Humpty Dumpty is Getting Smashed

Do you think Humpty drinks SkinnyGirl cocktails?  Unlikely.

Everybody has one – that place in your house where the excess lives.  Sometimes it’s just a drawer, or maybe it’s a spare closet or empty corner cabinet filled with all the idle, perhaps unattractive, accumulations of life. 

Admit it...you have a room that needs to be Put Back Together Again too. 

These Humpty-Dumpty spaces should come with warning labels: Beware of Infestation.  Junk multiplies, and soon that one junk drawer becomes two (I have two in my kitchen alone), and the door to that cabinet/closet takes extra muscle just to shut properly. 

Take my advice: talk Humpty off the wall, before all his pieces clutter your house.

It’s time for an intervention when an unintended space, i.e. something that is not a closet, cabinet or drawer (a room per se), becomes your clutter receptacle.   

   

Clutter Cops Crime Scene:  Once a place to serve up high-balls, the functional but drab wet-bar space became my clutter recepticle in the recent redecoration.  I painted the cabinets and upgraded the hardware a few years ago, but its sat untouched since.

So on a whim and a spare moment, I decided to clear it out, mix my own color (that was interesting), and put it back together again in some fashionable manner. 

All the King's horses and all the King’s men (uh, me)….
and I sort of put it back together again.   

The color came out pretty well -- it's sort of a pinkish/purplish greige in a very high gloss.  I want to accent the space with gold (going for a Hollywood Glam Look).  The gold leaf wall sculpture was a $20 el-cheapo purchase from Michael's.  I used wire-cutters to snip off the dinky looking birds and other stuff and spray painted the leaves gold, et voila!

'Mr. T' -- our once lime green Foo Dog finally found a home, plus a light grey paint job:

Mr. T, our Foo Dog:  "What you talking abt. Foo(l)? Quit yo jibba-jabba!"  

Waiting on another gold framed pic and possibly a little bar stool to upholster
(in the fabric you see in corner).

Yes, I literally upped the bar this past weekend.  It still has a bit to go with styling etc., and I've got another picture getting re-framed.  I’ll post finished version soon!

Til then, at least Humpty Dumpty has a placed to get smashed, properly.   Cheers!

Summer Blockbuster

Summer kidnapped me and left the blog Home Alone, but the only thing breaking into this house was The Usual Suspects:  vintage finds, re-up projects and a compulsive re-arranger (that would be me).

If you recall, the fabulous coffee table find created The Perfect Storm to redecorate, and plunge into a creative Matrix around here.

Remember me? (don't pay attention to the background...work in progress)

Mission Impossible this was not.  Moving art, and furniture from one room to another until Twilight and beyond is Much Ado About Nothing for me.  It’s Love, Actually.

Here’s a little sneak preview of the coming attraction in the den:

I can’t wait to show you photos of the ‘final cut”!

Until that project's finished, here’s a little Hide and Seek fairytale to celebrate the end of my summer hiding.

 

Who's hiding now?  (note the zebra hide on the floor & french chair in
the corner - an ebay find waiting for her knight in shining new upholstery) 

Once upon a time a Sleeping Beauty was resting on the living room floor.  Things around the house got a little Tangled.  Yes, the hide from the floor is now on the chair.  From Cinderalla to Beuty and the Beast:

   

Thus, The Never Ending Story of my house (ha ha).  More on the shake up soon.

Possum on the roof....and a snakeskin table

He's such a stud.  That's my five year old in the background
having fun with the stud finder I just showed him how to use.  

Chapter two of my house swirling around in a twister à la Dorothy's in the Wizard of Oz.

scratch, scratch, can I come in? My first houseguest for the day.

First, I woke up to strange sounds coming from the bathroom (like something or someone was in there).  The danger-seeker that I am, I opened the door to discover a very large and fat possum hanging out on top of the skylight on the roof.  He began frantically scratching at the window, and obviously wanted to come in.  Of course, why wouldn't he want to chill here -- my house probably looks like familiar territory to him: wild.  (Unfortunately, I couldn't grab the camera quick enough!  I'm wondering where he scurried off to...probably to his new home, our attic. anyone have the # for Animal Control?)


Speaking of wild animals.  A buddy of mine passed on two yards of this fabulous faux snake skin:

B. Berger faux leather/ Sand Serpant

I've been trying to figure out a creative use for it, and since the creative cyclone hit the house, I decided to change the look of these two side tables I was never really crazy about.

Picked these up on the cheap at Home Goods
@ 4 yrs. ago, and never liked the ugly brass finish, but liked the shape.

