It's Curtains for You!

I am a recovering pack rat.

Collecting design ideas is one way I can channel my hoarding tendencies. I cut them out of magazines and file them in a binder full of clear sheet protectors. (Yes, I'm a bit type A as well). I figure I can "collect" design ideas for years and never fill the spare bedroom or devote the garage to nick-knacks like baby elephant figurines or framed photos of lighthouses. Anyway, I digress, I was looking through the binder today and came across this page.

Now I originally collecte it because I liked what they did with the yellow trim on the pillows. Yellow is my favorite color and I'm always looking for tasteful ways to incorporate it into my home (read: anything but blue and yellow country ducks in the kitchen).

Anyway I also have this problem:

You may not really notice the "problem" until I tell you but I got cheap and bought two smaller blinds (the ones that look like reeds). This design trick, hang curtains longer than your windows and then obscure the wall above the actual end of the window with a decorative blind, gives the effect of tall, elegant sweeping windows when, in actuality, the windows are standard height. Well as you can see the blinds are split and don't really pull this off.

Enter my design binder...for the genius solution!

Did you see it?
Look again...

Okay, I'll help you, the curtains are in the middle of this window! Well, at least some of them are. So in the easiest design solution I've EVER executed...I... get this... Pulled the curtains in!!!

TA-DA!
Can you tell I'm excited?
Anyway it was easy and I'm pretty tickled.

A few other notes about the curtains.
I bought oversized pannels from Ikea for something like $24 a pair.
I also bought curtain rods and little clippy rings. No idea what the technical term for those could possibly be. I cut off the tabs on the top, remember I'm going for sweeping/elegant/modern not "cute", and folded them over until the bottoms of the panel just touch the carpet. Voila!

Not this many design ideas are this easy.
It's almost like design drive through.

You could do this with a babe in one arm.
You could do it after a night of partying.

Heck, a 3 year old could execute this one.

This is not a derogatory statement about three year olds.

Tall "custom length" curtains for less than $300! (wayy less than $300).
You could even do this with a sheet in a tasteful color.

So, Go forth BODC-ers, and move your curtains!

I [Still] Own A Powder Blue Bidet

You know how when you see something every day for, say... 3+ years... you stop seeing it? Until, one day, you wake up and say "wow, I had forgotten how weird/odd/ugly that is?" And no, I am not talking about my husband!

When we bought our non-farm house, it had been on the market for a little while because it was ugly and weird it had some interesting design touches. Things like decorative stencils, haunted house chandeliers, an indoor hot tub, photographic tile of river rock... seriously, that tile reminded me of those 3D Magic Eye puzzles (stare at it long enough and an image pops out at you).

Anyway, the house had "character." Oh, did I mention the blue? Yeah. Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) was blue. Carpet, counter tops, tile, linoleum, blinds, toilet, tub, hot tub, roof, bidet...

"Yah, we get it Annie, it was all blue. Move this story... wait. Did you say 'bidet'? What the hell is a bidet? Isn't that one of those fake half toilet things that squirt water up your...?!?" So glad you asked.

Bidet [Bid-A] (from Wikipedia): "Bidet is a French word for pony (and in Old French, bider meant to trot). This etymology comes from the notion that one rides a bidet much like a pony is ridden. In addition, the bidet is also referred to as the 'garden hose.'"

Seriously. You can't make that stuff up. Now, before all you bidet riders out there get your panties in a twist, I am not going to denigrate your beloved bidet. In fact, you are more than welcome to your beloved bidet... and mine, for that matter. See, we aren't really bidet riders here. Chalk it up to our un-cultured American-ness if you must. I am sure our bidet is a very nice bidet, as bidets go. I mean, in powder blue, it obviously didn't come off the shelf. Definitely a custom order.

But in a small-ish bathroom, already overloaded with dark blue marmoleum, blue counter top, blue sink, blue toilet, and blue bathtub... well, the blue bidet is just a little much. It was a little much 3 years ago when we bought the house... and we just sort of stopped seeing it. As it now doubles as a bowl shaped magazine stand, it is hard to actually see. I know, we have CLASS stamped all over us. And just for the record, as soon as my friend Christy saw it, and she said "Look! A water fountain for Ava!" we turned the water off.

