Guest Room – MY CHICAGO HOUSE.

Guest bedroom, flipped

Into a baby room!

MyChicagoHouse is expecting! We are in the process of flipping our guest bedroom into a baby room for our first child (a boy!) due in August. Thankfully we didn’t spend too much on the furniture in the guest room – only the Ikea bed, a needlepoint rug from Ebay and a side table from Chairish, and I’ve already sold the needlepoint rug (yay!).
I knew for this baby room I was going to need a crib AND a place for guests to sleep, but we weren’t going to be able to fit both the queen and the crib, so we had to get creative. First I plotted my floor plan in excel to get a sense of the space.

Original floor plan left with rug (green) and bed

The bottom right door is our bathroom and top left is a hallway. The closet door is not pictured but it is on the bottom right wall adjacent to the bathroom door. The old rug (that I have since sold) was too small for the changes. It was always a bit small but it worked better with the bed.

I mocked up a new larger rug. Generally, my rule of thumb on rugs is bigger is better. You want to fill up the whole room. If measuring I do 3-4” away from the walls and get as close as I can with a standard size.

New floor plan on right with bigger rug, crib and daybed

After I was happy with the floor plan, we found the Asmara rug of my dreams at http://www.rugsource.com (10′ x 12′) for <$450 and scooped that up with a rug pad, then purchased the Elsie Daybed from Pottery Barn on sale, with the trundle and matching crib.

Pottery Barn Elsie daybed with trundle and Target pillows

PB oddly has two beds called “Elsie” but this one has the spindle sides. It is amazing how much more space we have! It will still do-able for two people to sleep in this room comfortably on Tuft & Needle mattresses (the top fits this mattress, but the trundle will need to be thinner from Amazon). While I did buy new twin sheets, I kept all of our queen bedding, folded it to fit the twins, and added some throw pillows from Creative Co-op at Target.

These Target Creative Co-op pillows are lovely and <$45, pillow incl!

Our bookcase has always been a bit of a challenge because we were short on books and long on shelving. Now, we need to free up shelves for baby books, so I moved all of the books up and closed the gaps. This freed up nine shelves! The boxes that remain are empty, and I will leave them there until we have filled the space with books for the baby.

Lower shelves are filled with empty boxes, to be replaced with baby books soon

For now, you will probably notice that we do not have a changing table or chair in this room. I was planning to sit on the daybed and use that as a space to change the baby. We have all of our supplies on the back of the closet door that I customized. I know this isn’t ideal but the room is small and from the floor plans above you can see the door on the right-hand side is actually the guest bathroom, so 3/4 walls have a door on them.

There is not much space for extra furniture so we are trying to be minimal

It is possible we squeeze in a chair next to the crib in front of the bookcase but it seems tight to me. We are also in the process of getting blackout curtains made in a fabric that matches the wallpaper which, believe it or not, was cheaper than restoration hardware!

Let me know what you think about this room and layout!

Needlepoint rugs

Asmara Ferncroft a la Ebay

I’m a huge fan of needlepoint rugs and have written about them in a previous post. The needlepoint rug in our guest room is a gorgeous floral trellis design with beautiful colors but as of today I am trading it in and have posted in back for the world of Ebay to bid on.
The truth is, I have been quietly searching for the Asmara Ferncroft rug, a rug that I have admired since I first saw it in Tory Burch’s Hampton bedroom, and today I found it (for less).

Our guest room is papered in Bird and Thistle and I’ve always loved this rug pairing. I had pulled a sample from Asmara to see it in person and it was excellent, it was just out of budget.

My grandmother is an excellent decorator and I remember asking her once how she did it, decorate so well, and she said that she just saved pictures from magazines and then copied her favorite ones! In this case, I’ll admit, I am stealing a page from my grandma’s book!

