Category — Design

While our region of Iowa is being covered with a blanket of drifting snow, we’re spending a lot of time indoors. Why not make it a little prettier, a little brighter? Okay!

On one of many (many) recent trips to our favorite little Iowa City junk shop, Artifacts, we came across a Lightolier sputnik-style pendant lamp. I passed by it at first, since it’s hard sometimes to just SEE everything that’s in the store, there’s so much to go through. As I was heading towards the front to leave, I spotted it and new it had to be mine. Kevin even liked it, and sometimes it’s hard to convince him to like anything. We got it for a very fair price and ran right home to trade out the old fashioned (and not in a good way) light fixture in the part of our living room that would normally serve as the dining area.

I only have two issues with this light:

1. Four of the globes were missing, so we’ll need to figure out where we can buy more, and then decide if we want the new globes to be smokey and transparent or the translucent white
2. The stickers on the light don’t offer much information, and I’m having a hell of a time researching the piece. Does anyone know anything about Lightolier sputnik lamps?

I think I’m in love!

I spent the weekend in the Chicago ‘burbs, happily NOT going to Lollapalooza and spending as much quality time in the air conditioning as possible with one of my best friends, Natasha. We both decided that no trip to Chicago would be complete without a trip to IKEA, and I had a little bit of money saved in my “house” account, so off we went.

I decided on the Kassett boxes to fill the bottom row of our glorious Expedit bookcase in the living room, to hide the more cluttery stuff that we still wanted close at hand, like magazines and cds. I picked up a few plain white curtains to be used in the bedroom, where my colors are grey, white, and a soft blue. I also got an accordion mirror for the bathroom, and a bunch of frameless picture frames for use in displaying food pictures my friend Alice sent me to decorate my kitchen.

Isn’t it great how buying new stuff motivates you to finish projects around the house? Expect pictures soon!

I’ve got big plans for the bedroom tonight.

Not those kinds of plans, you dirty birds! Improvement plans. Painting plans. Decorating plans. Well, the painting might wait until the weekend, so that the room has time to air out before we try to sleep in it again, but the paint will be purchased, at least.

To buy
Valspar’s Filtered Shade
Valspar’s Bleached Slate
(2) Poster frames in unfinished wood
(3) Pleated or cellular shades in white, 31″ wide
White curtains (or bed sheets)
Curtain hardware
This kit, possibly, for an interesting pop of color

I should probably also buy some paint and curtain hardware for the bathroom while I’m out. That room needs to get finished up, and if we’ve got all of the supplies on hand, we won’t have any excuses not to do it. Right? RIGHT?

Edit: The colors in those links don’t appear to go very well together, but they look a lot better in the palette from Valspar’s site below. I’ve added in the approximate color in my bedspread, along with the flat black of the bed frame to see the contrast, and I really love it. Let’s hope it looks good!