The Philadelphia Antiques Show is in town!

In a little bit I'll be headed off to the 51st year of the Philadelphia Antiques Show, where collectors are showing their wares, grabbing up new pieces and feasting their eyes on the best examples of fine design the past few centuries have to offer. 

Let's all have a collective sigh over how gorgeous this--a clothes press from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It's the esthetic I try to emulate in my home, but this is a real deal Holyfield. No repro here. For the record, that's the original paint color from the 1790s. Let the drooling begin.

I'm also very into this dresser, which is officially known as a Queen Anne Highboy. Fancy sounding, huh? That's maple and pine veneer working together that creates such a unique look. This is one of those pieces that I'm expecting to absolutely take my breath away.

 This gorgeous weathervane makes my heart gallop. From the 1800s, this copper beauty is as stylish as it is useful--probably more so on the former, unless you're a sailor, or really interested in wind patterns. While I'm no budding meterologist, I can appreciate all this gorgeous gal has to offer. She's on my Must See list.

Some of my absolute favorite pieces are baskets. I don't know what it is--the functionality, the beauty, the craftsmanship--but I'm drawn to these hand-made pieces. I feel a connection to the artisan who created it. In this case, that's an 1890s Kawaiisu tribe member from California. Impressive huh?

I'll share my finds with you when I get back! That said, don't count on me bringing anything but photos home.

And if you want to check it out yourself, you have until Tuesday to get to the Philadelphia Convention Center. You can get more information here.

C'mon in!

How rude of me to have never welcomed you into my house! Forgive my manners! A couple of weeks ago, I gave our entry way a little love, and I hadn't gotten around to showing it off. 

This is what greets you when you come to my house:

I've had that mirror since long before I became a Pennsylvania resident. It's a cheap little thing from a big box store, but it worked in every apartment I've ever had--which is saying something. A little more recently, I picked up the basket-shelf-hook set. And what would an entryway be without a collection of funky hooks?

I figured this was a great spot for a little birdie. For those who are counting, this is the bird that topped my wedding cake. 

And back to the entryway...

Now I have a place to check my make up, and throw/grab a last minute brush or lip gloss. Those baskets look mighty clean in this photo, but in reality, they usually have at least enough goodies inside to stock a small Sephora. Don't judge me--it's really helpful on the way out the door!

Hanging the basket-shelf combo was actually fairly difficult. It didn't come with much hardware, and you can forget about the requisite wall anchors. I had to supply my own. I actually had to devise my own way of hanging it. Since I knew I wanted to take advantage of in-wall support, I had to attach new saw-tooth hardware. It wasn't too bad once I found the right size, but I'm used to being given the necessary equipment when I buy a shelf. This find--which came from Terrain, on the sale rack--was not equipped. 

That's OK though. It's so darn pretty, I can't be too upset. And useful doesn't begin to describe it. And you see those bottom hooks? That's the perfect spot for Sawyer's leash. Low enough to not be in your immediate line of sight, but high enough  that I don't have to bend over to grab it. Perfection!

Of course, there's more just beyond the hooks--like my kitchen, a cook book collection, and my recycling. But we'll get there one of these days...

My own little gallery

A hallway isn't a hallway without art hung gallery-style. Psh, just listen to the word "gallery." It's basically "galley" and a galley kitchen is nothing but an efficient hallway. (I should know, I've had nothing but them since college.)

All of this is a long way for me to introduce my most recent rainy day project: The Marriage Museum. OK, there's no way I'm calling it that. Maybe the Family Photographeria? Hrm...

First, I gathered the pictures I wanted to highlight. This actually took quite a while because I wanted nice prints. The corner CVS print shop wasn't going to cut it. Instead, I ordered a few large images from Shutterfly and waited about a week. Then I had to hunt down frames that I liked, and could afford en masse. And to make things a little more complicated, I wanted them all to coordinate with some frames I already owned. Truth be told, I've had a couple things in the hallway for a while, and I didn't want to get rid of them. Essentially, I liked what I'd started so much that I wanted to cultivate it a bit more.