Bird and Thistle paired with Asmara Ferncroft for Tory Burch

I’m a huge fan of Ebay, Chairish and anywhere I can buy second hand or for less. I found both of our needlepoint rugs by scouring Ebay and couldn’t be happier with the price that we paid or the quality of the rugs. However, at the time, I couldn’t find the Asmara Ferncroft and assumed I never would, until today! I was searching for a 10′ x 12′ rug for a friend and right on page one of my search results was a picture of the Ferncroft listed for $750. Since I can’t accept paying full price, even on Ebay, I did a search for the vendor name and found their website, and the identical rug, listed for <$450, brand new, free shipping. In fact, they even have one more if you are so keen. 🙂 I’m super excited for it to arrive and to swap out our smaller rug for the pattern I’ve always loved.

Closet makeover

A guest closet makeover with Elfa, DIY

Our guest closet was not optimized for space and cluttered. We decided to take advantage of the Elfa 30% off sale at The Container Store and DIY a makeover. I didn’t spend a ton of time upfront on The Container Store website, but I did take a quick spin through and was confused about the exact components that we would need. Once in the store, the salespeople made it easy for us to choose only the needed items and nothing extra. In our case, the salesperson helped us save money as there were so many small components that we would have otherwise confused as required and inadvertently purchased.
We decided on a simple stack of drawers to upgrade our closet and it cost <$450 with the sale discount – (still pretty expensive, so need to take advantage of the 30% off!!).

Our closet “before” was cluttered and not optimized for space

The drawers are affixed to two vertical metal strips that hang on one master horizontal bar that is mounted to the closet wall. The only component that is attached to the closet wall is this horizontal bar (with 4 anchors).

First I drilled the anchor holes to attach the horizontal bar

I measured and ensured that the holes were level BY MYSELF, so you do not need a buddy for this project (although it would be helpful…. hello out there!?). I decided to mount the drawer support beams above the baseboard, which lifted the design by about 12″.
If we later need to raise the closet bar, we have room to do so under the shelf, but for now will leave as is.

The vertical support beams freely hang from the horizontal attached bar

The drawers are affixed from bottom to top. We have room to add an additional drawer! I am planning to wait and see exactly what additional drawer I’d like. Our system includes 1 shelf, 1 large drawer, 2 medium drawers, 1 small drawer with 1 pack of drawer dividers. For mounting you need the shelf / drawer brackets, the horizontal mount and the vertical mounting strips. The shelf liners are sold separately from the wooden frames.

I had to fuss with the positioning of the drawers but it was relatively straightforward to reorganize as needed

The most challenging component of assembling the drawers was connecting the wooden frame to the brackets that hang from the vertical bars. I watched a youtube video to get the hang of it and it went smoothly from there.

We added a mount to the back of the door for more storage and even have room for one more drawer!

I’m excited about this close and the extra space we have. The hardest piece was purchasing the correct components, but once the horizontal beam is installed, the rest is relatively straightforward once you get the hang of it, and it is possible to do this alone. The drawers glide smoothly and I like that they are lifted from the floor so I can dust underneath.

Decorating with Chairish

“Old” is new nightstand, for $113

I love Chairish, as you may have assumed from my previous post. What I am most excited by is the opportunity to give something “used” a new life, and to find great quality pieces at affordable prices, that are also unique and different!

I found this nightstand while searching Chairish and paid $113 for the nighstand + $80 shipping (negotiated down to UPS from white-glove). It is prettier in person than it was in the listing and there are two operational drawers that were not initially highlighted that made me so happy to see.

Chairish nightstand: a beautiful alternative to a big box store for $113

Am now searching for a new lamp with more color to add to this room – potentially an emerald green or a painted floral base. TBC…!

Decorating with Needlepoint Rugs

The inspiration bedroom for the guest is of course, Tory Burch’s Bird & Thistle bedroom in the Hamptons.

