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All The Springy Things

April showers, et cetera et cetera

The school I attended up through the sixth grade was technically Protestant - the hint being its name, Trinity - and students were required to attend Chapel each week, but, oddly enough, the student body was predominantly Jewish. So was the student body at Dalton, where I spent the remainder of my grade school years. And so was I, sort of - my dad is Jewish. Except my mom is a lapsed Protestant. And both of them are atheists. So I guess you could say that when it came to holidays, religion didn't exactly play a big role - we essentially cherrypicked the ones that seemed to make sense to us to celebrate, and celebrated those in a way that made sense to us, too.

Easter was never really a big deal in our house; it always came upon me out of nowhere, like an afterthought to Valentine's Day (the Easter Bunny usually delivered my basket of creme eggs in the morning, shortly after my parents had ushered me back into bed; it appears that I wasn't the only one who Easter took by surprise). Once, when I was in fifth grade, a friend of mine took me to an Easter service with her family. I remember being excited to dress up in my favorite plaid skirt, and I remember the kids got to go up on stage to pet a rabbit, but that's about it.

Before & After Renovations

Before And After: How We Turned Our Garage Into A Multi-Functional Living Space

Our garage spruce-up was supposed to be exactly that: a spruce-up. Perhaps a coat of paint. Maybe a throw pillow or two.

We did not start out intending to take on a project that would ultimately transform our garage from a cluttered, creepy-ish hole into the most useful (and most-used) room in our home - not to mention one that would add another 500 square feet (at least) to our living space.

It all started in July (SEVEN MONTHS AGO, if you're counting), when we decided that we wanted to move our old couch into the garage rather than sell or toss it. But then once we decided to put the couch in the garage, we thought we might as well redo the floor. And if we were redoing the floor, we might as well paint the walls. And if we were painting the walls, we might as well take down the old shelving. And if we were taking down the old shelving, we'd need some new storage solutions, and oh wait, Kendrick would love to have a dedicated space for his instruments, and shoot, skylights would really make the whole place feel so much nicer, and...

Before & After Renovations

The Dream Room

Crate & Barrel 2-Piece Lounge Sectional | Gray Malin "Viareggio Pool" Print

One of my most frequent recurring dreams: I suddenly discover a series of rooms in my house that I've never seen before, and am overtaken by a sense of simultaneous frustration (why didn't I know these rooms were here all this time?!), excitement (new rooms!) and anxiety (what will I do with all these rooms?!). Apparently dreams like this symbolize that the dreamer is discovering untapped potential, or moving beyond what they previously saw as their limitations.

To me, they've always felt slightly more literal.

Decor

Let’s Have A Chat With Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s Kim Lewis

This is Kim Lewis. You might recognize her from Extreme Makeover: Home Editionor Tiny House Nation. I would like to borrow a) her hair, b) her wardrobe, and c) her freckles, but - most importantly - I would also like to borrow her decor opinions, because I love a good door...and the doors that she designed for Rustica Hardware miiiiiight just be the best. Like, in the world.

Kim worked with me to help pick out the perfect doors to install in our not-quite-yet renovated garage  - you can see her selections here - and while I had her ear I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask her a few questions about how to incorporate super-bold design elements into your decor...and play the Match-the-Kardashian-to-the-Door game (it's a classic).

Hi, Kim! I obviously think you're fabulous and need to discuss all your fabulousness for posterity. Tell me a little about how you got to the designing-awesome-doors part of your life?


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