Hanging Guitars

Thank you all for your kind words about the bookshelves! Some of you commented on how lucky we were that the Billys fit perfectly in the bump outs that flank the fireplace. The true story is neither side was a perfect fit. On the right side, we had to cut off two inches of the outer most bookshelf, so that a pair would fit in that nook.

And then the bump out to to left of the fireplace was too big for a pair to fit snuggly. There was about about 16" of leftover space that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. I didn't want to add more shelves because of the opening to the kitchen. Luckily, it was right around Michael's birthday when we were trying to figure this all out. One of his presents was a vintage ukelele I ordered off eBay and when it arrived I thought the wood grain was so pretty that it was a shame to hide it. ((lightbulb!!)) So I grabbed a couple guitar hooks and a small one made for ukeleles at the music shop down the street, and while Michael was at work I installed the guitars on the wall in the nook space. His guitar, acoustic bass and the new ukelele fit perfectly, one on top of the other.

I told the girls to not say anything to Michael when he came home so that he would sort of stumble on the hanging guitars and it would be a great surprise. But of couse they pointed him right to the guitars, wildly giggling, as soon as he walked in the door. Kids are so awesome at keeping secrets.

Michael is a really talented musician and I love having instruments around the house so he can keep up with his playing. This hook-hanging solution has been perfect because the guitars are protected, but they're still easily accessible.

I also love how the three different depths here (the wall, bookshelf and fireplace) are outlined by the dentil moulding. I'm telling you, just putting up those 5.75 measly inches of cheapy crown moulding completely transformed this room. My mom and I both agreed that suddenly it felt like the house was an old brownstone and not a bad condo from the 70s. I'm dying to do the baseboards now and maybe some paneling like we talked about before. Also, I promise there's a crown moulding tutorial coming soon. There was a bit of a learning curve for me in this first room, but now I'm tackling the garden level and I feel like I have some good pointers to share.

So, I'm really curious. If you have instruments, where do you keep them? I play the violin, and I'd love to have it out so that I would practice more, but the case is really bulky and it stays in my closet for now. If we ever have a big house someday, I'd take a music room over a media room in a heartbeat.

PS A hanging guitar in Alex and Joanna's bedroom.

Making Billy Bookshelves Look Like Built-Ins

I've always loved the way that books make a home come alive. When we were planning on where to put all the books from our office in the loft, there was only really one place to put the Billys - the living room. So we bought four more sets of the extender shelves and spent a few days last fall "building in" our IKEA bookshelves.

Here's how the space looked on move in day. It looked like a giant H to me.I love it all so much more now. That nook was the worst! Ready for all the details on how we filled the nook and built up and in the Billy bookshelves?

This project got done much sooner than I had planned on. We moved into our place and we had a huge wall of book boxes that were oppressive and dangerous. So in an effort to make at least some progress on the house, we threw up the old Ikea Billy shelves on the wall flanking the fireplace and quickly unpacked the dozens of boxes. Here's what the shelves looked like for the first couple weeks we lived here:

Then my amazing parents, who are always up for a project, came in to town and on a whim we decided to tackle the bookshelf wall. We raced to Home Depot for supplies - lumber, moulding and drywall.

Joint compound, drywall tape and a grouting sponge...

We worked to quickly frame out the bookshelves and the nook in 2x4s. And actually we put 4x4s underneath the bookshelves, so they would be lifted up off the ground.

We all signed the inside of the wall. :)Drywall was marked with chalk tape and cut with a razor blade knife.And the first pieces went up and we happily said goodbye to the nook.Once the drywall sheets were screwed into place, we taped the seams.Then we went over the drywall and the tape with joint compound.Meanwhile, after "wet sanding" the joint compound with the big grout sponge, we also started the crown moulding. Also, I'd love to point out the obvious here - that we should have taken down all the books first. They were a dusty mess after all the work we did! I just didn't really have a place to put all of them before we started. I told you this was a spur of the moment project!Probably my favorite part of the project was the footing of the shelves. Like I said, we sat the bookshelves on three 4x4s running lengthwise. This gave the bottom a lot of height.Then we framed out the whole bottom with 2x8s, which gave the bookshelves a really chunky base and made them look less IKEA I think.For the face of the bookshelves, we found this great small moulding at Home Depot too. We measured and cut everything to size and then sprayed it with a black gloss enamel.It was so easy to add the moulding with my brad gun. We used thicker stripe moulding for all the vertical lines.

I love how the white shelves and shelf backs contrast with the dark black trim on the face of the shelves.

Not bad for just the cost of some lumber and supplies and a few Billy Extender shelves! Now just to find a mirror that better fits that wall space!

And also, to make a sofa back table to help hide the fireplace a little more and to hold a pair of lamps.

I tried a new method for organizing books - one that's functional and pretty! I'm excited to share the how-to!

How was your weekend? 

