FLIP! for Decorating

I left off my favorite book from my recommendation list. I love Flip for Decorating by Elizabeth Mayhew. I have been reading it every night before bed, yes I am even reading it before buying. The book explains fool proof formulas for decorating key rooms of your home. Since I am a complete novice at decorating it is wonderful to read a step by step process to layer a room together; the rooms do not feel stale or predictable. The book is written as a friend giving advice and not a decorator explaining their process. I am going to buy this book for all my friends as house warming gifts. (Check out a great video on Amazon of the book "Flipping" to build a living room).

I love new projects.

So I have thank you cards completed, James' birth announcements mailed and the garage sale was a success. That leaves room for 3 new projects. Having James makes it difficult to get anything done, so these could be the projects for awhile. Plus Nick still has the bathroom to finish.

• Project #1 - With my garage sale proceeds I am having our peach chairs recovered, but am waiting for a sale at Calico Corners before ordering the fabric. We are going to have them recovered in a charcoal wool. I have one estimate for the upholstery, but while I wait for a sale at Calico Corners I might get a few more quotes.
  
  

• Project #2 - Here is the new coffee table we purchased the other weekend for $8. It will be great for baby proofing since two of our current coffee tables have sharp edges. The plan is to repaint the base black and either have marble cut for the top or a make one out of wood. Once complete we will do a coffee table shuffle between the rooms to figure what what works best where.

• Project #3 - We are getting rid of our dinning room table. It is too big and the legs don't allow for enough leg room. Awhile back I purchased a faux bamboo table that has been sitting in the garage. I am going to paint it red just like this photo from Canadian House & Home. I plan on using my bamboo bench with set of bamboo chairs that are the exact same style as those in the photo. Might be a little too much faux bamboo, but hopefully the differences in finishes will stop it from being matchy-matchy.

My Book Report

I have gone through my stack of books from the library and here is my brief book report. Please note that I don't really read the books, mainly look at the photos and then scan the text. If I buy the book, then I read.

Next time I order from Amazon Recommendation:

• A Passion for Blue and White, by Carolyne Roehm. I love and have a copy of all Carolyne's books. They are a good balance of interior, entertaining and outdoors. Plus my mom would also like to read it.

Look for at "Half Priced Books" Recommendations:

• The Home Book and The Finishing Touch, from House Beautiful. If I had to pick one, I would purchase The Home Book. Both are a Best of from the magazine, but The Home Book has larger photos. It includes color samples recommended by decorators which I always reference when trying to narrow down color choices in our house (which ends up at Decorator's White, but still).

• Thom Filicia Style by Thom Filicia. I really liked this book. Thom would go on my list of potential decorators I would want to decorate our house if we won the lottery. There are images I have not seen before and some that I have (his lake house), but overall it pasted my thumb through once then go back and read.

Buy if they were really discounted Recommendations:

These books I just did not have very many post-its marking rooms or images I liked. Of course I cannot turn down a good deal, so would still purchase.

• Michael Taylor, Interior Design.
• Domestic Art, Holly Moore.
• Michael s Smith Houses.

Weekend Purchases

This weekend was planned to be spent at the house cleaning and organizing. On Saturday I was able to persuade Nick to go out on the town to visit a few of our favorite stops. First it was The North Market for some waffles and carrot & orange juice then the Short North and Grandview for browsing.




At Nick's favorite store I made out with two Hable Construction containers at 50% off, double satin ribbon and a candle. The low Hable container is perfect for James' toys since he will be able to reach inside it as soon as he can start crawling, plus it looks great in the den. The yellow satin ribbon will now be my signature gift wrap ribbon (I have 100 yards for $20). We also stopped at the stationary store where we ordered our wedding invites to introduce James and I had to buy the Jack and Lulu straws (I am already planning James' birthday parties). Finally the morning was capped off with a garage sale stop for 10 decorating magazines for $1 and a coffee table for $8 (pictures later).

We did stop and get new can lights for the bathroom and spend an hour picking up the house. But the evening did not stop with the bargain hunting, I got a Hable Construction Brag Book from Anthropologie for $7 when we went out for dinner. Ok, next weekend we are staying home and cleaning.

Summer Reading

Here is my summer reading pile. I have been checking out all the decorating books from the library that I have seen at the book store to "try before I buy." So far I like the House Beautiful's The Home Book, it is like a best of from the magazine. I also checked out Amy Bulter's Little Stitches for Little Ones to see if there is anything in there I could attempt to make James.

There has still be little progress at the house since James arrived. The bathroom is still not completed (month 6?) and closet doors, baseboards and walls still need painted. Hopefully before he goes off to college we will be done.