A Beautiful Place To Rest My Head

Question:  What's pink and white and dirty all over?

Answer:  Our bedroom!

I'll bet you thought I was telling a joke, didn't you?? Fortunately I'm much better at decorating than I am at joke telling. But believe me, our bedroom was a joke. A very dirty joke. Just not the kind of dirty joke you are thinking of. 

When we agreed to buy the apartment, the master bedroom had built-in cabinets over several walls. They were fine, sort of, but just not what I envisioned for our new upper east side home. So, I insisted that the seller tear them out before our closing. Much to my surprise, behind the built-ins, even behind the bed, were bright pink blocks of wall.  Apparently, the last time it was painted, not only did they paint around the built-in cabinet, but they also painted around the desk. And the bed? 

And did I mention the live wire that we found scotch taped to the wall??
 

As if that wasn't bad enough, once we removed the old radiator cover, we discovered that the radiator and the wall behind it were downright terrifying. I couldn't tell if they were peeling away, or growing new layers of... something... toxic mold maybe?? (Ok now I'm just being a tad dramatic. I think.)

And, let's not forget the custom floral blinds on each of the two windows. Although I'm sure they were lovely in their day, let's just say they are not quite my style.

These many fun surprises should have caused us to run screaming back to our midtown high rise, a world where landlords dealt with problems and we just wrote rent checks. But this, this problem was ours and ours alone. Needless to say, the day we signed the contracts was not exactly the fairytale homecoming that people dream of. Although most people would have begged their old landlord for their old apartment back, I decided that this was just a bigger and better challenge than I had expected. For those of you who know me, you know I live for a good challenge! I held onto my vision (and held my breath), and set out to make this room a beautiful and comfortable place for us to rest our heads at the end of our long and exhausting New York days.

Here are our new before and after pictures:

 Before...

After...

And a few more...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

There's even a cute little leather club chair in the corner under a lamp for reading. (Although if I'm being completely honest, I should probably admit that out of the thirty or more books I've read in the eight months we've been here, not a single one was read in this chair!)

As for the details:  The floors, once again, are Minwax Special Walnut stain (stained over our original 88-year-old oak floors) with a high gloss polyurethane. The paint again is Restoration Hardware, this time in "Cappuccino."  The furniture I already owned, with the exception of the second smaller dresser, which we added (since I now have to share my drawers!)  The set is also from Restoration Hardware, as are the three lamps. We definitely splurged the most on the accessories for this room. The bedding came from Bloomingdale's, and is Diane Von Furstenberg. The silk drapes came from Bed Bath and Beyond. We even got the world's most comfortable pillows from the W hotel, after falling in love with them the night we stayed there to sign our first New York City lease together more than two years ago. It's like sleeping on a cloud!!

I have to admit though, despite all the pricey things we bought for this room, my absolute favorite accessory is the simple two-sided Pottery Barn clock that sticks out from the wall right next to the door (Al calls it the "train station clock"). Wherever I am in the room, I can always see that I'm about to be late for work!

Life in Manhattan is crazy. If I'm not working or writing or reading or running or playing tennis or making my far too frequent trips to Bloomingdale's, I am out and about, enjoying every inch of this amazing city until I can't keep my eyes open another minute. Our days are long and there are never enough hours to do it all and still properly sleep. That is why it is so important to have that perfect place to collapse, face first, after each and every exhausting and amazing day in New York City!

Sweet dreams my decorating friends....

So Much More Than a Hallway!

In the last three and a half months, I have learned a lot about what life is like as a married person.  For example, one thing I have learned about being one half of a married couple, or at least a married couple decorating a new home, is that it is the end of romance in terms of gift giving.  This Christmas, my hubby and I did our present buying on lighting company websites and at plumbing stores!

Let me back up.  I recently decorated the foyer in our new apartment.  This "foyer," as I call it, is really just a hallway between the front door and the living room, with the dining room off to one side.  It is probably only ten feet long and three feet wide, but it is a great example of making the most of tiny spaces.  (And it is so much more fun to call it a "foyer"!) 

We started out by refinishing the floors like we did in the rest of the apartment.  We then had the painters work their magic.  (The wall color is Pumice by Restoration Hardware in a subtle velvet finish.)  But even putting a fresh face on the floor and walls did not do enough to make this little space special.  When you live in Manhattan and homes are small, I believe you should make each little space feel like it's very own special room.  So, I turned this ordinary hallway into our wedding photo gallery! 

The New and Improved Foyer

Here is a before and after of what was once an ordinary hallway:

Before

After

When my dad offered to buy us a generous Christmas gift, I decided that a gift for our home was probably the way to go.  The chandelier that was hanging was gold (I prefer silver) with ivory shades (I prefer white) which may or may not have started out ivory, but definitely ended up that way after decades of use.  After months of searching for the perfect chandelier, with a brushed nickel finish and bright white shades, I finally found just what I wanted.  And with my dad footing the bill, my husband couldn't complain that it didn't have a more reasonable Home Depot-type price tag!  Thanks to my handy hubby's vast knowledge of electricity, we were able to install it ourselves, which kept our costs down.  (So did his haggling with the lighting company on the phone.  Do you know that if you just call up and demand free shipping and added discounts, sometimes you will get them??)  Holding a chandelier over my head while balancing on a tiny step stool is certainly not fun, but it made Al so happy to do it ourselves that I guess the pain (literally...  my arms were burning!!) was worth it. 

