I can proudly say that we actually, fully, completely finished one room in our house. More spaces have been painted and other projects have been tackled, but no other space in the house is as completely complete as our fantastic, wonderful, dining room. Do I sound proud? I am. I was beginning to get the feeling that we would continually begin projects in every room and never fully complete one. Thankfully, this accomplishment has lead to a new sense of accomplishment and a drive to get more more more done!
On Monday, Garth began describing some of the crazy processes that we went through to get to this point. When we moved in, the room was peach-ish and rose colored. We are attracted to bright colors and really feel like they help reflect light in what can be a very gray part of the country. Our new, blue space feels clean, bright and slightly modern with a tough of baroque detailing to help push the ornate victorian-ness of our house.
Tackling just the walls in this space was a serious ordeal. The drywalling took forever and Garth still shakes his head at some of the corners in the room. Taping off the room before we could use an air sprayer on the textured wall paper took me nearly two full days of tedious work. The ceiling had been painted peach, which meant Garth had to spend time stretching his arms to apply coat after coat of ceiling paint to the room.
Painting the matte blue on the upper portion of the walls felt like a breeze, but when I pulled off all the masking I had so carefully applied to the lower portion of the wall paint had leaked in and some other paint peeled off– this required two more days of tedious scraping and touching up to keep clean lines on the white molding between the textured wallpaper.
Next, there was the gloss pattern we applied over the matte blue paint. This was time consuming and frustrating, but when the job was done I appreciated the subtle, larger pattern on the upper part of the wall paired with the smaller, textured damask pattern on the lower portion of the wall.
We then re-hung the old molding, and I spent two days repainting it and hand painting a white line around the room to even out the bottom edge (the molding is very old and has clearly been removed and replaced by more people than just me and Garth, leaving an uneven, jagged bottom edge).
When all of this was finally accomplished, we were able to move in some furniture. In a previous post, I told you about the wonderful Danish Modern china cabinet that we scored at a local antique shop. Once this was in the room, I could actually unpack our china and some of the ceramics that we have collected. Not long after moving the cabinet into the space, we finished paying off our Craigslist table and chairs. This set is also Danish Modern and included a slightly mismatched set of chairs– three of one style and three of another. This was fine with us as we were able to score two more modern dining chairs at a garage sale (five dollars each!) that match closely enough to make the mismatching charming and intentional. I love our new table, it can be collapsed to a complete circle or be expanded to accommodate twelve people by adding three leaves! I like the versatility this offers for entertaining.
Hanging some art was my next step, and always my favorite part of pulling together a room. Garth and I made it a goal when we got married to be sure to collect the work of artists that we like. For each anniversary, we choose a new piece of art to add to our collection rather than giving each other individual gifts. We have also each been trading art with friends for years so we have plenty of options when it is time to adorn the walls.
Let me give you a brief tour of the work we have in the dining room.
Because the portion of the room available for hanging art is so high and small, I choose groupings of smaller works for the walls. These three pen drawings are by Kate Bingaman-Burt, a Portland based artist who draws something she buys every day. Her drawing are charming and you can find her graphic design in the hand lettering in the Handmade Nation book as well as in the New York Times. She has also has a new book coming out in March.
On this wall I arranged some of our softer, stitched pieces. The splayed, dissected, crocheted frog was a Valentine’s Day gift from Garth the he found at this great Etsy site.
On the far left is a crocheted gun by Stephanie Syjuco, a brilliant San Fransisco artist who has so many projects and ideas it will make your head spin. We were first attracted to her work when we found out about her counterfeit crochet project.
Next to the gun are some lovely machine-stitched tattoos by the incredible Theresa Honeywell. Theresa makes incredible work investigating macho gender rolls and “feminine” handicrafts. Her crocheted motorcycle is a work of wonder.
Almost too small to see is a delicate piece by Diem Chau. I love her carved crayons but absolutely fell in love with this tiny bowl covered in sheer silk with two embroidered hands.
This next grouping consists of a small collaged drawing by Stephanie Dotson, an amazing printmaker, installation artist, and graphic designer, a hand colored lithograph by Athens, GA artist Rizzie Gallego, and a fun foam polariod of and abominable snow man by Amanda Burk– printmaker and comedienne extraordinaire.
Above the china cabinet, I am reserving space for some drawings I am expecting from Erin Zona and her Black Box series (I guess with these missing the room is technically not finished).
The final piece that I want to point out is the incredible ceramic work by Jeffrey Kaller. What seems to be a blooming object pulled from years beneath the sea is a magnificent sculpture. This piece often baffles guests and the fact that it is made of clay always impresses. We love Jeff’s work and were glad to see a piece much like ours gracing the cover of 500 Ceramic Sculptures.
After the art, the final touch in this room came together this weekend. When we began work on the dining room there was a new-ish chandelier hanging in the room. It was large and incorporated metal leaves and twisting tendrils of vine. This was, in short, not to our taste. As we were on the hunt for affordable and nice furniture we added new chandelier to the list. We scoured antique and thrift stores and looked and looked for a variety of options on the internet.
