well, moving into my new place 2 weeks before my Holiday Shoppe opened was not very good timing.  I basically, moved in, unpacked what i had and that was that, no decorating, no day dreaming about how to transform a room…nothing.  no time.

well, i had a few days off in january and made a few quick changes because while time was still at a premium, i could not live one more day with the pale institutional yellow paint in my kitchen.

not. one. more. day.

well, without much thought at all, i just decided to go nuts and paint my kitchen PINK!  …AND BLACK!  it is STILL a work in progress…i need a little more art, i need a rug, i have to arrange the items in my cupboard, but it is SUCH a relief to be walk into my kitchen and NOT into that hospital yellow color but a fun and happy color.  IN FACT, i have found myself cooking and baking with some regularity since making the change…this, this is notable!

BEFORE: i swear the yellow paint was WAY worse in person:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER: well sorta, still have stuff to do, but you get the idea

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not really.  no crackin’ of skulls just a little loving of them, in honor of the upcoming Halloween Holiday

image found here

image found here

image found here

image found here

image found here.

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So, the thing is I neglected to include the names of the flickr accounts in which these images belong, but all of the above images were simply found by searching for plate walls in flickr.  Aren’t they lovely though!!!

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oops!  they did it again!  my favorite, YELLOW OWL WORKSHOP has just sent me an email letting me know they have finally released their latest stamp set and let me tell you, THEY HAVE OUT DONE THEMSELVES!

i swear, these are amazing!  and do not worry, i have just ordered them and they should be here SOOOOOOON: 

CORRECTION: evan just corrected me, the sets will not be available until JUNE but soon as they are ready i will HAVE THEM at RS!!!

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Over at ROOM SERVICE headquarters I am slowly transitioning the store into spring.  Most of the new spring merchandise will not be in for another 3-4 weeks or so, but the transformation is under way…none of the new spring displays are done or even completely figured out yet! (best part of having no boss!!)  but I have been playing around a bit and here is the first stage of one new display….SPRING BIRDS!!  I have an element to add to the branches yet to suggest green budding and then will decoupage a few more birds up…but this is the first round:

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I have forgotten about this gem, this is what happens when i forget to go through and organize all my bookmarks on my computer, but thanks to the February issue of Domino magazine, I have been  reminded of 20×20.com a great resource for affordable art…You decide the price, $20, $200, $2000….brilliant!

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so, as you may or may not recall from several recent posts of mine, i have a new apartment and it has extraordinarily ugly kitchen cabinets….you know the ones…they are the Home Depot cheap oak beveled ones with no hardware and an ugly finish….yeah, those.  Now, add to that a forest green laminate counter…yes, forest green.  someone thought that was a good idea, and then, to that, add nude-colored laminate tiles on the floor with beige floor boards and finish it all off with a crappy piece of aluminum separating the kitchen floor from the GORGEOUS original hardwood flooring.  

why.  why oh why do people do what they do?

SOOOOO, as i stated here i am choosing to look at it as a design challenge and in time will post before and after pics, until then i would like to share some different reader suggestions that have intrigued me…although, at this point i am really craving a non-fussy really clean look and may end having my own new door fronts made out of a nicer-grade plywood …who knows.

So here are a few of the ideas i received, starting with the lovely Stephanie S. who some of you may recognize as the long-haired pretty gal who sometimes moonlights over at ROOM SERVICE the store….she sent me a link with this idea:

Click HERE for the full post on Tres chic Veronique’s blog

Another great idea was posted on my blog by Lisa…I do not know if I will actually do this one on my cabinets, but it is highly likely that i will use their exact example on the door of my apartment!  I love this:

Click here to see How About Orange’s DIY idea

Other GREAT ideas have been sent to me, the awesome Stephanie of even cleveland was a fan of the open shelving, and my friend and stylist, Sharon has been generous with ideas too. although I am still leaning towards a few other ideas that include making new plywood doors, or taking the doors off altogether (of course, i just don’t think can make the contents look neat enough) and running a curtain (like a hospital, but not at all like a hospital) around the entire perimeter of the kitchen, using either white sheers or some fabulous fabric…OR the idea am enjoying currently is wallpapering the walls all around the cabinets with some amazing wallpaper (there are so many out there anymore aren’t there!) and just either picking a pattern that plays into the ugly cabinets or totally distracts or something…we’ll see.

