Pot racks are like minivans with automatic doors, once you spoil yourself with one, you can never go back to not having one.  Which is why I’ve never had a minivan with automatic doors.   I cannot imagine my future self whining and complaining about having to open a car door, how annoying I would be. Back when we moved into this house with the pre-installed hooks just begging for a pot rack I was sure I wouldn’t use them. We have an embarrassing amount of cabinet space.  More than enough to store all of our pots and pans.

But after a few months of living here, the thought of being able to just grab a pot from above instead of unstack it from a pile in a cabinet was just too enticing.  It’s been two years since I dedicated a post to all things pot rack so I thought it was time to revisit.  And my pot collection has grown.

Not only does my Ikea pot rack keep me from whining about having to reach into the dreaded cabinet to get my pots {oh the humanity} it also does something just as important for me.  We are renting and as much as I appreciate a nice newish kitchen, this kitchen is not really my style and it’s all I can do sometimes to not whip out the can of paint.  So, a pot rack is a great way for me to personalize a not so personal kitchen.  So I purposely put white and aqua on my pot rack to help spread the Nester style love.

see the empty pot rack back there?

A few months ago when I was going through one of my purging stages, I cleaned off the pot rack and took it down to see if I liked it better without all that junk hanging up over us.  I asked my husband what he thought and I’ll never forget his words, “It looks like we just moved in and we don’t know what we are doing.“  For some reason I took that as a huge compliment that somehow the fact that I had a bunch of junk hanging from our pot rack that my husband hits his head on because if I hang it higher I cannot reach it which is an even bigger annoyance for him because then he has to walk in and hand me every pot I need–made my husband feel like “we knew what we were doing”.

One of the other tricks I do with my pot rack is make sure to stagger the heights where stuff is hanging.

For me that meant digging in my junk drawer till I found some brown wrapped wire and twisting that up then hanging a hook on that.  You could do the same with ribbon or twine.  But I like that some of my pretty stuff is hanging at different heights.  I even added hooks to those awful chains that hang down.  I know I could cut those chains off but you know one of my renting mantras, if I might use it in another house soonish, why permanently altar something just so it can work better in this house?

My pot rack is still a work in progress, I need about 10 more hooks to really be able to hang everything I want and to balance stuff out~then I’ll really look like I know what I’m doing.

Pot racks….love ‘em or hate ‘em?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This weekend I finally found something that I had wanted for a very long time.

I wanted a sailfish. I felt dumb even admitting it here a few times.  Why in the world did I want a sailfish on my wall?  I remember a fish {was it a sailfish?} on my grandparent’s wall growing up and I’ve always been drawn to the taxidermied fish on the wall in cheap seafood restaurants. But, I could never explain why I wanted one.

It just so happened that that very same day, I found something else I had long wanted.  Some mounted antlers. Another thing I couldn’t explain.  The whitewashed antlers both pretend and real are somewhat trendy right now but, I wanted the real thing.  I’ll tell you more about how I found them in another post.  Right now I’m talking about the why.

Saturday morning my husband and I were upstairs. We heard the boys shouting, “The tree is falling down!”.  I remember wondering what tree I have in my house that could fall down and if they were building something with my bonsai tree.  Then we heard the groan.

This majestic old tree made our rental house feel like home.

We did most of our photo shoot with Amber under the canopy of the tree.

It had rained steady but not too heavy for 24 hours.

And the tree just leaned.

He’s been growing next to the creek for a hundred years?  And the roots just gave way.  And I found myself mourning a tree and then feeling bad because there are mothers losing children and I am morning a backyard tree. In a house we don’t even own.

