Archive for June, 2009
House Crashing: Shock And Eww Part II
After Sherry revealed her deep, dark design secrets last week (i.e. cringeworthy photos of her childhood and college bedrooms), I figured it was only fair that I cough up some of mine. I tried digging up pictures of my childhood bedroom (think royal blue carpet that served as the “ocean” to my Lego islands) and my high school bedroom (color scheme = gray on gray on gray) but had little luck.
But I couldn’t dodge the reveal-my-past bullet when it came to college. In fact, when you see how diligently I documented my dorm rooms, it’s like I practically fired that bullet at myself point blank. As you can see below, I not only photographed my freshman dorm room – I COLLAGED it into some weird makeshift panorama art piece (click to see it larger on Flickr).
This is the corner of a room I shared with a roommate (for all those UVA folks out there: I lived in Dunglison, and yes, I know I should’ve said “first year” instead of “freshman” earlier but I’m translating for non UVAers). Some items to highlight (besides that oh-so-teenage obsession with taping pictures everywhere):
- You can see my favorite high school color (gray) followed me to college
- My interesting choice in music posters: Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews Band and… Lauren Hill (one of these things is not like the other)
- Above Lauren Hill, the license plate from my recently-deceased first car (a Dodge caravan with wood paneling). I still have this license plate in case Sherry ever wants to break it out again for some amazing home decor project (to this she replied: not likely).
- Dorm room staples: string lights and a lava lamp (ladies love them… don’t they?).
- Not one, not two, but three page-a-day calendars (clearly I had a problem)
- And perhaps the first indication that I would become fond of hidden storage & repurposing: my silver trunk-turned-nightstand.
But as if one weird photo collage wasn’t enough to document my undergraduate design sense, I apparently repeated this collaging process to forever memorialize my senior year apartment as well. Only by this time I had upgraded to a digital camera so I assembled this visual masterpiece/mindfreak in Photoshop, meaning you get to a complete 360 view of the room. I know, I’m fancy.
Oh and again you can click to enlarge it. This apartment was in an old house which had been made college-kid-ready by basically designating any room with a door as a bedroom (except for the bathrooms, of course). So there were 10 of us living under one roof, each with our own room. It was, in a word, awesome. My room was the former mudroom so it very long and narrow, plus it featured exhaust hookups for a washer/dryer and a door directly to the outside world (this was a huge perk at the time). You’ll see that my style did not evolve much from my previous dorm room:
- Gray is still the color of choice, now including the “custom” curtains I fashioned out of sheets and pillowcases (not unlike Sherry’s old sleepwear-turned-pillow project… we were meant to be)
- Music posters still rule, though Britney Spears became the new lady of choice (obviously not for her musical talents)
- My trusty license plate continued to qualify as “creative art,” joined also by an NYC subway map, some illustrations torn from playbills and – oddly enough – my previous dorm photo collage (you’d really have to squint to see it).
- My love of hidden storage continued. That bed was the top half of my childhood bunkbed from Ikea so it sat with about 2 feet of storage underneath it (sadly, it later became a victim of my bed bug infestation). I also bought an Ikea bookcase, laid it on its side and used it to house all of my schoolbooks and computer equipment. But my long bedspread covered it so I never had to keep it clean. Perfect for a messy 21-year-old guy.
At most, I would say there were subtle hints (very, very subtle hints) in there that I would someday actually enjoy space planning and design. Maybe my preference for gray led to our love of neutrals? Perhaps my trunk-turned-bedside table indicated the plethora of storage ottomans that would someday fill our abode? Maybe my obsessive documenting of every angle of my room foreshadowed a future in documenting my home for the world to see? Little known fact: I was the one who started this blog to document our house and Sherry was initially less than thrilled at the idea. Funny how things work out, eh?
Oh, and since I manged not to snap any photos of myself in my rooms while wearing airbrushed winking jeans, it’s only fair to share this Flickr group full of some less than flattering photos of me (bonus: you get to see Sherry in all of her previously-blonde glory).
