Posts Tagged: Home Decor

Before & After Renovations

Before And After: Black and White (And Wood and Gold) Bathroom

IT'S DONE.

I love, love, love, LOVE my bathroom. I say "my" bathroom even though it's the bathroom in the hall (as opposed to the master bathroom) because from the time we moved in it was the only bathroom with an actual bath in it - and we all know how I feel about baths. So while it was the kids' primary bathroom, too, I sort of adopted it as my own.

When I set out to renovate this bathroom (before and after pics are below, but you can take a look at what it looked like when we moved in, and then it's first evolution before the major renovation here), I wanted to make sure that it worked for the kids...but I also thought, what the hell: I've always felt like my bathroom is my sanctuary. So if I'm going to put in the work to fix it up, I might as well go ahead and make it everything I've ever dreamed of.

Before & After Renovations

I Stole My Three-Year-Old’s Closet, And I’m Not Even A Tiny Bit Sorry

This is not my closet; it's Ashley Tisdale's. Mine doesn't have a chandelier, alas.

I was talking to a colleague the other day about a very particular manifestation of mom guilt: the home-and-decor-related type. In short: On top of the other ways that you feel like you have to prioritize your children's needs (all of them), you also feel like you have to prioritize them when it comes to how you set up and decorate your house. And if you don't?

Guilt.

Decor

Breaking Out The Breakables

When I was pregnant with my son, I asked my parents whether they'd babyproofed for me, already pretty certain what the answer would be, because they did things like put me in a backpack and then drive around New York City on their motorcycles. And sure enough: "No," they said, "Why would we do that? We just told you not to touch things. So you didn't."*

Why has no one ever thought of this before?! You just tell a child not to do something, and then they simply listen to you! GENIUS.

Armed with this obviously foolproof approach, I set about doing the exact same thing with my own child, theorizing that if I let our home remain fairly adult-y, he'd be better-equipped to handle himself in other people's non-child-proofed homes, in public spaces, etc. I did the basics, of course, but I left our table edges uncovered, only locked up cabinets with actual chemicals in them, and never purchased one of those seat-lock thingies that make your toilet impossible for anyone - adults included - to open.

Decor

It’s A Party In The Bathroom

Jordan Reid home decor

Note un-sweaty hair and relative non-dishevelment. (This is the “before” photo.)

Our bathroom – the one off of the master bedroom – is easily the most unattractive spot in our house. It is tiny-tiny-tiny (you can barely open the door if you’re standing inside), and is accessorized with nothing more than a dark-brown, 2-inch-deep cupboard that holds literally nothing – even miniature medicine bottles come tumbling out when the door opens. My least-favorite part of the bathroom, though, has to be the color: a vaguely nauseating combo of olive green and beige. Not “forest green” and “ecru”…olive green and beige.

Olive green and beige are not my happy colors.

Decor

How To Streamline Your Small Space (And A Giveaway!)

I have a long history with figuring out how to best organize a small living space. For years, we lived in a 350-square-foot apartment, before upgrading to what felt like a sprawling mansion: a 700-square-foot apartment. Now we live in a house, but it's a hundred-year-old Colonial, which means that it comes with its own space issues: teeny bedrooms, narrow hallways, and next-to-no closet space.

But something I've discovered over the years is that there are ways to make small-space living not just workable, but lovely. It's all about smart choices: looking for compact home items that pull double-duty and choosing decor elements that emphasize light and create the feeling of a wide-open space. Here’s how I’ve been adding a few easy updates to our home to make it more beautiful and more functional.

Entertaining

Excellent Find: Ikea Juice (Or Wine) Glasses

I have a lot of glasses. Moroccan tea glasses, blue-dyed water jars, stemless wine glasses, mismatched floral teacups...even a crazy Mason Jar Wine Chalice complete with little beach souvenirs embedded in the stem (it's true). I like trolling around home furnishings stores, yard sales and thrift stores for cool specimens, and over the years my glasses have become sort of a collection; I worry less about owning "full sets" than making sure that I love (and use) every single one.

But my absolute favorite ones - the glasses I use more than any others, for everything from my morning grapefruit juice to water to wine at a casual dinner - are my tiny, gold-trimmed glasses (a gift from my aunt, who found them at a swap meet in Canada). It's mostly the size and shape - they hold just the right amount of whatever it is that I want to drink, are so delicate and pretty that they look great incorporated into pretty much any tablescape, and are low enough that they're tough to tip over. I love them so much and use them so often, in fact, that I'm starting to get worried that despite their relative stability...I will break them, because that is the kind of thing that I do. Frequently.

When we were in Ikea last weekend (our second trip in two weeks, this time to pick up the bed-slats-that-do-not-come-in-the-package-with-the-bed) these rainbow glasses made me do an actual double take: love the size, love the shape, love the colors (springtime!). And at $1.99 each I figured I could pick up a few, and not have a tragedy on my hands should one shatter.

Home

Make A Pre-Furnished Apartment Feel Like Your Own

Q. Dear Jordan,

My elderly grandmother offered to let us rent her house. It's a great house and it will come fully furnished, which is a bonus since we won't be bringing a lot with us...but I'm wondering how we can make the place feel like our own.

We don't have a ton of money to completely redecorate the place, so I'm interested in small changes that will make an impact. How can I work with the vintage feel but still add our own elements to make it feel like our home?

- Emilie


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