Posts Tagged: New Home

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

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

Final Living Room Addition: Animal Print, Obviously

An eagle-eyed reader noted that the grey chevron rug that we put upstairs is the same rug that used to reside in our living room. You know, the rug that I photographed for this living room "after" post, in which I declared that I had finally - finally! - achieved a look that I was happy with.

And then my dogs destroyed my rug.

Or...they didn't destroy it, exactly...they just sort of "made it their own", and even though I was able to clean it, I wasn't able to return it to living room centerpiece-appropriate condition. Besides, I have always wanted to own a cowhide rug (and I mean always, as far back as I can remember caring about things like rugs), and so when I spotted a faux (and thus easier-to-clean) version on sale...

Decor

Before And After: Patio

I know: it's a sorry, sorry sight.

But honestly: I had no idea what to do with this space, to the point where it sat unused (and apparently unswept) for nearly a year.

Having a yard was already much too much outdoor space for me to wrap my little New York City girl mind around; I couldn't handle the additional challenge of figuring out what to do with a patio, as well. First of all, it was attached to my office - a room that we barely use anyways - so I frequently forgot it even existed. And second, I couldn't imagine why I'd sit there as opposed to...well, anywhere else. If we wanted to eat dinner outdoors, we'd probably sit at the big table in the yard, right?. And if we wanted to lounge around outside...well, we own a fire pit.

Home

Yet Another Sunroom Swap-Out

I really liked our brown velvet Pier One couch when we got it back in 2010. It was by far the nicest couch I'd owned up until that point - as in, the first couch I'd owned that was neither the very cheapest model sold at Ikea nor a hand-me-down.

Even though it was sorta saggy in the middle and didn't even come close to fitting all of our family members on it for a rousing viewing of Bubble Guppies, I've always really liked the curvy shape and chocolate-brown color, so once we replaced it with our beloved Sofa Boat we did a little brainstorming about where else in the house it might be able to find a home.

We thought about putting it in the attic (which doubles as a guest room and a playroom), but couldn't fit it up the stairs...and then we discovered: boom. It fit perfectly into the space under the picture window in our sunroom.

Love

These Kinds Of Things Don’t Happen To City Kids

Last night, I was on the phone with my dad and Indy was watching Bubble Guppies, and Kendrick came charging into the living room:

"There is a huge turtle sitting in our front yard."

That is a sentence that you don't hear when you grow up on 46th Street and 10th Avenue. Ever.

I did have a turtle when I was little, actually. I found him at our friend's lake house upstate, named him Sammy (many of the pets I had when I was little were named "Sammy"), and brought him home for a summer before releasing him back into the lake when September rolled around.


powered by chloédigital