So the bidet has to go. It is time. We have tile samples and floor samples and I am ready to remodel. The first thing to go? Gonna be the blue bidet. And before the bidet people get offended because this poor, beautiful, blue bidet will ride (be ridden?) off into the sunset... we are going to give you a chance to purchase rescue it. Craigslist, here our bidet comes... but first, may I suggest you get in the mood by reading Young House Love?

FEVER

Well kids, here it is. The story that brought the blog back from the dead. Or the vast void of cyperspace. I have been reading this blog lately, and dying of home improvement lust. I REALLY want a farm. But since I can't have a farm at the moment (more on that in the coming weeks), I am nesting like crazy in my non-farm. Hence the home improvement lust. Anyway...

The folks over at Young House Love are young, hip, totally balls out home improvers. They also like a good deal. And they scored some totally rad dining chairs on Craigslist for an amazing price. And then shrunk and dyed cheap slipcovers to look amazing, but I am letting my lust get ahead of me. Again.

So. We need chairs. And a table. Desperately. We have a pub table that seats four that my fantastic hubby Aaron built (he is pretty balls out too). It is a great pub bachelor table, but it is small. We can have exactly 1 person over before we have to start nervously shifting from one foot to the other while trying not to spill wine and drop food standing and eating. It has been like this for ages and now, thanks to the damn talented Young House Lust people, I get the FEVER for chairs.

You know the FEVER don't you? The "have to have it now or I will just DIE" fever? Yeah, I had that. So I have been haunting Craigslist for cool chairs just like my new internet idols. The only problem is that our local Craigslist is small town pond and the chairs are pretty... uhm... well... bad (no offense Wenatchee). So I was trolling the big town Craigslist (Seattle) looking for better chairs when I saw a random ad and clicked on it.

Words like "mid-century" and "modern" and "available TODAY" danced in front of my eyes. Oh! And the price! Perfect! I called at 4:00 PM on a Sunday. A very nice lady answered and explained that she was going back to Portland the next day and we had to pick up the items that night if we wanted them. I asked her "are they solid wood?" and she said "yes" so we were sold. This was the kind of Craigslist deal I had been dreaming about. Nevermind the fact that we had to drive 3 HOURS each way to pick them up... and it was already 4:15 PM... and the fact that we had a roast on the grill at that very instant... and the fact that Aaron had to work the next day... nope, we both had the FEVER now and the only cure is PURCHASE.

So off we went. Roast into the crock-pot, kid into the car, and we began our adventure. Since this is already embarassingly long, I will skip past the part where we got lost in Cle Elum (no, I don't know how that happens either) and straight to the part where we arrived and laid eyes on our treasures.

"WTF?!?" you say? "Those aren't chairs!? That ad lady LIED to you." Well... yes and no. See, we knew they weren't chairs. We just liked the look and it seemed like a fun, spontaneous adventure. And a good deal. Which it was, until we layed eyes on our charming, veneer-over-particle board sideboard and cabinet. In hindsight, the ad said something about "walnut" and the picture was clearly teak... which makes sense now that I know the top of both pieces is veneered with walnut laminate and the rest is covered in teak veneer. Shudder.

"Hey Annie, that photo looks like it was taken in your living room. How weird that someone else would have ugly blue carpet too." Uhmm... yeah. We bought them. Hey! Don't judge. It was 8:00PM, we were 3 hours from home and we already had the $80 in our pocket. Driving an empty trailer home really didn't seem like fun...

... but neither was a 3 hour return trip without the "cool purchase" high that accompanies a good bargain. We had 3 hours to marvel at our particle board disaster. Then we got home (at 11:30), where the delicious smell of roast mocked us as we came in the door. Since they were already here, in our garage no less, we figured we might as well haul them into our living room. No, I really don't know what we were thinking. I don't have any good excuses. All I can say is that we were sick. Really ill, running a FEVER and not thinking clearly. And for the sake of your home decor, do not ingest Craigslist immediately after devouring Young House Love.