my backyard dream

Happens to be the same as Cherry Menlove's. She and her husband built this gigantic table. Hawk and I wanted something similar, and we both fell for the Crate and Barrel Bascum table set, which his parents gifted to us for Christmas. The only problem with it (even after it was rained on) is that it is the right size for our dining room, but the wrong size for our dreams of entertaining. If we had our druthers, we would have had a bigger dining room so we could fit the bigger, 10-12-seater version.


But now, we have the inspiration for a backyard version:

Wouldn't that just be ideal? Plenty of room for plenty of guests. 


Check our her full post here: Cherry Menlove.


icj,
~j

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to dine or not to dine

I know, not the most creative or accurate post title, but there it is just the same.

So the number 1 email question I receive is, "Where are more photos of your house?" And we keep putting off posting pictures of "finished" rooms because they're not really finished. We don't have the money or the certitude to truly decorate, so I hesitate to show you what things look like until they're just perfect. 

So, as they will never be perfect, and as I love reading about the in-between stages of other DIY-homeowning-bloggers, here ya go:

Dining Room facing west before:

Dining Room facing south east before:

Dining Room facing north with our old table--my grandparents willed us their Ethan Allen table---we love everything about it except the formica top... But I just think it looked so good in this space:

Our dream table. I saw this first at Crate & Barrel years ago and ever since, I've been seen to fall across it and bestow a kiss or two. I can just imagine the 6 kids I want to create sitting around this table flinging scalloped potatoes at each other and yelling, "He's touching me!"

Same table, chair shot:

Close-up of the bea-u-tiful wood finish. Ahhhhhhh.

And here it is! Hawk's parents found these pieces on the cheaper side (I will never by anything other than a slightly damaged or floor model again!!) and gave them to us for Christmas! Both our mothers are so good at waiting for sales, talking down prices (Momma Shedd once did it was a car she already bought!), finding (not creating) scratches that bring the cost down, scouring Marshall's for sweet rug deals (Mom Hawk can't seem to go in there without an incredible, worthwhile find). Oh, and the dozen tulips were only $5 at the market.

Mom Hawk painted the ceiling and primed the room with extra sample paint in similar shades. I really wish I had a picture of it, because it actually looked like some old cottage in House Beautiful! She trimmed the windows in one coat, and then Hawk and I finished with 2 more trim coats and 3 coats on the walls. The base color is the same as the living room and the top color is one shade lighter on the swatch scale. Living Room & Bottom shade: Balanced Beige by Sherwin Williams, mixed at Home Depot into a Behr paint.  The Upper shade is also Sherwin Williams, mixed by Home Depot into a Behr paint: Realistic Beige.

So one more shot of the old:

And here's the current room in the daylight, which we think better reveals the actual color of the room.

We have a lot of plans for this room. I hope to post some of the inspiration photos and finds in the next week. We'll see if I follow through on that hope. If not, remind me, eh?

Here's one place we find a lot of inspiration--and we love the couple! 

icj,

~j & Hawk

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How to throw an almost-perfect dinner party for 10: part III...letting go

So we've had a couple posts about hosting a dinner party. What to do, and what to do better.

Despite the challenges of the evening, it was a success. In the first post, we mentioned offering entertainment and being able to enjoy each other's company. For each person, couple, or family this differs. For the Hawks, we chose two things: music and questions. For those of you who know us personally, you can pretty much guess who does what best.

First, we broke out the questions. I (jen) always wanted to do this so after a friend from work mentioned that she does something similar and it's a big hit, I went with it. I use this box:

This gives me an appealing way to store the questions (a.k.a., not lose them) and also helps the presentation. Let's face it, when we tell a bunch of adults that they're going to write down and then answer question around the table, there will likely be a bit of groaning, rolling eyes, etc.

And provide slips of paper on which our guests are asked to write any question in the world:

And then we put them back in the box, 

have everyone draw one, and go around and listen to their answers. Note: it's not an "icebreaker"! We do this after the meal and many drinks have been consumed. The conversation that comes forth is fantastic and different every time if we don't anticipate what someone will answer, or force the conversation one way.

After the questions and much to his chagrin, our guests and I convinced Hawk to break out his old and new mandolins. At least one other person in the group knew how to play. Here he is explaining how he chose the Mandolin Store's Custom Gibson F5-G while Eric plays in the background:

Here we are enjoying three separate conversations. One of Gianna, Hawk, and Eric to the left, one of Colin and myself, and one with the other five on the right.