Later that day I was reading and came across this quote on Ann’s blog…

What kinds of articles are most likely to be emailed by users of the New York Times website? Researchers did a six-month study of the most-emailed list and discovered that, more than utility or surprisingness or feel-good factors (which were all helpful for an article’s prospects), it was a sense of awe that made a given article most likely to be shared. ”

And I thought about Awe.  And awe reminded me of the tree that isn’t mine but I liked to pretend it was.  And I looked up at my fish and realized it was full of awe and when I walked into the sitting room, those antlers stuck out all unbalanced but perfectly placed and I remember we told the hunter who harvested those elk that the antlers were awesome.  He told us that elk antlers are the fastest growing bones on the planet.

Suddenly I realized why I decorated with a rock at Christmas.

I connected the dots of why my landlocked house feels right filled with starfish and sea biscuits and sea fans every month of the year. My fascination with nests and eggs and feathers makes more sense now.  I love to incorporate things in my home that give me a sense of awe. And for me those things are items made by my favorite Designer.

Maybe for you something totally different invokes a feeling of awe.  But it’s worth thinking about, do you have anything truly awful in your home?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

before

Our bedroom had been neglected for far too long.  I was ready for change and my requirements were:

• neutral colors
• a pretty bed
• drapes
• masculine and feminine feel
• places to sit
• an 8 x 10 rug
• surfaces to place books and tums and snoring medicine and my other old lady paraphernalia
• better lighting
• pay cash for everything

Neutral Backdrop

This is what the room looks like without any embellishments.  Actually, it looked like this until today when I grabbed the brocade shams from the playroom, blue chevron pillow from the downstairs sofa and a pretty throw from my office.  Photos look better with a little color in them.  The walls are Martha Stewart Flagstone, a nice gray color.  Our en suite bathroom has browns and grays and this room gets tons of light so a dark gray was a good choice for us.   From this point, I can add in yellow accents with a vase and a pillow and a throw, or some fun greens or a big graphic pillow shams in orange, I guess I don’t have to list every possible color combination, you get the idea, right?  I love that I can add in any color or pattern and instantly change the room.

Currently I don’t have anything covering the box spring.  Once I get a feel for what direction I’ll go for the accent fabrics and colors, I’ll add some fabric or a printed sheet that will offset all the white.

The Bed

If I could pick any bed, I would want something like this from Z Gallerie…

Or this from Lindsay Harper’s apartment.

I had a yard sale back in October and made a good amount of cash to put towards a new bed.   But for whatever reason, I wanted to wait and see if we could work in what we had.  And what we had was a super sturdy 5 year old sleigh bed from Big Lots.  Not nice wood but not falling apart at all. Rats. {Do people still say “rats”?  My dad says it all the time so it sounds normal to me.}

The walls are gray so for contrast we painted the bed white.  My husband helped on this one, he encouraged me to try this bed and see and with my aversion to spending money, that was all I needed.  But, I told him if we were going to keep the sleigh, I wanted him to help me paint it.  He rolled, I brushed and it took about two hours using leftover paint we had from the dresser.  BEHR paint plus primer in Hushed White~it’s actually more yellowy than I would like for the bed, you can tell when it’s up against my super white sheets, but it’s not bothersome enough to paint it again.  If you want further instructions on how to paint your furniture, I’m not a professional, but I did read my friend Mandie’s ebook and learned all of her secrets.  It’s not the bed I wanted but, it was free and I like much it better than before.

Drapes

I agonized over drapes for a LONG time.  I love long drapes, I think they have magical powers to soften and transform a room from blah to cozy. I really wanted a neutral graphic print.  The drapes were the VERY first thing I looked for for this room.  Long before I knew what we were going to do with the room, I knew if i could find the right fabric everything could springboard off that.

I love this DwellStudio Gate print by Robert Allen. That would have added in some masculine feel.  However, we are renting this house and there are 4 windows in this room which means 8 panels that each need almost 3 yards of fabric. This fabric would have cost me over $1000. Just for the fabric. Eight panels at even $10 a yard fabric would have cost $240 just for fabric for me to mistreat. That was the most I was willing to spend but, as I looked around, I realized that finding $10 per yard discount fabric I like was difficult but I did find a few however, I could never find 24 YARDS of the fabric I liked.  At such an inexpensive price, the fabric was usually on sale or discontinued and every time I found something that would work, I was faced with not enough fabric on the bolt.  Plus, I knew I didn’t want to sew and the thought of paying $250 just so I could hang fabric pieces kind of bothered me.  Finally, I called off the search and decided to go with white panels.