The decision finally came that a black crystal chandelier on eBay was the right match for our room. It has an ornate flair with a slightly modern edge. We placed our order and it came, half wired and completely disassembled, three weeks later. This weekend we pulled it out of the box and spent the better part of the day wiring and rewiring the chandelier, flipping the breaker to find different combinations of lights working (or not). There was a lot of cursing and long periods of time holding a heavy chandelier overhead while Garth wired it and attempted to anchor it to the ceiling. Attaching the dangling crystals took me a few more hours, but it was finally finished. A completed room! Maybe soon we can even have people over for dinner?
OMG, It is sooooo beautiful. I can hardly wait to come to dinner. xxo Mommy
Congratulations indeed!! The room looks fantastic. You should definitely have people over for dinner. (But maybe make it a potluck…you’ve done enough work to deserve a little break!)
wow.
Just gorgeous! That awesome ceramic piece made me wonder if you and Garth put museum putty (what we call earthquake putty) to the bottom of your delicate pieces? You’ll be glad you did after we get a large shaker!
Gorgeous! The walls are absolutely *amazing* and the black chandelier is just perfect. The whole room is beautiful, but I am seriously blown away by the damask walls. And the chandelier. Did I say that?
Absolutely gorgeous! Truly an inspriation to me, especially considering I have an older home that I have been renovating for a few years now.
It’s been a long time since KCAI. It is nice to see you doing well, Claire, and to see some names and work of our fellow classmates.
Kudos!
Holy sh*t – I love the gloss over paint texture. I too am blown away by the walls.
You did a fantastic job! I love how you pulled all the elements together and especially how you brought three different eras together. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the house comes out.
Claire,
I’m so impressed with what you did on your walls. The originality and work that you put into it really paid off. Very cool. Maybe you should do it professionally.
Really amazing! If you are going to have a dinner party (a potluck!!!) you best be inviting us…we’ll figure out a way to be there. Really cool y’all. Hopefully the site of this will give you the energy to tackle the rest…can’t wait to see how it all comes together…
Simply gorgeous! everything came out amazing. My kitchen is the same brilliant blue. Love the black accents, and the damask is so elegant. can’t wait to see the next room!
Wow! I am so happy for you two. Beautiful little nugget you have there. Did you have trouble convincing the ghosts of the house to change their traditional spook edge and become groovy ghoulies?
Congrats! It looks amazing. I know how much hard work goes into finishing one room–so my hat is off to you.
To edge, I fid it is easier and less time consuming in the long run to just becareful around the edges than to bother with masking tape or use a wide flat plasic or metal edging guide. You just hold the guide up to the edge, paint your stroke, whipe off the blade side with a damp paper towel, and move to the next section. I have a 2 foot metal one that is great for long edges, a 9″ one for small projects, and then a cut up credit card for nooks and crannies.
WOW! I can hardly wait to see this beautiful home. I’m so impressed with all of the work you’ve done. Someone raised you 2 right!
From Ugh to Ooo La La! I am a graphic designer that works part time at a sign shop, so I know the incredible feat that vinyl stencil was, which makes it even more impressive!! Great job you two!
very well done! Just wondering, if I may, why you didn’t go for one of the mid-century modern homes in the area, given your taste in furniture & accessories?
Melanie,
There are not tons of mid-century modern homes in our area. We did look at one, but the size and space for the money (in our price range at least) was impractical for our needs. Additionally, most of these type of homes seem to be located in places that were unappealing to Garth and I. Besides those things, we do love Victorian houses and though we will not be filling our home with floral prints and other decorating styles that can abound in an old home, in any research of Victorian homes that I have done they tended to be decorated in rather eclectic styles.
hey Claire– thanx for the answer, but I’ll have to disagree; there are a lot more mid-century homes in Eureka than you may realize! Care to explain what about the areas they’re located in you don’t like, as they seem to be all over (even next to some Victorians–I live in Eureka, so I’ve seen them; maybe not clustered in the Clark St area, but they are all over the city)? Ah well, they often get a bad rap from everyone, and, despite being historical now from an age perspective, they aren’t considered “historical.” I was just curious, because many of the furnishings you are showing (old & new) are mid-century modern. They look just fine in your house, I just wondered why you didn’t like the look.lines of a mid-century home.
Melanie,
I have seen mid-century modern homes around Eureka, but there were absolutely none in our price range with the square footage we required for sale during the five months we were looking for homes (and believe me, I looked at EVERYTHING in our price range that came close to the amount of space we needed). I LOVE a mid-century modern home and would gladly live in one– our tastes would certainly fit right in, but the one that was for sale that we looked at did not have enough room for studio space (a must for us) and it was located waaay out of the way off of Herrick Ave. We really wanted to live in Eureka and closer to Old Town.
When it came down to picking what was right for us location, space, and cost dictated our choice more than the type of home. Perhaps the mid-century modern homes get a bad rep from some people, but I can tell you that Garth and I lost sleep over the one we looked at and tried to convince some friends to buy it so we could at least go to parties there. No luck.