This couch is fairly reasonable from Urban Outfitters. It's under $600, and it looks to be nicer looking than the similarly priced couch at IKEA we like OK (Karlstad). It looks similar to the one that was on sale that I wanted, but is gone now... :( They don't even seem to carry it any more. And this one is still in the "pre-order" phase, so who knows when it will actually come available. It would be nice to see it in the store first. I mean, who wants a sofa you've never sat on? Of course, I'm not sure how Urban Outfitters is quality-wise on their furniture. We don't own any.

Roller blinds

I want to make my own roller blinds. I found some links with explanations, including one from Retro Renovation.

And this is so cute!

Here's another random instructional article.

HGTV has some good information.

City Issue... Pieces of furniture I love

This store is so wonderful.

Idea for the man cave

Outdoor lighting

I just saw these on yet another fabulous design blog written by Jenn Ski, who is a young artist living in an amazing mid-century modern home in New Hampshire.

It looks like maybe they would be affordable. I'm not sure where we would need them, but I just wanted to make a note of their existence so I don't forget.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/seasonal/summer/14205/

Vintage odds and ends

I was looking around and found this listing:
http://www.americanantiquehardware.com/servlet/the-208/Mid-dsh-Century-Ivory-Bakelite-Toggle/Detail

I like that the switch plate is only priced at $5. I'm going to see if this matches the other covers in the house, and see if maybe we could buy these instead of the plain old new ones. I can't wait to see what else this website carries!

Kitchen of doom

So here's the kitchen as is. It doesn't look too awful in the photos, but it's pretty bad. I mean, it's not like impossible bad, but it's bad. Assuming everything goes as planned, we should be getting new appliances, which is really nice. They will all be Whirlpool "stainless look" appliances. Unfortunately, we can't afford to do anything other than that for now. But I think that alone will make it feel much nicer. We will also try to pull down the wallpaper ASAP, since it's pretty gross and is peeling in several places. The good news about the wallpaper is that it only goes to the bottom of the top cabinets. So we won't have to stand on ladders trying to strip it way up there on top of the cabinets. I've been doing a little research about removing wallpaper, and it looks pretty easy, but apparently if it's a certain type of really really old wallpaper, it's going to be really hard to take down. The pattern looks very 70's to me, kind of a gold (yes, the metallic kind), pink and brown fireworks pattern. I'm normally very into retro stuff, but it's pretty icky. It's just in bad shape in lots of parts of the kitchen, so that doesn't help its chances of sticking around. If you look in the post below about the home for sale in the neighborhood, we'd like to steal the layout they've got. Especially since we are going to have to keep the fridge in the laundry room, since the fridge cubby that's in place now is not deep enough. The fridge would stick out about ten inches and would block the entrance to what is already a tight kitchen. DH wants to knock down the top half of the wall that the stove is currently on, to make a pass through/bar that looks into the dining room. At first I agreed, but now I'm not sure. I think we'll have to live in the house for a while to figure out how we want things to flow. The more I think about it, the more I kind of like the idea of rooms being kept separate. I mean, that's what the house was like when it was built, and someone must have had reason to do it that way. The layout of the other house would be almost the exact same, and represents a much more functional use of the current space, so I'm voting with that. I think we'll have to do all of those shifts at once though, since it would make sense to replace the cabinets and the floor at the same time. I'm torn about whether or not we should paint the existing cabinets. They aren't terrible now, but the top cabinets were painted with some icky gloppy paint. Which makes me think we should probably sand and/or strip it before painting... I'm shuddering just thinking about it.

Also, I'm going to need to find the paint fairy. We're going to need a lot of it.

What I'm talking about

Here's some photos of the products I mentioned below. If I can do it correctly, the photos should be links to where they came from. But I'm not so good with this stuff, so sorry if it didn't work. Weirdly, I can't find any images of the light fixture I was talking about on the IKEA website. I know they have it though. It's just a round globe pendant fixture. You'll have to take my word for it.

