April 2018 – MY CHICAGO HOUSE.

Living Room Layout

The seating area is coming together with the addition of artwork and furniture transitioned from the loft. As a reminder, this is what the living room looked like in the listing (staged).

And, the living room when we moved in:

The living room offers a good amount of space and light but as I’ve mentioned before, the paint job was not high quality (stray painters tape, drips and drops) and I am not a fan of gray, so our first step was to paint the entire space Wimborne White and start FRESH.

The moldings, walls and ceilings were all painted Farrow & Ball Wimborne White

The paint made a huge difference in unifying the space and making the moldings pop!

A fresh coat of paint unified and brightened up the space

The paint brightened up the space and highlighted the woodwork, providing a great fresh slate for furniture and art, beginning with the Pink Eyeshadow Monkey.

The Pink Eyeshadow Monkey fit perfectly in this nook (Ralph Lauren upholstery)

The living room will have two seating areas and each will be anchored with two matching rugs. After some time spent swatching, I decided on two Restoration Hardware Teen rugs that were on sale in 10×12 size. Unfortunately they will not be delivered until August, but they were relatively well priced and the colors fit the space.

Our choice RH rug with neighboring fabric swatches and papers (Gucci, Room & Board)

We faced the chairs away from the fireplace which is a trick I first noticed at Twin Farms in Vermont and I like it here because it includes the couch in the conversation vs. facing the chairs towards the fireplace and away. The Sapien bookcase, artwork and furniture came together nicely to frame the fireplace until the rug comes in.

Final furniture layout in first seating area, pending rug

Our real estate agent purchased the horn vases for us in Africa, the bookcase is an Amazon find, the coffee table was a floor sample from Molteni, the chairs were reupholstered in Ralph Lauren fabric and the chaise couch is from Room & Board.

I almost forgot the flowers!

Master Bedroom

Art finds a home in a traditional space

The master bedroom was painted Wimborne White and is a great fresh slate for art, which was installed last weekend!
As a reminder, this is where the master bedroom started:

astor bedroom 2 — The master bedroom was all floral in the listing photo

Today it is a fresh slate, painted Wimborne White, for art, and for a more modern aesthetic, in a traditional space.

Farrow & Ball Wimborne White wall, perfect for hanging art

My favorite piece of art that we own has found a new home in this room. This piece is by Charles Mayton, who is represented by David Lewis Gallery.

A great improvement from the faded florals of yesterday!

DIY: An IKEA hack

A Gjora bed painted Farrow & Ball

Everyone loves a good IKEA hack, like my last leather woven chair hack that you can find here. This one is much simpler. The prices of the beds at IKEA can’t be beat. This bed was $359 + tax and delivery and can be found here. For this project, I am only 1) painting and 2) tweaking the design a bit by leaving off the top cross beam. Easy!

The bed that I selected was the Gjora bed because it has a nice height off the ground (more traditional) and it is simple. It also doesn’t hurt that it ” doesn’t look like Ikea”.

The Gjora Ikea Bed is traditional with nice height off the ground

The bed came in 5 thin and tall boxes that were relatively easy to wrangle into the elevator. I laid out the primary wooden pieces and immediately started to paint the exterior of the platform support and the bedposts Wimborne White from Farrow & Ball (leftover wall paint) to match our guest room trim. I quickly ran a clean towel down each piece to pick up any dust (there didn’t appear to be any).

Ikea Gjora frame pieces laid out for painting

I did not prime the pieces or do any prep work and used a brush to apply the paint. I applied the paint only to the outer surface of the support boards and painted the top edge AFTER the bed was assembled. This was easier than having to hold each board on its side. It also helped to conserve paint as no edges that do not show were inadvertently painted white.

Two coats of Wimborne White from Farrow & Ball gave great coverage

I debated setting up the bed directly onto the hardwood, but decided to lay down a basic rug to give some texture to the room and a soft place for feet to land. This rug was from Houzz and was not expensive. It can easily be changed out in the future.