You can kinda, sorta, not really get the gist of what it looked like before here, which was taken on the wedding day. (Side note, I love that my bridesmaids and I got dressed here. Now I have pro pics of my house! Score!)

Please excuse the wedding dress, which is that fluffy white thing that's hanging up.

Once I had the photos I wanted in coordinating but not matching frames, I laid them out on the floor. The hallway is supremely short, and I only had a little room to play with, so couldn't afford to make too many spacing errors.

I was pretty convinced this was how I liked it best, but I'm kind of a feel-as-you-go girl, and making a template was so not what I had in mind. If precision is your middle name, first ask your parents what they were thinking, then go here for a tutorial on templating.

Once I had a general idea in mind, I hung the monster Philadelphia print, and made sure I had enough clearance on either side for the two larger images. Once that was done, it was kind of a fill-in-the-blank game.

This is what I came up with:

Sawyer was feeling extra curious, and extra photogenic.

See? The little canvas with our wedding date got to stay. If you're curious about the rest of the arrangement, it goes a little something like this, from the top left: wedding portrait, Philadelphia print, a photo of Rittenhouse Square in the snow, traditional Peruvian ceramics, our wedding date, a portrait of Sawyer.

I like that there's a lot of room to grow. We have space to fill above and below, so we should be able to work in some great pieces over the years in the Picture Piazza. Oooh, now that's a name I like...

If you've put together your own photo hallway, tell me all about it in the comments!

It's curtains around here!

Take a look at this picture. See what's missing?

Of course you do--it's half the picture. I was missing curtains. Big, sun-blocking, privacy-providing curtains.

Well, no more, I say. This is what my living room looks like now:

It also looks like this:

I have them on the window in the dining area, too, but that window doesn't have much going on around it right now. When it's feeling a little more photogenic, I'll share pictures. I don't want to go embarassing the window.

The shades are a generous wedding gift, and they are much loved. They're Roman shades, so they close up on themselves in the most glamorous way, leaving little puddles of fabric at the end of each fold.

And they match with the blinds we have on our sliding doors, so everything is cohesive, light-filled and private. It's as Michael Scott would call "win-win-win."

Please excuse the current state of the chair. I'm making progress on it--I swear!

Fun in the rain

We had a lazy, rainy Sunday this weekend, and Sawyer and I took full advantage of the weather. There was a lot of lounging around, a few projects I'll tell you about later, and some picture taking.

Don't I have the most photogenic pup?

I mean, look at this guy:

Now that's what I call puppy love.

My clothes have a home

I am thisclose to being done with the built-in! In fact, I've even moved my clothes in. Check it:

This means that I got the goodies for the inside of the built-in. I originally wanted to get three drawers, two shelves and one hanging bar. They have a few displays set up like that in Ikea, but once I started thinking about my needs, and how I would actually put it together, I realized the bars were way more practical. 

So instead of the standard system, I put this together:

That's two hanging bars and a drawer. My goal is to put all of skirts and pants on the bottom, and all tops and jackets on the top, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Maybe next week? And I have no real idea what's going into that drawer. I probably didn't need any more drawer space, but it seemed practical.

I also got my girl some bling.

They're not diamonds, but they sure do class up the joint. I picked them up because they match the handles I put on my jewelry armoire, but also because going into Anthropologie makes me happy.

Here's the head-to-toe shot:

The only things I've got left are the bits that can happen slowly over time. I need to trim out the base and the sides, and I need to style the shelves. Once that happens, I can call it a finished project. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. All o that white glossy finish reflects a lot of light, and somehow makes the bedroom seem bigger. Cray-cray, huh?

If you're coming to the wardrobe party a little late, that's OK. You can read up on my journey here, here, here, here, here and here.

