Uggh. All those frames hung on Julianna’s walls are starting to drop off, over a week after putting them up. They’re attached with 3M’s Command Strips - adhesive backed velcro pieces that are supposed to be removable and won’t mess up your walls. The problem is that our walls our plaster and impossible to drive nails into without tearing the walls apart, so I have to go with the 3M option. I have no idea why it isn’t working … I followed the instructions properly and paid careful attention to weight restrictions. The entire adhesive just seems to detach from the wall, and actually DOES take a little paint with it. The walls were prepared well before painting - they used to be wallpapered, but we removed it and primed twice before painting with Benjamin Moore’s EcoSpec paint. And what’s weird is that lighter frames are dropping before slightly heavier ones, with the same sized Command Strips attached. AGGGGGHHH!

We have two “family” rooms in our house - one we refer to as the “TV room” and the other, the “piano room.” I prefer to keep the TV room strictly for TV watching (pretty much just Netflix movies, Frasier reruns, The Office, 30 Rock, and Masterpiece Theatre - “Cranford” is SOOOOO good!) and the piano room for entertaining and, of course, piano playing. The piano room has really been neglected lately and now that the weather is so much nicer, we’re thinking about finally tackling the walls. I’m thinking of going with a light blue - possibly “Jamaican Aqua” or “Barely Teal” from Benjamin Moore. They’re the 2 lighter shades of our kitchen, which is “Tropicana Cabana.”

I’d post a picture of the piano room as it currently looks, but my camera battery is charging at the moment and I’m just really excited to share my Google Sketchup 3D mockup:

The details:

1. The pear print above the sofa is a canvas Marimekko print from CB2.com - a gift from my parents for my birthday a couple weeks ago.
2. The sofa is the Arild sofa from IKEA.
3. The side tables are IKEA Lack.
4. The plywood chair is an Eames knockoff I ordered from American Modern Furniture last year.
5. The bookcases in the back are Billy bookcases from IKEA. We don’t have these yet.
6. The rug is also nonexistant … I’m thinking of going with some moss green Interface Flor tiles.
7. The lamps are from Crate & Barrel - purchased a few years ago.

Our kitchen is still unfinished … no backsplash, no central light fixture, no window treatment. I’ve been having fun with Mosaic Tile Supplies‘ “Mosaic Maximizer” and have come up with some tile blends that might work for our kitchen backsplash. I’m also trying to decide what to do about the walls in the adjacent mud room. For the past year, I’ve been planning on painting the walls either the same blue as in the kitchen or some sort of orange. But then I saw this wallpaper, “Stem,” from Orla Kiely at Anthropologie and am reconsidering. I’ve mocked it up in Google Sketchup, as you can see in 2 of the 3 pictures below. I like it, and I don’t think the pattern is too much when paired with the checkerboard floor. But I worry that it competes too much with the pattern in the backsplash - especially if I go with a rainbow of colors for the backsplash. Sometimes I think I should just stick to Google Sketchup, because I’m just too afraid of commitment!

I’ve had thinking about a new furniture arrangement for our living room. Ever since we bought our house, I’ve been struggling to come up with a layout that works. The biggest issue is the piano - I really feel like it needs to remain in the back of the room since it’s so honking big. Also, with a grand piano, it needs to face a certain direction so that the lid opens towards the audience and not towards a wall. The fireplace, which we don’t use, just seems to be an impediment. The IKEA Lack bookcase isn’t really cutting it - it’s difficult to arrange books in it and is probably better used as a display case or an artfully designed bookcase/display case hybrid.

Here’s the current layout (designed in Google Sketchup - all pieces are to scale). The arrow represents the entry way:

In Sketchup, I recently came up with a layout that works much better, I think. I’ve placed IKEA Billy book cases (which we don’t have yet) against the far wall flanking the oddly-sized windows we have back there. I’ve moved the piano to a less than ideal position, but I think in the grand scheme of things, the room is a lot more comfortable this way. Unfortunately, it does block the fireplace a bit and I’m not sure how I’m going to like that. I kind of wish we could get rid of the fireplace altogether.

Here’s the improved layout:

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d welcome the advice!

Take a look at this fantastic kitchen (from Flickr user zuess) using IKEA’s red and white Abstrakt fronts. Reminds me of my own kitchen with the VCT floor and formica countertops.

While we’re nowhere NEAR ready to re-side or paint the house, I’m dreaming up ways to improve its curb appeal anyway. I used Photoshop to mock up the color of the house and add a portico over the front stoop. I can’t imagine the house any other color than blue - unfortunately the neighbors to our left and across the street have blue houses as well. I wonder if they’d mind. The inspiration for this new look came from Blueprint magazine’s first issue.

Photoshop house:

Current house:

The inspiration:

I’d consider leaving the black storm door off, since it probably wouldn’t be that necessary with the portico overhead.

I really like these trivets from Typhoon. 5mm tempered glass, each $7.00.

These floor mats would be ideal for trapping the cr*p that comes off Bingo when he comes in from outdoors:

StepOne Clean Tack Adhesive Mats

They’re coated with adhesive and come as 30 disposable layers per mat - 4 mats per order. $70.50 for the small package, which is 18″x36″.

I think this fish tank toilet would look great in the bathroom off the kitchen:

$299 at Fish ‘n Flush.

I’m so pleased with the color of our walls - Benjamin Moore “Sweet Vibrations.” I didn’t think it would turn out to be so yellow, but it’s really grown on me. I especially like it at night when the lamps are lit.