The Lay Of The Land
It’s not uncommon for us to get a few email and comment questions about the way our house is situated on our lot. Many people can’t figure out where the patio leads or where our garage is located in relation to our house so we figured we should whip up a little exterior diagram for ya. We actually have almost an acre of land and an extremely deep woods behind our house for privacy, which we love (it’s actually one of the main reasons we bought our seen-better-days rancher). And we were also lucky enough to have inherited some great privacy hedges and fences that keep our yard feeling nice and secluded from our neighbors on either side. But on with the tour! Here’s our looooong and skinny lot (to scale):
You might not believe that this rendering could possibly be to scale (is your house really that small? is your lot really that long?) but we traced over a scaled blueprint of our property (found in our giant file of papers from the closing). Isn’t it funny how TINY our house is compared to the acreage that it’s on?! You’ll notice a few things right away. Poor John has a lot of grass to mow (love ya honey!), we have an extremely long driveway with room for a whole bunch of cars at the end, and we have more than enough trees and shrubs to feel like we live in the middle of the woods. You can also see how the sunroom stairs lead down to the patio, which leads out to the driveway, which is where we added our little herb & veggie garden (in one of the only full sun spots we had thanks to all the aforementioned foliage).
And because we get quite a few questions about where all of those sliding glass doors in our sunroom lead, we’ll clear that up once and for all…
Only one set of doors leads out to the back patio while the rest lead absolutely nowhere. Really, if you stepped out of them you’d fall about 5 feet into the edible garden or the bushes on the side of the house (see diagram above). But we love that they’re there for the view and the cross breeze that they provide when we slide ‘em open. The one that leads to a few brick steps that take you to the back patio is just out of frame to the right in this picture (see the corner of the doormat?):
And here’s a view of the patio from those stairs that lead down to that area:
But let’s rewind and start from the street. Here’s the house pretty much from the edge of the long driveway where it meets the street:
And if you walk up the driveway towards the house, here’s the side view:
Then as you enter the big part of the driveway in the back you’ll see where we had the tables set up for our backyard wedding:
Of course we’ve since painted the garage black, so on an ordinary day without 75 people back there it looks like this:
Here’s the view if you turn slightly to the right:
And here’s the scenery when you turn even more to the right and walk towards the gate (which leads to the patio). You’ll notice our little edible garden just outside the gate in front of the brick stairway that’s tucked away behind that lamp post. It leads down to the private entry basement (which is primed for a major makeover, stay tuned…)
Once you enter the back gate you’ll find yourself on the cobblestone path that leads to the patio. Here’s a shot looking back at the garage from inside the fence:
And here’s a shot looking up at the back of the house and the patio from that cobblestone path by the gate:
Of course we can’t forget the view of that crazy deep woods behind our backyard. We love that we have a nice sized grassy area for Burger/future babies along with the privacy and seclusion that the deeply wooded area offers.
Lot, we love you.
Can’t you see why it was the lot and not the house that stole our hearts and wooed us into making an offer? All that privacy and green was just so seductive after many years in the concrete jungle that is Manhattan.
So there you have it. A tour of our home’s exterior. What about you guys. Do you have any unusual features? A long skinny property? A detatched garage? A separate entry basement? A chicken coup? (We actually inherited one behind the garage!) Do tell.
Tracey’s Design Dilemma
Tracey’s ready to totally transform her bedroom. Here’s her letter:
Hi youngsters! I’m so excited we were able to get one of your spots this week and can’t wait to see your ideas! We’re looking to add some style to our boring bedroom. We’d like something modern & chic but comfortable & approachable. We like worldly aspects and something with a bit of fun (definitely no country or floral). We really like World Market and Pottery Barn. We definitely want to change the wall color. Because we live in Texas where it is HOT we would like to stay with an overhead fan (although not necessarily the one that’s there). The armoire can go or stay, and we are willing to paint/change hardware to update it. We are going to be purchasing a flat t.v. in the next couple of weeks, so that will go, along with the tv stand. I’ve had the idea to add either a comfy chair or a vanity (or cute small desk with a mirror mounted in front of it) in the room somewhere but am in no way tied to that idea. We are on a bit of budget, as well, so we are looking for moderately priced furniture. One last thing – we have two cats, so bedspreads that are primarily a dark color are a bit of a pain. Thanks so much, and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with! -Tracey
This space is primed for a major makeover. Here’s the plan:
And now for the mood board breakdown.