Eric breaking out Hawk's guitar and leading us in a rendition of Blackbird by the Beatles.

I love this next photo; it just seems old-school, classic, and it captures the devilish look our friend Colleen often has in her eyes:

We have a few videos of the evening which are brilliant! They include guitar-led group singing (with most of us forgetting the words) and an opera singer letting loose! When I figure out how to edit and post them through vimeo, I'll let you know. This may be another year at my rate.

Happy Thursday!

icj,

~j

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Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Three weeks ago I posted about a dining room Photoshop design consultation and promised that "tomorrow I'll post pics of our old dining room."


I've just discovered that I lie. Or at least forget. Some would debate much difference between the two...


So, without further ado, here are a couple of photos of our dining room "before."

facing west toward the back yard

facing southeast toward the house center

You can see a few things in this photo worth noting. 
One: the dining room opens up into both the kitchen (right) and living room (left). 
Two: we have a really big built-in china cabinet with original glass doors. They are currently at Mom Hawk's place after stripping the hardware--we hate that painted-over hinge look; it reminds us of old college apartments--and being repainted.
Three: we have a chair rail. More on that in future posts.


Now, I recall posting about this already, but I cannot find evidence of this anywhere. So if you've already seen the photos, well, there they are again ;)


Readers have emailed me about the color red we chose in the dining room. Since we've gone with a slightly different look, I can't tell you what red we chose, but I'll offer this as a little inspiration until I get better photos (meaning, before we eat dinner and have to clean up and I'm too tired to think about photos)...

House Beautiful

And...technically our dining room looks nothing like this, but if I had this dining room, I'd be happy to entertain in it.

icj,

~j

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Get a Picture Perfect Idea

Alright, so October is the worst month for me (Jen) at work. Just busy busy busy. So I'll return to blogging about paint soon, but in the meantime, I'll keep your home interest juices flowing with a few call-outs to some great blogs.


Today's call-out goes to The Lettered Cottage.  Its creator offers a design consultation service (she's one of those lucky people who get to do blogs for a living because it coincides with their design work).  I thought that her consultation in this dining room was fantastic.  Since I've been blogging recently about dining rooms, I thought this bright dining room would fit in nicely.

What do you think?  You'll get the best idea if you go see the original room here. 


Tomorrow, you'll finally see images of the original Hawk dining room.  See you then!


~j

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color me shady part 1: r e d r u m . . .

Our first painting decision and greatest painting dilemma came in the form of a red room.  Jen's  favorite color is red, Hawk finds red dining rooms classy yet bold.  We knew it had been done in just about everyone's dining room since 1997, and many a mover-friend remarked, "Well, at least you'll fit in," but we still wanted to go ahead with it.  Here's an example of the color Hawk had in mind:

Here's more of what I had in mind, minus the stripes---think overall look:

painting lesson #1:  Think as a pair and go with what you like as a couple, even if it is unoriginal.  We received a lot of friendly criticism (mostly from my home-owner friends), but we forged ahead anyway and are grateful we made that decision.  The question for homeowners shouldn't be, "How do we make this totally unique and new?"  I believe it should be, "How do we take pride in our work here, what do we want to convey to those who visit, and what do we actually want to see everyday?"  We knew we wanted our guests to feel warm and comfortable in our home.  We wanted to see life from room to room.  And we wanted to do the work ourselves.  For us, the decision to go red was a no-brainer.


{the devoted detail} When we first moved in together (after our wedding) Jen thought she would have the say in the majority of decorating, but we soon discovered that Hawk also wanted a say in the look and feel of the house.  The male-female territorial stereotypes were clearly not holding ground here.  After a little humbling reflection, Jen concluded this: What would I rather have in 20 years: a home that always reflected one person in the union (lets say for argument's sake that Jen is an incredible decorator), or story upon story of the struggle it took to make it our home and the evidence of a family?  So even though her shade of red was better (wink wink), we concluded that the unified front made for a better home for us.

In coming posts, I'll include a photo of the original dining room as well as some of the reds we considered.

upcoming painting lessons: {sneak peek}  painting lesson #2: where's waldo?

~j

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