Architectural Digest, Tory Burch – Asmara Ferncroft rug

While the wallpaper was easy to identify (Bird and Thistle), the rug was not and I had to deep dive the internet to identify the rug as the Asmara Ferncroft. Tory has layered multiple rugs in this room as you can see from a photo taken at an alternate angle. It is unclear to me if this rug is also Asmara, but it does not appear to be.

Architectural Digest, Tory Burch – Unknown layered rug

Both rugs are beautiful, but at >$6,000 for the size we needed, they were out of budget, so I shifted the search to Ebay and found the perfect fit 6’x9′ for <$400. There are plenty of needlepoint rugs on Ebay to choose from. Most important for me was to find a larger floral pattern that would compliment the Bird & Thistle wallpaper well. Matching a rug to wallpaper is a bit like matching a tie to a shirt. You can mix and match patterns but the sizing should complement and the colors should coordinate, but don’t need to match perfectly. The rug that I purchased was $450 including shipping, a far cry from the thousands of dollars you could spend on a new rug, and this rug is new itself, but made in the 1990’s.

rug — Aubusson Needlepoint Rug, 1990s, from Ebay

You may remember the rug that is currently in the guest room from this post, but here is a refresh:

surya — Surya, Grace cotton rug with crochet edging, in off-white

The rug lays flat, is an off-white color, has crochet edges and is 8’x10′. I am currently selling this rug on Ebay. Here is a picture of this rug in our room, before we swapped it out.

The Surya cream rug works well, but is basic

The pattern works perfectly with the wallpaper

And, more pattern with the Liberty quilt, made by my mom

The new rug in position couldn’t be more perfect and I love the play of pattern across the rug, quilt and wallpaper.

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 bedroom, wallpapered

Bird and Thistle, for the win!

The guest bedroom has been papered in Bird and Thistle by Brunshwig & Fils, and I’m excited that the entire place is coming together as planned and on schedule.
As a reminder, this is where we started:

astor bedroom, kids — From the listing photo, the guest room before we started work

astor bedroom kids 2 — The small bookcase behind the door was one of the first things we removed

And, this is where we are today!

Bird and Thistle wallpaper by Brunshwig & Fils, in the guest

I am thrilled with the results. Walter’s team at Tapia’s Works in Chicago did a great job installing this paper with no waste. We completed this entire job with our budgeted paper and will use the remaining strips to cover wooden tissue boxes (craft project!). The room is painted in Farrow & Ball Wimborne White. The original moldings and doors are spray finished. The doorknobs are antique brass.

The window boxes were painted in Wimborne White by Farrow & Ball

The wood floors will be revealed this week

The leftover paper will be used to cover wooden tissue boxes!

The build-in bookcase is great, but it wasn’t finished particularly well. The middle strips should be covered with molding, which we will add.

The bookcase face will be cleaned up with new molding

For lighting, I chose the Aerin, by Visual Comfort, Modern Rosehill Semi-Flush Brass and White Strie-Glass light fixture. I’m a bit worried it will be too small, but it is the same size as the flush mount previously installed, so it should be okay. There is a larger choice, but I didn’t appreciate this until after the order was placed.

Aerin Modern Rosehill Semi-Flush Brass and White Strie-Glass Fixture

The Bird and Thistle paper is set off perfectly by the Wimborne White finish

The lighting fixtures and drapes will come next. I am planning on a bamboo shade paired with Bird and Thistle matching drapes.

Guest bedroom, in process

Painting has begun

The guest bedroom, along with the rest of the house, is getting a fresh coat of paint, starting with the molding. Of course, all of the molding and ceilings will be painted Farrow & Ball Wimborne White. We chose Wimborne White because it is beautifully suited to the warm eastern exposure of the home. All of the painting and wallpaper hanging is the work of Walter from Tapia’s Works, and his team. As you can tell from the photographs, Walter and his team have done an exceptional job prepping the space and protecting all surfaces.

