one room challenge - the bathroom edition week 1

Spring has sprung, flowers are blooming and the One Room Challenge is back! That's damn good news people!

Twice a year Linda rounds up a group of 20 bloggers to design and put together a room in six weeks. Each Wednesday we all give updates on our progress and six weeks from today (fingers crossed) we unveil some pretty cool spaces. I'm lucky enough to be participating for the third time (see the first two rooms here) and I'm blown away by this group of participants. I mean, c'mon. Just take a look...

Pretty amazing, right?! Needless to say I've got to bring it people. The pressure is on! And what better way to alleviate pressure than to drink take on a huge job in a short time frame? Wait, that doesn't sound right.

No matter, I'm in the thick of it now. So what am I doing?

Welcome to my new home away from home for the next six weeks. Now you could be thinking - "What in the hell? She's doing a horder's bathroom?!" but let me explain.

This is the guest bathroom in my sister's condo (needless to say she doesn't have many guests these days). The whole condo needed A LOT of work when she move in and slowly over time she's been tackling each room as she could. Since she has another bathroom this room became the catch all for supplies, leftovers and castoffs that accumulate when you are under construction.

Well the good news is the rest of her condo has made some big headway. The bad news is that her guest bath looks like that. It is high time girlfriend has a place for guests to splash some cold water on their face after drinking a few of her tasty mojitos.

When we started to think about what was going to happen in this bathroom it took about sixty seconds to come up with blue and white. If y'all think I've got some collections, you should see my sister's place. She has more Chinoiserie in her house than....well anyone else I know (and that's saying a lot).

Realizing that particularly in a bathroom many fixed elements are just that - fixed (unique is not really a word that comes to mind when you think of toilets), we've done lots of hunting to find unique things to make this not just another bathroom. Good things are coming people. Believe it. I'm super excited for this one, it is going to be one major 'after'.

Now that you know my hair-brained scheme, let's see what the others have cookin.

Abby M. Interiors 

Because it’s Awesome 

Bijou & Boheme 

Calling It Home 

Chez V 

Chinoiserie Chic 

Copy Cat Chic 

The Decorista 

Design Crisis 

Design Indulgence 

Design Manifest 

The English Room

The Glam Pad 

Mimosa Lane 

My Notting Hill 

The Pink Pagoda 

Simple Details 

My Sweet Savannah 

Verandah House

Be sure to check for progress on Instagram, join the linking party tomorrow over at Linda's and come back next week when I hope to show a few less vacuums in the bathroom. That's a good goal for the first week, right?

spring cleaning

Well hey, look at that. I've got myself a new look! The amazing Sara Mueller is giving me a new look and feel, so excuse us while we tweak and fine tune.

In the meantime, be sure to check out my visit over at It's Overflowing, where I share some updated tour photos!

fess up friday - freckles chick

Today's Fess Up Friday guest is a girl after my own heart. Nya, of Freckles Chick, is hilarious and we like to share many sarcastic and inappropriate comments and jokes. Anyone who can serve up large doses of witty banter and laughs is aces in my book. And she just so happens to live in one of my favorite parts of the country. What is not to love?! So Nya, Fess Up and do me proud!

Hello Little Black Door readers!  
I'm such a fan of Elizabeth & her Fess Up Friday series; refreshingly real & funny are right up my alley.  I'm stoked to be here!  On my blog, I share our renovating/decorating adventures & snippets of life with our glorious 2 year-old daughter.  I like sarcasm (even I don't know if I'm joking anymore).  I like red wine.


Hurry & scroll down to read my exciting post, just to escape that GIF!  ;-)
There are a bunch of things I will readily fess up to: I cringe at selfies on Instagram that are just digging for compliments (& have been guilty of it myself).  I think Justin Bieber might be Miley Cyrus (has anyone ever seen them in a room at the same time?).  I have read Get Off My Internets because when my blog stats show me that some of my blog traffic was coming from there, how could I not (hello heart palpitations).  I eat an entire wheel of brie in one sitting.  I sometimes check Instagram whilst playing with my daughter.  Some days, my "happy hour" starts at 5:00 pm 4:30 pm 3:00 pm.  I'm the first to laugh at most inappropriate jokes.  I curse too much & am working on curbing it for my kid's sake.  I love being active but can't commit to a regular workout regimen.  I don't understand spending tons of money on a haircut.  I'm not on FaceBook (or is it BookFace?).
But I couldn't construct a real post out of those confessions, so today I'm fessing up to the day-to-day state of our home (as others have done here).  If bloggers are honest, I think most of us can agree that if you were to rotate the camera a few degrees to the side on some of our blog-worthy photos, you would see chaos.  "Messy" is subjective to varying degrees but I think we can all agree that no one lives in a perfectly styled vignette every day, right?  If you do live like that, I'm so jealous (& also let's be friends).  My home is far from perfectly styled nor is it teetering on "hey squatters might live here".  It just looks lived in!
Look at me.....

Don't look at me!

The day I snapped pics of our clean living room,

 I just threw everything over the back of the sofa:

Awww......

Crap!

We're not hoarders.  We just like for each space to tell a story. This space says: we might be hoarders.