The battle of the doors has been won!

My battle with uneven Ikea wardrobe doors is over! It took much Googling, photo instruction translating, and ultimately my drill, but we have doors that work. I'm happier than a dancing baby.

Here's how it went down. First, I had doors that wouldn't line up. They would close, and open, but there was about 1.25 inches from the bottom of the right door and the bottom of the left door. Unacceptable!

Yeah, that wasn't gong to work for me. So I took the interwebs for some advice. I knew that this was a fairly common problem, and someone would be able to help me out. As it turns out, I was right. I found a tutorial that basically told me to go back to my bag of hinges. I hadn't looked on the backside, which was covered by a delivery label. But underneath there were tips on how to tweak the doors by tightening and loosening certain screws on the hinges. Word to the wise: this isn't a feature unique to Ikea hinges. Many, many other cabinet makers use a similar setup, so if your doors aren't hanging correctly, try tweaking the hinges itself.

Unfortunately, I spent about an hour adjusting the doors through trial and error, and I only got .6 inches closer. That was still not going to cut it.

At that point, I called in the reinforcements.

I had to add an extra set of holes halfway between where they were designed to go. I didn't see another way out. It was easy enough once I had my hubby support the door as I adjusted the hinges, but it is DEFINITELY a two-person job. No alternative to that--otherwise you risk damaging the entire frame.

I was a little worried at this point, because one wrong hole could screw up an entire hinge, which would give me unstable doors. And since this is something I'd like to have for years, I didn't want questionable structural soundness.

Luckily, my gamble paid off. This is what the doors look like now:

What perfectly plumb Ikea doors look like.

And now that this epic problem has been taken care of, I'm off to get the goodies that go inside. This is the fun part!

My Ikea Pax has uneven doors!

Progress on the built-in cabinets is slow going. I've got the pieces all assembled, and a base built. In fact, I've even got the cabinet and bookcase secured to the wall, so technically you could say they're "installed." The project, however, is not finished.

My current problem is that the doors aren't hanging straight.

Pretty horrific, huh? I refuse to have lopsided doors. I've been troubleshooting, but I'm still not sure where the problem lies. The cabinet itself is level, and the corners are all square, so it shouldn't be a matter of hanging at a wonky angle.

This is going to require a call to the manufacturers, I'm afraid.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Pax progress

I'm making some headway on the Pax unit I'm installing. Let me give you a quick run through, and then once the project is over I'll go in depth.

I opted for the 93 inch Pax unit, which just looks like a box here. Essentially, that's what it is. I've also decided that I want to build it into the room, so to make sure the baseboards have enough room to wrap around the unit, I had to build a 2x4 stand, which is sitting next to the unit. It's nothing fancy--just a box.

The angle doesn't show it well, but once the Pax unit is on the new toekick, it has the room for all of the baseboards and trim that I removed.

And this is what it looks like right now--a closet with no doors and a bookcase next to it. Shimming, leveling and attaching it to the wall is next.

What Ikea has done to my bedroom

Yesterday I went to my favorite local Swedish flat pack store and picked out the goodies for my built-ins. For those following along, that's one double door Pax unit, and one Billy bookcase, with an extension. They arrived later in the evening, and I got to work. But I could only get so far before I felt bad about the noise coming from my apartment.

As of 8:30 last night, this is what the bedroom looked like:

That, my friends, is keeping it real.

Madness, huh? It's a good thing I have a patient hubby, who had to work around the chaos this morning when he left for work.

OK, I'm popping in and out today. I've got my hands full, and big plans. Updates to come.

Marking out a built in

I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on the Ikea built in project for the bedroom. I've taped out a couple different scenarios, but I think I have one that I definitely want to implement.

The first thing I had to do was settle on a style. I looked at everything Ikea has to offer, from kitchen and bath cabinets to wardrobes. The winner by far is the Pax system, which can go as high as 93 inches, and is still priced fairly. Plus the doors can be changed based on style, a big plus in my book.