So.......

A little paint, gorrilla glue, and a lot of elbow grease later:

I haven't had time to complete the second table yet, but this one came out pretty cool!  I think they'll add texture to the room, and look really interesting.  Needless to say, they look a lot better and more high-end....

and I know my new marsupial friend would agree.

Hurricane in the house!

wowsa!  incredible tessellated coffee table....wow!

Welll, every story has to have a beginning, middle and end.  The above table is the opening chapter in this mini-novella.  It really should be a soap opera, the way my week has gone, although I pray Marlena from Days of Our Lives does not make an appearance as the Devil. (That was from my college days when my roomates would tape that soap, and we'd watch it instead of studying for finals.  Did I just age myself?).  

Chapter 1:
I was vintage/antique/consignment shopping the other day with another talented eye (she's the best), and spotted this puppy!  It's an incredible Maitland-Smith tesselated coffee table (these things sell on 1stdibs for abt $3,000 -- and usually found in cream...this is a very unique emerald green (love)).  Needless to say, I got this for MUCHmuchmuchmuchmuch less (less than that even).  

It's an incredible piece and now I have to redsign the whole room around it.  So, of course, now the whole house is being redecorated, everything is for sale on craigslist, etc. and it looks like a hurricane hit the interior of the  homestead.  But this is progress, folks.  I love getting all crazy and changing up the chi/vibe of my own home every year.

Can't wait to post Chapters 2 and up...!  

What I've been up to...

Tweaking....


from flat paint (original headboard):

to....
I got artistic with the antiquing and the border: 

to this (the headboards are going below some extravagant, antique trumeau mirros with gold leaf, and the client really needed them antiqued in just one color): 

 

Also, checking in on drapes in progress for someone else's condo (coming along nicely):

Room planning for someone else...
Original room plan/mock up (french chic):

(sorry this pic is a bit stretched?)

 to this (more modern):

 to this (more colorful, playful and modern):

(I'm obsessed with the antique Klismos chairs I found for this look.  I wish I could have them for myself!)

 

(drapes, color scheme and fabrics for the look -- plus the glam piano bench)

to this (the above new layout but with the softer color scheme of the first few looks):

(Can't wait to you see the actual space before and after once we decide on the look...)

Anyway, just moseying along, people!  

which looks do you like the best?
xo,
Kat

Chic in the City

Sneak Peak of Chic in the City:

I'm workning on transforming a downtown condo.

Here it is Before:

Not bad, but a little dark.

She wanted something more light and feminine.

Here it is in the works:

Found the x-benches for a steal at a local consignment store and the pair of french chairs from a local antiques dealer. Don't you love the lucite table?

Fabric selection for the x-benches and french chairs is underway.  I'm tempted to do something crazy funky on those chairs. Drapes made from an iradescent silk orangy-pink are in the works, and lime green is calling me as an accent color.  What do you think?  

I'm also on the hunt for a comfy chair for the other side of the couch (where we are currently sitting).  Oh, and next time I go over there, remind me to bring my picture hanging kit -- looks like I need to re-hang that painting.

More to come soon...

This is your brain:

This is your brain on Antweak:

Any Questions?


My 'work room' is a pretty good illustration of what the inside of my head probably looks like right now --  a wee bit fried.  A painting I'm working on, a set of chairs I'm finishing, a chest of drawers I'm sanding, a lamp I'm gold-leafing, plus the usual clutter and mess that surrounds it all.   Are there any drugs I can take to make the clutter and mess part go away?  ha ha...  

The Attic Bedroom: Rated PG-13 (almost)

Starring an almost 13-year-old and her room.  Special appearance by: Justin Bieber!! 

Seating fit for a Tween Queen: floor pillows, frenchy chair, and chalk tables!

Since movies have been shot, edited and canned in less time than it's taken me to premiere photos of some of my completed projects, I'm rolling out the red carpet for this 'After' series. 

The seating area above is from this room...rememeber it?:

Imagine it a white box with a sad green window seat.

 (This pic. was taken after I painted and treated the walls with a glossy turquoise.)  

Drumroll....

detail of greek key trim on the drapes...loved the way they turned out!

the chalk board tables I made -- a huge hit with she and her pals!

the Craigslist chair I redid

And making his cameo, as promised:

The Biebs playing his most popular role: adorning a tweener's bedroom door. 

Special thanks to my wonderful brother-in-law, photographer West Freeman, for shooting these 'after' photos!  (The Biebs photo courtesy of my iphone).