Fall re-arrangement: art room

My re-arranging/cleaning kick continued! One of the places I really needed to tackle was my tiny and very narrow art room. It's a funny little space, because it is technically part of our family room: (see it, all the way at the end of the room through the kinda disco wall cut-out?)

(my knitting is always casually draped over the couch like that :). Just kidding, I totally put it like that for the picture)

The art room has traditionally been a shocking mess, which is unfortunate since you can see a lot of it through the wall cut-out. Would you like to know just how messy? I will show you because I have no dignity. (Mom, if you are reading this shield your tender eyes. It is very terrible.)

Yup. There it is, folks. To actually get anything done I had to bring it out of the art room onto a different table. The irony.

As abused as the room is, I love having a spot for all of my random art and sewing stuff. And that big table at the end is so great for the kids (when there is room on it to work) - but in the six years we've lived here I never really felt like I had a good system to keep everything successfully contained and every time I cleaned it, the room just went back to looking like these photos after, like, a day.

(view from the art room into the family room. It is nice to be able to supervise things while standing over here)

But now: hopefully we are getting somewhere. Over the years we've bit by bit been adding sections of elfa shelving to the wall (the newest addition being the narrower shelf holding the small jars).

(my sketchbook actually fits on the desk part!)

I requisitioned some more baskets and jars for separating art supplies for the kids. (This will not stay this clean. In fact as I type this, I can see it, and it's messy again. But that's ok with me, it's easier to clean up now that I have places to put things back into).

I have my easel set up in the corner where I never have to take it down (these days it takes me several months to finish a painting. Carissa - there's a sneak peak for you! Not done yet but in progress!), and space for the dangerous stuff on a high shelf.

And I've finally moved my bulletin boards to a level where a baby can't toddle by and tear off a tasty paper treasure to chew on (this has been an ongoing problem for about four years. Only the baby changes.)

So, wish me luck to keep it clean. Any tips on containing all of your creativity? I've started a pinterest board on studio spaces that inspire me to be neater (and, hopefully more productive. Because pinterest totally increases productivity! :) ). Melissa, where do you keep all of your painting stuff, and your whirlwind 8 year-old-mad-sewists' materials??

Fall re-arrangement: entry way

Lately in my internet moments I've been totally loving the charming and ever-so-helpful Little Green Notebook. I love Jenny's down to earth approach to decorating and how generous she is with her vast amount of home-dec. knowledge. Did you see her recent tour of the home of her college friend Emily? I loved it because (1) they did so much of it themselves gradually and on a budget and (2) because Emily pays attention to all the little nooks in her home and takes the care to arrange things beautifully. (And - she is an amazing sewer! She did most of her window treatments). Go check it out if you haven't seen it. It is such a friendly and warm house.

Seeing Emily's pretty rooms stimulated me to look at my home with fresh eyes. When you enter our house from the garage through the laundry room, we have an awkward little entry area. (I should have taken a before picture so you can truly understand how boring this wall was - a crooked picture hung here and this chair was piled with bags, things to be recycled and stray preschool papers). I gathered up some homeless frames from the garage and now I am so happy to walk into our house and see this little gallery.

(My mom sent me this little one below. It means that you should think of yourself third, after God and your fellow men. I love that simple recipe for happiness when I come in and out.)

Next up, radical clean-up of our art room...

Wabi Sabi

Wabi Sabi is a lovely japanese concept that means, as far as I understand it, imperfect beauty. It seems that this is a fitting idea to describe the state of a household with young children. Or maybe that's a complete mis-application, but hey, it makes me feel better.

Nothing is ever quite finished... or if and when a room or surface is cleaned up, it quickly goes back to a state of messiness. I used to think about this as kind of that scientific theory that everything always slips towards the direction of chaos, which really frustrated me. It is much pleasanter instead to embrace the notion of wabi sabi and enjoy the signs of life that our imperfect beauty reflect, right?

Dear Melissa,

Would you like to see our dining room, post-leak?

(For those of you who are reading who don't know, we had a leak in the beginning of January from our kitchen, which ruined our floors, kitchen cabinets, drywall, and dining room bookcase. Slowly, slowly, slowly things have been put back together).

