your own project. I decided I am going to give tailored, white slipcovers my best attempt. I've only been to two classes, and being very obviously pregnant, the instructor thinks I'm crazy for making white slipcovers. But I'm pretty pumped about it. So far, I'm just a few steps away from finishing the seat cushions.

I have covered cushions before, but never with on hand, expert guidance. I'm really enjoying the process. Do you see the little blocks I added to the bottom of the legs. Creative? I could probably think of another word. I needed to raise the chairs a bit to make them comfortable dining height. I plan for the cover to go all the way to the ground.

So step one is almost complete. Step two is the actual body, which terrifies me. I like tight, fitted slipcovers. But I have no idea, other than a stack of books and the Internet, on how to do so. And I unfortunately cannot drag my chair to class.

Have you seen this one?

Amazing right? It looks upholstered.

And this lady seems to be the queen. I plan on spending a lot of time on her blog over the next couple of weeks.

 

Have you seen any helpful tips or tutorials floating around? Hold me to it, this project will be finished before this baby comes.

Found Things....fast

I love creating spaces with found things. I believe good interiors are curated, like a museum. One day in a big box store or even a high end retailer just won't do it. To make something unique, or one of a kind, takes time. But sometimes in the real world, time is not on your side. Sometimes clients come to you with a party scheduled at the end of the month and "it just needs to get done." One of my favorite found things stores in Boston is Mohr and McPherson. They do a great job of curating their pieces. No two things are alike.

I love this x-base table.

 This sofa was on sale last week and if we had just a couple more square feet, it would have come to live with us. Mr. Sabbe loves some chesterfield sofas, as does his wife.

They work with the trade, but also sell directly to the public. If you are in the South End you should check them out.

Before and After: Stripes!

When you enter our apartment, you enter a hallway that serves as an artery to all of the other spaces. At first I thought it was wasted space, but over time I have realized that this space is awesome. It's a contained area to shed boots, coats, hats, etc. so that the New England winter, and all it's glory, does not have to make it's way into my living room, on my sofa, and all over my dining table. It's also my first impression room and other than a couple of coat hooks and some framed calender pages, it was pretty boring.

The hallway also contains a billy bookcase from Ikea. This is where I keep most of our glasses and plates. Maybe one day I will show you how ridiculously small our kitchen is.  You will not be jealous.

So I had been thinking about an easy way to spruce up this space. One that would be A. Cheap and B. Mr. Sabbe would be down for doing. Last year I was super impressed with Hannah's striped hallway on a budget and it just so happens I was walking through Home Depot a couple of weeks ago and spotted a gallon of oops paint in a similar shade of gray. So cheap part...check.

Next I had to convince my husband it would be easy. I love my husband, but he is no John from Young House Love. So I designed the stripes so that he would not have to paint next to the base or the ceiling, and not around the tops of any door moldings. There are about a billion coats of paint in this place and we learned from our living room that trim is so incredibly tough to get right because of all the bumps and bulges. I taped everything. Secret...a quilters ruler makes measuring and taping wall stripes so much easier. If you are considering this project, I would invest in one, waaaay more accurate than a measuring tape. And the easy part...check. So I put the man to work, see how happy he looks. Ladies, it's all about equipping.

I didn't stick around to watch...ie. keeping baby Sabbe's brain cells in tact. But this morning I work up, peeled the tape down, and smiled out our new jazzy hallway. I love how it turned out.

Much better don't you think? All for a roll of tape, a $5 gallon of paint, and 1 hours of my sweet husband's time (the taping took me about 2 hours). He told a nurse at the hospital today that he helped me paint the hallway last night. She replied "the hallway? that's not even a room." He said, "she's pregnant and she's an interior designer, I do what I'm told." The nurse told him she predicts he will have a long, happy marriage.

The last touches for the hallway will be a durable floor runner and a fun light fixture. And the Ansel Adams calender pages (which is a great/cheap art idea if you are looking) will definitely go when we get some cute photos of our little guy.

Note: I would not actually recommend horizontal stripes on old plaster walls to any of my clients. It definitely reveals every bulge and imperfection, which I knew going into it and was ok with. But I'm a little more particular with clients than I am my own house, which, to my husband great joy, I refer to as my test lab. All 700 sf of it.

Windsor Smith + other pretty things

I recently discovered Windsor Smith on Bryn's blog and I was very impressed.

The super jumbo bolster on the sofa is so out of scale that it's awesome. Does that even make sense?
I'm a huge Tim Burton fan.

 This last shot makes me want to color code my bookshelves. My closet is color coded.

For more, check out their portfolio.

In other pretty news...

The Miss America winner was super cute and talented, but what's up with the roots? As a red head, I'm out of the hair dying loop, but is this a new trend?

Natalie Portman is pregnant. So am I. It's like we're best friends.

Rambling Renovators is going to be on the Nate Berkus show. Their house is veeery pretty. I was in the audience of the Nate Berkus show back in September. I was 14 weeks pregnant. Not pretty.

My friends Brooke and Marianne both have articles in Birmingham Home and Garden. Love these two, they are pretty inside and out.

And the most beautiful thing to celebrate today, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have  Dream Speech, brings tears to my eyes.

After the Snow Comes the Sun

"Man this door is frozen solid" [knocks door violently after scraping]

[5 minutes later] "It would help if it were unlocked."

Is there anything more beautiful than a sunny day after a fresh snow?

Is there anything more fantastic than having your awesome husband dig your car out while you wait inside?