Empire Chests

We recently did a little bedroom switch up. Michael and I are downstairs on the garden level now and Heather is up in the smaller bedroom, by the kids room. We were having trouble fitting all our clothes in the tiny 8x13 room. And with Michael and I both working late nights downstairs and with the kids sleeping through the night consistently, it just made sense to switch. While Heather was out of town last week, I redid her room as a Christmas surprise and it turned out pretty great. I'm excited to share. We went really dark with the walls (not quite black).

Our new room downstairs is getting overhauled too. The sticking point has been finding a pair of matching dressers with really specific dimensions that would work with a weird bump out in the room. It was hard to make any design decisions before figuring out the dresser situation. After more than a month of searching, I found these birdseye maple (scratch that - apparently the chests are crotch mahogany!) Empire style chests from the 30s at an auction house in New Jersey. The dimensions are *perfect* and I love the look. Success!

Now on to the rest of the room! Wouldn't a dark gray, like BM Anchor Gray be pretty with the wood? Chunky white moulding. White shades maybe. Not sure about the bedding. I have some hotel bedding like this but black embroidery that might be great with some fun shams (these sheets are a steal and have a similar look if you're in the market). Maybe a natural fiber on the floors?

What do you have going on this weekend? Are you still wiped out from the holidays or are you ready to take 2013 by storm? Depending on how you're feeling I hope it's a productive or restful weekend! xx

Baker Sofa Upholstery

I've been meaning to share photos of the new upholstery on our vintage Baker sofa forever!

I had started work on doing the upholstery myself, but the tetanus side-effects really wiped me out for those first two months or so. We ended up buying a car this year (did I mention that earlier?), so one day in October when my resolve and spirits were both low, I loaded up the sofa and took a little day trip down to my trusty upholsterers back in Maryland. It takes about three hours to drive there, but I stopped along the way to do some antiquing and Amish-food-eating with my sister, so it was a fun day trip.  :)

Jensen's only charges $525 for a sofa job (about a third the price of my upholsterer here in the city!), but I still felt a little guilty for not upholstering the sofa myself, especially since I mentioned here that I would. I have to say though, it was worth every penny to free up that time and energy when things were a little rocky, health-wise. (If you're looking for an in-depth upholstery tutorial, I did a whole series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

I ended up doing the contrasting welt we talked about and I really love it. I found four yards of this dark teal (almost black) Sunbrella fabric at Home Fabrics in Arizona for about $4 a yard. They have this store in California, Utah and Nevada too, I think, and it is a treasure trove!!! I save about half my suitcase for hauling my finds home to NY each trip we take.

I'm so glad I found that Sunbrella. I know it will hold up really well and I think the color is great with the pretty green velvet I scored at JEM here in the city.

We've had the sofa back for about eight weeks now and it has taken kid spills like a boss.

More living room photos and projects coming! Lots to post about here, but there's still lots left to do in the room. 

PS Some links for the projects/items seen here:

Persian rug  //  Jute rug  //  Binding the jute rug  //  Pillow fabric  //  Scrolly mirror  //  Chesterfield tufted sofa  //  Refinished sliding glass doors  //  Gilded coffee table

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Welcome, 2013!

Hi friends! How was your holiday break? I feel rested and pumped for the new year - I have hopes it will be our family's best yet.

I've been thinking a lot about resolutions lately. Normally I'm all about making elaborate lists. Unfailingly, the long lists are forgotten pretty quickly (you know how that goes). So this year I only have one broad and easy-to-remember resolution: to live a less busy life. I want to drill down on the important things rather than getting distracted with opportunities, slow down, find more beauty in the creation process and find more ways to laugh with and show love to my family. I want to blog better and smarter, and focus on what works for me here on LGN. Busy is now a four-letter word to me!

I'm working on editing photos of our living room to share tomorrow, but for now here are some snippets from our Christmas and New Years. We stayed in New York this year and my sister Heather and Michael's brother and his wife all left to go to Arizona for the week, so it was just us for Christmas day. We missed the party a little bit I think, but there's something peaceful about going solo as a family for the holidays.

This year I finally gave in to the reality that I have an allergy to real Christmas trees. I decided that if we had to have a fake tree, that it would be mega-fake! So we went with white. I loved the white, and found I was really only missing the smell of a fresh tree. We burned lots of this candle to replicate some of the piney scent and now I think I'll be burning it all winter. It's down right intoxicating!

The girls and I went a little tape-happy with the gift packages this year! Neon and gold duct tape is awesome. 

We celebrated Evelyn's birthday on Christmas Eve and told her all about how she was our special little angel, born under the tree three years ago.

For New Years we trekked up to Westchester to celebrate with good friends. My darling friend Jenna had a kid's craft table set up for making party hats.

We stayed up far too late that night. :)

Then, what better outing than Times Square on New Years morning? (worst idea ever). Evie absolutely could not contain herself when she saw the so-called Hello Kitty. Aren't these the most frightening costumes you've ever seen? Triple yikes.

Here's to a healthy, happy and slowed-down year! And as always, thanks for all the love and support that you show me here. I have the best job in the world. :) See you tomorrow. xo

PS Follow me on Facebook here and on twitter and Instagram at @jennykomenda.