I went to the least expensive store in town, Ollie’s, and bought 8 full sized flat sheets for $3.99 each.  And then I bought 4 rods from Home Depot for about $13.00 each.  I dressed 4 windows for less than $100.  I just realized that I accidentally put a queen sized sheet for the left panel of that window, see how it puddles on the floor? One day, maybe I’ll switch that out with the couple of extra full sized that I bought.

Masculine and Feminine

It’s my tendency to be overly girly.  I guess it comes naturally since you know, I’m a girl and all.  But, I wanted to make sure our room looked like it belonged to both a man and a woman.  Not the owner of hello kitty.

For us that meant no toile, no floral {ok so there are a few flowers on that throw but remember, that actually goes in my office, I just brought it in here so my photos wouldn’t look like black and whites} no pinks.  I decided to balance the white with wood.  We happened to find this clearance sunburst mirror back in October at Pier 1 for $80.  Sold.

Plus, we had this armiore in our room that is wooden and I wanted to balance the wood and white.  I thought I was going to witness the death of a 120 pound mover when they moved this solid wood armiore up our stair well and dropped it and it left huge gashes in the walls {didn’t damage the armiore one little bit though, solid wood and all}.  Those little boys got so mad at me telling me I packed too much stuff in it.  I made them open it once they got it into our room so I could prove it was empty.  All that to say this armiore is staying in our room until we move.  Try to ignore the pile of clothes and lamp and wall stuff. This room isn’t quite done yet and even if it was, my favorite hobby is piling clothes.

Places to Sit

One of the few requests that my husband has for our room is a place to sit.  I found this classy and slightly masculine chair at One Kings Lane {that’s my referral link thankyouverymuch}.  One Kings Lane is a website that has 72 hour sales posted every day from all sorts of great sources.  I’ve got a post coming up in the next week where I’ll explain how I use OKL so hold on for that.  But, just like any store, you need to be patient and wait for a great deal that works for you.  This chair was about $400~about half what it retails for.

My chair was a $35 thrift store find that I painted and distressed {lazy girl’s way to paint} last year.  I found the garden stool at Ollie’s for $25.  I had my eye on them for awhile and saw them one blogs and in high end shops, even One Kings Lane had them but they were all over $100.  Of course, I didn’t buy the $25 one when I saw it.  Lucky for me, my trusty mom found one for me at her local store.  Thanks Mom!

The Rug

Our entire house has wood floors which is absolutely wonderful and simultaneously absolutely cold on morning toes fresh from the bed.  We needed an 8 x 10 rug to go under the bed so we could step onto cush.  I think this rug fits the cush factor and the fun factor. It was $400 from One Kings Lane and it made the whole room come together.

Surfaces

We needed side tables.  Since we had long drapes, I wanted tables that were leggy so the drapes would show through under the top.  Plus, I know that we won’t be in this home forever so I wanted tables that I could use in other rooms later if I needed to.  I found these crescent tables at One Kings Lane for $170 each.

Lighting

The pair of lamps are from Hobby Lobby $100 each but of course, Hobby Lobby has a sale rotation with lamps 50% off about once a month so I got them for $50 each.  The extra large lantern commands attention.  You can’t tell from the photos but it’s the first thing you look at when you walk in to the room.   I had originally thought I would find an old chandelier and wrap twigs around it but when I saw this lantern at the Habitat ReStore for $30 I knew it would be a nice centerpiece for the room.

All I had to do was dust it off and hit it with a little spray paint.  I should probably adjust that chain a little bit.

Pay Cash

I just moved three paragraphs from this topic to a new post.  Does anyone really want to read me go on and on about why it’s not worth it to put furniture on a credit card?  We paid surprisingly little for this makeover. We used all cash and I had some referral credits from One King’s Lane that I put to good use. I’ll share more about how to use One King’s Lane later this week.

All in all, we LOVE our room.  And that was the overall goal.  It didn’t turn out anything like I had originally planned, it never does but the plan is just a guide, the goal is to like it.  Maybe one day I’ll figure out what I want to do with the tray ceiling but, I’m not in a hurry to make it happen.  We still want a bookshelf next to my husband’s chair and there’s one wall in this room that you are going to laugh at that I’ll show you very soon. If anyone is wondering, we have our dressers in our closet. I’ve got my eye on Etsy for the perfect graphic pillows in a fun color.  You’ll be the first to know when I find them.

I’m so happy to finally have a bedroom that I don’t dread walking into.  Creating a welcoming master bedroom is one of the best investments we’ve made.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Lately, I’ve asked myself what’s the least amount of items I can have displayed and still love the look? Not that I’m trying to go minimalist or anything, I think you can tell that by my full gallery wall.  But what has my obsession been with much?

In years past, I asked myself, How can I work this all in? And I ended up with some loaded down centerpieces and tablescapes.

I love apothecaries as much as the next girl but, I didn’t need this many, I didn’t enjoy this many.  I just had them so I felt like I should use them.  This summer, I picked out my 3 favorite and put the rest in the yard sale pile.  As soon as I priced them and stuck them in the garage, I looked at my new arrangement and liked it so much better.

Last winter this grouping was on a table.  Part of the problem I find when renting is that I don’t feel like I can change or control much so I start abusing accessories.  This is accessory abuse for me.  Once I decided to paint my walls and move the furniture, I didn’t have to create a diversion for a pinkly hued wall.  I sold 80% of this stuff at my yard sale.  On it’s own, I liked each piece but I didn’t need that many candle sticks.

It’s surprising how taking something away can add so much to the feel of a space.

When is the last time you quieted the house and edited stuff out?

Be sure to visit the other 31 dayers:: Reluctant Entertainer, The Inspired Room, Remodeling This Life, Chatting at the Sky, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, My First Kitchen, Life With My 3 Boybarians, over the next 31 days.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

A month ago my sister and mom and I decided to have a yard sale this October.  I’ve been slow with getting stuff together.  I just had a big sale last year, I probably didn’t have much to sell.

But suddenly I’ve been bombarded with reading poignet blog posts about stuff and then there was that Hoarder’s marathon that come on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll show you my garage full of excess stuff that you can’t even tell I removed from my house.  But, today I’m still in deep thought about the stuff.

Last week, Thrifty Decor Chick  wrote a post entitled “STUFF”.  It’s a great read and prompted me to think about why I keep stuff around.  One of my biggest issues is that we have moved so often recently, I’m afraid to get rid of something we might need in our next house.  I always feel like I can’t be one of those people who says ” we don’t have a place for that” because we don’t even really have a place.  Therefore, if I see something I can afford and I like, I tend to buy it.  And I’m pretty good at working stuff in.  However, the result is a really full house of items bought for $3 each that I’m not wanting to get rid of because I might use it when we move.  Not my goal.

Another one of my issues is that when a person like me, who loves and appreciates beautiful spaces, rents a plain, run of the mill ordinary home with no special features, I tend to compensate with accessories.

Pretties and Posies

I look at photos like this of Melanie’s beautiful, welcoming home and I long for the simple uncluttered, purposeful look.  And I know one of the reasons I think I can’t get that is because my rental house lacks character.  I have scant mouldings, an incompetent fireplace, my windows don’t even have casing around them, and I’m tethered to the fact that we don’t own the house so big changes are out of the question.  So instead of going after my style, I sometimes wreck it up with too many accessories.  I know my weaknesses.

Then, I read a post that  Sherry from Young House Love wrote about their tiny closet. After living in tiny spaces in NYC, she has learned the fine art of only surrounding herself with things she really needs and loves.  I marveled at this quote that Sherry included from The Lucky Shopping Manual:

Don’t buy anything on sale that you wouldn’t consider at full price.

Um, I think that might have just changed my life. Seriously, I’ve never even thought of it that way.

It’s not noble to purchase 10 things for a steal for $10 {that you kind of needed or thought you might use} compared to buying one thing for $100 that you really needed.  It’s just poor stewardship.

I think my lean to thriftyness has been skewed so far that I have forgotten that the best purchase we’ve made is our sofa.  We paid full price for a small scale sectional from a lower high end or {higher low end?} maker and it’s still the most comfy sofa I’ve ever laid my tush on.  It’s lasted 7 years and has held up to 3 boys.  So worth the money upfront.   And the thrifty police have yet to arrest me to invest in a piece of furniture we use every day.

On my journey of thinking about stuff and its impact I have decided to pretend like we are staying at this house for a long time.  If we don’t have a place for something now, it’s gone.  If I’m so great a finding a deal, I’ll find it again later, right?  Unless I find a clawfoot tub for $5 or something.

Erin from Rare and Beautiful Treasures sold their dream house that they built so that they could begin their journey to their dream life.

A family that we are close friends with recently sold most of their belongings, bought an RV and are getting ready to pursue their dream of traveling around with their children.  They were brave souls who didn’t let stuff get in the way of their goals. It’s not always easy for them but, they are certainly enjoying their new way of life.  I so admire that.  I’m not at all saying that everyone should sell their stuff in and move into an RV but, I don’t want to let stuff get in the way of our family’s own goals and dreams.

Erin’s family and the Mattern family both found freedom in knowing what they don’t want to do.

I want to be aware that the stuff I am accumulating can easily hinder me and clog up my home, time and being.  Because we all know, it can be gone in an instant. So, I’m getting rid of the excess while reminding myself that I love handmade, I love trash to treasure, I love items from nature, I value meaningful beauty.  I still love and want and have a decorated house, but I want  it to serve me and my family, not the other way around.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This corner fireplace has been a challenge to deal with.

Here’s how it looked when we moved in.  It has a yellowy fake marble surround and a tiny piece of weak, glued on scroll work.

I had that carved wooden piece for years, I bought it from TJ Maxx for $13 so I nailed it up there.  And last year I told you about how I applied stick on chalkboard paper to the surround. I still love it.  But, the “bricks” were looking sad so I got out my chalk markers and redrew them.  I want it to be a little imperfect and quirky.

We’ve had the chalkboard peely sheet things up for a year now and they have behaved just fine.  And we used the fireplace many times last winter.  If you are renting or don’t want to mess up the current surround you have but want a change, this peel and stick chalkboard vinyl is a great solution. Just make sure it’s not too close to your firebox.  If you have some awful material there and you own your house, you could just paint it.

Here’s the google search for chalkboard vinyls. Wall Candy Arts sent me some last year for free and I noticed the price seemed high but, the quality is great and they were easy to cut and reposition.

I hope to get my mantel looking a little more like fall.  You too?  Want some motivation?  How about a fall mantel link up party next Wednesday, September 8th.  Is that too early?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

This is a repost from July 2009, but it’s one of the most common questions I get asked:: “where did you get your armoire?”

I recently painted my yard sale purchased, pine armoire.

This is how it looked before. I think about 25% percent of houses in my neighborhood have a piece of furniture that looks like this. I love how warm it was and how it was such a great victim to withstood the abuse of 3 boys.

I’ve wanted to paint this piece since I saw Meredith’s painted armoire {here’s her before}. So, naturally, two weeks before we moved, I grabbed a pillow and an oval box for color inspiration and then all my color wheels and found a color I thought would be a good choice.

My goal was to have a robin’s egg blue but not a bright one like Martha leans toward but a dirty, natural feeling blue. Also, since I was painting over pine that had plenty of knots, I wanted to make sure it was a color that would look ok if and when the knots bleed through the paint. Because bleeding always seem to happen with knots.

