Want

A Salt Pot from DWR. I heart it.

Dreamy bedroom

One room so far mostly unplanned/unpurchased-for is our new bedroom, a room I predict will grow around us as we sleep day-to-day in the emptiness.

In the meantime, here’s a look I’m starting to dream about:

Maybe the wall is paneled like so, with a tufted oatmeal-colored linen headboard? And we already do have wiring for sconces like these, along with a chandelier above the bed. Or maybe this paneling goes on the closet doors? Hmm…liking that.

Cue chorus of heavenly angels

I’m flirting with the idea of becoming a teenager again. Not the bookish, dateless teenager who watched Dallas with her mom on Friday nights and permed regularly. But instead, the kind of teenager who literally lives in her bathroom.

Let the record show that I’m a blowdryer-and-brush kind of mom from now on. Perhaps a cup of tea will rest on the wide-open countertop whilst I don a bit of mascara? Maybe a little NPR with the teeth brushing? My point is, we no longer have the kind of bathroom you can’t wait to leave. And with a sweet dimmer switch on those sconces, we can gently waken with soft, un-military-like shower.

Pix (and a few mirrors) to come of the whole shebang accessorized, styled and what not. But feast your eyes on this bad-assness (and picture where I might fit a cot in there):

Magic?

Know where we pulled out a coupla walls in the upstairs hallway? Well, they left behind a nasty legacy:

And today, King George fixed it:

By pulling up a few of the existing boards leading to the addition (in the area that used to be our bedroom, and now is part of our new bedroom, just on the other side of the wall…you’ll see)  and filling in these holes, we’ll be able to keep the color consistent and everything peachy. Completely new wood will go where the old stuff was. Anyhoo, it’s some bang-up work.

Goodies

Did a bit of Lancaster shopping last weekend and hit the Pottery Barn Outlet and the always-fruitful TJ Maxx.

Bestow this bedside table, originally $459. PB was GIVING them away for $45!!!

Likewise, these mercury-glass lamps were a total steal (somewheres around $30?) with a scalloped orb base and an irridecent silvery lining inside the shade. Luscious.

Think the master bedroom is taking a glam turn…. Stay tuned for more.

Table inspiration

The commission list for Steve is growing. It currently includes:

•a custom breakfast room table + banquette

•custom pantry

•custom bedroom closet

•custom linen closet

•custom pendant lights

Luckily, Steve is the kind of husband to work through postseason games and birthdays if I snap my fingers.  Therefore, we’ve begun talks about the b-fast room table. Our goal ultimately is to have the kind of table that won’t make me a nagging mom; in other words, indestructible. The look in our heads is a warm, distressed wooden top, then some kind of industrial metal base/legs.

Here’s a peek at some designer tables we might rip off let inspire us:

It’s the top

When Meg and I were kids, we orchestrated this acrobatic routine in the kitchen in order to reach the snack cupboard, involving a parallel-bar pike between two countertops, up to a full-Comenici land near the Chips Ahoy’s, all anchored by a perfect-10 Retton plant in front of the stove. Occasionally, we’d manuever a balance-beam act on the longer runs of the counter when we needed something far and away, like the ice cream cones. But needless to say, years of socks, sweaty piggies and the occasional flip-flop on the now-retro Formica left it, well, needing new Formica.

Luckily, my kids don’t read a word of this here blog. Because (insert drum roll), our kitchen ‘top (in the parlance) is in!!!!!! And I swear, I’m nervous about putting even the coffee maker back up there, let alone a sister gymnastic act.

The guys arrived right quick, and brought the thing in in four separate slabs. Some seriously huffable epoxy and a few drilled holes later, and bam. D-I-N-N-E-R.

Boy, it’s swell. You like?

King George

Our only experience with hiring worker guys in the past occurred when we decided to tear up the wall-to-wall in the dining room, the only room in our whole house with carpeting when we bought it. Up until then and mostly since, The Thompsons rely on Worker Steve for any handyman duties big or small. But the grotesque, black pet stains on the hardwood floor beneath this carpeting? Too much, even for Papa.

Therefore, we did a little research, compared some prices, and ended up with George King Corp. flooring, who did a beautiful job matching our existing floors, reaching under the radiators and filing out the closets.

So this time around, we wanted them back. Except when Builder Ed included them on some paperwork, he called them “King George.” And this is now the hilarious joke he and I try to work into conversation on a day-to-day basis.

Needless to say, the King has begun his reign on the family room! Which can only mean one thing: the end is actually near.

Spa-ahhh

So I found a picture early on in the mix that nailed exactly what we wanted to do for the master shower. The huge tiles are 20×20′s, chosen for minimal grout lines and maximal steamy hotel showery goodness. We heart them.

Their mystifying swirled color changes with the daylight and looks like real slate, the kind a rustic buddy of yours might have hewn from the hillside near his cabin for  bracing outdoor mountain-water showers on weekends spent away from the city. Or, something you might have seen in that one place you went in New Mexico for massages that one time and vowed to duplicate in your house one of these days.

Yep, we know. That is One Big Shower. Everybody’s said so, from the electrician to the floor guy to the tile guys to the plumbers, Frank and Dave, Builder Ed, my parents. Steve’s mom, even the guy at the glass door place who never actually set foot in the enormous confines. We were getting used to it being just a bunch of studs, then just a bunch of drywall that I haven’t quite envisioned what it will be like once the crew’s gone home.

But I’m pretty sure there won’t be pictures of that.

 

Bargain day!

Went a little crazy shopping at the Pottery Barn Outlet today, and landed uber-cool gear at uber-cheap prices. Here’s a taste, a West Elm coffee table for the new family room: