Office Bedroom Before and After

 
Truth be told, we have been pretty lazy since we moved back into the house. A few lingering punch list items, trying to figure out which piece of furniture do we need most, not quite sure where to put various pieces of art, gearing up for the yard/landscaping to be done, house guests, etc. You get the picture. This morning when I managed to tidy up the bedroom we use as an office it seemed like we should strike while it looked presentable, so I had John take some photos.

All the doors in the house are new, custom, solid, paneled doors made from composite wood material which doesn't crack or warp. They are lovely solid doors. Unlike all the old doors they are level and shut and latch nicely. Door hardware is unlacuquered brass (that we aged ourselves) from Baldwin.  Knobs are 1.75" rather than the more usual 2".

The desk is a 1958 rosewood Nana Ditzel desk. We picked it up for a song a few years ago when it was in an auction but not labeled as a Ditzel. This kept Ditzel fans from bidding it up. The chair is inspired by the Ant chair. Black leather document box is by Smythson. The wood paneling on the fireplace wall was put in sometime in the 1970s.

We kept the fireplace pretty much as it was. Just a coat of paint on the brick surround and hearth. Antique Bertoia chair next to a reproduction Nelson bench.

This is what the window looked like when we bought the house. The two side units were awful vinyl windows, the middle was an odd fixed,four-light outer window with a single piece of plexiglass with los of moisture and gunk in between.

When we had the original windows restored in 2011 we had these beautiful windows made. Slight improvement. The odd group of shelves were kind of handy and fun (and to be truthful I kind of miss them) but I understand why John wanted to get rid of them.

The view today.

This window was perhaps the worst thing about the house when we bought it. I also miss this rolltop desk which was one that John bought with his paper route money when he was a kid.

Here is the window we swapped in as part of the 2011 window project. It was restored and moved from another part of the house

We had the window seat made to make the two closets look a little less out of place. Still need to have a cushion made for it.
The lamp is a restored Anglepoise version of the 1934 design (the year our house was built).

Lucy enjoying the rug.

They say a kitchen sells a house

I feel like many of my posts have focused on the kitchen. I guess I shouldn't worry about that too much, the kitchen is one of the main reasons we undertook this project in the first place. On the other hand I haven't offered much in the way of substance even on the kitchen. On the third hand I have some lovely pictures that John took and I don't feel like waiting until I have time to do a more substantive post. So here they are.

The lovely brown bowls are actually cafe au lait bowls that John's brother bought him in France when he was studying there in the 1980s. They have a wonderful feel to them as well.  The matte finish subway tile has a similarly pleasing feel.

One thing I don't like about many kitchens with open shelving is that they treat them as display areas and they looked staged. Before we moved back in I think we had vague plans of buying beautiful but useful thing to put on our open shelves. Didn't want to stage them, but definitely wanted them to have some visual interest. (You may remember some of our inspiration images.) Since we have moved back in, guest beds and other immediate furnishing needs have taken precedence over finding the perfect melange of kitchen item to populate our open shelves. Horror of horrors, our long serving plain white dinner ware from Crate and Barrel has not only diminished in quantity over the years but a few plates even have chips. There is no way we would put them on the open shelves. But necessity meant that we did and the effect wasn't half bad. Doesn't mean we will keep them forever, but it works for now. 

Even the haphazard way I plopped things up on the shelves when I unloaded boxes back in December has worked out pretty well. Being overwhelmed with all the unpacking and the holidays, I didn't have time to really think about how to arrange things. The net effect however is fairly pleasing and perhaps even worked out better than if I had thought about it too much.

Like the kitchens in our inspiration photos the practical items really warm a kitchen up and make it feel like a real place. My tray of oils, vinegars, and hot sauces along with the two crocks of utensils definitely give off a homey vibe.

Let me say a word about electrical outlets. Modern building code requires a ridiculous amount of outlets with strict rules about how far apart they should be. But here is something to watch out for. When the electricians were onsite getting reading to set the outlet boxes in the kitchen our architect sent over a layout that showed where they would go on the backsplash. He had placed them in a logical way that is fairly typical to what people do, but it looked so wrong to me.  They were so prominent and were ruining the image I had in my head for the backsplashes. At first I didn't say anything because I assumed it had to do with code. But then I looked around online to see how some of our favorite kitchens handled it. So I went back to the architect and after many emails back and forth we came up with a good plan.

Outlets weren't shown in earlier elevations so seeing them on this drawing made my heart sink a bit. They just ruined the simplicity f it all. But then I found out that code had nothing to do with it and we had a lot of freedom to move them around.

Although it took a few rounds and lots of looking for good examples online the end result is quite pleasing. Even better is the fact that the two light switches on the ends were reduced to one and moved off this wall entirely. If you go back up to the photo and look, I think you will see we got it right.

I love my Jenn Air wall oven as much as I love the Lacanche range.

Hand towel rack near sink. I've liked these rollers in more rustic kitchens, but I resisted it at first for our kitchen. I think it works because it is in a spot that is hidden from the family room. 

Library Before and After

For those that follow my book blog My Porch, these photos won't be new. I've modified a post I did back in January so I could feed the demand for some updates here at Lucy's Forever Home. John has promised me he is going to pull together some photos that no one has seen yet.

The row of grey Persephone books mark the end of the fiction. The two rows below that are various non-fiction books that have yet to be organized. I ran out of time.

Same fireplace when we first moved in and were thinking about a grey paint for the library.

After over a year of living with those color swatches on the wall, I decided just go ahead and paint the library even though it would be torn up in a year. It was also a good experiment in what turned out to be a color and color direction we really didn't want to go in the new library. The shelves to the right of the fireplace were not replaced. I gained some additional shelf space elsewhere in the library, but I will miss this odd bit. It's where I kept most of my TBR.

Looking the same general direction showing a bit more of the shelves. We ended up going with a much warmer grey with a little more brown and green in it.

All of the books had already been put on the shelves, but they weren't in any order. It took me most of a day to just get the fiction set right.

I haven't read any of the stories in these Everyman collections, but their covers have been too darn pretty to pass up. 

The end wall shelves are deeper and will house mainly art, gardening, and coffee table books.

Early in the process. I was still on the Bs.

Another 'before' picture for comparison. I'll admit this is looking pretty cozy.

One of the challenges I faced as I organized the fiction was whether or not to keep certain well-loved editions of books together or integrate them in alpha order with all of the other novels. In the end I kept the Persephones together but the NYRB and Viragos were split up.

This has nothing to do with the library but everything to do with cute.

I haven't forgotten you

 
I know, I know, it has been a long damn time since I posted anything. Why is that? How about a top 10 list?

Reasons I Haven't Posted on Lucy's Forever Home for Over 2 Months

1. We moved back in on December 19th and then there was Christmas and I feel like I never got organized.
2. My job keeps me far busier than any other job I have had in about 20 years so I am a little tired when I get home.
3. Now that rooms are finished it is even harder to get photos that capture some rooms. We don't have a wide angle lens and trying to get decent angles on smaller rooms is next to impossible.
4. We have tons of decorating yet to do and don't want to show rooms that don't live up to the images we have in our head.
5. We got a giant TV that can be quite enticing.
6. I focused a fair amount of blogging energy on my book-centered blog My Porch.

Well that really isn't a top 10 list is it? Maybe I have fewer excuses than I thought.

Here is something to tide you over until I get my act back together.

Until this past week we had a folding card table anchoring our kitchen. We had to put something there because the pendant light in the center of the room was hanging at a height that guaranteed running into it unless there was something under it. Finding the right piece of furniture can often be elusive. But when John came across this table on Nickey Kehoe's website, we knew we had found the one. It met all of our kitchen table expectations: round, sturdy, solid, and simple. In fact it was like an updated version of a table that John's aunt has had in her Greenwich Village kitchen for 40+ years.

If you are wondering where the fourth chair is, it is down in the basement where I am working on a jigsaw puzzle.
I notice the floor is kind of muddy from the delivery men. At some point there will be an area rug.

