This weekend we re-arranged the furniture & art in the living room.  It feels SO much better.  I’m not sure why it took me so long to do it because I’ve hated the way I’d initially laid out the room from the beginning.  (I was probably stuck doing other projects.)  Anyways…the one thing I haven’t had the energy to tackle is my weird fireplace facade and ugly mantle.  I’m still not going to tackle it at the moment since it involves demolition and I’m in the throes of doing that in the half-bathroom.  So I thought I’d just redecorate the mantle.  Here are my inspiration pics.

We’re probably going with the last idea because the mantle itself is kinda wonky and might not hold anything really heavy.  Plus we collect postcards from all of our travels.  It could be a good way to show them off.

(Lastly, I wish I could give photo credit for these, but I only know two of them.  The red sofa is from the Wallpaper Projects by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith.  The last photo is from an old issue of Domino.  I’ve had the others saved in my inspiration file for ages.)

I NEVER thought I’d say this (because I’ve always been more of a geometrics kind of person), but I’m really feeling the re-emergence of florals lately.  Everything from tiny Liberty prints to bold 1960’s flower power.  Everything these days seems to be coming up…roses.  (And peonies.  And daisies.  And dandelions.  And…)

Liberty print dress, $125.

Dandelion Decal, $19.

8×10 fashion polaroid, $125.

Bold Floral graphic wall decal, $29.

Bubble Gum floral chairs, $1500.

Tufted Floral Rug, $398-998.

custom made tea dress, $100.

Modern Romance Teapot, $34.

And no, it’s not just because I managed to find some new wicker porch furniture that happened to have floral seat cushions.  (The print on those is only marginal, at best.)  Anyways…new florals.  Who knew, it would take this long for me to come around?  Perhaps it’s because of the wedding.  Perhaps it’s due to all the yard work I’ve been doing.

First, let me say that I dislike showing photos of my house looking disheveled and ripped apart.  I realize that is part of the draw [for all of us] in reading a house blog, but it’s just that I find it somehow embarrassing as if I’m being caught picking my nose.  You know?  People gawk and stare…but not in that good way.   At any rate, in spite of not feeling as if I have anything great to show, I also feel as if real pictures (meaning warts & all photos) of my house are overdue.  So here you go.

I’ve been furiously trying to work on my guest room in time for my mother to come and visit, but the house seems to be fighting against me.  It’s as if this room just doesn’t want a nice, beautiful paint job…and to be decorated.  I present to you exhibit A.

The walls in this room are just all kinds of frustrating.  First off, they’re plaster… underneath a layer of wallpaper… underneath two layers of paint.  Sounds great, huh?   However, it’s not the painted wallpaper that bothers me, as you might think.  No, the wallpaper is actually the thin paper kind…so the fact that it’s been painted over isn’t that big of a deal.  Besides a few seams that I’m having to cut out and sand over, it’s not that bad.  It’s just that underneath this window I have a slight bit of dampness that has come in from the windowsill and it’s made the old stuff separate from the wall.  Therefore I’ve been scraping and will have to spackle it, sand it smooth….etc etc.  Oh, and did I mention that I’m also struggling to find the perfect shade to paint the walls?  Why is choosing a paint color sometimes the hardest part of the job?  For the record, I think Martha Stewart does a great job with her paint swatch program at Lowes.  (And if you’ve got lots of expendable cash to throw around, I love Farrow & Ball’s paint colors.)

Did I mention that my mom arrives this Friday?  Yeah….guess what is NOT getting done by then?  I’ll probably end up doing as much work as I can this week after work, cleaning up the mess, putting clean sheets on the bed, and calling it a day.  Not exactly how I’d like for her to spend her Thanksgiving in my guest room, but for now it’s going to have to do.  On the bright side, the first time she came to visit I had no working bathroom.

Anyways…to give you an idea of what I hope for it to look like some day in the future, here’s my inspiration images ripped from the pages of various magazines:

Wish me luck as I keep plugging ahead.

Today someone requested pictures of my old house in a comment.   When I read the comment, it occurred to me that some of you didn’t know me via my previous and now defunct [personal] blog that had all the pics of my last house, so I thought…what the heck, why not?!  Even though I’m not giving up any snaps of the new place, there’s no reason I can’t show you the old one.

More photos after the jump

Keep in mind that this is no longer my house.   The wonderful people who purchased it from me have made some mods, and it looks fabulous.  I got the opportunity to check it out at their housewarming, and I love the new color of the living room in particular.  Good job guys!

In this month’s Elle Decor, there’s an adorable idea for a keepsake shadowbox. I’m obsessed with art wall installations as well as not having too many tzchotkes sitting around the house, so incorporating them into my art collection sounds like such a great idea!! And as you’ve probably already guessed as well, I love my pups and therefore the idea of turning their old collars into wall decor sounds like a GREAT idea!! This could easily be made with a shadowbox from the Ikea ribba collection (aprox cost $8) and a basic stainless hook from the hardware store ($2).  (I loved the room so much I had to show the entire thing…isn’t it gorgeous?!  I love that chest of drawers.) Also…here’s a detail of the box itself.

This page from the Feb issue of World of Interiors is so adorable. How amazing would it be to have one of these dog houses in your backyard? I already have a pretty fabulous doghouse that I don’t even use though…truth be told. Here’s a pic.