I have painted raw pine in the past. I’ve used coats of primer and paint and within weeks, yes, WEEKS the knots start to bleed through. This time, I tried Behr Paint and Primer in One. {And wouldn’t it be nice if I were getting a big fat check from Behr since I’m broadcasting how much I love this product? I am not. Behr has no idea what a Nester is.}

So, it’s been almost 6 weeks now and so far, no bleeding. I will tell you if and when I see any signs of knots coming through. And if and when they do come through, I will be ok with that because I picked a color that will look even better with knots.

Here’s how I, the world’s most horrible, impatient painter, painted my armoire. And it turned out great.

1. Put the furniture on movers {those round things} and put plastic on the ground and move the armoire onto the plastic away from the wall. I did this all by myself thankyouverymuch. I think I even left the TV plugged in.

2. Get your professional paint roller holder thing and line it with your professional liner. Cake pan and aluminum foil.

3. Get your paint. Here’s the formula for what I used if you must have it. I think I would have been happy with any of the 20 colors I choose from. Usually, when people try to pick a robin’s egg they go waaaay too turquoise. You almost want a gray. Then, when you put the color next to gray it should look robin’s egg. {216 is the bottom number under the “B”}

I used Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green 6213. But remember, you really cannot tell what paint colors truly look like by looking at a computer screen. And I adjusted this photo so you could read the words so, if you think you would like it please get a sample first. In real life, the color is more greenish grey than what you see in the photo on my computer. Quietude, the one above also looks fantastic. I like the eggshell finish. I don’t like it really shiny so eggshell is a good choice for me. Why did I do a color match? Because I decided to paint this the same day I painted this. I didn’t have a Behr color wheel and I didn’t want to go to Home Depot, grab colors then come home and decide. Which is how you must do it. Never decide a color in a florescent lighted store. You need to choose it in the room where you will be using the color.

And for the record, the color in our front room is Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray.  It’s a more watery, lighter, gray blue than the deeper more intense blue/green Halcyon Green.

4. Start with a brush and do the corners. Or start with a roller and do the sides. I don’t really have a set way. I did wipe down the piece with a damp cloth first too, I guess I should add a number in for that. But other than knocking off the dust, no prep work.

5. I took the drawers out and left them for later. I also removed the handles with pliers because I didn’t want to mess with painting around them. I picked out some I liked better.

6. Decide where you want the paint to stop. You can paint all of the inside or be lazy like me and just do the doors. I simply painted whatever I could with the roller and let it stop at the edges. No brushing meticulously for me. I only used the brush in the tight corners and around the hinges.

7. I admit I didn’t do the best painting job ever to grace the internet. I painted three coats, I waited a few hours between coat one and two and then overnight before I did the third coat. I think it took me maybe 4 hours total from clean room to clean room.

8. I liked the fact that I had big square hinges to work around. I got a little paint on them but so? I’m not expecting the paint police anytime soon. They are busy arresting people who are too afraid to paint, because we all know that is a much bigger offense. And, yes, I left everything inside while I painted it.

9. Why am I still numbering? Here are some close ups, I won’t bore you with my words…

I love that you can still see the wood when you open it up.

Don’t forget to paint the top. I didn’t paint the back.

Where I decided to stop the paint. There’s no wrong.

I didn’t let the paint dry long enough before I shut the doors so there is a little paint that rubbed off. I could fix it but I probably never will. {One year later~still haven’t}

There you have it. I feel like every time I see this piece it thanks me for taking the time for painting it. It was so quick and simple. My only regret? I should have painted it years ago.

Want to paint your own furniture but want to do a little more professional job?  My friend Mandi from Altar’d furniture wrote an ebook that will tell you all the tricks and tools that she uses in her business {she sells painted furniture}.  For $10 you can get her secrets and step by step real, correct processes to paint something that’s nicer than my yard sale armoire.