I was a bit skeptical that the Farrow & Ball finish was truly superior to the less expensive paint options, but as many would agree, it is. There is a beautiful texture to the paint and depth of color that was very noticeable to me, particularly after looking at the shiny paint that had been applied so poorly prior. For a historical home like this, I wanted the paint to be perfect and it is looking great so far.

Wimborne White sprayed on the trim in the guest bedroom

The walls of the guest bedroom will be papered in Bird & Thistle.

The floral radiator also got a coat of Farrow & Ball paint

One of the best tips I received while planning out the paint colors and wallpapers was to keep the window boxes consistently painted white, including the empty box below. The molding was a unique challenge that this tip solves nicely for. Each of the windows will be framed out as its own piece, with white trim and box underneath. Wallpaper will flank each side.

The entire window box has been painted white and the walls will be papered Bird & Thistle

The window treatment will likely be a mix of natural grass and custom curtains, made from Bird & Thistle fabric to match the wallpaper. I have been keeping an eye out for fabric on Ebay and Chairish that is discounted and am expecting I will find something over time.

Walter and team from Tapia’s Works have protected the built-ins

The built-ins were not wood, so they will not be painted. Instead, the shelves will be finished with wood moldings on the face of the bookcase and filled with “things”.

The entrance to bathroom and closet have been sealed and the doors have been painted

It is exciting to see the painting come together so quickly and the finishing being done so well by Tapia’s Works, who have been great to work with on this project.

Guest bathroom remodel

The demo has begun

The bathroom demo has begun and our crew is in the process of removing the sinks, toilets and floors from these tiny bathrooms so a bathtub can be installed and new floors can be put down. It is a bit messy for now, but progress is being made and I’m excited to share the results.

Photo Jan 17, 6 42 47 PM.jpg — A pedestal graveyard in our guest room awaits new faucets.

The Duravit 1930’s pedestal sinks will be updated with new faucets and drains, and replaced back where they came from.

Photo Jan 17, 6 43 18 PM — A new Kohler Underscore tub will be installed and the hex floors will be replaced.

This tiny bathroom will receive a new Kohler Underscore tub, 60″x30″ that will be tiled up the front and across the floor with a herringbone 3″x12″ Ming Green custom cut polished stone from Ann Sacks. The tile will compliment the Bird & Thistle wallpaper in the adjacent guest bedroom. Since Grohe fixtures were already installed, we will save the expense of updating the entire system by sticking with the Grohe brand for the guest bath, with the exception of the hand shower which will be a more traditional Brizo piece.

Brizo hand shower — Brizo Traditional Hand Shower

Temp Control — Grohe Seabury Volume Control

grohe thermostatic — Grohe Seabury Valve Trim

All of the fixtures were purchased in the chrome finish. I found a perfect match for the subway tile and will install ceramic pencil tile and chair rail in addition to ceramic baseboard.

After reviewing a few different lots I chose Ming Green from Ann Sacks to be cut into 3×12 bricks.

The floors will be tiled in a chevron Ming Green stone that will continue up the front of the bath. I am most excited about these floors!

Wallpaper for measure

We are planning to paper the guest bedroom in Brunschwig & Fils “Bird and Thistle” wallpaper in the Green colorway. We removed a bookcase from this room and it is looking less than perfect these days with lots of color patches.

Many colors happening in this room today, with our chosen swatch of the future, Bird and Thistle by Brunschwig & Fils.

I’m working on placing an order for this paper so we can be ready for Walter to install in the coming months. As a reminder, we are working on the guest room, highlighted below.

Astor 1210 Floorplan Guest — Floorplan of Guest, with built ins

I have found a couple of different resources for estimating the number of rolls needed. The bookcase helps us out because we do not need to paper the majority of that wall. I checked Lowe’s = 6 rolls. I checked Amara Living = 6 rolls. I checked Omni Calculator (this site has a calculator for everything!) = 6 rolls. Three for three! We will go with 6 rolls and get this order placed.