Read the rest of this entry »
Fresh Fruit
Remember when we House Crashed Katie over at Bower Power? Well we brought her a set of botanicals from our shop as a token of our appreciation, and she ended up ripping a few pages out of her Hooker Book (an old book of fruit and botanical drawings that she found at Goodwill) and sending them home with us in return. Isn’t she sweet? And now that we’ve finally gotten around to a little project with our lovely courtesy-of-Katie botanicals, we’re here to share the goods.
We decided we had framed art aplenty around here, and immediately started to brainstorm other ways to use the prints. Thinking outside the frame if you will. My love of white ceramics came into play when I was peering into our Decor Store at a few white ceramic cups and thought: wouldn’t they look cute with a bit of fruit on the front? I grabbed the two ceramic containers from the cabinet and found the third one full of ivy in our bedroom windowsill. Here they are before “Project Produce.”
And here are our torn out Hooker Book pages courtesy of Katie before the ol’ snip fest. We just cut out some of the smaller fruit drawings…
… and found some old Mod Podge from Michael’s in my craft drawer. Then I grabbed a small paint brush and coated each fruity cutout with a bit of Mod Podge and stuck them to each ceramic cup for a cheerful and fresh little finished product (note: when using Mod Podge you can coat the back of the thing-to-be-stuck and then coat the front of it once it’s in place for a more durable “seal” that’s long-lasting and invisible).
We also love how versatile the little cups really are. They can hold flowers, office supplies, plants, and more. Don’t they look cute all lined up by the window?
We loved them en masse, so they actually ended up on my desk where the pencils and eye glasses come in handy all the time. And the ivy provides fresh clean air for me as I blog the day away. Total project cost: $0.00. Sweet.
And since there were also larger botanicals that remained, we decided to decoupage two larger drawings onto small dessert plates that can be hung on the wall or even leaned on the floating shelves in the dining room for a bit of sweet food-related fun. Here they are before Mod Podge. Isn’t it amazing what an old Goodwill book can become?
How about you guys. Have you whipped up any botanical masterpieces of your own as of late? Scored anything amazing at Goodwill? Repurposed something you had around the house in a new way? Do tell.
Fab Freebie: Goodie Bags
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries***
You probably remember us gushing about Envirosax a couple of weeks ago. Who could forget those stylish reusable fabric bags that Sherry fell in love with thanks to their large capacity, compact storage (they fold up to be the size of a cell phone), comfortable handles and (of course) fun designs.
Well, you weren’t the only ones who heard us proclaim our undying admiration for these eco-chic bags. The wonderful people over at Envirosax spotted our love-fest and offered up a giveaway for some lucky YHL readers. Score!
So now you all have a chance to win your very own pouch of Envirosax. A pouch is a glove-compartment-sized pack of 5 coordinating bags, making it even easier (and more fashionable) to remember your reusable bags every time you head out to the store. And of course you can split them up and pop a few in your purse, murse (man purse) or gym bag and even toss a few in your car so you’ll never be without.
- PRIZE: A 5-bag pouch of Envirosax, any design from their graphic series (a $38 value)
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with “I WANT SAX” (or “BAG ME” if the alternative is a bit too PG-13 for your tastes) and…
- BONUS QUESTION: Pop over to Envirosax.com and tell us which design fits your personality or aesthetic best (fellas, might I suggest the Oxford series?)
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: Three lucky lads or ladies
- ELIGIBILITY: Prizes can be shipped to the US and Canada
- THE USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday. Good luck!
More info about our freebies is available on our Giveaway FAQs page. Images courtesy of Envirosax.