Houzz rug is basic and looks best with a bed on top

After I painted the bed, I left off the top cross-bar that the Gjora features because I felt like it appeared too high and a bit strange. It also gave me less to paint! I will add finials to these posts once I identify which finials are best.

Final Ikea Gjora bed with Company Store, Frette linens and Brooklinen pillows (still waiting on 1)

I will add additional pillows once they arrive, finials on the bed posts and a quilt to the foot of the bed. Will post additional pictures once it is complete.

The total cost of this bed was ~$980 start to finish, including the mattress from Tuft & Needle and the frame from Ikea.

Guest bathroom remodel

In ming green 3×12, Kohler, Grohe and subway

It has been too long since I’ve written about this little gem of a guest bath. Since then, there has been a ton of progress! As a reminder of where we started here is a peek back at the listing photo:

Small Guest Bathroom, Tiny Bathroom renovation — The bathroom BEFORE

What did we save: we saved the 1) Duravit 1930s pedestal sink, 2) subway tiles
What did we add: we added the 1) Kohler Underscore Bathtub, 2) Ming herringbone Ann Sacks floors, 3×12 blocks, 3) molding to update the subway look including baseboards, finishing molding and a rope detail, 4) updated Grohe fixtures on everything including the sink, 5) Kohler Verdura LED medicine cabinet (built in, for storage). Here is where we are today with some work still remaining:

Bathroom with new Grohe fixtures, Kohler toilet and tub and Ming floors by Ann Sacks

The tile floor is such a great compliment to the Bird & Thistle guest room

While initially we wanted to try to save the toilet, we ended up needing to replace it anyways since the original wasn’t the appropriate rough-in size for the space. Compare the traditional Kohler above (10″ rough-in) with the Duravit 1930s style toilet that we replaced, below.

This toilet was a 12″ rough-in which was too big for the space and had to be replaced

The ming tiles (custom cut 3×12 by Ann Sacks) made a huge difference in overhauling the look and feel of the space.

The floor in process with new baseboards

The rope and finishing molding in addition to the baseboards finished up the subway that was already in place.

Rope and finishing molding was added to the subway that was already in place

There are still a few details left before this bathroom is complete including painting, updating the can lights and potentially adding glass sliding doors to the shower / bath.

The Story / Sapiens Bookcase

How I make a good looking book stack

Design Within Reach has finally re-released the famous Story Bookcase in a short and tall version here. I purchased ours on Amazon in 2017 before the re-release here. The Amazon version is 79.6″ high, 14 shelves and $285 + $43 shipping. The DWR version is 75.5″ high, 12 shelves and $295 + $21 shipping. If you’ve ever seen this bookcase in a photo and wondered how someone can possibly stack their books so neatly without them falling over, well, this is how.

While the bookcase is a bit pricey, I love it because it can hold a ton of books in a super space efficient way and it looks chic.

Large to small, white bindings out (or pages)

I stack my books from large to small, bottom to top (I wouldn’t recommend any other way), with white bindings or pages facing out. Yes, this means that if the binding is colored, it is facing pages OUT and binding IN such that the entire front of the stack is in shades of white. Of course you can stack any way you’d like.

Time consuming exercise to get this right!

To most quickly order the books from tallest to shortest I first line them against the wall to gauge height and organize on the floor first, into groups, then transition to the shelves.

I leave a bit of room at the top for extras that tend to collect around the house

The Sapiens Bookcase is such a great architectural piece that adds nice interest to any room. If short on floor space, the short stack can be added to the top of a desk or console for equal impact.

Master Bathroom Floors

On the way from HK!

The Ann Sacks custom floors will be delivered the first week of May. It is going to be a long haul waiting for them this month! Until then, the floors are making their way on a ship from Hong Kong. The finished product with 3″ overage for the master bath floorpan is as follows:

Ann Sacks custom Hillcrest for Master Bath

The orientation is such that the entry to the bathroom is actually at the top right of the image, with the first pedestal sink in that first jog out, toilet at bottom right, second pedestal bottom left and shower top left. The fixtures will all be brass Waterworks and we will be installing two of my favorite Kohler LED Verdura medicine cabinets for great lighting and even better storage.