Well, as long as we're clean, fed, happy, healthy & kind......I'm fine not living in a world of fresh flowers, brass/gold objects of curiosity, Domino-book-used-as-decor, fiddle leaf figs, karate-chopped throw pillows & such.   Unless you totally have some & are willing to share :-)
Thanks so much for reading! Thanks for having me, Elizabeth!

furbish studio's vintage sale

I can hardly wait. In just a few hours (11:00 AM EST) my favorite store that I've never been to, Furbish Studio will be having a huge ONLINE sale full of vintage and one of a kind things. The next best thing for those of us not lucky enough to live close by.

Be sure to check it out! I'm counting the minutes!

seasonal style

We survived spring break! Several play dates, outings, babysitters, and a husband gone most of the week for work and we made it. Monday is here and a normal schedule can resume. Hip hip hooray! (Funny, that isn't the same reaction I used to have to the end of spring break)

One thing I did to fill my time after the girls were in bed each night was read a stack of magazines as tall as my dog. Which, in my opinion, is a damn good time. But it stirred up the yearly quest for change - a chance to sprurce things up again after the season so evil we will not speak its name.

via

Magazines and designers have long encouraged the idea of having spring/summer accessories (pillows, throws, curtains, etc.) and then a stash for fall/winter. The theory being the changes would be enough to make you feel as though you have a 'new room' of sorts without having to do any major (and expensive) changes.

Glitter Guide

Now I'm not talking "decorations" like throwing pumpkins around the room in the fall and adding rabbits in the spring. I mean decor, subtle but substantial changes that would give a different feel to a room. My trouble is always that my whim to change things never seems to line up with the change of seasons. Go figure.

So what do you think? Is this a "sounds great in theory but I'll never do it" kind of thing? Do you have a stash of pillows that you change out with the seasons?

fess up friday - emily a clark

After we fess up today, be sure to head over to Driven by Decor where I am sharing my tip every blogger should know, along with a group of fantastic ladies. Very worthwhile reading.

Our Fess Up Friday guest today needs no introduction, but since that's my job, I'll introduce her anyway. Welcome Emily, of Emily A Clark! Emily was one of my very first blog addictions and in addition to watching her create some pretty beautiful spaces, I've loved watching her family of five grow to a family of seven. Yep, seven. So Emily, fess up!

When I saw Elizabeth’s email asking me to participate in one of her Fess Up Friday posts, I will admit I got nervous. I feel like I’m a pretty open book on my blog, but there is a less than pretty side you haven’t seen of my life. But, today, I’m prepared to come clean and share my “dirty” little secret.

That’s right. I’m a van slob. Oh, and I could care less.

I know I should be ashamed of how big a mess our van always is, but I’m too busy to feel bad about it. It’s the one area of life that I just can’t keep up with, and it all comes crashing down in a big pile of papers, school craft projects, coffee cups and empty juice boxes on our van floor. I’m focused on a mission when it comes time to load kids in and out of the car, and trying to be tidy in any shape or form just goes right out the window. I’ve even seen some of our “debris” fly out of the van door when I’ve dropped the kids’ off at school. It’s not the most fun to see a teacher pick it up, turn her nose up and throw it back in the van. But, I’ll live. On the upside, I never fear that our family of seven will starve to death should we get stranded on the side of the road for any length of time. I’m 99% sure we could put together a small buffet, if need be.

Now, I will admit that on a couple of occasions, I’ve had one of the kids’ friends comment on how messy it is and have felt a little shame. But, you know what? I’m not the only one contributing to this problem. I have three older accomplices (stuffed) in the back seat who have willingly admitted to drawing graffiti on the back of the seats, causing a ketchup packet to explode all over the ceiling and sticking the world’s strongest stickers to our windows. It’s really an uphill battle that this momma doesn’t have time to fight.

Alright, confessional over. Don’t think less of me. I’m going to drive a really nice car with the cleanest interior ever when all of the kids leave for college. Promise.

I'm right there with you Emily! What about you?

the strength of ten men

A while back I was at my all time favorite antique store when I spotted something I loved (no surprise there). True, I do always spot something I love there, or 10 somethings, but this was different.

It was an antique English bamboo armoire. Cue chorus of singing angels. And it was just the right size to go down in the family room for extra storage (more on that idea later).

Quick backstory - when I was 17 there was a fabulous antique English bamboo bed, dresser with marble top and armoire at an antique store I would go to with my mom. I lusted after it. Dreamed about it. But sadly I had nowhere to put it, as I was 17. And it was out of my price range, as I was 17. Not until now had I seen a piece in person that so closely resembled it.

But there was a problem. See the door on the right - it is closed all the way. That sucker is bowed. And when you open it, the whole piece makes this popping and cracking noise as if it was going to bust apart at any minute. And the top has a big crack running right down the middle of it.

The price is good, but the condition is not. So I did something that took all the willpower I had.

I. Walked. Away. (gasp)

My mom assures me my dad could fix it but I don't think the price is good enough to take in to account the months of hard labor. And at the pace my dad works, it would be months.

Now I grew up with antiques. I have antiques. I'm under no illusion that they should always be in pristine condition, but I would like the damn door to close without fear of the whole things falling in on me.

So I'm sharing to keep me honest. It is not worth the money to buy something in such bad shape...right? Even if it is so pretty?

My only solace is that all of these months later, it is still sitting in the shop. I visit it often and always check the tag just in case it goes on sale. No such luck.

Have you ever had to use all of your willpower in a store before? Ever bought something in bad shape just because you loved it? Know anyone who can will tell me this sucker can be fixed in a week?