This was a very big deal indeed. One of the most important things for us in designing our kitchen was that it have room for a table. We could have easily had a very nice island that would have been handy in many ways, but we really wanted a table to make it feel homey and give us and our guest a place to sit that was part of the action without being in the way. Ideally it would have been a great big farmhouse table but since we weren't building a great big kitchen this was never a real option.

As the kitchen took shape we began to worry a bit that we weren't going to have room for a table. It seemed like it might crowd things a little too much. I got even more anxious when we committed to the location and height of the pendant light. What would happen if we couldn't actually fit a table in the room. Mapping it out to scale on paper and even having our contractor cut out a mock-up 48" circle out of fiberboard didn't given me comfort. I kept telling myself it would work but it wasn't until the table was delivered that I began to really believe it.

The table at Nickey Kehoe is 50" but they did a custom 48" size for us for the same price. We began to question whether the 2" would really make a difference, especially since the store had a 50" table in stock that could have been shipped immediately, but we held on for 8 weeks while our 48" table was built and shipped. It was the right decision. The larger table might have worked but the one we got is pretty perfect.

It immediately changed the feel of the kitchen. A kitchen that I already loved felt so much better and cozier. The room also feels more expansive with the table than without it. And it is wonderfully solid and sturdy. It is perfect. Incidentally, The chairs are another matter. John ordered them from Finland without having had the chance to sit on them and although they look really good, the seats are somewhat shallow and they feel just a tiny bit too small. I guess the Finns have daintier butts than Americans. Still, they were fairly inexpensive so they will be swapped out at some point.

The large round 'bowl' is also from Nickey Kehoe.

   

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a punch list

There is not much left to do. I don't know where the time went. When I started this blog I planned on doing much more in the way of process photos and explanations. But by the time things started to get really interesting, I went back to work and there just didn't seem like the time or opportunity. Still, as we get settled (in 9 days time) I am going to try and go into depth on some design elements and details.

The only things left to do are paint touch ups, replacement of a few items that were nicked, scratched, or broken, exterior hardware for three doors, screen doors...hmm maybe there are a few more things than I thought. But nothing that will keep us from being able to move in.

The shutters have been installed on the garage, the bean pulls are on the doors. It is looking like the carriage house we hoped it would.

The inside of the garage. I'm not sure if this gets a coat of paint or not. If it doesn't that is an easy enough job for me after we move in.

The tar and chip driveway has been installed. I was ambivalent enough about the driveway that I let John take the lead without really giving much input. I really like the way it turned out. It looks like a gravel drive.

The exterior of the mudroom door painted in Farrow and Ball Pigeon. Hardware is by Baldwin in unlacquered brass. The deadbolt is missing its rosette.

The library. Paint is a Benjamin Moore color match to Farrow and Ball's Hardwick White.

I think my books are going to be added this weekend.

I'm glad the driveway and retaining wall look so nice since the library (converted from a garage in the 1940s) looks out onto it.

From the Family Room at the back of the house looking through the Dining Room into the Living Room. The chandelier is Thomas O'Brien for Circa Lighting but the bulbs are without their shades at the moment.

The French window that leads from the Dining Room out to the screened porch. The knob and lock on the door still need to be swapped out.

The Family Room taken from the Kitchen.

The Kitchen from The Family Room. There will be a round table under the pendant light.

I can't wait to break this lovely in.

You can see why it was important to make the garage look pretty. It's right in my line of view from the sink. I can't wait to see it once John has his garden in.

We are quite happy with this light from Allied Maker of Glen Cove, NY. They seemed to have stopped making this exact version since we ordered ours this summer. It was pretty much the only light fixture we were really enthused about. Although I must say that most of other decorative fixtures that looked cheap online look quite nice in person. Which is a good thing because lighting is expensive.

I love the size of this sink. No problems getting pots and pans in this one. I also think it is really good looking. It doesn't have zero radius corners (really sharp inside corners) but I prefer the little bit of curve that they have. Especially since Franke sink was only about $380 when every other sink we looked at was two or three times that amount. And if you want this particular model, you have to buy it from a big box retailer. For some reason Franke doesn't sell this version to wholesalers/contractor supplier firms. And its better looking than the ones they do sell to wholesalers.

Sigh.