Recently, the incredibly nice humans at West Elm invited me to share some photos of my home on their blog, Front & Main, and I was ever so happy to oblige. You can see the full interview here.

As we head into the new year, I want to thank you all for being here. I truly appreciate every single one of you who support this creative endeavor of mine. I LOVE YOU GUYZ! I hope you all have a very merry New Year spent with the ones you love! xoxo

The incredibly nice folks at West Elm invited me to share some before and after photos of my breakfast nook on their blog, Front & Main. I’ve been following Front & Main for a while now (they share recipes, tips for entertaining, and design inspiration – it’s really a great blog) so I was more than delighted to be asked. Eleanor insisted on making an appearance too, of course. What a diva.

If you have a moment, take a look! Man, the before photos of this house will never cease to make me cringe.

xoxo

 (Please ignore the spackle situation and I’ll address that empty frame later in the post).

We’ve been living without a rug in the living room for the last year thanks to an adorable, yet destructive, puffball named Eleanor Rigby. After two accidents in the first day of bringing her home, we decided it was best to store the rug until she was housebroken and out of her chewing phase. I reintroduced the rug a few weeks ago, and so far so good! Every now and again she decides to give the corner of the rug a little nibble, to which I simply spritz some bitter apple spray and kindly explain to her how many chihuahuas that rug costs (technically I think it’s less than one, but who’s counting?).

Yay! Yellow! Rug! I forgot how much that rug warms up the space and makes everything feel happy.

Once the rug was in place, the black and white floral drapes that were previously hanging in there had to go. The pattern on the drapes clashed with the pattern on the rug and the combination of the two colors made the room look like a bumble bee had thrown up all over it. So one Sunday afternoon during a trip to Ikea (side note: never do that again!), I picked up these inexpensive drapes. I cut off the tabs, gave them a quick hem (using this method), and attached hook rings. They’re hefty enough to provide some privacy, but still allow sunlight to filter in. I love the subtle touch of the thin dashed stripes.

It was also time to replace the white chair that never quite fit the room. I bought it many years ago at a deeply discounted price, so I was happy to pass it along to my mom and replace it with something that fit the scale of the room better. Finding the right chair was difficult because it is such a tiny space.  I had been coveting the Mrs Godfrey chair by Johnathan Adler for a while now, but the price was way too cost prohibitive. I trolled craigslist and ebay hoping to find a used one to no avail, but eventually stumbled upon this very similar chair for a fraction of the price.

Hello chair of my dreams!

(Cute chairs make you happy.  It’s a scientific fact.)

That little brass accent table above is from West Elm, and the other brass table next to the sofa is from Target, which I’m pretty sure was the last one on planet Earth.  I called five (five!) Targets.  Shit got real.

After rearranging a few things and doing some overall sprucing, the space is really shaping up.

Sometimes creepy ghost dogs show up in my photos.  NBD.

That little rapscallion.

Regarding that empty frame in the first photo, I want to fill it with something bold and graphic and slightly kitschy.  I looked at about 90 million movie and music related art prints on Society6 and Etsy, until my eyes nearly popped out of my head, and I’ve narrowed it down to a dozen favorites.

one, two, three, four, five, six

seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve

Which one would you pick? They’re all so good!  Seriously, I can’t decide. Tell me what to do.

You’re probably thinking I should ask Mike D which one he likes, right? Because he lives in this house too, and his opinion matters?

Hahahaha, you so funny.

Let me tell you a story.  I once hung one of my own photographs in our living room.  After a year of it being displayed in the room where we spend the majority our time, I plucked that very photograph from our wall and hung it in a gallery art show. My darling beefcake of a husband arrived to the gallery, looked upon said photograph and exclaimed “Wow, I love that piece. I’ve never seen that one before”.

I rest my case.

I’m pretty sure I could hang this in there and he wouldn’t even notice.

Which is tempting…

Friends! A miracle has occurred.

The dining room has been painted! Due to some time off work, and a little thing called Doggy Day Care, I got ‘er done.

Don’t look at that floor. It’s dirty. But oh man, I’m so glad that turquoise is gone. Remember?

The new color is Distant Gray by Benjamin Moore, color matched to Valspar’s zero VOC paint. I love it. So here’s the thing. I don’t really like bold color on walls. It took me a while to figure this out, but it’s true. Light neutral walls are my jam. I prefer to bring in pops of color with pillows, rugs, curtains, and accessories. Those things are so much easier to change up when you’re in the mood for a new look too.

Now this is where I break your heart.

I don’t really have anything else to show you regarding the dining room makeover. My grandma’s table still needs to be sanded & re-stained, I need to make a trip to Ikea to buy frames for art, I need to hang the art, I need to figure out a mirror situation, blah blah blah.  I have been playing around with curtain options and furniture placement though, so here’s a sneak peak.

I can’t guarantee any of it is staying, but it’s fun to play around.  That mid century bench looks decent in this picture, but it is gross in person. It was covered in a layer of dirt when I unearthed it from my uncle’s basement, only about half of which I was able to scrub out. I’m investigating professional vinyl/leather paint. Have any of you used it? I’ve seen some pretty good results through the googler but I’ve also seen some instances of the paint cracking. Dilemmas!

So there you go, the very anticlimactic update on my dining room. Wah wah wah…

But wait!

Here’s something you should know about me and the Mike D. Sometimes, instead of eating in the dining room like civilized folks, we like to eat pizza while sitting on the sofa, in our pajamas, watching Dexter. Sometimes it’s burritos. Sometimes it’s tacos. But mainly it’s pizza.

Exposed!

But come on man, who doesn’t? I mean, we can’t always be expected to like sit on CHAIRS and eat off of PLATES at actual TABLES and shit.  I mean, what are we? ROYALS?

But as you may know, a puppy lives here now and she is balls out crazy. We tried to make sofa dining work with her, we wanted it so, but it was a disaster. There was jumping, and licking, and messes. I strongly disliked the messes. So what is one to do?

Enter… The dining nook! Located in the south wing of our home. Or as Mike D likes to call it “the other side of the living room”.

Oh pizza in front of the TV!  How I’ve missed you!

Do you know how hard it is to find an indoor bistro table that is not ugly, nor a million dollars? NO YOU DO NOT.

It is hard. #Whitepeopleproblems.

Thank god for West Elm. I mean, THANK GOD.

Check out my new hanging globe fixture. Also from West Elm. It’s perfect for a tiny little nook.

That old timey incandescent light bulb is from Anthropologie. We have it on a dimmer. Romance!

I took this as an opportunity to change up the art on the wall, and decided this was the perfect spot for my great great grandparents’ wedding photo and the creepy baby photo of my nana.

Oh, and speaking of that creepy baby photo, see how the gold frame is missing the ornate thingumbobs at the top and side?

Bummer, right? Well guess what, yo? My mom found the missing pieces in the old cedar chest where this photo was kept!

A few dabs of crazy glue later …

BOOM. Fancypants.

I decided to put the bar cart in the new nook, as opposed to the dining room (which was where I originally intended to put it), because I needed a tiny piece of furniture for this space and the bar cart totally fit the bill. I have other furniture planned for the dining room anyway, so this actually worked out swimmingly.

I found these adorable 60’s tumblers & shot glasses at the antique mall recently.

These particular views are pleasing.

There you have it. A casual dining nook made for slovenly pleasures.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my progress with the real dining room. You know, the one where we eat the fancy shit, like chinese takeout.

And Ikea! This weekend! But then again Ikea on weekends is nutzo. So no. Yes. No.

I’m undecided.

Otherwise, I’m very pleased with Eleanor Rigby and her badass mohawk.
Xoxo.