enJOY it

Welcome to our house!

This is what you see when you enter (if your view is carefully edited into a 4×6 inch image).

Let's refresh a bit. Below are some before (Thursday, December 1st) photos and some after photos.

To be clear, I would be very pleased if the only thing I'd done is replace that lamp in the dining area. Which, thanks to my dad, happened on day one. The new one came from Home Depot and I think it was $29.

You might remember my plan to put the double-sided Expedit bookshelf between the TV area and the built in couches. While my parents were here, we played with a variety of furniture arrangement scenarios and this one ended up working the very best. Right now, my TV is in front of the window where we hung new drapes (the first drapes I have ever had – about $40 at Lowe's) and the couch is free standing facing it.

The the bookshelf acts as a divider between the "TV room" and the dining area. And I have to talk about that rug. My parents have owned it since the early 80s. It was in the living room in our house in St. Paul, then in other rooms once we moved to California. But the best part is that for the past five years or so, it was in their BACKYARD during the summer months. They stuck it under a patio table under a canopy and my dad called it the outdoor room. It has been rained on 50 times. I used to hate it. Then, on my last visit, (while helping my dad shake out the rainwater) I realized it was perfect. Neutral, but interesting. And huge. It's probably one of my favorite things in the house at the moment.

But back to the tour.

This is the full front side of the bookshelf (you can click to enlarge). I pulled most of our books (including my craft books, Paul's med school books and other small novels) to fill the space. Then I added some scrapbooks (and a basket of my favorite minibooks) as well as vases, art and other odds and ends. I am so pleased with how it came together.

There is just enough peek through to the kitchen. And thanks to all the mirrors and high windows, it doesn't block any light.

And here's a not great photo of the bookshelf backside. It's not as full or colorful as the front, but it isn't too bad.

It does feature our cookbooks, which is rad. And the fact that you can see the backside of the other books doesn't bother me too much. I think a few plants could really dress this side up. But I am realizing plants are expensive. And p.s. Kal, I love your white on black line art, not to worry, I'll get that framed up soon. 😉

This is a photo from the back corner of the dining area to hopefully provide some perspective. The front door is there on the left and the kitchen is on the right. The stairs are basically straight ahead. The number of mirrors in this place is out of hand. PS, my dad helped me hang that light over the front entryway too. Sometime I'll share the old one. It was no good.

And there is our kitchen.

And yes, I hung stuff on the mirror. I attached white ribbon to the back of the canvas & frame and then strung the ribbon up to the celling and staple gunned it into place. These have been hanging for almost a week now, so I am considering this a legit hanging method.

The wine bottle I painted on canvas and the food print came from here.

So hooray! That's most of the downstairs! You might be wondering about what's going on to the right of the TV and the answer is, nothing I am willing to share yet. But not to worry, it will shape up soon and then I'll have more photos of the whole space.

I am surprised with how it all came together – mostly because if you had said to me two weeks ago, "Elise, do you want the main color combination in your house to be black and white?" I would have said "No thanks." But the space is already so white and the only bookshelf option at the moment was black so that just sort of set the tone. Oh! And I painted that gray wall where the script art is. That gray is the same color that the stripes were in our old place. I think it makes the art pop really well.

Here are some links to past DIY projects that are shown here :

• kitchen chairs
• tree stump table
• big script art
• coffee table
• triangle painted pot

And of course let me know if you have any additional questions. The next tour will be of my new office.