After the chandelier was picked, we turned the wall with the beautiful (and freshly painted) molding into a black and white photo gallery with some of our favorite black and white wedding pictures.  I thought this was a fun use of the foyer, and allowed us to display a lot of photos without having them all over the apartment.  The frames are all from Pottery Barn, and were generous wedding gifts from our family and friends.  Unfortunately, right in the middle of the "gallery" is our security camera phone, but I tried to arrange the frames in such a way that the phone detracts as little as possible.  To tie it all together I put down a black and white runner from Crate and Barrel, which I bought on sale many years ago! 

Finally, we coordinated the small hallway that separates the living room from the two bedrooms and the bathroom with the front foyer.  We not only matched the paint color, but we bought a miniature version of the same chandelier, this one with three shades instead of five.  Actually, "we" didn't buy this chandelier...  This was Al's Christmas gift to me.  Before you judge him for being unromantic and giving me a light fixture, I should probably tell you that I gave him radiator temperature regulator valves purchased at a plumbing store!  In my defense, he picked them himself, and I have never seen him more excited about any gift I have ever given him!  The heart wants what it wants... and sometimes the heart wants to go to a plumbing store, apparently.

The small hallway, before...

The small hallway, after...

At the end of the day, Al and I couldn't be happier with our unromantic Christmas gifts.  They make our home much more beautiful (and, in the case of his radiator valves, our apartment no longer feels like the inside of an Easy-Bake Oven.)  I am a firm believer that the smallest details can make the biggest difference, and these two little hallways are a great example.  However, men, don't try this at home...  not all the ladies out there will be as excited as I am with a light fixture!

Not Just An Urban Legend

Despite its many flaws, there was one room that sold me, instantly, on our Carnegie Hill diamond in the rough. That room was the formal dining room. Up until that moment, I had believed that the formal dining room was a Manhattan urban legend. And once I saw one that was real, I simply had to have it.
 

I sometimes "joke" that I bought an apartment to fit my dining room set. If I'm being totally honest, however, it's not entirely a joke! You see, while living in Connecticut, I had purchased a fabulous dining room set from Pottery Barn, complete with a massive table, two insert leaves, eight chairs, and a six piece bar/china cabinet. The set was huge, but I loved it. Unfortunately, when we returned to NYC in 2010, we left it behind in my Hartford condo. There was no way it was fitting in our midtown high rise.
 

Then, when I began searching for a place to buy in Manhattan, a place to make our permanent home, my thoughts always wandered back to that Pottery Barn set. How could I possibly say good-bye permanently?? Although it's just furniture, I couldn't bring myself to let it go. I think a part of me couldn't give it away as a matter of principle. I wanted our journey to the big apple to give us a much fuller life than we had in Connecticut. But, I wanted to make the transition with as few casualties as possible along the way. I had promised my husband that life would be better here, and keeping that promise meant I had to work extra hard to make sure we gave up as little as possible. The furniture became symbolic of that mission. For that reason, when I first walked into our new home in the upper east side, I was immediately sold when I sized up the dining room and knew my furniture could finally make the journey.

Although there are still some things I would like to do, our dining room is now mostly ready to host Thanksgiving dinner next November and many fun dinner parties with our friends in the interim. Here are a few before and after shots:

Before...

After...

And a few more...

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After...

A few more still...

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After...

And a few more...

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After...

And finally...

Before...

After...

As we did with the other rooms, we had the floor sanded and stained in Minwax Special Walnut (after replacing a few rotten floor boards). After having some cracked plaster repaired, we stuck with Restoration Hardware for the paint, choosing Atmosphere Blue, which I thought would look great with the black furniture. We also painted all the trim, baseboards, and picture molding in a high gloss white, and repainted the ceiling with a bright white ceiling paint. The best improvement we made to this room was removing the unsightly bare light bulb hanging from the ten thousand pound ceiling fan. In its place is now a Pottery Barn chandelier I bought when I made the original furniture purchase. Although I am not crazy about the built-in bar/wine rack on the far side of the room, we  slightly improved the look by painting the doors all white, and (crazy as it sounds) covering up the green counter top with black wrapping paper. It's a nice temporary fix until I figure out something more permanent to do with the space. The unattractive forest green window panes are now hidden behind white linen curtains from Bed Bath & Beyond, which add a bit of casual elegance with their waterfall valance. We also subtlely personalized the space with the three prints on the wall, two of which are prints from Paris where we were engaged, and one of which is the inside of the gorgeous church we were married in last fall. The big red flowers/sticks and vase are from Crate & Barrel. Other than the curtains, we were able to completely furnish the room with our existing possessions, so besides the floor restoration and the painters, the total cost of this room was practically nothing. 

With the slight changes we have made, I am now super excited to host holidays and lots of fun evenings with our friends. See you soon for dinner!