(Our previous built-in was brown, with large cabinets on the bottom. This time (and hopefully our last time!) we opted to go white, and have all the shelves be uniformly sized bookshelves.

Steve surprised me with this chandelier I've been looking at for years for Valentine's Day. So romantic.)

I love all things John Robshaw, but unfortunately all things John Robshaw are pretty much out of my budget because I plan on sending my children to college one day. So I applied the techniques explained in Lena Corwin's excellent book and made my own block print shade for the window. Can you see it? It is supposed to look a little bit like these gorgeous-maybe-one-day fabrics.

Grand total for my curtain project (I sewed together some old sheers that had been languishing in the back of my linen closet for a couple of years - and now that I look at the picture I maybe should have done a better job ironing them) - $4.95 for the small bottle of block printing ink. Success!

We're still finishing up the kitchen but hopefully in the next two weeks that will be done and I can use the kitchen sink and disposal again. What a luxury it will be to no longer spend long amounts of time fishing soggy cheerios out of cereal bowls before I can wash them!

xo,

Lynne

Do you remember all of the things your parents put on your walls, growing up? I can remember pretty much exactly what was on our living room walls, in the kitchen, my room, and even in the study bathroom (an old print of Mary Cassatt's Girl in a Straw Hat, green frame). I really care about what I put on our home's walls, so that our kids are surrounded by thoughtful beauty and images of things that are meaningful to us as a family. As soon as we have downstairs walls again (eight weeks to go!) I'll hang this picture of the Oakland LDS Temple I recently painted, a building that has personal meaning for us as a symbol of our religion and of the good people we hope to become through it.

What are your favorite pictures in your houses now? What did you love on your walls when you were little (besides Scott Baio? :) )

boo!

When we moved into our neighborhood, the first Halloween we were "boo'd" and since then it's been one of our favorite October traditions. If you've never heard of this, click on the link - it's fun & neighborly.

Also, do you see that broom on the door? It smells really good, like cinnamon. My husband likes to stand by the door and smell it. He asked me if I could get him one to put in his car (he drives a mini.) Maybe I'll surprise him one morning and tie it from his rearview mirror. I think it would make me smile all day long imagining such a huge car freshener in such a little car.

I hope you have a great fall day!

Books by color

I spent a couple of hours the other night in our dining room after everyone had gone to bed organizing our books by color and pushing them up close to the edge of our deep shelves so you can really see them. It was very satisfying. I love projects that don't cost any money but end up changing the look of your room a bit. How I would enjoy wallpapering the back of these shelves next...

(And, speaking of books, I am reading a fascinating parenting one right now - Nurture Shock. It has changed my thinking in a couple of areas (one chapter in particular called "The Science of Teenage Rebellion" as well as "Sleep." Thank you for the recommendation, Stephanie and Audrey).

nursery

Finally getting our simple little nursery put together was a collective effort. The six year old loves taping things to doors (currently on her bedroom door she has affixed a cover of Sports Illustrated from the Olympics, a couple of school projects, and a big list of who can and cannot come into her room to play) so it was only fitting that I would find this on the door to the baby's room a couple of weeks ago. Eath is a great place, Wren!





Melissa sent this dress and I think her embroidered "W" is so sweet.



It took me awhile to figure out what to put on the wall above the crib. We live in California - not really in an area prone to earthquakes, but my new-mother hormones keep me up at night worrying about random dangerous risks around the house so in the end I just used japanese masking tape to hang a bunch of old prints I found on etsy (I bought the whole lot of them for under $10).





The big kids love this page. Can you guess why?



I especially like this one. Angling bunnies? What's not to love about that?







Sister dolls made by Aunt Courtney from great Black Apple pattern. Adorable.





I found the Flensted viking ship mobile on ebay. Flensted is a really neat Danish company - their designs are magical. And can you see the picture the six year old painted of me on the wall? I love it. Especially that I'm not shown scolding her in it. Ha, ha. Just kidding. I never scold my children!



(I can't resist posting another picture of the baby, wearing the cutest little hat that my friend Jen made - check out her shop. So cute.)