Man cave musings

I'm totally not allowed to have a say in the decoration of the man cave. That's also fine with me, but thought I would document some of it's more icky parts. Exhibit A is the paneling that covers the whole room. It's not handsome, aged, real wood. At least I don't think it is. I think it's just cheap and icky paneling. The kind that is embarrassing. The current plan is to paint over it. The floor is also really really gross, and is some kind of linoleum we think. Unfortunately, it's not the nice hardwoods underneath like in the rest of the house. We aren't sure what to put down, but we'll have to do something. I voted for carpet, since this room will be used for music, and the carpet should help keep the noise down. Of course, DH likes the wood laminate floors at IKEA. I just think it's weird to have lovely real hardwoods throughout the house and then one room with mismatched floors. I'd rather do something completely different. I tried to show DH cork floors, but both of us realized they are kind of ugly. We'll see. Budget constraints will probably keep it icky for a while. That's a shame. I'm hopeful that we can get a cool rug, or maybe a carpet remnant. I also voted for a large map for the wall. Either a decal mural like the one at Urban Outfitters, or the tapestry type at Urban Outfitters. Sheesh. I feel a little douchey just writing that store name twice in a sentence like that. My concern with the cool decal one (aside from the insane price) is the fact that it would probably look wonkey with the panelled walls behind it. I'm not going to put drywall compound on the cracks to smooth it out. That's just not happening. We have enough work to do as it is. Then there's the pendant light fixture straight out of 1979. Ugh. I don't know what happened in this room. It's like a set from a bad Old Spice commercial in the late seventies. We just need a bear-skinned rug and a naked lady with big hair. I vote for a simple pendant ball light from IKEA. Wouldn't that be nice?

Some more house photos...

These are some examples of the dated light fixtures in the house that I can't decide if I love or hate. DH is going with the latter, but I'm not sold. It's kind of a moot point since we are broke, but most of these things will fall into that category. I just can't decide if these are cutesy old, or just old. I think maybe once the rooms are painted and decorated, we can get a better idea of whether or not they should stay or go. I also think that we should only replace them if we are getting something MUCH better. Something fabulous.
Another problem area. The kitchen floor. I don't mind this floor that much, but in combination with the awful wallpaper and the icky cabinets/countertops, it's kind of a mess. But it will be a while before we can replace it. Most of the house has hardwoods, so what would be a good flooring for the kitchen? Tile is probably out of our price range for the next fifty years or so, but I'm kind of thinking that a checkerboard vinyl or linoleum might be neat.
Ah, the dining room chandelier. This one stumps me a bit, too. I know it's kind of awful, but I also kind of love it. I mean, they just don't make them like this anymore! My friend A suggested that I paint the brass parts silver, and possibly replace the glass hurricanes. I kind of like that idea. Maybe I'll start by trying to paint, and then go from there. It seems like maybe one of those jobs that starts small but has some hitches.
Ugh, how ugly is this fireplace? It's hard to tell from the photo, but the tile at the top is kind of a pee-pee yellow. What do you even do about that??? Seriously. I have no idea how to change tile colors. The inside blocks (I think they are cinder blocks, but I'm not sure) are also really ugly, but I am not even going to think about trying to change those. For now, I guess we'll just try and put a large cover over it. Some day I'd like to get this fireplace in working order. Preferably before Santa time. We are hoping to get DD two kitties for Christmas this year. But only if we get the house... I also want to put built in shelves on either side of the fireplace, a la the photos way below of the house for sale in the neighborhood. It's just perfect for it. I'm not sure how much of a project that might be. Hopefully we can do it with a little help from friends.

Stealing inspiration

After combing the real estate listings, I found this one.

This is very close to the house, and looks to have a very similar layout, but with an addition of a large room (high ceilings...sigh). But it's for inspiration:

Realistic Sofa Ideas

*I LOVE this one from IKEA, especially because it's cheap ($550) and has lots of different pieces you can buy, like ottomans, chaises, etc. We need a piece in this size range because the living room is so tiny (like a gally room). The info is:

KARLSTAD

Sofa

$549 (shown with the Mader multicolor cover)
*Same sofa, but with the Sivik Dark Grey cover

I think I love the print the most because it's not too femine and would really look sharp with a nice gray or light blue on the wall. I mean really, what color wouldn't look nice with that? They also have a loveseat in this style that would run $529. I'm wondering if we could eventually get a couch and a loveseat and maybe have one with a print and the other a solid. I kind of hate when things get really matchy-matchy in a room. Right?

More Color Inspirations

Color Inspirations