Next, I used some masking tape to mark out where that would be, and what it means for the room. My initial goal was to build a single unit with two doors, but it actually left a fair amount of space to the left of the unit.

See? While the unit is deeper than our drawers, it's only a little more than half as wide.

So I poked around a little more and looked at the different bookcases that are available. The Billy system has a small one that's about half as wide as the one you've seen a million times. And it's pretty shallow--11 inches--so it's a nice way to have the unit step back gradually into the wall.

This is not quite as deep as our drawers, so you have to get close and personal to see the projected footprint. Please excuse the dust, apparently it's been a while since I've gotten under there. (Next chore noted.)

I have about a day to live with it, and I'm excited. I think it'll give us a lot more storage while using less space. Gotta use up all of that height, right? In fact, the only downside that I can see is that I might need another foot stool for the bedroom. And yes, I did say ANOTHER, because I do in fact have one exclusively for the kitchen. What can I say? I'm a shortie.

And on that note, I'm going to go check out the selection and see if I can actually make this happen in the next day or two. Wish me luck!

Built-in wardrobe dreams

Good news and bad news about the living room re-paint project: The good news is that we've ordered blinds for the windows; the bad news is that we're waiting to paint until they're hung. That should be in two weeks or so, and then we'll tackle which color to pick. Until then, I'll have to live a little longer with the builder beige.

Not that the delay has held me up a bit. I've just mentally moved on to the bedroom, where we're in dire need of more storage. We have a nice sized walk-in closet, but the hubby and I have too much stuff, it seems. We're spilling out of the thing (and a set of drawers, too). This has become a serious problem.

The solution I most want to implement is to create a faux set of built-ins with some Ikea cabinets. These guys did a really nice job of it.

There's a skill level there that I might not be able to pull off, but I think some of the major things will apply, like creating an elevated platform so there's enough room for the baseboards at the bottom. I'd also like to finish it off with some crown and a little beadboard. And I also really love the Pax units from Ikea.

I stayed up drawing plans last night, and I think I might actually take this on. It would be my first time with crown molding, but it can't be that much different than baseboards, which I've done myself.

Of course, there's plenty out there to inspire me. I found quite a few breathtaking built-ins during my late night search.

I love these cabinets, which have a very similar set up to mine, which will also be next to a window:

This one, also next to a window, shows how to finish off the exposed side:

And if I had this woodworking skill, which I don't, I'd love to try creating custom doors like these:

And these antiqued mirrored doors absolutely make my heart sing:

As always, I'll update you with what I decide to do!

Gardening goodies

I've been very busy this weekend with the garden. Actually, that's not quite true. I've been a little busy making my already-rooted plants look a little more fresh, and adding a few more stems here and there. Several plants from last year--including oregano, a dwarf peach tree, and two small grass plants made the job very easy. In fact, I didn't have to do a thing with the oregano but trim some old shoots. And look at this bad boy. He's got new leaves and heft already and it's only April.

Since we live in a taller building, and the window boxes have some real height, I'm hoping the oregano  climbs down a bit this year. Last year we had a few shoots that edged over, but I'd like a little more.

The dwarf peach tree wasn't quite as easy. I wanted to repot the plant to give him more room to root, so I bought the largest pot I could find at Home Goods. Then I transfered the tree and gave him a good watering. These days, the tree looks a bit like this:

If you look closely, you can even see a little budding from last year's mint, which covered the top of the soil. That was one of my favorite plants, and I used it over and over in the kitchen, so I'm thrilled to see it survived the winter.

I added some new seedlings, too--lettuce, strawberries and dill.

This is my first year with strawberries, so we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping for some sweet berries throughout the season.

I've also got some pea seeds I need to sow before the weather gets too warm. Hopefully I'll get to that today or tomorrow. Until then, I'll be enjoying the garden.