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So, you may have inferred from my post here that i have moved.  For the couple weeks or so that I have had the keys I have been trying to get a few things set up so that by the time I moved in, it would be, well, livable…at least tolerably so.

The timing is not great, what with running a gift store alone in December, but when is it ever convenient to move?!?!

I am not going to show the entire apartment on this blog until I am satisfied with it, but I may post a few things here and there as I make design decisions (lord knows there are SO MANY to be made!).

As I mentioned here I HATE my kitchen, but I am deciding today to no longer look at with such harsh glasses and choose to look at the kitchen as an OPPORTUNITY to exercise my design prowess….that’s right, I chose the word “prowess” carefully. I mean, sometimes, as in the case of my kitchen, design can be like a battle…a war with ugly…which pacifism alone cannot conquer.  Action must be taken, and I am not afraid to take it.

I have received many great ideas from you guys on how to handle the ugly cabinet situation, and am weighing them all very carefully.

Truth is, any of them WOULD have worked had I followed through on my original intention of keeping the space very soft and neutral…I mean, it made the most sense to do so, with the big white walls and windows which just let the light flood in…NOT TO MENTION, the fact that my chaotic life seems to beg for a quiet home.

SO THEN, one might wonder why, while shopping at SUITE LORAIN the other day, I made this purchase:

Yes, i purchased an orange and purple velvet loveseat.  I did this.  I own it.  Arslanian Bros. cleaners is showing up tomorrow morning to clean it, its a done deal.  This now sits in my living room, adjacent to the open plan kitchen….which alters the entire feel of the place and subsequently makes my kitchen fix-it issue exponentially more complicated.

I tried like hell to resist it.  I mean, I adore soft neutral palettes when I see them, but for some reason, cannot stop myself from constantly filling my world with copious amounts of color!

I will keep you posted on the developments… i mean, this selection can go either way still….it can end up being an ultra luxe piece that I ADORE, or well, not.

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i have literally been losing sleep over the hideous kitchen cabinets in my new place.  i mean, neither removing them or painting them is an option at this time…..so, that leaves VERY FEW options….i have toyed with the idea of adding hardware to them, not really allowed in the rental, but if i were to do so, it would be nice hardware, which i would leave behind when i move….this, in my mind, is acceptable, as it does not really affect the integrity of the cabinets (if the word “integrity” can even be applied to said cabinets) it only enhances their “value”.  

So, as i was saying, i could:

A) add hardware, like drawer pulls or handles

B) add the decals show above - which COULD distract one from the cabinets themselves and divert attention to the decals instead, effectively softening the visual assault of the cabinets

C) take the doors off altogether - downside to this of course, means that i must maintain perfect order and maintenance of cabinet contents

D) leave as is, and make everything AROUND them fabulous, wallpaper, accessories, whatever it takes…

E) as it is a loft with the kitchen in sort of a corner area, i could actually curtain it off…in a glamourous way of course.

I am weighing all of these choices - considering all other decorating choices of the surrounding space, but this weighs very heavy on my mind…very heavy indeed.

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i am so drawn to umbrellas.  i am honestly not quite sure what it is, i mean, i rarely ever use an umbrella in the traditional sense…but i have posted art with umbrellas previously and in the spring i used umbrellas in a display at my store. Today i found this image and my heart skipped a beat.  i do not know the genesis of my love of the untraditional use of umbrellas. i mean, sure i saw mary poppins as a child, but not in decades and i was not nearly as obsessed with that as i was the film, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, and i am not running around using either bed knobs or broomsticks in any displays…(although….maybe i will).

found here.

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