I. Love. Martha!!!

In an effort to avoid doing anything more on the Kitchen Cure (side note:  The majority of the fridge has been cleaned out, and it looks lovely so far!  Pics tomorrow, once it's all done...), I've been looking at the latest Martha Stewart mag, which lead me to Martha's website.

It's official.  I love this woman.  Or, the people who come up with all the ideas - whichever.

I'm currently lusting over this puppy:

It's not necessarily the items in the display, or even the color of it - so much as the "duh" of using a series of slim-profile boxes to create a moveable and unique shelving system.  I've got an area upstairs that I have no idea what to do with.  It's at the top of the stairs, so we can't have anything too big or bulky.  Previously, we had a small table there, but that just wasn't working.  It wasn't what I was looking for.  Something like this could be awesome.  Filled with pet-friendly items (as it will be on the floor-level), I can see it as a great place to plop seasonal items, much like the original picture shows.

Imagine it here:

Note my amazing Paint skilz.

I'm thinking something like this on the one side, and then perhaps a similar design on the other side of the doorway?  Too much symmetry?  Maybe.  In case you didn't know, the two farthest left rectangles represent already-present art.  The one above the proposed shelves represents something - probably in the form of a long, thin mirror - to take up more of the space on that wall.  It's a tall wall with the vault, and definitely needs something higher up.

I'm also considering the option of taking this design idea to the proposed built-in bookshelves opposite the hall doorway.

Ooohhhhhh, the possibilities!  Thank you, Martha!

Cure this!

So, I've signed up for the Kitchen Cure from Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn.  Because it needs to happen.  I've been staring at the cabinets and fridge/freezer for at least a good six months (let's be honest, it's probably been a year and a half...), thinking "there's got to be a better way."  Truth is, we don't have a very functional kitchen.  I've whined 14,000 times about how the thing is so Builder's Special, but the fact of the matter is - it's true.  There's barely anything that makes it unique and uber-functional.  The desk is great, but honestly that's the only part that I find to be really useful.  The island isn't perfect; there's no concealed location for garbage except under the sink; the cabinets aren't functional.

The first part of The Cure is cleaning out the fridge, freezer, and pantry.  Rockin'.  The good news is that we kind of went through the fridge a couple of weeks ago (though you wouldn't know it, by looking at this pic:

Dios Mio.  Okay, so the crispers below aren't all that full.  That's one bonus.  BUT, we found SIX JARS OF PICKLES.  Who needs six jars of pickles?!  Yeah.  THe bad news is that they can't even all be combined, since they're not the same - some Milwaukee's Midgets, some Gedney spicy something, etc, etc.  Six.  Plus, all those containers of leftovers don't help the situation.  I'm actually kind of stoked to go through the fridge again.  And BEYOND pumped to go through the freezer.  That thing's been needing help for a while now.  I'm happy to be giving it.
It's the pantry I'm more concerned about.  *sigh*  This is so very, very humbling, but here are the two halves (upper and lower) of the pantry.  I couldn't even tell you honestly what's in there, or where it might be located.  So sad.

See what I mean about it needing help?  Eek.  Pretty excited to get going.  :)  I wonder what will be next?!  I'm betting spice cabinets...  CAN'T WAIT!

Helloooooo, neglected blog!

Um...it's been a while.

We've painted the basement, I've finished the side table (the coffee table is almost done!!), and I've gone on a two-week siesta in Europe!  So, I've been busy for the last month.  Poor little blog has been a smidge neglected as a result - sorry to my two loyal readers.  :)

SO.  To the painting.  Let's go with the basement.  Ease back into this slowly, you know.

Here is what the basement previously looked like (as a refresher, in case you forgot, like I have already!):

(Note:  this is the former owners' decorating while the house was being sold...)

And now, TA-DA!!!!!!
(Warning:  This shots are action shots - taken while we were still painting/waiting for the paint to dry.  Until the basement is lovely and styled and decorated, I'm so not putting those pics online)

Primed!  Who knew only one coat would cover all that red!!??

The smaller side of the room - plus cat.  We went with a darker shade for the smaller side of the room.  It's SW Grandview.  We ended up having to paint two coats - the one coat over the primer just didn't do it for us - not sure why, but this was the first time we've ever had to paint two coats - and only on this side of the room.  Weird.

AND

(Hello, brother!)  This is truly the only picture I have of this side of the room - weird.  It's SW Spearmint.  Love, love, LOVE this color.  It's fantastic, and I can't get enough of it.  We painted the majority of the room in this color.  Someday, when we have a bookshelf on the only wall in the family room big enough for it, I think we'll probably paint the back of the shelves in the Grandview to tie it all in together.

So, there you have it.  We scrapped the lighter up/darker down idea, and just decided to do each part of the room in a different color (good call, Donnie Vendetta!).  It kind of delineates the two parts of the room.  The lighter side is going to be the TV/book area, and the darker area is going to be a game room/bar kind of zone.  Just you wait and see what we have coming down the pipeline...